Beinvenidos a casa Madre y Padre

My mom and dad arrived home August 18th from serving and 18 month mission in the Argentina, Buenas Aires Temple. So for the first time in forever the Whole "Dale and Patsy Clarkson" Family were under the same roof...a newly remodeled roof that is. The traditional family picture was orchestrated to document the bonanza truly happened.

Heeeelllooooo Mexico!!!! 2008

This year I was less than patriotic as I jumped the boarder southward for the 4th of July. These pictures speak for themselves as I played with my favorite little sister Nat, her hubby Matt, new friends from Vegas and Krystal from San Jorge (St. George).

Mazatlan 2008

For those of you that know me, you know I am HUGE on keeping a journal and documenting life's adventures....Well, unlike me, I found myself unprepared a day or two into my Mazatlan stay as I was quickly running out of journal space capturing all my adventures down there. So I conned Krystal into what we thought would be a nice active 2 mile jaunt to the local Wally World (a.k.a. Wal-Mart). 10 miles and several dozen "Thee Official" Sr. Frog Retail Store's later we found Wal-mart...you can see Krystal's excitement in the photo.





Good news was they carried journals...bad news was they were all "Girly" which, again, anyone that know's me knows that is NOT my style. Oh well, I picked the least "girly" one as possible--a blue one, despite the large unavoidable regrettably PINK flower smack dab in the middle of the cover. You can see my less-than-excitement over the grand selection I had to choose from.

Nat's Party Pinata

Here are the nephews all foaming at the mouth either for the candy that is about to fly or for their turn at whacking this little crate paper burrow.

Nat Phat Rat's B-day Fiesta! Eye-Yeye-Yeye!!!

This is me with my baby sister Natalie at her 26th Birthday Fiesta (hence the Mexican headress garnished with red chilies) Happy B-day Sis!! And of course no fiesta would be complete without bashing a pinata. We even polished off the festivities with a delicious tres leches cake made by yours truly...yes ya'll read that right, I actually baked something. Thanks for Betty Crocker, sometimes miracles do happen! :)

Mystery Guest

I was up visiting my good friend Traci Garff in Northern Utah for memorial day. She is the stake activity chair for her singles stake and she put together a service project here a week or so ago to go plant flowers on Temple Square. I went up to participate since I thought this sounded like a good service project to do. Once we got there I saw all the beautiful tulips that we are used to seeing at conference time, all still in full bloom and gorgeous, but then the head gardener instructed my group to go rip out all the tulips. It was fun, but I have to be honest, something felt innately wrong about ripping out flowers on the sacred temple grounds! ;) Oh, well, I had permission so I guess it was alright. I was just shocked because they were all soooo beautiful and looked perfectly fine to me, but I guess they pull them out, mulch them, and replant regularly so as to keep the grounds fresh.

What was extra fun was as I was leaning over ripping out tulips, I felt someone looking over my shoulder and I turned around to see Elder L. Tom Perry in BYU sweats and a Utah State Aggies hat standing over me asking what in the world I was doing. Everyone laughed to see such a sport. I turned around and said, "You better high tail it out of here, or we'll put you to work too!" He just laughed. I got a picture with him.

Nearest Miss! DANG-IT-ALL!!

For my birthday this year, I shuffled on down to Las Vegas where I spent the day with my little sister Nat-Phat-Rat and her husband Matt. My Brother John and his wife Chelsea and 2 year old daughter Kylie met up with us for lunch. John and Chelsea were down celebrating their wedding anniversary.

Matt took me to a fantastic golf course. Anyone that knows me, knows that there is not place I would have rather spent my birthday than on a golf coarse. It was beautiful! And it was perfect weather too!

Anywho, as if the day could not get any more perfect, here is a picture of my closeset to a hole-in-one shot I have ever come to thus far in my prestigious golfing career! What a shot!! It was awesome. Matt took this picture for documentation just for all the doubters out there. Enjoy.

I'm a triathlete!

Syd and I decided to run a triathlon in St. George this year, but since Syd was in Arizona training and I was up here, I talked my nephew Adam into training with me. He decided to run the triathlon with me since he was doing all the training. His mom Pam and Syd's husband Alan all jumped on board as well which made for a lot of fun. Thanks to all the friends and family who came out and cheered us on. I really loved doing this!

Syd and I swam together for the first leg and then ended up crossing the finish line together. Thanks Syd for waiting up for me ;)

Flying in Washington

Last time I flew a plane I found myself being escorted out of restricted air-space by two F-16's flying on either side of me--this is not a lie! So needless to say, I was a little nervous to take the stick again when the REAL pilot of this airplane asked if I wanted to take over. Ashlee and I had a blast doing dives, fly-by-buzzes to her parents house, and other authentic "crop-dusting" maneuvers!

Washington State!

I went for a visit to see Ashlee Frank, my long-time Jerusalem buddy. She and Tyler live in Royal City Washington with their two girls (3rd on the way). Royal is a small farming community where Ashlee grew up. Derek and Carly Allred, Ashlee's brother and wife are also long-time Jeru buddies. It was SO fun to go see the lot of them and enjoy getting some fresh air even if they did put me to work feeding cows and such!! We even got a farm tour in this little Japanese truck that has the steering wheel on the wrong side!

A Christmas Carol

While visiting Washington DC, my brother James, his wife Mikayla, myself and Mikayla's sister Alesha went to see Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was done so well, it was incredible!

Capital Christmas Tree

The Christmas Tree at the Capital was beautiful!

Christmas in the 1700's

This is a Christmas Wreath in Historic Williamsburg. They did some amazing things for Christmas decorations circa 1700's using only fruit and vegetation.

December 2007

That brings us to December. I will be traveling out to Washington D.C. to spend Christmas with my little brother James and his wife Mikayla as they will not be coming home this year. We will visit the historic Williamsburg, see ‘A Christmas Carol’ the play, and the Nutcracker among other fun Seasonal Events around the D.C. area.

Here are some pictures with my niece Kylie at the St. George temple seeing the lights.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

November 2007

In November, I had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving in Cancun Mexico with all my coworkers on Barry’s annual office vacation he takes his office on every year. My little brother Tim and his wife Rebecca and three cute boys also joined us on this adventure. This vacation was a perfect blend of site-seeing (Chichen Itza and Talum), relaxing, beach activities including sea kayaking, riding hoby-cats (small sail boats) and snorkeling, as well as just sleeping in.

Primary President? Are you SURE Bishop??

Now living with my brother Barry, I am attending a family ward for the first time in since I went away to college. Upon returning from Argentina, our large ward split and I was called to be the new primary president of our new ward. I have since had my hands full with around 130 kids in our primary, trying to learn about primary all over again. It has been over 20 years since I was in primary. I thought it ironic as I am the only single sister in our ward and have no children. Then again maybe I failed it my first time through because of bad behavior and now it is pay-back time!

Here I am all Pimped-out for Halloween...now honestly, I ask you... what kind of an example can I really be for our children of today??
J

October 2007

Then in October my adventures went global as I took a trip to South America to visit my parents who are currently serving in the Argentina, Buenos Aires Temple. I conned my little sister Natalie into going with me at the last second since she served her mission in Argentina and would be a fun traveling companion, plus she spoke the language. We met up with my brother Barry and his wife Pam and oldest son Bryan who had been down there a week already. Barry also served his mission down there and had fun introducing his family to old mission acquaintances. Together with my parents we visited many sights including Iguazu Falls, a national park in Northern Argentina, down town Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires Temple and others.