Hi,
So happy to hear from you all and to see how much your little family has grown!
Seeing how Dane has grown makes me realize that our kids have as well. Your little vikings are beautiful!
Marin will graduate from high school in May. She has enjoyed being the manager for the Warriors (the football team) for the past three years.
She was great at it and has enjoyed many experiences with the team including a trip to New York City, Washington, Philadelphia, Gettysburg and Annapolis in 2009.
The team played one game against the Alleghany Campers in Cumberland, Maryland. I like to say the score was 10-2. In reality they got 10 touchdowns and we got 2. But we did get 2!
It was an amazing trip. Devon and I are thankful to have shared this experience with Marin. She really is an amazing girl. We would like her to get her learner's permit soon though!
She is not sure exactly what she wants to do yet but she will figure it out and we are happy to have her here with us until she does. We hope she wants to stay!
She has her grad dress already and a nice young man picked out too. We are thankful she is such a good girl.
Hannah is full of life and likes to be front and center in any adventure and often makes a simple activity a memorable event.
She will finish grade 9 in June and then she is off to the High school next year. Yikes!
She takes and teaches piano lessons and she plays prelude music before Sacrament meeting on Sundays. She is a hot commodity in the babysitting circles (as is Marin) and often has 2 or 3 jobs lined up on any given weekend.
She is a great student and has been creating some beautiful art along the way. She likes school but is definitely ready to be done with junior high and all of the 'crazies' that are there.
I hate to tell her that they will be at the high school too.. and more of them. She really loved going to EFY last summer and from all accounts had a blast. She is registered and ready to go again this August!
She is not happy when people who knew me at her age comment that she looks just like I did. Thankfully she has stopped dying of horror at those comments. She now just says thank you!
We are very proud of the beautiful young lady she has become.
Callan is 12 and in grade 6. He will be moving up to junior high next year. I'm not sure how that will be. He is a good student but would rather be doing almost anything else with his days.
He loves all things Japanese and even took Japanese lessons from a very cute female foreign student from the college. He loved her and learning the language!
He loves to be outside and cross country skis on Saturdays. Summers are filled with bike riding and jumping over anything he can, including Papa Tom a couple of summers ago!
He invested in a really good bike last summer and can't wait to ride it again. As you know, winters can be very long here! (-28ËšC with a wind chill making it -40ËšC as I type this!)
Scooters in the summer and a snow scooter in the winter... we are loaded with all the boys toys! Lately he has been into expensive, imported yo-yos and has become a really good little yo yo trickster.
He was the closing act at the school talent show last week. He even signed a few autographs after! He took over Marin's paper route a couple of years ago and likes the money he gets from that.
He likes to spend the money he gets! We are proud when we watch him pass the sacrament on Sundays. Thankfully we have grown out of the Justin Bieber hair phase! He is a good boy.
Devon is still teaching Drama and Film Studies at the Comp. He stays in 'shape' by playing floor hockey on Wednesday nights and is busy as an assistant Scout leader on Thursdays (and HP group leader).
He plays the guitar whenever he can and loves to annoy the girls by singing or whistling off key to their songs! He has acted in a few community productions in the last few years. Quest was fun to act in too!
Dev had to do some school stuff in Toronto last summer... Loved the Hockey Hall of Fame. Rock of Ages was a blast from the past and a bit racey?!
He is responsible for our kids when they move to the High school. I can barely keep track of events and activities at 2 schools for Han and Cal and then my school on top of that!
I am grateful that he is at the High school and can be there for all of the Drama that High school can bring... although we haven't had any drama from Marin. (How much trouble can a girl get in with 45 football player body guards?!)
Knock on wood and here's hoping it is the same for Hannah!
I am teaching 1/2 time grade 4 until April. I am filling in for a teacher who had a baby. I work Mondays and Wednesdays and alternating Fridays. It is a nice job at a good school with a great staff.
I am looking for a job for next year and will definitely sub if I don't get something more permanent. I like subbing because every day is something new. But the money is better having a contract.
I am happily not in a leadership position of any kind at church. I love teaching Sunbeams! Some days the 12 little angels have me running in circles.
We love having our nephew over to play and we kind of feel like 'grandparents' to him since our kids are so much older. We also love it when the girls babysit at our house and we can play with the little people they watch.
I am grateful for my good family.
Your kids must be so fun at the ages they are! You are busy! Time passes so fast! Enjoy your time with them!
The costumes you made, Allynn, are amazing!
Have you heard about Quest? Like Trek. Book of Mormon re-inactments.You would make a great costume person! Viking costumes aren't that far from BOM time costumes are they?
If Quest happens in our Stake again we may need a consultant! Dev and I were in training this past summer to take over the drama/actors/re-inactments/costume committee.
(So as much as I joke about the costume mistress thing... really we might need you!)
Quest was an amazing experience that we were blessed to share with our girls. Cal was not yet old enough.
We are looking forward to Spring break. We are off to New York again for 5 days with Marin, this time for a school music trip. We are chaperones again and feel blessed to have another adventure.
We really have loved getting to know New York in our previous 2 trips there and are trying to take advantage of all the opportunities we can to travel with our kids.
Salt Lake was a trip to remember. We planned it so we could meet up with my parents as they travelled back from their 3 months in Arizona.
They met us at the Provo Temple and we traveled around with them.
They even came to a session of General Conference with us! Not members yet, but we wanted to let them have that conference experience.
We wanted our kids to spend time with Papa Tom and Grandma Pat in a place that is so special. It was a blessing to have them with us as they also 'babysat' so we could go to the Temple.
It was a great experience!
We hope to be able to get to the church history sites someday soon but probably not this summer!
Looking forward to keeping in touch with you all more regularly!
I am attaching a few of our favorite pics from the past year as well as the 'Cal jumps Papa Tom' video from a few summers ago now. I didn't realize it was so long ago already!
We hope you are well!
Love to all,
Leslie
and all the Whipples
PS We have a Facebook account but no 'friends' and only use it once in a while (read this as snooping to find stuff out).
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