Soup Kitchen Christmas Service

We have a standing agreement with the St. George Soup Kitchen to serve the meal on Christmas Eve or the day closest to it. It started as a ward service opportunity and now our family plans it and invites friends and neighbors to help. It is very rewarding to spread Christmas cheer and offer a nice traditional dinner to the residents who are down on their luck. This year we served ham, potatoes, candied carrots, rolls and salad. The Care and share provided desserts from grocery store donations.

The Spectrum newspaper ran a front page story on the day before that announcing that the dinner would be special and that gift bags would be provided. We panacked that we may not have enough food so we doubled up on our efforts. I cooked and provided two spiral hams, 3 large potato cassroles, and carrots. Our friends helped out as well: Johnsons, Hatches, Burtons, Bundys, Knudsons, Lukenga's, Davies, Suttners, Empeys, Juan Mondragon, and Enfields. I also got a great deal on 50 copies of "The Christmas Box" book, candy canes, oranges and gift bags put together by other volunteers. We decorated the tables, had Santa there, the Spanish Speaking missionaries helped carol and visit with the people. We made sure that they each had a gift and a hug before they left. It was a lovely day of service and friendship.

Christmas Service

The students at Millcreek High School always participate in Service Projects on the last day of school. We start the day with an awards assembly and then split up and go out into the community to serve. In the past we have made care packages for service men and women and put together newborn kits for other countries. My favorite and traditional activity that I usually take my Teacher Advisory Class to do is to go to the St. George Care Center and visit the people and give them an orange, a card and a candy cane. Some years we have service grants and we can buy slippers for them.

This year Lindsey and Dawson joined us and we had a fun time singing carols and delivery cheer and good wishes. Our favorite resident is Bill who has been at the care center for many years. He has the Savant illness and so he is very smart like "Rainman". He always recites the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas" for us. He can repeat it by heart.

I know that the kids have learned something by feeling the real mean of Christmas when I hear comments like this from Francisco, " Why don't we sing to everyone of them. It makes them so happy!" I was just having them sing every once in awhile. Ahh, service is the best part of Christmas.

Dawson Celebrates his 19th Birthday!

Alexa helps open the gifts.
Dawson shows off his new shirt and tie and the blanket that Grandma, Lindsey and Mom made for him from all of his old pajama material saved from over the years.

We were still in Logan and so we celebrated Dawson's 19th Birthday with family in Logan. We had a delicious roast beef dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Datwyler's home after attending the block Sunday meetings with them. Danielle, Steve and Alexa drove up from Orem that afternoon for dinner after flying in from Portland and spending a few days with the Jackson family. Later we celebrated with more family with several variety's of cake and opened Dawson's gifts. Since he leaves for his mission in just over a week, the presents were all for the mission. He got shoes, a shirt and several ties, a journal, money and a blanket to take with him. We enjoyed playing games with all of the family.

Christmas in Logan

Grandpa and Grandma admire our new family Christmas photo.
Pillow cases sewn with love for the Grandkids.

The Provo/BYU co-eds show off thier new aprons sewn by mom.

Claire, Mayla and Linus act out the Christmas Nativity.

The Flake family present our "talent."

Aw, the big feast!

We journeyed up to Logan to have our annual Christmas party with my family, the Datwylers. Mom had recent heart surgery and was still pretty week so my sister-in-law, Jessie, volunteered to have the party had their home near Smithfield canyon. There is always plenty of snow to get us in the mood for Christmas.

We all brought food to contribute to the magnificent feast; and anyone in Cache Valley will tell you that Datwyler's are great cooks! Tonight was no exception. After dinner we started our traditional Christmas program. Our children played a lovely Christmas carol on the bag pipes standing behind a blanket which was soon dropped to reveal that they were really just mimicking the bag pipes by hitting their larynx with their hand while humming. This is a trick that Lindsey had learned while on her mission. She had performed at a ward talent show.

Stories were recited, including Heather reading a nice story that my visiting teacher's had shared this week. Grandma and Grandpa told a story about Pres. Monson acting out the part of a wise man while a young boy and how he still has the cane that he had used. The highlight of the night was the Grand kids acting out the nativity story as Uncle Scott read from Luke. The younger set(Great grand kids) have taken over the duties from our kids who have been the Bible players for 30 years. Carols were sung, piano recital pieces played and then the big event! Family gifts were exchanged and Grandma presented her home made treasures to the family. Despite her recent health issues, she didn't disappoint. The older grand daughters were presented with very cute aprons made to match their personalities and favorite colors. (They all four live in Provo and plan to have a cooking party soon to show off their aprons) The younger group received a beautiful new pillow case to remind them of Grandma every night that they go to bed. The young marrieds were given a gift card to their favorite restaurant and a hand stitched kitchen towel made with love.

Once again, the Datwyler Christmas Party did not disappoint!

Family Pictures

Getting the Christmas Tree

Our house all aglow!

Our beautiful Christmas Tree!

Samo and Brandy

We went up to our usual spot between Pine Valley and Pinto to get our Christmas tree. The Saaralainen Family and Brandy joined us. The weather was cold and we found a little snow on the North side of the mountain. It took a little while to find just the right tree but we finally found a winner! It was decorated with beautiful pine cones that looked just like ornaments. Very lovely.

We enjoyed hot cocoa and munched on peanut butter bars and chips and dip. A great family traditon!

It is the prettiest tree we've ever gotten up there. It didn't even need any grafting of limbs. It was so nice to have Lindsey back home to help with the decorating. Dan did a great job with the outside, too. It is beginning to look like Christmas!

Lindsey Returns from her Mission!

Now arriving in Gate 22, returning in all of her glory....Sister Lindsey Rose Flake!

Lindsey flew into St. George from Vancouver Canada after serving faithfully for 18 months. It was so great to get her back! She arrived at 12:00 pm on November 13, Friday. There to great her were Grandma Flake, our family, Brandy Iverson, cousin Angie Barr Breinholt and her girls, Rylee and Sadie, Linda Hatch, Laurie Steiner and her daughters Jayme and Shannon, and Roger and Sydne Davies. It was a wonderful reunion. We went right to the Stake Center and met Pres. Topham and he released her from full time missionary service. Then we went back to our home and ate lunch with some of our friends. Oh Happy Day!

Dawson Mission Pictures

Friday, November 6 we went and picked up Dawson's new suit that was being altered at Adrians. Then we went to Kiddie Kandids to get his picture taken. He only wore the top half of his suit with shorts and slippers so the photographer had little trouble coming up with shots of just his top half. We got some good ones and then proceeded to stop by Grandma Flake's house and put Dawsons missionary picture on her Missionary wall. She is so proud of all of her 7 sons and many grandchildren who have served missions. Dawson and I were just as excited to put his up and be the next in line.

Next stop was to get his four wisdom teeth pulled. It went pretty smoothly and Dawson watched "The Man from Snowy River", which is one of his favorite movies from his younger days. Later he watched another movie with the boys while I worked on the Flake Family Newsletter. He sletp well and was up and going the next day. He did go over to Grandma's and watch the BYU vs Wyoming game with her. We watched the first half and then went to buy Andrew some new shoes. It is such a beautiful fall day.

Buckshin Gulch Hike

We hiked into Buckskin Gulch near the Paria on Saturday, Oct. 16-17. We had reserved these dates on line about 4 months ago. Dan turned 50 on Friday so we wanted to see if he was still young enough to make it throught he gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world.

We invited family on both sides but the only ones tough enough to make it were our neices, Heather and Jennifer Berger and their friends Chelsea, Shane and Tek from Provo. We had a permit for 10 people but only 9 came.

They drove down from Provo on Thursday night getting here about 11:00 pm. We were up the next morning by 6:00 am and got away at 7:30. We had to drive to Kanab and then 30 minutes beyond. The time we parked one car at the bottom at White house exit and then drove around to wire pass and went to the bathroom and got all of our packs loaded and on the trail it was 11:00 am.

The packs felt very heavy at first but then we got used to them as we kept hiking. The canyon is beautiful. We took lots of pictures and had fun along the way. It was very muddy in some areas but that kept it interesting.

We had a hard time walking in our shoes when they got so muddy so that slowed us down. It became 5:00 pm and we weren't even half way through to where we were supposed to camp and we were wet and it would be a cold night in the canyon. So Dan sent Dawson up one side of the canyon and Andrew up the other to see if there was a way to get out of the steep canyon. They both found a way out but Dan decided that Andrew's way out the right side would be easier for hiking out in the morning. So we very carefully made our way one by one up the side of the canyon wall. We had to be helped by the boys and then they had to use a rope to lift our 9 packs up the canyon behind us. It was very scary but I was glad that I had two Eagle Scout son's and an experienced scout master, Dan whom I trusted. Poor Shane had never even gone camping before and we took him on this major adventure. He was a trooper. We set up our tents, built a fire, and Dan cooked us yummy Chicken Alredo.

It got down to 35 degrees over night and it was pretty cold. We slept ok but were pretty tired from our long day of hiking. In the morning we made oatmeal and packed up and were on the trail by 10:00 am. The problem was that there was no trail. We had a GPS and could see our destination a long ways off. We had to hike across a huge desert of sand and cactus. We found a cow head skeleton that was very cool. Andrew packed it out. We had a nice lunch stop and even a short nap. We could see the gulch down to the right, but we had to hike clear to the end and then get around it.

It was in 90's as we hiked and were sunburnt as we neared what Dan knew was the trail to the Wave (Coyote Buttes). It ended up at the same trailhead as where we started, Wire Pass. Great day, great fun, Big Adventure!!

Follow this link for more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=ALBUM&id=5393954248793167921&authkey=Gv1sRgCNOvhI-g3-uARw&feat=email

Dawson Gets His Mission Call

Dawson's mission call came today! Oct. 7, 2009. He had submitted his papers the week before and the stake president had got them in on Sept. 29 so the call was made on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the week of General Conference. We thought that might set it back a week, but it came. Dawson got the letter on the way to his 3:00 Biology class. He ran it home and hid it in his room so we wouldn't try to open it. After his class he helped Davy move a desk and then went to his institute class. Meanwhile I went and watched Andrew run at SCHS for his cross country race. We made a few phone calls and had friends and neighbors here at 9:00 pm when he opened it. San Jose, California Spanish speaking! He leaves on December 30! That is the date that we put as his eligibility date. Sweet! We are all excited.

Johnsons, Hatches, Saaralainens, Suttners, Thompson's, and a bunch of Dawson's friends were there. We had brownies and ice cream and celebrated!

The Subway Hike in the Fall

We hiked the Subway hike in Zion's Canyon in the Kolab section on Saturday, October 10. We had been lucky enough to draw out the hike through the lottery system of Zion. We requested 12 slots and did a little recruiting to fill up our allotment. The hikers included: Dan, Shelly, Dawson, Andrew, cousins Darrell, Jeremiah, Monson, and Justin, Dawson's friends, Marcus Steed, TJ Empley and Davey Suttner. We also had Darrell's frend, Spencer from Tennessee. I was the only girl brave enought to take on the freezing cold water in the swims.

Follow the link to see some of our beautiful fall pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=ALBUM&id=5391531971197094337&authkey=Gv1sRgCKvS0Nr6pLz22AE&invite=CNaMxaIO&feat=email

St. George Marathon

Dawson woke up at 3:30 this morning to go board the Marathon buses to ride up to Central where the race was to begin at 6:45 am. He said it was very cold at the start but the city had bon fires in barrels and the racers wore sweats to try and keep warm until start time. The wheel chair racers started off first and then the athletes were started off by their anticipated finish time.

Dawson was running with several of his friends from high school including Josh Decker and Mason Van Orden. Josh had ordered them matching uniforms only in different colors. Dawson had trained to some degree running about three days a week but only hitting 13 miles as the farthest distance. But we all know that Dawson is a winner and a strong competitor and he was awarded Athlete of the Year at DHHS last year so we should have expected nothing less than a great performance.

Dawson ran a strong race for a first timer. He started about 12 minutes after the first runners. It was a cold start but he said that the scenery was magnificent as he watched the sun start to rise as he passed the volcano and when he went around the corner and saw Snow Canyon State Park that it was very beautiful. He took water or Gatorade at every station and had one gel boost. His stomach was a little upset and he had to stop at the porta john twice which slowed him down some.

With 7,200 runners this year, there was a lot of traffic on the course. We had to park clear down in Grandma's parking passed the temple. We got to about one block before the finish line and only watched for 15 minutes before Dawson crossed. We saw his Priest leader, Dace Goulding cross, Josh Decker, his friend, Matt Ferguson and of course many other triumphant racers. Several had to be helped across the finish line by the police who were riding the course on their bikes and many fell into the arms of the national guardsmen at the finish line.

Dawson looked happy and strong as he came running down the last few steps. He finished with a time of 3:33, which was pretty cool because it was the 33rd annual St. George Marathon! He came in 8th place out of his division ages 14-18 but was the first one from St. George in that division.

Congratulations Dawson! Well done!

Released from Stake Young Women

I was released from my calling as the Little Valley Stake Young Women Secretary on Sunday. It is a bitter sweet ending to four fabulous years working with the amazing young women and their leaders of our stake. I have many fond memories of the trek, the youth conference at Brianhead, fun girls' camps on Cedar Mountain, firesides, standard's night, youth committees, SLC training meeting trips, early Sunday morning meetings, 5th year overnighters, lunch meetings, and just working with such an elite group of people. The youth are wonderful and so capable of serving. The Stake Presidency and high council have been so supportive. It has been a fabulous ride and I will certainly miss my association with such wonderful stake and ward youth leaders.

I was called Sunday to be the Relief Society Compassionate Service Leader. This will be fun and help me to get to know the ladies in our ward better.

September Flake Family Newsletter

Grandpa Dan holds little Alexa!

Dear Flake Family,

Fall should be soon approaching! We are anxiously awaiting cooler temps! We had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend and were happy to share it with many of you. Thanks to those of you who were able to visit with Danielle and Steve and meet baby Alexa while they were in Orem for the baby blessing. We enjoyed a nice picnic at Art and Apryl’s canyon lot on Sunday night. What a crowd! The pig handler’s even came. It is fun seeing all of the new babies and their parents who are taking good care of them.

So the pig wrestling was a hit! There must have been 20 plus pig wrestlers from the Flake family. The little kids did just as good as the older ones. That was a lot of work for the Troyer family but it was a lot of fun for the kids and spectators. Good job! My boys proudly wear their Ultimate Pig Wrestling T-shirts.

So we’ve all had colds since Labor Day. Maybe it was a touch of “swine flu” from those pigs! Dan is bidding on jobs and hoping to find some work. He and the boys are starting on our guest home in the back so it will be ready when momma wants to move in or when the economy busts even more and everybody moves in!

School is off to a great start! It is busy and hard but I really enjoy working with the high school kids. SEOP’s this week. Dawson is tearing it up at Dixie State. He was happy to get a 90 on his first math test. Justin is looking for work and hoping to soon be found to be a Utah resident so he can start college. Andrew is busy with cross country and is celebrating Homecoming at his school this week. He is on a Volleyball team competing this week during the festivities.

Alexa is getting bigger and is sure fun for the family. She is a sweetheart. Danielle has three more classes to take by BYU Independent Study so she can graduate. Steve is in his second year of dental school. Lindsey is tired of emailing, but she is still working hard. It is fun to start planning for her return.

Thanksgiving is being held in St. George and you are all invited! We have our church reserved and Lindsey is doing her homecoming that Sunday and Ben and Emy are blessing their new baby, little Darrell Gardner Flake. Hope you can make it!

It is fun to help Grandma with the newsletter because I get to be the first one to read your letters. Please keep them coming!
Love, Shelly, Dan and kids

Andrew's Fall Cross Country

Andrew has had fun this fall running as a 10th grader on the DHHS Cross Country Team. The picture just above, is the only picture posted in the Desert News Paper after the big BYU invitational and Andrew is in it. Notice how calm his face is compared to the other runners who are expressing how hard and long a 5 k is!

The other photos are from a race in Cedar City that we went up and watched. His cousins Justin and Morgan are with us and Morgan's friend from SUU. Run, Andrew, Run!!