Park City Family Reunion 2008

Park City Family Reunion

What a wonderful time we had together in Park City in August 2008 with everyone in attendance. We spent Monday evening in the park where all the extended cousins came for a potluck dinner and got to visit with all the Utah cousins. The pool, the elevator, the luggage carts, visiting different rooms, the media room with all the dancing and talents, and movies, the food, the matching shirts, tennis, the zoo, the Olympic village, aquarium, temple square...





Temple Square with Grandpa.










































This brings back so many memories of walking through Temple Square as kids......sitting and watching the Family Home Evening presentation of the little boy in the tree house, looking at the beautiful Christ statue after walking up through the amazing universe painted room, standing in amazement on the Temple steps dreaming of the day we would be able to go into a beautiful temple like this.

Grandpa showing the rest of us how it's done. Dance Grandpa dance!













The love birds. :) How cute and sweet!

Relaxing in the hot tub after a fun day

of playing tennis with Grandpa!

Jadeyn's first time at a Johnson Family Reunion. He learned right away that most of the reunions will include water!

Jennie playing with all the little cousins who love her fun games!

Mom and Dad showing their funny side to the grandkids. :)










Salt Lake City outing for the family to the Aquarium. Notice the matching tie dye shirts!
Jared and Julie supplied all the dye and we had a tie party in the park!

Dad showed all of the posterity how to hit the perfect forehand at the courts during the family reunion. He gave lessons to all the tennis playing grand-kids. :)




















The Cole family enjoyed a summer of Trekking
like pioneers. Dad had them share their
experiences with the family at the reunion in
Park City, Utah. This inspired Dad to challenge
everyone who read "Fire and the Covenant" before the reunion and they would receive rewards in $2 bills! That was a lot of $2 bills for each family.



Lunch with Kevin and Rebecca after everyone left for home.











Mikayla and and Jericca with grandma and grandpa!


















A very happy "papa" watching his posterity be together!

March 2010 - Spring Break

Spring Break

Rebecca and Kevin prompted this gathering by coming to Boise in March. It was Julie and Jared's spring break so they were able to join us and Sheri and Terry were able to come too.





It was Michelle's debut as a star in Bye Bye Birdie so we were all able to attend her performance. What a delightful affair and what a great job she did. Mostly, we spent the time catching up on memories and going through old things of the girls! Thanks to everyone it was a fun, quick couple of days!














It is always so much fun to be able to go back to the old ward with Dad and Mom and see so many familiar faces and how so many things change but also stay the same.








Grandpa loves showing the grand kids his "pioneer row" and this is Jadeyn's first introduction to Grandpa's unique treasures!















Morgan's and Cottrell's hanging out while the kids are asleep!






Grandpa was delighted to find out that Jennie gets the opportunity to attend BYU Hawaii. Jennie will get to follow in Granddad's footsteps and enjoy the sand and surf, but she will have to study while she is there too!!! He gave her a little surfing Santa ornament to show his excitement.




St.Patricks day 2010, Grandpa treated us to Burger King. We had a great time all in green, except for Grandma who got a lot of kisses that day!









Introducing Jonah Scot Morgan to our home! There are boys after four girls!


















Grandpa's little clone, Jadeyn. Blue eyes, curls and all!















Skyla and Eliza showing a lot of love! They love their Grandpa!

A Tennis Family

What a great tennis family!

Everyone had a chance to be the pro with Dad who loved his daughters so much and wanted to share his love of the game with them.





Dad played and won many trophies during his 40 years of tennis


Dad knew that in teaching us the skills of tennis, he would also be teaching confidence, goal-setting, perserverence, and determination. All life-long skills we would use in all areas of our lives. Thank you, dad, for taking the time, energy, and patience to teach us!

Julie made these fun promises as ten year old about her tennis and followed through with them! Even winning State as a Freshman!
Rebecca played the Ore Ida Tater Tot Tournament that Dad created taking 1st place in the girls 10!










Rebecca became the best cheerleader for the entire family, watching every single sister win State and major match in their lives!



Sheri and Shelly lettered during their high school years, winning State titles and many other tournaments together.
Go Johnson-Johnson!!





One of my most clearest memory of Dad was when he would take the time to watch and record all the strengths and weaknesses of all of my opponents so I could play them better the next time. My doubles partners in high school--especially the boys in mixed--totally loved talking strategy with Dad. He had us girls keep Tennis Tip Binders keeping track of tennis pointers we had to work on to make our game better. What an awesome thing....... a Dad and a coach!! Thank you, Dad, for the tons of hours you spent helping us improve our games so we could be successful and enjoy tennis so much. -Sheri

Sheri went on to Boise State University to play on a full ride tennis scholarship with the tennis team all four years! She had wonderful trips and friends, then got married her sophomore year and continued tennis with the support of her great husband, Terry. She now has fun teaching and playing with her own kids, passing on the tennis family tradition.

Dad with Julie and Rebecca at one of the many tennis tournaments.
Here we are in 2010 and I find myself in what must be the busiest years of parenthood I am convinced. As I run kids here and there for activities, church, and school, I often find myself wondering to myself and aloud to others around me, marveling at how you were able to keep your balance raising us and developing our talents and testimonies. Tennis was such a huge part of our lives then and its impact is felt even today. Hitting the ball correctly was great to learn, but I think it was a lot more than that. It was the conversations around the water cooler after a hard practice, it was looking off the court at you watching my match in your TR6, going for a root after a heartbreaking loss, it was the enormous time you spent with us when you could have been doing things other dads did. These are some of the things I try to remember in raising my own family and taking the opportunities to magnify the moments that really matter.