The New Bishopric

Well, this is our newest News. Mike was called to be the Bishop of the Riverview ward on January 3rd. His Counselors are Ben Gephert and TJ Woffinden. We were wondering what we were going to do with all our spare time when Spencer goes to college. We don't have to wonder any more.....



Now after a month, it's already been a life changing experience. Mike works so hard trying to keep all the balls up in the air. He hates all the paperwork, but loves ministering to the people he loves. And he loves them all. He's had some great success so far! Let the Adventure continue!

The New Bishopric

The New Bishopric

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Rafting the Deschutes August 2010

What a great week we've had.  We started with Jon and Amelia getting here on Monday night.  After a quite Tuesday of Temple and amazing Thai food, the party began.  Wednesday we rented a jet ski and all decided that Jet Skiing is FUN!!!!
Dana joined us on Wednesday night, and Jordan and Mandee met us in Maupin Thursday night.  Friday morning early....we hit the river for 2 days filled with fun and thrills!





On Saturday we headed back to Richland, tired, dirty, but happy!  What a great adventure and how much fun to share it with family!  Great Memories!!!!!!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Getting caught up with Spencer



















So Spencer graduated from CBC with his Associate Degree June 18th.
We were there to cheer him on!














So were Dean and Patrice!!!















The next day we had a Celebrate Spencer in the Park.  We Celebrated 18th birthday, HS graduation, 5th Avenue State Drama Award, and CBC Graduation!  What a party!  Even Gramma Sibyl came down for it!

And of Course, McKinnons!                                                                                    
Grammie Pammie and Linda Larsen                                                                     
The whole Merrill Clan                                                                                  
Murrays and Gallups                                                                                                                
The Moody Clan                                                                                   
And Spencer's Girls!                                                                                                                

Bishop Family Reunion 7/10/10


















On Saturday, July 10th, we held our Verdell and Dana Bishop Reunion up in Provo Canyon.  It was a beautiful day filled with wonderful people and great memories.  The couple sitting in the front in the picture above is my Dad's brother Shirl and his lovely wife Doris Ann.  It was so wonderful to have them join us.
Below is a picture of me with my siblings (except for Jon)
Our cooks for the day we amazing!                                                                                                           
Jenny and Julie                                                                               

Dana was the only one of our kids able to make it.                                   
This is Scott, Ryan, Julie and Ryan's wife Erica                                                                                      
This is Tina, Brett and Julie                                                                                                       
This is Me and Brandy with her 2 daughters, Micah on the right and for the life of me I can't remember her other daughter's name :(

This is Megan's husband Kevin, Mason, Megan and Rebecca, and David                                                     
This is Roberta, Me and Shellene                                                                    
We all had a great time!  Thanks so much to Barry and Karen and Ray and Bev for all the planning and getting us together!  I love my family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Rock Climbing with the Young Women 7/17/10


So we took our young women rock climbing today!  They did a great job.  It was hard, it was scarey, but they conquered their fears, and pushed their muscles, and reached 'great heights'!
The Girls felt safe with the bishop Belaying them.    
                                                                           

















but he also got a chance to show that he and spiderman are buds!















He made it to the top!














But....here the big surprise.....Momma climbs too!





































Truely Amazing!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Riveria Mayakoba, Mexico Day 3



Finally, Day three.  Mike and Steve got up early for the awards presentations, Debbie and I slept in (after all in is a VACATION!).  Mike received recognition for having sold $1,000,000 in product!  Congratulations!!!!

After a wonderful lunch we boarded a bus and headed south to Telum.  This is a city of the Mayan people built on a cliff top overlooking the ocean.  They estimate in was inhabited around 1200 to 1600 BC.  The whole city was surrounded by stone walls as you can see...Steve and Debbie are just entering into the opening in the above picture.  I found the ruins and history of this people fascinating.  They were a very bloodthirsty and superstitious people.  They worshipped the sun, wind, rain, etc.  They were pretty short we determined by the height of the doorways into the buildings. 

Apparently Telum is one of the least restored ruins they have uncovered.  many of the buildings were crumbling.  The interesting thing is the buildings weren't used for shelter.  It is so hot there, and it is 20 degrees or more hotter inside the buildings.  The buildings were for storage and worship.  There were about 30 family units that lived at Telum.  Only the rich were allowed to live inside the walls of the city, the poorer people and servants lived outside the walls.  There were several cenotes inside the walls that brought them water.  They had a temple.




You can see the decay of the stone very well in this picture.  It was so hot the day we were there...a hat was a necessity, but I think we all had a bit of heat stroke after an hour unprotected in the sun.







On the top border of this building about in the middle you can kind of see an upside down man that looks like a frog.  This is the God that caught the sun with his legs as it set and returned it to its rising place in the west.

There were soooo many iguanas there roaming around.  I was fascinated by them.  This one seems to enjoy the sun...go figure?
The building in the background you can see is their temple.  What a beautiful view of the ocean from the hilltop! 

I still can get over the color of the ocean and just how warm it was.  There were stairs down to the beach and many of the visitors took a chance to cool off in the waves.  On the clifftop there was an oceanic breeze....Ah..Heavenly!
Here we are looking a bit hotter and the wind kept blowing off our hats....can you tell which one of us has "hat hair"....Dad of course :)


That evening (after a long cool nap and a shower) we went to "Club AFES".  They had turned the island into an upscale club.  They had every delicous food you could imagine. The band tonight was playing pop music, and after dinner our entertainment was watching all the drunk people dance.  The main slinger was pretty good at getting them upfront, singing and dancing...interesting!


They put together this pyramid and covered it with white cloth.  After it got dark, they turned it into a light show of sorts.  Not only could they make it change colors, but they had dancing lights of differents sizes and shapes that would spin around the inside of the canopy.
We did have one more day there in Mexico, but due to Montezuma's revenge, we stayed indoors all morning taking turns using the facilities.  By afternoon we were sufficiently 'empty' to spend the afternoon at the beach.  We didn't get to go Horseback riding or snorkling...much to my sadness...but we did spend a nice slow day together enjoying the beauty of Mexico.  We have tons more pictures, but these are a few of the best! 

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Riveria Mayakoba, Mexico Day 2

             Well, our second day in paradise started with a breakfast that had every breakfast food I could imagine plus a few I hadn't thought of.  We spent a lot of our time with Steve and Debbie Call from Pocatello.  They joined us for a leisurely boat tour of the resort. 
















This is the view of the resort from the boat.  They dug the canals throughout the resort, but didn't have to fill them with water because the water table is so high!  So you can either go through out the resort by boat or by the roads.  If you want to go by road, you can walk, bike on BMW Bikes (there are bike racks everywhere and you just hop on one and go where you want, then leave it at the next bike rack), or you can stand at the main road and they will pick you up in big golf cart type vehicles and take you where you want to go.

 
This is where we saw the crocodile.  You can really see him in the picture because only his eyes and the spines of his tail were about water....they didn't even have to tell us twice to keep our hands in the boat!!
This (under the overhang of rock) is a cenote (remember Chris Heimerdinger....they came up through an under ground spring.)  They are all over this country.  Even in the canal there were several Cenotes!
After the boat ride and lunch we decided that it was time to go check out the beach.  So we slathered on the "biodegradable" sunscreen (which by the way didn't even work), packed up our little beach bag and headed out to catch a golf cart.  When we arrive, we stopped by a little thatched roof shack where another Amigo grabbed towels and took us to the beach.  This pool you see looks like it flows right into the ocean, but the ocean is 20 feet below.  It was a popular spot because of a swim right up to the bar arrangement.

He led us down to the beach where he set up our beach chairs, laid out our towels, asked if we needed anything to drink, and then turned us loose.  Below was our view to the right...
This was the view in front of us....We couldn't resist, so we ran right out.  The water was sooooo warm that you didn't even have to get used to it at all!  It was so beautiful and blue, but no seashells....kind of weird.  There were chunks of limestone here and there under the water, but that was about it.  We waved jumped and talked for about and hour until our hands were all pruned up, then back to the shade to recoup....And yes.....we really do have swimsuits on....the nude beach was further north!!!

And this was us after