COOK CHRONICLES
Volume XI Issue 3 July-August September 2011
Birthdays and Anniversaries
JULY
1 Rachelle Koyle (1996)
3 Christian R Cook (2008)
6 Travis Price Thomas
8 Todd Joseph Cook (1983)
8 Chloe Ann Cook (2007)
10 Phillip A Cook (1985)
10 Elizabeth M Thomas (1999)
12 Rebecca Ann Thomas (2005)
12 Laura Cook(1979)
12 Christian Koyle (2008)
14 MaLyn Jane Cook (2005)
15 CRAIG VON REYNOLDS
15 Kaylee Cook (2003)
17 Julie Anderson Reynolds
19 Sarah Reynolds Smith (1987)
19 Katelyn Jane Thomas (2003)
20 Ashley Cook (Derek)
20 Kirsten Reynolds DeCampos-77
20 Tasia Nicole Cook(1996)
21 Brittany Gitner Cook
21 Heidi Cook Webster (1976)
22 Ashley Cook Romig (1985)
25 KEN KIFFER
28 Mark Landon Cook (1978)
29 Adam Michael Cook (1977)
30 Catherine Thomas (2002)
31 Emilee & Vinson Wood (1999)
AUGUST
4 Joshua J DeCampos (2009)
6 Chester J Reynolds (2010
8 Hyrum James Koyle (2004)
8 Hannah F De Campos (1999)
9 Jared Koyle (1981)
9 DEBRA WHITING COOK
12 Emmaleigh Thomas (2007)
13 Derek Cook (1983)
14 Courtney/James Whelchel ‘10
16 Kandace & John Keenan ‘97
18 Lanette & Shaun Nelson ‘07)
19 Andrea & Travis Thomas-97)
21 Lindsay M. Cook (Matt)
22 Seth Allen Cook (1976)
22 Crystal Scholes Reynolds
22 Delphia Mae Freeman (‘07)
24 Darryl & Mary Cook
25 Erin & Shane Freeman 2000
25 Caleb Wood (2002)
29 Hugo Von DeCampos (‘04)
SEPTEMBER
1 Carrie Koyle
1 Clint & Sarah Smith (2008)
4 Benjamin Craig Reynolds (‘81)
4 LYNDON BLAIR COOK
6 Andrea Reynolds Thomas (‘78)
7 Lisa Boyle Cook
8 Morgan Bruce Webster (2010)
9 Debbie Christensen Cook (Jesse)
12 Jeremy Jones (1996)
13 JAYLYNE COOK REYNOLDS
15 Annalise Cook (2009)
17 DARRYL BRUCE COOK
18 John Keenan
22 Erin Cook Freeman(1981)
25 Anna Jean Koyle (2008)
27 JANEY DONAT COOK
29 Carrie Cook
29 Edie Rose Thomas (2009)
CONGRATULATIONS TO:
New Additions for:
Derek and Ashley—Levi Keith Cook (March 25th)
Lanette and Shaun - Iris Madeline Nelson (April 8th) —had surgery for a herniated diaphram a couple of days after birth, but has fully recovered.
Allen and Loreena—Wesley Gabriel Cook (May 19th)
Keith and Amber – Lucas Allen Cook
High School Graduation: Richard Reynolds
College Graduation:
Lindsay Cook (BYU-Psychology); David Jones (BYU – Engineering); Amber Kiffer (BYU – Political Science; Minors-Russian, Music)
Newlyweds: Rachel Jones and Brian Bench – married in the Bountiful Temple residing in Centerville, UT.
We're trying a new format for the family newsletter. Some are having trouble logging into the other site, so John has set up the Cook Family Newsletter Blog Site. If you have suggestions on how to make this more user friendly and appropriate for family use, please let us know! Meanwhile, I'll continue to muddle through it!
Family News
MOM/GRANDMA COOK is still alive and kicking! She’s trying hard to not bug Don and Danna too much. Jaylyne takes her to the temple nearly monthly. She still serves as the Assistant Ward Chorister—has a mean wave, too!
LES & JANEY are on their way home after a trip to visit Justin and Janey’s family. They’ve been working on Darryl’s cabin and on their house. They are serving in the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturdays. They now have 12 grandchildren—with one on the way. Mark and Lisa are expecting a little girl around the first of August. Robert’s still working for Simplots. Philip has been serving as Co-President for the Sandy Institute this past year—and will begin his last year of Engineering at the University of Utah this fall. Justin is working for a medical office in Bellingham and is singing in a light opera in August—sings every chance he gets. Neil is working for Alco and travels frequently to Soda Springs and Targhee.
DARRYL & MARY’s family recently all gathered for a reunion in Driggs—all of their children and 15 grandchildren attended. Although inclement weather kept them indoors for the most part, they had fun. Jesse has just finished a residency in hospital pharmacy and they are job hunting!
REYNOLDS family news: Kirsten and Hugo traveled to Barcelona, Spain, the first part of June. They made travel arrangements in advance, hoping he would be asked to present a paper at a conference there. Their advanced planning paid off as he was invited to present his paper. The trip had special significance because as Hugo's father has done family history research, it appears their ancestors were Sephardic Jews in Spain. Driven out at the time of the Inquisition, the family made a new home in Portugal, and later made their way to Brazil where Hugo's father was born. Now they have a busy summer ahead of them as Hugo prepares for a test to qualify to continue as a doctoral candidate. Plus, he has some great activities planned for the ward Young Men. Hannah is looking forward to a Music Camp. She enjoys playing the cello.
Andrea has been called to be a counselor in their Primary Presidency. The girls do keep her busy. Travis is being transferred to another department at Sandia Labs. Although this is not a promotion, his co-workers say it is a sign the bosses trust him to get the job done.
Daniel and Crystal flew to Wisconsin the first week of June where he successfully defended his Master's Thesis and he interviewed and was hired by a company in Vernal that makes maps for oil company drillings—they will remain in Roosevelt. Ben and Julie and James spent a couple of days here. The challenges which families with an autistic child face became apparent over those two days. James is high functioning, but he does not talk readily. Six to nine words in a day is quite amazing—and he is three years old! They are grateful for the intervention programs now in place to help them. They are looking forward to the birth of their daughter in August.
Richard graduated from Poky! He has a job selling Cutco cutlery in homes by appointment. Other plans are up in the air.
RANDY & JOANNE are spending the summer in the lake house in Michigan. Randy is working for McKinsey and Company, a world-wide consulting firm (but his office is based in Washington, DC). Matt is taking the MCATs the end of July and has one more year at BYU. The entire family has been in Michigan for a family reunion—so they’ve spent the week on jet skis! Kirsten, Hugo, and family and Elise are coming for the weekend, too! Nate and Tiana are in Virginia where he’s working on a Masters in Wildlife Management at Virginia Tech. Tiana is a counselor in the Stake YW Presidency and James is growing. He calls Randy and Joanne Pappa; Trevor calls them both Grammer. Laura has finished all her coursework for counseling and is filling in the paperwork for her license.
KIFFERS: Ken and Karleen completed their first leg of “Visit all the temples in the US”—12 temples in 17 days (California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho). Karleen is the Ward Primary President; Ken is one of the Wolf leaders—hmmm seems as though he served in Primary once before—oh, yes! The last time Karlen was the Primary Pres! Amber is in Ketchikan for the summer making big bucks (well, that was the plan!)—and working long hours to do so! Aaron is working for the local utility company--$18.21 an hour for a temporary laborer! Courtney and James are back in Provo taking summer classes and working—expecting in December!
KOYLES: Jordan is in Arizona (out of Tucson) doing an Industrial Health internship in a mine. Sonja and Alexa are flying down for a visit—Alexa doesn’t do road trips well, but they’ll do some driving around to see if they can broaden her horizons—or maybe they’ll just fly home! Jonathan will be home August 17th and starts school on the 29th in Logan! Jared is doing a pharmacy rotation in a rural hospital—Tremonton. Then he’ll return to the Salt Lake area for the next rotation. Eldon and Courtney are enjoying her parents who are staying with them until they are able to move into their new house—what kid would not be thrilled to have more grandparents close!
ED: Tasia participated in a swim meet in Elko, NV, last week—and placed in the top three.
LYNDON & DEBBIE: Family news from Todd: Spencer and Melody Fico are getting married July 30th. Megan is starting nursing school in October. Todd has a Swedish dirt bike (Husaberg). Chole’s in gymnastics. Spencer is growing a squirrel on his chin. Dallen is a junior at University of Utah majoring in Linguistics and minoring in Japanese. Todd, Spencer and Dallen continue to work for their Dad—and they love him. Josie is now walking and has 8 teeth. Debbie has been called to serve in the Stake Young Women’s Presidency. They’ve just finished with Youth Conference and Girls Camp. The youth decided that service was an essential part of the conference so scheduled it around World Refugee Day. They spent the first day completing service projects in the community, and then gathered materials and supplies for area refugees from Stake members. They made friendship bracelets for the children, played soccer, flag tag, and participated in many other activities that strengthened friendships within the group. Girls Camp was held the following week!
CORWIN & MARILYN have visited the grandbabies in Denver—Derek and Ashley just closed on a house! He’s working for Fidelity Investments and really likes this job—although the 800-page test was a bit much! Although they don’t have any other summer plans, they are looking forward to the bi-annual Lystrup Washington Ranch trip.
JONES - It's June already! The kids are out of school and looking forward to lazy and relaxing days. Well, not Jacob. He came home for lunch near the end of school and asked if he could go to Germany. His German class organizes an exchange program where kids from Grants Pass travel to Germany for one week of sightseeing and two weeks of living with host families and attending the schools there. Anyway, a female student became ill and couldn't travel, so she was hoping to sell her ticket. So, after chatting briefly and knowing he had the money, I said sure. I thought it was basically settled, but they were unable to find a host family that could take a boy until Wednesday afternoon. The crazy thing is that Jacob had an appointment in Seattle to request his passport the following morning at 8am. He had to get it this way, because it routinely takes two weeks and from the beginning it would have been one day short. I'm especially excited as he is going to the area of Stuttgart, which is in the proximity of where many of our German ancestors came from.
The rest of the summer includes Jury Duty for me beginning the 28th, sewing 198 6" squares together and putting a quilt together by July 1, RS Lesson in July, Scout Camp on July 11th, Girls Camp for me the following week. That one really baffled me. My previous girls’ camp experiences (as an adult) have not been very positive and had my brain not been tired from weeding, I would have stalled for time when Jay brought the phone out to me that day. I do hope it turns out better this year and hopefully I can explain to bishop that I would prefer to not make this a habit. David is signed up for Grad School. He is amazing! Sam was recently ordained a deacon! Every Sunday, he dresses in his white shirt and tie and then asks that I check him for "deacon's disease". What's that? It's when your tie shows from beneath your white shirt collar. Jeremy is looking forward to scout camp and I suspect he'll start buying his supply of hand sanitizer and coffee creamer soon. He uses those things to play in the fires. I'm glad I don't have to watch over those guy Jay is a trooper. While everyone is still 'snug as bugs' in their beds, he arises and goes to work Monday through Friday so we can stay in our house, eat food and save up our pennies to visit Iris.
Editorial Quote: (by Elder Carlos E. Asay) "I fear that many of us rush about from day to day taking for granted the holy scriptures. We scramble to honor appointments with physicians, lawyers, and businessmen. Yet, we think nothing of postponing interviews with Deity--postponing scripture study. Little wonder we develop anemic souls and lose our direction in living. How much better it would be if we planned and held sacred 15-20 minutes a day for reading the scriptures. Such interviews with Deity would help us recognize His voice and enable us to receive guidance in all of our affairs." (Nov. 1978 Ensign)
In Relief Society last week the teacher shared the following "Now you know the rest of the story..."
In 1856, Julia and Emily Hill, sisters who had joined the Church as teenagers in England and been disowned by their family, had finally earned passage for their way to America and had almost reached their longed-for Zion. They were crossing the American plains with the Willie handcart company when they and many others were stranded on the trail by an early October storm. Sister Deborah Christensen, a great-granddaughter of Julia Hill, experienced this touching dream about them. She said:
“I could see Julia and Emily stranded in the snow on the windy summit of Rocky Ridge with the rest of the Willie handcart company. They had no heavy clothing to keep them warm. Julia was sitting in the snow, shaking. She could not carry on. Emily, who was freezing as well, knew that if she did not help Julia stand up, Julia would die. As Emily wrapped her arms around her sister to help her up, Julia began to cry—but no tears came, only soft whimpering sounds. Together they walked slowly to their handcart. Thirteen died that terrible night. Julia and Emily survived.” 4
It was Emily Hill Woodmansee who later wrote the beautiful words to the song “As Sisters in Zion.” The verse “We’ll comfort the weary and strengthen the weak” 5 takes on new meaning when you imagine her experience on the snow-packed plains.
