Woodside Street Fair

On Saturday there was a street fair in Woodside.  Marcus and the missionaries put together a booth to help publicize the church.  Their spot was right around the corner of the church, so it was a fantastic location.  And the booth really turned out well!  There were pictures of service projects in the area and after the hurricane on the left, scriptures on the right, and a big sign in the back that said "Family is         " for people to come write what they wanted.  Several members stopped by and some worked shifts.  There were always missionaries nearby too, as well as some church tours.  Like I said, it went really well.  Marcus was so thrilled with the missionaries' work.

Marcus made the sign (and the handouts that you can't see)

Two of the Spanish missionaries sharing information.  

In order to facilitate the Zimmermans working a shift at the booth, we babysat their kids, Jeshua and Darcy, for an hour.  Chase has the biggest crush on Darcy.  I think he really loves her bright red hair :)  But they were so cute.  They were kind of playing together, stealing toys back and forth.  I have a bunch of pictures of them.

Face off!

After babysitting and helping at the booth for awhile, we walked down the street fair to support our community (and eat good food!).

Marcus LOVED his corn

The fair was really big-- probably 10 blocks of booths!

Under our favorite 7 Service :)

And we grabbed burgers at our new favorite local place Ottomanellis.  Yum!

Definitely a great weekend in Queens!  It's fun really getting out and seeing our neighborhood.  If anyone ever moves to New York City, recommend this area!  Woodside pride :)  haha.

Ah, missionaries

I love hearing from Trevor and reading all his emails. He's a stellar kid and missionary.  I saw this video (embedded below) online and thought instantly of him, his dancing, and his all around craziness.

Quick shout out to T Dawg!

 I hope he does this sometime :)  Just watch it.  You'll LOVE it.

 

Mimi and Grandpa's

It's always great having an excuse to get a bunch of family together, and I think Brian getting home from Russia is definitely one of those times :) Even Brad, Ada, and Jake came down from Flagstaff to spend some time together. There are several miscellaneous pictures of them, my family, Mimi, Grandpa, Nana, Jonne, and Jana.

Not the clearest picture, but she's so cute!

We did have a little bit of Christmas before we left, mainly to help with the packing for New York. Let me tell you, moving around Christmas is CRAZINESS! It makes being in NY more exciting, but it definitely complicates packing and flying. We did a present exchange with Mimi and Grandpa, and then we opened two presents that needed special care for the flight.

From Trevor. (I'm so excited to be a Knicks fan! LOVE AMARE!) We actually used this blanket to pack around my cello so it'd make it safely through the move.

And my mom gave me a necklace with my grandpa's signature on it. It's a great memento of a wonderful person!

My Older Younger Brother

One of the main reasons we came to Arizona instead of flying to NY straight was obviously to see my family and pick up Brian from the airport. Seriously! Brian's back from Russia! After a little over two years, he returned from his mission just in time for the holidays. It was really fun to get a bunch of family together to wait for him to get off the plane. In these pictures, you will see Nana, Jonne, Mimi, Grandpa, me, Marcus, my mom and dad, Trevor, and the Lee family (who happened to be at the airport picking up family too).


My dad made posters at work welcoming Brian home. And there was a Russian couple in the airport who told us everything was written correctly in Russian. We were a little nervous it could've said something insulting accidentally :)

And here he is-- crazy hat and all. Typical Bri. Haha. Actually the hat was a gift for Trev.

Our Russian Celebrity

Brian with his best friend Brad Meese and Brad's fiance

Sibs

The kids

My family

I had to include this picture. Here's Brian's room after dumping out his suitcases. I am sure my mom just loves this... :)
It's great having Brian back home. It seems crazy that he's back after two years already. It was slow while he was there, but now it is like nothing changed. He looks the same and acts the same. And the three of us kids probably argue the same. But it's great. The biggest change in him I noticed came during his Homecoming Talk in church. It was really wonderful. He's gotten so insightful and has such a strong testimony of the gospel and principles of concepts like obedience and patience. What a guy :)