Happy Thanksgiving

Hey everyone, this is Elder York. I'm still in Clinton, Iowa and will be until the middle of January. Hopefully then I'll get sent somewhere further South for the remainder of Winter. It snowed last week. It was the first time that I had seen snow fall. It wasn't very much, only an inch or so...but it has been plenty cold. It got down to 10 degrees a few days ago. Wind chill usually takes another 10 or so off of that. My new companion is Elder Nelson from South Jordan, Utah. He is an accomplished musician and so we have been singing and playing music everywhere we go. He plays piano and I play guitar. We had another baptism about a week ago, an 18-year old kid named Kevin. We have also been teaching up a storm. We are finding tons of new investigators through various efforts, mostly knocking doors. Iowa is a foreign country filled with crazy, wonderful people. Everyone have a great December. I'm calling home soon!

Love, Elder Andrew York

At the John Deere Davenport Works!!!

Zion National Park

We just returned from a week's vacation at Zion National Park. Here are some of the photos. We took almost 400 pictures so it was difficult to choose just a few. We had a great time and would recommend it to anyone. This is a great place to camp, hike, play in the river, and just relax.


Rachel and Caitlin inner-tubing down the Virgin river


The water was 50 degrees and moving fast.


Josh thinks he is a GQ model. He posed at every rock we came across.


Me in the narrows. At some points it was 1000 feet high walls 15ft across. This was my highlight of the trip.

The girls.


Rachel showing the boys how to swing on a rope.


Zach and his Dad.


The log that kept the kids busy for a day. They floated this log down the river for hours.


Is that Gollum on that rock?


We went to the Pizza Factory in St. George for Caitlin's 8th birthday. She loved the fact that the pizza was an 8!

Caitlin's Baptism

Caitlin is going to be baptized at 5:00pm October 23rd. at the Boulder Colorado Stake Center. We rocognize that we are very far away from most of you, so we understand if you can't make it. So far Tim and Jamie will be driving up from Colorado Springs and Ooma is flying out. Our house is open for anyone that wants to come out for this important event.

News from Iowa!

Dear Family,
I'll try to figure out how to post pictures someday, but for now I'll just share a little news. We are having a baptism for Charley Blaine this upcoming Sunday! He is the nine-year old son of a less-active lady, but he is really cool and spunky...he reminds me of Austin. Anyway, it will be the first time I get to use my white baptismal clothes! We also have two more lined up for the following Sunday. That is for Michelle and Krysta, mother and daughter. They were referrred to us by a senior missionary who fixed their flat tire. The first visit we had with them they asked if we would baptize them. They came to Church on Sunday for the first time and loved it! Everyday, it seems like we get a new solid investigator. Clinton is really cooling down in weather, which is good, but I'm kinda nervous for my first real Winter. I heard from President Top (Mission President) that I will be here until at least December 8. I also might be assigned to be a Spanish-speaking missionary. We'll see. Jesse-there is a really cool family from Argentina here. He is actually the Branch President, and is from Buenos Aires. His parents-in-law live with him and they are from Cordoba. We had ten investigators at Church this week! Thank you all for your prayers and support. Tell your friends about the Book of Mormon. I wish you could all be here to experience this. I love you all. Thanks for your letter, Rachel.

Love, Elder York

Grandpa and Grandpa visiting us in CO

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us for the day. We went to Eldorado Canyon and had a picnic lunch. The kids all played in the river.

Reading Schedule

In case you are interested, here is a chart showing where you should be in the Book of Mormon in order to finish by the end of the year.

http://yorkfamily.info/files/BOM.xls

President Gordon B. Hinckley: "I offer a challenge to members of the Church throughout the world and to our friends everywhere to read or reread the Book of Mormon. If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of the year....Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the Son of God. (Ensign, August 2005, p. 6)

This is our new favorite hiking trail to walk the dogs on. It has a creek along the trail the whole way.

Caitlin's new Haircut

Overlooking Boulder

The family on a recent trip to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). We toured the center and then took this photo just outside. 2 pictures from different angles. 1 background is downtown Boulder, the other background is the flatirons (with Devil's thumb just to the right of Josh's head).

Joseph Smith Website

The Church is constantly impressing me with the content that they provide on their sites. There are a lot of great resources available. One of the newest is a site dedicated to Joseph Smith. JosephSmith.net provides stories, research articles, quotes, and other historical information, as well as photographs, paintings, and archive documents.

New Hosting Site

I just switched the blog to be hosted on the same server as the yorkfamily.info website. This should be easier for everyone to remember the address. The down side is the old photos have broken links now. They used to link to a larger image file. That file is on the other server and is no longer directly accessible.

This only affects old posts. All new posts should be OK. When posting, just use the picture upload functionality and it will upload to the yorkfamily.info server.

New Pictures from Jesse and Elisa

Elisa and Emma on the steps to the Lincoln Memorial. Click here
for more pictures from their 4th of July trip to Washinton DC.

Colorado Mountains

Postcard worthy Scenery!

Chris and Rachel

Chris and Rachel. You can't get a better backdrop than that.

Mining for Gems

The kids all had a chance to mine for gems.

Uncle Tim and Zachary

Uncle Tim and Zachary

Marmot

A marmot off ther side of the road as we were driving down from the top of Pikes Peak.

Everyone on top of Pikes Peak

View from 14,110 feet up on top of Pikes Peak. It was 38 degrees outside and we wore shorts. Not the best move.

Wanted: Rachel

Oooh. She looks mean.

Rachel and Grandma

Rachel and Grandma

The gang at the Flying W Ranch

Another Group shot at the Flying W.

Flying W

Flying W Ranch. This is a working cattle ranch that we all toured and enjoyed a real cowboy dinner and show afterwards.

Grandpa, Grandma, and Zachary

Grandma and Papa with Zach at the Denver Botanical Gardens

Juneau

Looking down on the city of Juneau. There are no roads coming into Juneau so the only way to get here is by plane or boat.

Stanley Park

Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia

Eagle Sighting

I saw several eagles in the wild. However this is one that was in a cage. His eye had been plucked out so he couldn't fly straight.

View from above Juneau

View from the top of a mountain in Juneau Alaska.

Skagway Alaska

Here is a photo of some of the gorgeous scenery I experienced in Alaska. This was in Skagway Alaska. Just outside of a Dog Mushers camp that I was able to tour and participate in.

Here is a closeup of one of the glaciers we were able to see during the cruise. It takes 100 feet of compresed snow to make 1 foot of a glacier. When the snow is compressed all of the oxygen is taken out of t he ice. This is what gives the glacier the blue coloring. While we were watching this particular glacier a huge chunk of it broke off and fell into the water. This was definately one of the highlights of the trip.

Here's a picture of the kids at Boulder Creek. This is a statue of Chief Niwot. The girl on the left is Megan. We were watching her for the weekend.

Visiting San Diego

I am coming to San Diego for one day. I am flying in on the morning of WednesdayMay 4th. I need to be at the San Diego Harbor at noon on the 5th. In between the time I arrive and the time I need to leave, I would like to see everybody.

Here is my plan so far.

• Fly in and see some of my friends in Tierrasanta on Wednesday morning and afternoon.
• Head up to Ramona and have dinner and spend the evening with as much family as I can convince to come up to Ramona.
• Sleep over at Mom and Dad's in Ramona
• Drive down with Dad in the morning

On top of a rock out in Estes Park. Tim and Jamie invited us to spend the weekend in a cabin out there. The scenery was georgeous and we had a wonderful time.

Uncle Tim decided to buy the kids jaw breakers and teach them how to shove the whole thing in their mouths.

Easter picture. Josh is missing because he was grumpy and ruined the pictures with him in it.

The next day. The snow is almost entirely melted.

This is a black and White photo taken of our backyard right after we got 18 inches of snow in 2 days. Church and school were cancelled.

Here is a recent picture of Buddy. We taught him to sit. the only trick he knows.

This is a picture of the kids inside one of the rock formations at "Garden of The Gods", a really cool park down in Colorado Springs. We went down to hanf out with Tim and Jamie.

Tim and Rachel going for a ride around the block on Tim's motorcycle

New addition to the York Family

Well, we finally did it. As part of the move to Colorado, we told the kids they could get a puppy. This is Buddy. An 8 week old Male Golden Retriever. We drove 2 hours to Brush Colorado on Saturday to pick him up. He was from a litter of 8 and there were 7 other cute puppies that made it a difficult choice, but ultimately, Buddy won out. He has given us a painful reminder what babies were like. He is a lot of work!


Rachel Holding Buddy


Buddy

Update from Colorado

Hello everyone. I thought I would give everyone an update on our recent move to Colorado. We had some mover problems which resulted in us sleeping in an empty house for a week, but we finally got our stuff and are all moved in. Sort of. The garage is still full of boxes, but we are slowly getting them unpacked and have the essentials unboxed. We love the house! It is perfect for us. We never t hought we would have a house like this. I suppose it just takes moving out of California.

2 days after we moved in we had our first snowfall. Overnight it snowed and we woke to a white world. The kids loved it! They played all day in the snow. However all the stories we have been hearing of how quickly the snow melts away came true. We just had a week of great weather (upt to 72 one day) and all the snow is long gone.

The kids all started school and so far love their teachers and school. They are quickly making new friends at school and at Church. We started our new ward and everyone is very friendly. The have welcomed us very warmly. It didn't take long to get involved in scouts, activity days, primary activities, etc. Our neighbors are also very friendly and we have a great cul-de-sac full of kids and dogs. Its a great family neighborhood.

Tim and Jamie came over for Lunch after Church and we got to spent the afternoon with them. It's nice to have family close by. Now we just need to have everyone else move out to Colorado (hint, hint). I should have some free time this weekend to update the web site and send some pictures of the house and neighborhood.

Take care. We miss everyone.

-Chris