O Canada

As I've been watching the Vancouver Olympics I've realized that I have a lot more ties to Canada than I thought I did.

This is a picture of me when I was about 2-3 years old. It was taken for my uncle Rod who was serving an LDS mission in Canada at the time.

Ross's dad also served his mission in Canada!

But the Canadian tie that is nearest to my heart is my Great Grandma Harmon (my maternal grandmother's mom). She was born in the Ontario area of Canada, but moved to the states when she was about 2 years old. Her mother was an American citizen, but her father and his family lived in Canada.

My Great Grandma was an amazing woman! And since I can claim some Canadian heritage through her, I have a soft spot for the Canadian athletes in these winter games. Good luck Canada!

Olympic Fever!

I'll admit it, I'm an "Olympics Junkie." I love watching the Olympics - summer or winter, I don't care. I'll watch as much as I can whenever I can. And the Vancouver 2010 games have been no exception. And since I've been fighting a nasty cold since the day of the opening ceremonies, this has given me even more opportunites to tune in while I've been at home resting.

It may sound silly, but I actually got a bit emotional as the opening ceremonies were starting. In the opening shot they had a snowboarder boarding down from a mountain peak and as he was getting closer to the bottom, they were naming all the years and cities of previous winter games. And as they started getting closer to "2002 Salt Lake City" I started to get teary-eyed remembering how amazing it was to have such an awesome event hosted by my own home city. I just wish that I would have taken better advantage of having the Olympics right there in my own backyard and would have made a better effort to attend more of the events.

I think there's something awe inspiring and almost magical about the Olympics. I love watching these athletes from all over the world come together and compete for a chance at a gold medal not only for themselves, but for their beloved country also. It's not like watching the overpaid professional athletes you see all too often. These are hard working individuals who have sacrificed so much and trained so hard to get to this level of competition; each with their own inspirational story of how they got there. I love seeing the athletes' expressions of pure joy and elation as they realize that their dream of gold has come true. And I feel bad for them when they realize their hopes are crushed in just a fraction of a second. I'm exacted to watch even more incredible footage and see more memorable moments made as the Olympics continue for the next week and a half.

Ross Has a New Calling

This past weekend turned out to be a rather eventful one for our family, especially for Ross. On Sunday he was sustained and set apart as the new Elders Quorum President for our ward. Intially this came as quite a shock to him and a roller coaster of emotions soon followed. But he has since calmed down and is ready to go to work in this new capacity. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I think he will do a GREAT job!