JCFree Family

This is the tail end of the building process of the sleigh that took place on Christmas Day, in Grandpa's garage.
On Christmas Eve, the plan was hatched and ready to be put into motion the following morning. There was hardware to buy and large wood to secure. Measurements were discussed, reworked, and refigured. Runners were cut, metals was pounded, beat and forced into place. Seats were set in and braced for the worst, hand rails installed for the turns and the worst. Doubters were present mocking was plenty! But there tune changed from the ride a plenty! Deer were seen and chased of course; Lauren was fleet but not so nimble as their course. The young ones were cold but toughed it through a ride. Problems were present and then pacified. All went well and now at Grandpas, a sleigh awaits for the next hands to touch, to bestow a name and color but no fluff. Enjoy the images, there will be others I am sure, as the evolution of the "Sled” will continue into next year!

Here are some pictures Dad took. He promises to put some descriptions with them. They come from a visit to Jean and Evan and Reid and Rebecca in Colorado, Dave's family trip up to the cabin and Mom's sisters.

Here are some pictures from Grandpa over the last little while.
I don't have a description of the first several but starting with the Grand Canyon we have:
"The first 2 are on the North rim as we came down to see you.
The second 6 are of a trip to Kent's Lake and several of nearby Anderson Meadow lake with fish jumping all on Beaver Mountain and hour and a half from Paragonah.
The last six are of the Rexburg Temple, Moose creek where we camped for several days and went to Church at the chapel near Mac's Inn and Mesa Falls on Henry's fork of the snake river."

Our vacation this year was to visit Rebecca and Reid in Colorado Springs, CO. It was great to have all of our family in one place and to hang out watching movies, swimming in the hotel pool, eating, playing games. We were able to see the Cluff's new-to-them home and to do some painting around their home (Rebecca employed some Tom Sawyer moves for that).

Jean and Evan recently moved to Colorado Springs, too, and live in the same ZIP code as Rebecca. We visit them Monday night and let everyone get reacquainted. Friday we fajitas with their family, played Apples to Apples (Mary Ann beat us all), and watched High School Musical 2 at two different times. Even though Evan was working in Dallas, TX, for most of the week only to be asked to go to South Africa on Friday, he and Jean treated Marilee and Richard to wonderful lunch at the Broadmoor. We spent three hours eating lunch and talking about jobs, kids, and how to solve the world's problems.

We didn't take many pictures, but we share them here.

Here are some pictures of a picnic at Yankee Meadows. I can almost smell the smoke of the fire and hear the running stream, the wind through the trees and the playful romping of the dogs. I can almost see Brandon looking for the mud to jump into! There is even a snowman!

Pictures of people gathered around Justy and Audrey as they completed important Ordinances.

Happy Pioneer Day. I thought it would be great to gather the pioneering snippets of the family history stories we have. So here are some things to enjoy and read with your family today...maybe a family home evening option here.

I have included something from every line that we have. It is usually about their conversion and then their trek to the west. I couldn't bear to pull some parts out so there are some extra goodies in there for you. But it wasn't practical to include all of the stories.

I have most of the stories published to our two new family history sites: thefrees.com/history and worthens.com (I hope to get the others published soon).

I have also included a "fan chart" so you can see where these ancestors are. (you can click here to see the full image in another window)

I had the feeling yesterday that as I would see one of us I could see many ancestors standing behind each of us. They had given much to allow us to be where we are and they were watching with love and anticipation, exercising their faith in our behalf that we might carry on as they did.

I hope you enjoy reading about the great heritage you come from and that it will inspire us all to be better and more excellent in our "pioneering" that when we meet these wonderful faithful saints in our family there will be mutual admiration, respect, and love.

Hurrah for Israel!

(click "read more" to...uh...read the stories!)