Standing Around with the Family

Reaching back into the summer, here are couple of memorable photos from the Dixon family reunion. They bring new meaning to the phrase, "just standing around."

I love standing around with these folks!

Hope Flies High

Last weekend, Christian and Stephanie Nielson were horribly injured and burned in a crash of a small private airplane that claimed the life of the pilot, Christian's flight instructor. Christian grew up in our ward and later lived for a time in the ward with Stephanie and their four children. We have all been deeply impacted, both by the severity of their injuries and the faith of their family and friends.

Yesterday, many neighbors and friends gathered across the street from our home to launch helium balloons into the sky, symbolic of our love, faith and best wishes for this young family. At precisely 5pm Arizona time, in sync with other groups at many similar gatherings elsewhere, dozens of bright balloons rose with our hopes into the bright sky.

May the Lord bless and keep you, Stephanie and Christian.

You can see all the photos Mark took at the balloon launch on Flickr.

Twin Falls Temple - Eternal Dixon Family

Finally, here are some photos of the Dixon clan when we gathered after the Twin Falls Temple open house. You can view more photos in Mark's Flickr photo set for the occasion.

"Oh, Ken!"

Family Photo Shoot!

Sorry about the tardiness in posting these photos. Back in July, on the Saturday before Ryan left on his mission, we had a family photo shoot on the ground of the Mesa Arts Center. Here are a few of our favorite shots.

There are many more photos in a variety of poses posted to Mark's Flickr account. These are restricted to access by members of our family. If you would like to be added to the authorized list, please drop us an email.

Mark/Telly Morph

After Holly produced a short video of Mark morphing into Harrison Ford, Mark produced this little jewel:

Salt Lake Temple

One item on Ryan's mission "bucket list" was to attend an endowment session in the Salt Lake City temple while we were in Utah on our vacation. So, Claudia and Mark accompanied Ryan to the temple Wednesday morning. Prior to the session, we walked through the beautiful gardens east of the temple, snapping a photo of Ryan with the temple in the background ...

... and admiring the gorgeous flower gardens near the Church Administration Building. It has been great to see Ryan's interest in plants and flowers grow while working for Gold Medal Gardening.

You can see more Dixon Road Trip photos on Mark's Flickr photo set.

Working Vacation

We have enjoyed working in the back yard today. We like to think we are "earning our keep" while staying with Heidi, Garry and the boys. When we arrived Saturday, we were amazed by the large pile - 15 tons of pea gravel. How in the world would that ever be spread around the play area?

But we did it! We moved all 15 tons, with shovels and wheelbarrows, so the rest of the play structure can be built and another load of gravel delivered to fill the rest of the area.

Mark and Garry got up early and attached the swing support beam to the central play structure. Heidi and Mark attached the wall and added the "climbing rocks." Even though there is quite a bit of work yet to do, the boys are already having new adventures on this fun structure.

You can see more photos from our vacation on Mark's Flickr photo set.