Bon's Highlights in 2014

This year there have been some very high points and I'll share a few of those.

A lot of my fun times involved family of course but cousins in particular.  Last Christmas we had a Family History miracle and our cousin William, whom we did not know existed, found his birth family. We found about him on December 19 last year and there has never been a sweeter Christmas than that one.  He is the oldest son of my Aunt Grace.

These are my Hallsted cousins, the man in 

the plaid shirt is our new first cousin, William.

 You can read about how he found us here.

This is a newspaper article about our miraculous story.
http://tinyurl.com/nq5uwg2

Here is the link to my blog post about William
http://tinyurl.com/kh24dyd


This is why I love genealogy so much!
F.A.M.I.L.Y

In January our girls came out for Laura's Birthday.  They will never know how much that visit meant to me.  Who knows when it might ever happen again?  But I hope it does.

Our Girls, Laura and Jen

Look who also made it home for a few hours!
Our son, Chris!  We are blessed!

I went to Salt Lake to the RootsTech Family History conference and it was phenomenal.  I loved every minute of it and was so sad when it was over.  Jen and Lowell had just moved to SLC so they were so sweet to let me stay there and to drive me around as needed.

In the summer we went to Utah twice.  There were tons of photos.  I am just including this one of Laura and Piper.  We stopped for lunch one day at Thanksgiving Point.  I just love this sweet picture.

Piper and Auntie Laura

In July we got a wonderful surprise, Jim's cousin, Steve, came to stay with us while he worked on a case in the Bay Area.  He delighted Jim's mom with pictures and stories of Tasso, Italy where both their known ancestors lived.  Then he completely swept her off her feet by singing a portion of an opera for her in Italian.  He is a great house guest and we enjoyed his stay a very much.  Stephen and his family have a standing invitation to stay here any time.

Gloria And her cousin Steve

I continue my teaching in the library and was asked to teach two classes at a genealogy conference in the fall.  That was exciting and scary.  I am so glad I did it, as it was an exhilarating experience and two tons of work.  And this is my dear, dear friend, Carol, who kept me sane all year with continual words of encouragement when I didn't think I could do it all.  She is a true sister in every sense of the word. She and I have been planning a trip to Salt Lake in February 2015 for a year.  I am so excited it is almost here.  We will attend Rootstech together.  She loves family history as much as I do.

The rest of my highlights involve

My best friend who keeps me grounded 

and never needing anything more!

This is us on Dec 20th having dinner with my brother 

Gary and his wife Marilyn on the left 

and our cousin Bob and his wife Beth on the right.

My brother, Steve, was sick so they couldn't make it this year.

We missed you guys!

There is nothing like brothers and sisters and

cousins to create highlights all year long. 

Oh, and it goes without saying... 

that spouses and kids and grandkids 

are included in that as well.