The Past Decade and a New Decade

Amazingly, we just finished another decade! Congratulations to everyone! This decade has been one of the most interesting one I believe I have personally experienced. Take a look:

We moved from Lewiston, Idaho, to Miles City, Montana, and took a college presidency at Miles Community College.

President Bush served two terms.

Terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another plane flown by terrorists crashed into the woods in Pennsylvania because brave people on the flight did not want it to crash into other buildings.

Two daughters graduated from high school. Both were all-state in music, speech and drama, and tennis.

The same two daughters graduated from a community college--Miles Community College and Laramie County Community College.

The same two daughters transferred to Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo.

We moved from Miles City to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to be the president at Laramie County Community College.

Mother Boltz came to live with us.

Joanne and I traveled to China, Korea, and Viet Nam.

We traveled to Sharon, Vermont, the birthplace of the prophet Joseph. We also visited Palmyra, New York; the Sacred Grove; Kirtland, Ohio, with a stop over at Niagra Falls.

Anna Rose, Hailey, and I traveled with students and faculty from Laramie County Community College to Costa Rica.

I traveled to Moscow and Saratov, Russia, with a group of Rotarians from Wyoming and Colorado.

We visited Nauvoo, Illinois, and Carthage Jail and walked down Parley Street to the Mississippi River and attended the Nauvoo Temple. Oh, what an experience that was.

Our daughters graduated from BYU. We are very proud of their accomplishments.

Both daughters married fine young men, both returned missionaries, in the temple--Idaho Falls Temple and Mt. Timpanogas Temple.

My wife and I vacationed in Cancun, Mexico.

The eldest daughter and her husband had our first grandchild, a beautiful baby girl.

We traveled to New York City, had the opportunity to capture a wonderful picture of the Statute of Liberty just as the sun went down, were lucky to capture great seats for Wicked. We also attended the Manhattan, New York Temple.

Barack Obama was elected President of the U.S., the first African-American president.

My wife and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and are more in love now than when we were first married.

My wife and I took a trip of a life time--We returned to southern Chile, where I served as a missionary many years ago. What a wonderful trip we had! We had the privilege to attend the Santiago Temple. You can read more about the trip in my previous blogs.

And many, many more things that would take even more space.

Ah, the last ten years have been good ones although not without our own challenges. But the Lord has blessed us greatly, and we will continue doing the right things for the right reasons.

May we all have another wonderful decade, hopefully with more peace spread throughout the world.