Ancestry

I was approached in Church to see if I could start helping out with Family History, so I joined Family Search, a Church website, and we have become addicted! It is so amazing to see how far back our ancestry goes, and where it originates, and actual names of people, instead of just a vauge idea, and also to see if their temple work has been done. My family, the Riries, originated from Scotland, mainly Aberdeen area, while Steve's family, the Rogers, originated from Wales. To keep it simple, for right now, we mostly followed the patriarchal line, following our last names. we then googled names of family members, and we found some pretty neat stuff. Here's a picture of Steve's direct grandfather, Rev. John Rogers, who was born in Wales and immigrated to Massachusettes sometime before 1691:
We think he looks a lot like Steve's grandpa.
Also, something of interest to my Arizona friends, Steve's grandpa was William Jordan Flake, the man who founded Snowflake, AZ with Erastus Snow. Small world, huh?
This is a picture of my grandpa, James Ririe, who immigrated from Aberdeen, Scotland to Utah in 1853, after joining the Church in Scotland and serving as a missionary there:

Anyway, hopefully this doesn't bore anyone, but we thought it was so interesting!

Short but Sweet

Well, this past weekend was Steve's little brother Matt's mission farewell, so we decided to fly home and surprise him, and everyone else! We flew in late Saturday night and my parents came and got us and we stayed with them, and then Sunday, we walked into Sacrament meeting, (don't worry, we were a half hour early, so we didn't cause too much of a commotion!), and I wish we could have taken a picture of everyone's faces! We were all crying and hugging, it was so great! Steve's sister Minde also flew in from New York, so all of the kids were there to see Matt! He did such a great job, he's going to be an awesome missionary. That night, his friend, Conner, came over, whose a little autistic, and he had written a song for Matt as a gift. He and Matt have been good friends from kindergarten, and Matt's always been kind of his protector, standing up to him to bullies and always looking out for him. Conner sang about how Matt is his best friend and how he always had his back, and he'll miss him and love him. It was so touching! All of us were crying, it was like something you would read in the Ensign or New Era. It really said a lot about Matt and what a great brother and friend he is. We'll miss you Matt, but we're so proud of you and can't wait to hear about all of the amazing experiences you'll have! We had such a great time seeing everyone, we wish it wasn't so short of a trip!

Matt and Steve a couple of days before Matt went into the MTC

Matt with Auston and Audrey a couple of days before he heads into the MTC

Steve's Immediate Family

Our Little Family