Monthly Archives: June 2009

Today was the big day!  We picked up Carmen from the airport!  She is such a sweet girl!  She has only been with us for a few hours, but we feel very blessed to have her in our home!  She’s all smiles, very polite, and is ready and eager to jump into the life we lead.  She even brought us all gifts from Spain!  The girls are excited to wear the jewelry she gave them, Zach loves his little “snake box,” Ben adores his new stuffed animal, and Kirk and Angela love the jewelry box and organizer!  What a sweet gesture!  As if that wasn’t enough, she even offered to help wash the dishes after dinner!  🙂  That had the girls excited!

Sarah took her down to the basement and together they played DDR on the  Wii for a while.  Even though we knew she was exhausted from the trip, she never let on that she wanted to sleep. 

She’s going to fit into our family just like an additional daughter!  We can’t wait to show her around the area and do a bunch of things as a family with her.  We’ll keep you posted with all we do!

Now that our Family Reunion is over, we are excitedly looking forward to Carmen coming to stay with us for the month of July!  We pick her up on Tuesday the 30th!  We will add many more entries to our blog as we have GREAT experiences with her this coming month!  Stay tuned for more…

We had an incredibly WONDERFUL Hobbs Family Reunion in Nauvoo, Illinois on June 23-25!  Mom, Dad, all 8 kids and their families, Auntie Carla Fisher, Sue and Arlen Mounteer, Ben and Ashlee Despain, and Corey and Ashley Mounteer were there.  49 in all!  We all met on Tuesday the 23rd and had lunch, watched the “Just Plain Anna Amanda” show, and then checked into our 2 big, beautiful homes.  What a wonderful place to stay (Hyrum Kimball Village). 

We spent the next 2 days going to the temple (session for the adults and baptisms for the kids), watching great shows like “Sunset by the Mississippi,” “High Hopes and Riverboats,” “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo,” taking wagon rides around the town, visiting some of the historical places, and eating LOTS of food that families were assigned as well as a GREAT buffet dinner (gift to all of us by Mom and Dad) at the Hotel Nauvoo. 

We took the family picture above at the Patty Sessions cabin (a relative of the Hobbs family that lived in Nauvoo back in the day). 

We also enjoyed guests at our home on both ends of the reunion as well.  Mom, Dad, Mark, Carla and Scott’s family, David and Gina’s family, Joseph and Julie’s family, and Auntie Carla came for a few days before the reunion and we had a ball.  After the reunion we were able to enjoy more of David and Gina’s family and Auntie Carla.  Brian and Lee Ann’s family also came and spent the night on Friday.  We had a great time in downtown Chicago with them going to the Field Museum of Natural History before they flew out Saturday afternoon.

Thanks again to all for making this such a special time!

Brittany recently applied to participate in a leadership program through the city called the Aurora Leadership Institute (ALI).  Only 30 kids each year are accepted, and out of the hundreds of applications submitted, she was chosen!  We are very proud of her for her desire to do this. It is a week-long, all-day leadership program (starting at the end of July) which will help her build her leadership skills.  Her application was quite impressive.  Adding up all her church leadership and service opportunities, student government participation, club attendance, cross-country and track team, and a well-written essay on why she should be picked, we (the proud parents) thought that she would be a shoe-in!  🙂  Congrats Brittany!

Brittany is participating in a track club this summer through Waubonsie Valley High School.  She attends practices daily and has a few meets throughout the summer.  She is very excited for this becuase she is participating with her good friend Christina, and she gets to work on her skills at the 200, 400, triple jump and other track and field events.  She recently had her first track meet and did very well.  She even tried the discus!  She had a personal best in the 400 which, for the girls, placed first in her heat.  Keep up the GREAT work, Brittany!