Family Update

Long time, no post! So here's a Haskell Family Update...

We went to Sonoma in January for Beth Bruzzone's birthday and took this photo of the greater Haskell Family - pretty amazing group!

Jessica, Brandon and Kendall - see Sudweeks Family Blog

Kendall is growing fast and is going to come spend a few weeks with Grandama and Grandpa in May. Jessica is preparing for law school in the fall and is now deciding which scholarship offer to accept - tough choices as some great schools have invited her to attend. Brandon has continued to do well in the face of a tough market - he's smart and works hard!

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Becca and Justin - see the Ashby Family Blog

Becca is expecting baby Boy Ashby in the late summer - and that's about all there is to say. Both Becca and Justin continue to work and Justin expects to start classes again soon. They'll be home for Easter and we can't wait to see them.

Richard - see Elder Haskell's Blog

Richard has now been in Australia for one year - he is a senior companion, seems to be doing well and enjoys working with his companion, Elder Ulu. Time is going really fast for Richard right now and before he knows it, he'll be ready to come home.

Lauren is in her second semester at Itineris and doing well enough - she's on track to complete her associate degree at the same time she graduates from high school and most of her time is spent at school or doing home work. She did have a mishap a few weeks ago as she ran through a neighbors fence in our car. Bummer for Lauren - it will be a long time before she drives again, but on the good side, she now knows how to build and paint a fence. The only injury was her pride.

Bryan - Our nephew Bryan Jensen (Blaik and Jennifer Jensen's son) has been with us since January while attending BYU. Bryan returned home from his mission in Argentina in December and will head to Ireland to visit with his parents for the summer. It's been great to have him with us!

Leslie quilts, and quilts, and quilts. Honestly, she's been busy with work and projects at home and hasn't had a lot of time recently for much else. We both participated heavily in the Draper Temple Open House and Dedication and got to spend a lot of time as volunteers - what a beautiful temple!

Likewise, Rick has been busy with work, church assignments and school - he began a graduate program in economics last fall and will need to be focuses on that for several years. We enjoyed a dinner in our home on Friday for some of Rick's missionary companions and their wives, what a blessing it was to be with these great friends!

We're looking forward to a busy summer as we're expecting to have Kendall with us for a few weeks, are planning for a Haskell Family Reunion in Idaho over the July 4th holiday, expect to welcome Baby Boy Ashby by the end of July, will be hiking in the Uinta's in early August, and have plans to go to Catalina for a few days in mid-August. When school starts in late August for Rick, Lauren and Jessica we'll all be ready for a break.

At The End Of The Summer

Looking back, this was a busier summer than we had supposed it would be. Even though Lauren spent most of her summer in California with 'the aunties', and Rick and Leslie were left to fend for themselves, the summer included a few trips to Southern California, a kayaking trip on the Snake River below Jackson Hole, and a trip to South Dakota that we won't soon forget, but very little time at the ranch. Our time at home was spent on 'projects', which translates to Leslie making quilts, Rick building furniture, and the ongoing development of our patio and outdoor kitchen/family room. We're pretty sure this will one day be completed, it's just hard to guess when that might be though.

Lauren returned home a few weeks ago, just in time to start school at Salt Lake Community College - she's in a program that will allow her to complete her junior and senior years of college at the same time that she works through her freshman and sophmore years of college. Lots of work, but worth it! We just celebrated Lauren's 16th birthday - successfully without teenaged boys!!! It's great to have her home.

Richard checks in each week via email from Australia. He is currently in Armadale, a small town south and east of Perth, and though not remote, it's more outback than downtown. He reports that the missinary work is slow, but he and the other missionaries in his general area spend a lot of time providing service to the locals and spend a lot of thier spare time hiking and chasing wallabies and kangaroos. He seems happy and is having a great experience.

Becca and Justin came down from Logan for Lauren's birthday - it was great to spend a Sunday with them. Work and school continue to move along, and they're both ready to move on to the next phase of life - the 'after college and now what do we do' phase. They'll figure it out - they both enjoy thier jobs and love thier new home.

Jessica, Brandon and Kendall spent time in Yosemite last month and will be taking a few weeks in Cancun soon. Brandon's been hard at it as he's continued to successfully find buyers for Sudweek's Development's office condominiums (tough to do in the CA real estate market). And Jessica will have just taken her LSAT exam a few days before they leave - they'll bring Kendall to stay with Grandma and Grandpa in Utah while Mom and Dad are playing in the sun and sand. Ten days with a toddler in the house will be a real trip - Leslie's excited and Rick's trying to figure out how to keep Kendall safe from the ponds - or keep the koi safe from Kendall - or something like that. It'll be great.

Elder Richard Haskell in Australia

Richard continues to send us updates from Perth, Australia. His weekly emails are brief and rarely give much detail, but they make it clear that he's busy, enjoying the work, and having the kind of experience we all had hoped for. He and his companion, Elder Barff from Tasmnaia, are in Perth with the LDS Temple and Mission Office in their area. They actually live in an flat in Maylands a little east and north of downtown Perth. It must be an interesting place - they awake some nights ago to the sounds of a drug bust in the flat below them Richard reports that Maylands is the drug capital of Western Australia. The local members seem to take good care of them and Richard has commented a few times about the Cullimore family they seem to visit often.

Richard has tried some of the foods unique to Australia and while there are many he likes (Menties and a form of ginger ale) there are others still that aren't likely to show up on his list of favorites. He reports that vegamite is really salty and tastes kind of nasty! You can see his pictures and other posts on elderhaskell.blogspot.com.

Lauren's California Summer

Each of our daughters has taken one of summers while in high school and spent it in California with 'the aunties'. The aunties are Sheri Johnson, Juliana Mahlmann and Beth Bruzzone, Rick's sisters all living in central California - we sometimes refer to them as Flora, Fauna and Merriwether.

This summer is Lauren's turn and she's staying at Lost Horizons with the Johnson family. She'll spend time with the other aunties over long weekends, but for now she's learning to ride horse, clean stalls, look out for rattle snakes, and muck the pasture. She's loving it. Lauren is a good girl, seriously independent, and beautiful!

Lauren took her guitar, ipod, clothes and blow dryer and off she went! She'll return to Utah in mid-August in time to start at Iteneris early College High School where she'll complete her last two years of high school while in her first two years of college.

Jessica as College Graduate!

Jessica graduated from UC Riverside on Sunday, June 15th, Father's Day! She graduated 'cum laud' with her bachelors in Political Science. It was a great day and Jessica worked hard for a lot of years to get to this point. Credit goes to Brandon as well - he's been a great support and has seen to it that Jessica has had time to study and focus on her course work. Jessica now starts to prepare for the LSAT and expects to enter law school in the fall of 2009.

Rick, Leslie, and Lauren, Becca and Justin, and Sheri and Steve Johnson and family made it to the graduation and enjoyed the barbecue we had for Jessica on Sunday afternoon. We're all proud of Jessica and can't wait to see what she does next.

Kendall has a new bedroom!

Actually she's had her own bedroom for a long time, but her mom and dad bought a new house in Lake Elsinore, California and if you know the Sudweeks' then you know it's all about Kendall! It took a few weeks for them to finish their move and they spent a lot of that time painting, putting in carpeting, shelves and electrical fixtures, and working in the yard. The place looks great!

The neighborhood is just north of Lake Elsinore and right at the base of the Ortega Mountains. They have an unusually big back yard for a southern California home and they're going to have their hands full transforming it into the yard and home they'll love. Leslie and I have been down there twice and helped out with a few projects. The first morning of our most recent trip started early as we woke up to the sound of Brandon putting in a flower bed in the front yard. He was out there digging out grass and getting things ready for border stones and day-lillies. When he outlined to me what projects he had planned for the day I realized that Brandon's going to be obsessive about his yard - we're so proud! It looks great!

Becca & Justin Ashby's 1st home

Becca and Justin just moved into their new home in Logan last week. The home is a new townhouse next to Logan' River golf course. Leslie and I went up to help them move and start to get settled. It's kind of fun to see your kids getting settled into their lives and buying a home is one of those big steps.


Becca is working at a local day care center and loves it. Of the various jobs Becca's had over the years she really hasn't had one that she loved. It's great to see her talk about what she's doing now - she loves working with these little kids - she plays her guitar, sings to them, and just shares with them the joy that is Becca. Becca just finished her junior year at Utah State and should graduate next year in early childhood education.


Justin recently took a position at West Liberty in Tremonton. He's only been there a little over three months and has been promoted twice, so he's pretty pleased. Right now he's working swing shift and that's a keeping he and Becca from seeing each other as much as they'd like, but that should change sometime soon. Justin continues to take college courses online and looks to graduate in a few years.