Muddling Through: Pew 2014 Year in Review

Pew 2014 Year in Review

It still catches me off guard how fast time goes these days, months...I am amazed I have 2 children in their 20s and find myself a few years shy of 50. But wasn’t it yesterday when I was buying my oldest elephants for Christmas and wondering if I’d ever have a girl? It has been a great year, lots of learning and growing. But like those who have gone before have said it’s our relationships that are most important when all is said and done. Family and friends mean more each year and stuff much less. May your holidays and coming year be full of meaningful experiences that bring you and your loved ones closer together and know that you are loved by us, God and his Son Jesus Christ. It is through them our relationships have greater meaning and joy. If you are still reading hopefully you will survive the update on each family member.

Gwen (8) was recently baptized. It was a great day! All our local family came, we only missed Timo who is still serving his mission. She is in 2nd grade and was a top “Mathalete” in her class. Her teacher is a huge SF Giants fan so they had a party when they won the World Series--made a baseball fan out of her. She has given up her dance shoes for soccer this fall and has made lots of improvement. She started piano this fall and LOVES it!

Gwen's baptism

Zane (11) just turned 11 and is working on 2 merit badges...gotta get a jump on that around here! He is in his first year of A.L.L. (Accelerated Learning Lab) our gifted program at the school. He is doing well, he is not bored and keeps up on it without any nagging. We all believe he will be the millionaire in the family! He refereed soccer, played Jr Jazz and played flag football. He still plays piano even though it’s not his favorite thing.

Zane and Tim at a very cold BYU football game

Micah (12-½) started Junior High this fall, so far so good. He has enjoyed going to the temple since he turned 12. He is currently serving in the Deacons Quorum Presidency and enjoys serving. He enjoys piano and does pretty well with it so far. He is also developing his drawing skills and can’t wait for art next semester. He continues to play competitive soccer and also refereed this year. And he is really good at saving his money. He enjoyed his first scout camp at Maple Dell even though he missed Taran at the airport. Taran and Tim went down to camp and saw him.

Micah and Taran at scout camp

After concert choir concert Izak and friends

Izak (14-½) is a big 9th grader. Yes, we remind him often that these grades count. It’s rough when school has been easy to turn it up and work hard. We hope some day he will realize his potential. He finished the spring playing competition, losing in the championship to their menace the Ninja Couch Potatoes. Yes, that was the name of the team. He’s grown so much and so fast they put their biggest guy on him and he actually still beat him out . He decided to do flag football this fall and rec soccer. Tim coached the flag football team and they won the championship! It was an epic win, beating an undefeated, older team with matching socks in the in overtime! Soccer was fun and refereeing was not except for the money. He backpacked Wind Rivers Wyoming with his varsity team (scout lingo here) this summer. He didn’t love it but he did well. No police stories yet, we’re crossing our fingers.

Emily as Puck in A Midsummer's Night Dream

Emily (17) is a junior but wishes she was a senior. She has a lot of senior friends and the prospect of them moving on without her is sad. Luckily this school year she has made some sophomore friends who might make it worth it in the end! She enjoyed being in South Pacific last spring in the ensemble. This year they are doing Guys and Dolls and she is a hotbox dancer/ensemble. She is the stage manager and costumer for A Winter’s Tale which will be after Guys and Dolls. She started working at Zupa’s this summer to pay for her trip to Cedar City for the Shakespeare competition this last fall and then Washington DC in the spring 2015. She saved enough from work and her birthday to buy herself a new (to her) camera DSLR. She has already taken some pretty awesome photos. Her next big dream is to backpack the British Isles. She is short but not on ideas and plans. She doesn’t appreciate that Izak is taller than her and Micah close to passing her up. She couldn’t have been happier than when she got her license. It is nice to have another driver since Taran and Timo are gone! She is in AP Language and AP Spanish this year and seems to do well in those classes. She keeps busy with helping out choir (TA) and drama stuff, historian for Drama Council. She recently started voice lessons with Kerilyn Johnson and loves it! And her most favorite thing is boys but that could be a whole letter in itself. She doesn’t have a boyfriend just many boy friends. For now we are happy with that.

Emily in South Pacific

Timo and his latest companion

Timo(20) has 8 months left as a missionary. He is currently serving in San Antonio as a Zone Leader. He is over a group of other missionaries, he really enjoys working with them and it seems he has made some lifelong friends in his mission. He has learned a lot and continues to learn and has become a better person from his struggles and experiences. We are so proud of all he is doing. He truly loves the people he has met serving in Texas.

Taran (21-½) is almost a junior in college. He returned home from serving 2 years in Guadalajara Mexico in June. He loved his mission so ‘normal’ life has been a challenge. Luckily we had a Pew Family reunion that coming week after he returned and he got a job at Nu Skin to help him keep busy. He is a great young man, we love having him back. He moved back to Provo for the school year. He enjoys his roommates and is serving as Executive Secretary in his ward. He hates school and loves music. Currently he is in a band (of mostly old band members and some new) named Emissary and they have played crepe houses and things at BYU and will be playing at UVU in December. Hopefully he will be guided to what he should major since he has finished his GE in a year and half of school. Gotta love AP credit! And no, there is no girlfriend but he does have friends who are girls. But we like to tease him some since he told us he wanted to get married when he first got home!

Rachelle sometimes thinks she is going crazy. The whole walking into a room and not remembering what she went there for and forgetting anything not on a list and then forgetting to look at the list. Yep, that is her. Somehow she has enough wits about her to help out with the drama parent booster committee as Secretary and is over Publicity for the high school choir. Because of those responsibilities she took a break from PTA at the elementary school this year but still has helped with parties and field trips so that is fun. She was released from Young Womens the end of summer so she got to enjoy girls camp! And now is a Bear Den Leader. She really loves it! One of her friends started a 1,000 mile challenge to complete this year (walking, running or swimming) and she joined in. It came out to 3 miles a day with Sundays off. Overall she has done well, only about 10 miles behind her goal and has lost pounds and inches without doing anything else. She does miss yoga so maybe next year she can add that to it. She also has gotten more into Family History. It has been hard for her to focus on other things because she just likes to be searching out people. She’s always liked a good mystery. She has been able to find names to keep her kids doing baptisms every week and also her with family names each week at the temple since school started. She can see that there are definite blessings from doing this work.

Tim still manages to fit in tennis even during this colder time of year. He and his friend Ryan are diehards. They are considering joining a health club. We’ll see how that works out. He also plays softball, flag football and basketball with the church men. He enjoyed coaching Izak’s flag football team to their championship. He may be coaching Micah in Jr Jazz. He keeps busy being Executive Secretary at church and various projects at home. Not to mention just keeping up with the kids and their activities. Rachelle could not do it all by herself. He’s her best friend and she is so grateful.

Championship Flag Football team

Pew Family Reunion

We had some great experiences this year! Besides Taran coming home, we had a Pew family reunion. All of Tim’s siblings (7) and their kids (minus a couple on missions or unable to get off work) were here in Utah for the reunion. It was great fun! The kids did space camp, the Museum of Natural Curiosity, sleepovers, we did a service project at This Is the Place, we went to the temple adults and kids, we spent a few days at a ranch up Spanish Fork canyon in a huge house that fit us all. Tim’s dad who was 80 at the time even rode a horse! He used to ride in his younger days but that was fun to see! The kids beat the adults in an epic Ultimate Frisbee game even though the adults were ahead the whole game! Owell. We ended the week with a dinner at a local park and other extended family members came to see everyone from out of town. It was really great!

Emily found a new skill she enjoys: climbing

Gwen bungee jumping!

Later in the summer Rachelle’s mom and her husband Jay took all the families to Zions. Taran had work training at Nu Skin so he missed out. We started out in St. George swimming, hiking and golfing. Some of us saw the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn and some saw the Wizard of Oz. It was awesome! Then we went to Zions. We hiked to the Emerald Pools and to the Narrows in Zion maybe next time we’ll go in! We loved the scenery. Beautiful! We stayed in a beautiful place at Zions Ponderosa where we swam, and participated in a bunch of activities on site:rock wall climbing, bungee jumping, zipline, ATV riding, horseback riding, and even mini-golf. We had a great time there as well. So grateful to Jay for his generosity in taking us all!

Hiking in Zions Gwen with cousin Holly

Boys get ready to ride ATVs

Hiking in Zions

We also enjoyed going to Seven Peaks, Trafalga, Thanksgiving Point gardens, the new Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgving Point, hiking and other local activities. We are blessed to live in an amazing place!

In closing we hope that you and those you love enjoy a blessed holiday, a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Love, the Tim Pew Family