Lisa & Jim 2013

Dear Humpherys Fam!

I will be summing up 2013 in chronological order. Excited to also read everyone's newsletters! We had a lot of ups and downs this year but are grateful for our family and friends and the gospel we have in our lives.  January we just finished recovering from our late November trip to see Jim complete his first Ironman in Tempe, Arizona! Once we returned we jumped right in and had our official educational diagnosis for our (then 2 1/2 year old) son with autism and sensory processing disorder. I think looking back we felt more relieved that we knew exactly why he wasn't talking, understanding or having eye contact. We felt the support of our friends and family as we were to embark on a new journey with our son. We were so blessed to enroll him into early intervention therapies and now a year later have seen the intense therapy improve his functional ability to interact with others.

We also took the kiddos to Disneyland, the beach and to visit Jim's sister in Southern California. What a beautiful time of year. We loved our week long trip and loved the time we were able to spend together with our families. Isaac loved car lands and the girls loved the princesses and of course all the adventurous rides.  Californians never understand us "Utahns" going to the beach with our swimming suits on in January. (To us, though it's warm!)Allison finished a great basketball season where I was able to be the assistant coach and help run the practices and the games.  She is still the tallest and enjoys playing with the girls. 

Allison continues to swim year round on the swim team and has improved over the last year and a half.  In January Jim and I ran a race when it was about 20 degrees outside.  It was so cold there was icicles on the mens beards at the finish line. (It makes you run faster!) Ha!

Springtime came and Paige had her dance recital and the girls had a fun 2 month season of soccer. The weather was so unpredictable.  We had rain, snow, sun, and wind.  Always have to be prepared! In May, Jim did another 1/2 Ironman in St. George and had  new PR, and I did another 5k race with the girls and grandpa Ray.  (It was fun to finish in 3rd place). In May our women's church basketball team won the entire Region championship in overtime! It was so fun to have mom and dad and Michelle and Ben there supporting my team. The summer was a whirlwind. In June I was released as the stake sports director and Jim was released as the Young Men's Secretary.  I was completely in shock when they called me to serve as the new Young Women's President! They called Jim to serve as a nursery teacher specifically as "Isaac's aide" when he would go to Sunbeams in January. He has a short attention span and needs a lot of re-direction in a classroom and large group settings.  Also in June, my darling little (taller than me) brother was married to Natalie in the Salt Lake temple. What a beautiful day and fun week of events. We are so happy for them!

We were able to go backpacking in July with my mom's side of the family after Allison finished in her summer play. She loves to perform! She also has found a true love of backpacking from her grandpa Ray!  I was able to go to girls camp and lead the 4th year young women on an over night backpacking trip. I loved this adventure and being with the young women in the stake. Also in July, Jim and I were able to fly to New York and visit his best friend from college. We were there for a fun and fast 4 days but were able to see a lot of beautiful places including Central Park, Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Temple. Jim, Allison and I did a couple more triathlons and 5ks and spent one weekend camping at Bear Lake where we finally bought our first family size tent for all of us!  In August Grandpa Ray and Grandma Becky took us in the motor home camping in American Fork canyon. We always look forward to this fun time. We even saw a beautiful moose and made our own zipline!  We can't forget what a fun time we had at the Humpherys reunion. Gerald's family did a wonderful job hosting and having all of us over at their house in Idaho.  We were able to drive over and spend the day in Star Valley for the Ray Rich reunion and take a trip down memory lane. What a wonderful event we were able to take apart in ! In September Allison started 4th grade and Paige started 1st grade. Isaac started an all day preschool for children with autism. He has learned so much in the last 4 months and are so grateful for this program! He still has a very limited vocabulary with 1-2 word sentences but is more engaged and is following directions more. He has learned to play with other children his age more appropriately and loves legos, to play chase, hide and tease his sisters! Over Labor Day weekend we went on another backpacking trip with Grandpa Ray, Ryan and his new wife, Allison and my uncle.  Allison caught her first fish and we had a fun time hiking and fishing.  In October we took another vacation to Las Vegas, Lake Mead and were able to see cousin Kelly and family and spend the day with them and attend their church where we saw Kelly in action! (Of course Jim did another triathlon while we were there.) The girls finished another season of scoring many goals in soccer and Paige started her dance again and was able to perform at the festival of trees! Allison also has gotten faster in almost all of her events in swimming, that she qualified for state and will be competing in March! Allison continues to excel in piano and I enjoy the time I have to practice with her each week. The final excitement of the year was finding a basketball group of ladies to play full court games 2-3 days a week. I have had so much fun with this every week!  Now that Michelle lives close to me, she has been coming too. She and I battle under the hoop! Ha! So fun! (Jim and I are still employed at our same jobs. Jim at his engineering company and Lisa working per diem at the same floor at the hospital for the last 9 1/2 years. )

Best Wishes and see you this summer!

Love, Jim, Lisa, Allison, Paige and Isaac