A look back on 2013 and Happy New Year Wishes

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Happy New Year one and all. I still can’t believe that 2013 is over. I wonder if I accomplished all my Heavenly Father wanted me to do?  I hope He is pleased with me but I also hope that I can do better this coming year.

Do you make New Year Resolutions? I used to but I don’t any more. I have goals in mind that I want to accomplish but my main goal is just to be better. I hope that I can look back on 2014 and be pleased with myself and feel God is pleased with my efforts.

2013 was a good year for our family.  I had some  health issues but I am  better now.  I  still have problems with the esophageal spasms but not as often. My sciatic nerve is acting up but I live with it.  Other than just  normal colds, coughs and  aches and pains, John and I are blessed with pretty good health. For this we are thankful.
Here is a recap of some of our highlights of 2013

John and I continued working in the Redlands, CA Mormon temple one day a week. It has been such a blessing to serve in the House of the Lord. We look forward to another year of service this year.
In January we started out the year by going on a cruise to Mexico with some of our friends  and Erin, Patrick, Cal, Ellie, Loni and Claire from our family.

Cruising is always nice but cruising with friends and  loved ones is GREAT!
Two of our grandsons turned 8 this year and were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (Mormons) by their dads who are Elders and have the priesthood authority to do so.

Davey’s birthday is in Feb. We traveled to Utah to be with him.

Austin turned 8 in March. Attending the baptisms of these 2 sweet boys was special to us.
Another special event happened in March.  Our Grandson Jalen got his mission call to serve in Osorno, Chile

He left us in April and will serve for 2 years. He  has learned the language well and is enjoying serving in Chile.  Jalen makes my heart smile. He was a great kid when he left us. He will return to us a better man for having served the Lord and the people of Chile.

Jalen’s older brother, Justin who had just returned from his mission to Guatemala went back into his Army reserve unit and got upgraded to be a specialist as an army medic. I hope that he does not get deployed but if he does I’m sure he will do a good job taking care  of  wounded soldiers. We are proud of our Army boy and all those who serve in the military.

In May John finally met his goal of visiting inland Alaska. We loved our trip to Denali and Mt. McKinley and the cruise that followed. We don’t have a trip planned for this year. I guess I’d better get busy arranging one.
In July we went to Wyoming for our annual family camping/river rafting trip.

We always have a great time being together with all of our kids and grands.

Throughout the year, 11 year old Claire made great strides with her singing career. She was in 3 LA opera productions. She got a main part in Noah’s Flood in April.

Next she was in Tosca and then Carmen.

She had to cut her hair short in order to be in Carmen. That was a big sacrifice because Claire had beautiful long hair.  However she wanted the part in Carmen bad enough to do it. All of our Utah kids came to CA in Oct. to support Claire in her roll in Carmen. (I thought it was really nice of them to come so far to support their niece.)  It was a big event for our family when we all attended the LA Opera together and watched our Claire performing like a doll and singing like an angel.

Claire’s 13 year old brother, E.J., was busy with his own musical fetes.   He is becoming quite accomplished  at the piano but his true love is the trumpet. He practices hours a day and has made first chair in every honor band he tries out for. (Our son’s children Emma, Gracie and Davey all do well at piano but unfortunately we weren’t in Utah for any of their concerts so I don’t have pictures to share with you.)
While Claire and E.J. were busy at music rehearsals all year, Lonica and Johnny were busy at the gym and the dance studio.

14 year old Loni won every dance competition she was in and got scholarships to a dance academy.

This little gal is an amazing dancer and beautiful to watch.
Her big brother, Johnny was busy making his mark in the gymnastics world.

In August he competed and was ranked 7th in the nation.

In Sept, on his 17th birthday, he was invited to join the USA National Junior Team. He went to his first international competition in November where…

..The USA boys brought home the Gold.  We are so happy that Johnny’s years and years of hard work at the Gym every day but Sunday is paying off for him. His heart is set on making the next Olympic team. I hope and pray that he will make it.

In Oct I was able to take a short cruise to Mexico with my friend Jan. This was one of her bucket list items that I was happy to help her check off.

In November, our whole family (except Johnny and Jalen who were out of the country)  came for Thanksgiving.

We had a wonderful time being together and giving thanks for all of our blessings.


In Dec. we spent Christmas with Mindy and Ernie and had a lovely time. We had planned to visit Utah after Christmas and spend New Year’s Eve there. However, since we were not able to find anyone to sub for us at the temple and since I have a bad cough and cold, we didn’t go.


We ended 2013 by going out to dinner with friends and then back to their house for a little New Year’s party with some of their other friends. I started coughing a lot so we left a little before the year ended and …

…made it home in time to ring in the new year with the crowds at Time’s Square on TV. (Can you see my NYC friend Buttercup in the picture?)
Those are the high lights of our whole year 2013… but they are only the tip of the iceberg. All of our kids and our grand kids have done well this past year. I could tell you about all of their accomplishments but it would take way to long. Let’s just say that I am so proud and thankful for each one of them. My heart is full to the brim and bubbling over with smiles.
We have had our challenges this year but we know the Lord had been with us and blessed us abundantly. We are very grateful and look forward to 2014 with hope and high expectations.

Happy New Year &

May God bless you in

2014

Hugs, Grammy Lura