Just a few shots from recent visits with family. Colin very much enjoyed his cousin Mikey. Mikey has said Colin is the coolest baby he knows.

A small family meal with about twenty+ people. (It was hard to really ever know how many people were running around). In town for the funeral were all my six siblings, six spouses, and nineteen grandchildren.

My brother Pat's family recently bought this huge van that Colin called a school bus. Pat took the kids for a drive in the canyon after this photo was taken.

We spent a lot of the week sitting in a circle outside in a ritual we creatively called "circle time". It was nice for everyone to just have time together.

Dad with his first car, 1952

Mom and Dad dating in college

Dad while a missionary in England

Fifty years ago last March

Our family has been very well attended to in our grief. Thank you for all the support and love. I spoke at the funeral and here are my notes.



As I was looking back through old photos this week, I came across a little column called Faith Profile where Dad was once featured when he was a Bishop in Minnesota. The feature was in a question and answer format, and when asked what his goal in life was Dad responded “To become a real Christian”. Many, many aspects of Dad’s life reflect this goal, and many people have benefited through his Christian living. Dad taught me that the gospel is inclusive and that there is room for everyone in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the same article when asked what his faith means to him, he responded “ It explains the purpose of life and helps me to understand the ups and downs of existence” I am so grateful to have such wonderful parents who have taught me about faith so we have a source of comfort when confronted with hard times such as loosing Dad. His faith has taught me that he is not lost.

He was incredibly patient and saw so much potential and good in the people around him. I remember him very level-headed and slow to anger, even when his newly driving daughter crashed his beloved car. I am grateful he loved me more than the car, but he did love that car.

My little family and I are grateful for the time we have recently been able to spend with my parents. We are fortunate to have lived with my parent for the last year. I know Dad took great joy in his grandchildren. It has been so wonderful to see the special relationship Dad and my two year old developed this last year. They were great little friends and spent a lot of happy time together. It was very hard yesterday to see our toddler try to understand death since he told his grandpa to wake up at the funeral home last night, but our boy knows Papa has gone with Jesus. Dad really lit up around his grandchildren and they brought him great joy, especially in these last five years when he struggled with the effects of cancer. We are sad to not have Dad as a direct influence in our children’s lives, but his influence will be felt through his teachings and good example. My mom shares in this good example and we all are so grateful for the selfless service she gave to Dad to keep him comfortable and at home in his last days.

Dad also instilled in me a love and appreciation for classical music, which has come in handy since I married a classical musician. I know my dad appreciated hearing my husband practice in the house this past year. One of my father’s favorite operas was La Boheme, which explains why an excerpt from the opera is next on the program. Che gelida manina may not be the most typical funeral song, but Dad would be pleased. I know both of my sisters have memories of Dad listening to La Boheme and being very moved by the emotion of the piece. Soon after the surgery that took my Dad’s voice, I played a recording of Brian singing the following aria, which brought a big smile to my Dad’s face and tears to his eyes.

We are sad at the loss of my father this week, but we are relieved he does not need to suffer anymore. He battled cancer for more than five years, but we are grateful for his fight and the extra time we all enjoyed with him. Here is his obituary:

Michael Richards Hinckley, age 72, passed away on Monday, July 7, 2008 at his home in Holladay after a long battle with cancer. He was born December 21, 1935, in Salt Lake City to Frederick R. Hinckley and Lois Richards Hinckley. He attended Granite High School and was in the first graduating class of Olympus High School. He went to BYU, graduated from the U of U and received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1962. He married Jean Folsom March 20, 1958, in the Salt Lake Temple. He was a missionary in England from 1956-1958. He returned to England as Mission President of the England Birmingham Mission from 1999-2002. He served as Bishop in Rochester, MN. He loved the outdoors, hunting, and guns and had special friends who shared this love. He loved sports, especially football. He was High School All-American at Olympus, played for BYU and was forever a fan. After his MBA, he joined his father’s business at American Paper and Supply in Salt Lake. He became the Head of Strategic Planning for Saxon Industries. He moved to Chicago to become Treasurer of Americana Hotels and worked for Kahler Hotels as Head of Marketing in Rochester, MN. Mike and wife Jean celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year. Mike is survived by his wife Jean and their children: M. Russell (Susan), Apple Valley, MN, Mary Thatcher (Blake), Lake Forest, IL, Stephen, Sandy, UT, Ted (Libbie), South Jordan, UT, Jeanie Rennie (Paul), Issaquah, WA, Patrick (April), Manchester, CT, Ann Stucki (Brian), Holladay, UT, brother Frederick R. Hinckley, Kaysville, UT and 24 grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his parents and two grandchildren. Services will be Saturday July 12 at 1pm at the Holladay 18th and 28th Wards, 2625 E Milo Way in Holladay, UT. The family will receive friends Friday, July 11 at Wasatch Lawn, 3401 S Highland Drive from 6pm-8pm and beginning at 11:30 on Saturday at the Ward. Internment will be at Wasatch Lawn. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Bennion Center at the U of U or the Edwin Smith Hinckley Scholarship at BYU. Many thanks for the services of the wonderful doctors and staff at Huntsman Cancer Institute and the Millcreek Home Health Care and Hospice.

When Dad was 3, his tricycle had been stolen, not once but twice and his parents were not able to replace it again. This photo appeared in the paper with the caption "Michael Hinckley contemplates his sorrow".

We have had lots of family in town recently. Above are Minnesota Hinckleys along with Utah Hinckleys. Colin took a great liking to his Uncle Russ, as seen in the photo. Everyone has come around because my Dad's cancer has gotten a great deal worse recently. We were supposed to be at our family cabin in Wisconsin this week for a family reunion celebrating my parent's 50th wedding anniversary but since Dad cannot travel and is in poor health, everyone switched their plans. Dad's health has declined very quickly and we are just grateful for all the family support and the time we have.

Here are a couple of Seattle cousins who were here recently. Colin loved having them around. Unfortunately I only got photos of 2 of the 4 cousins who were visiting. We now have cousins here from Connecticut and Colin is happy to have built-in playmates. It is very nice everyone has been able to come home.

Here is Colin and my Dad from February. Colin carries 2/3 of my Dad's name since Colin's middle name is Michael Hinckley. Colin enjoys spending time with his Papa. He has been know to sneak out of his bed at night to cuddle with Papa and knows where my Dad keeps the M&M's in his room. A few months ago Dad set the DVR to record Curious George and Colin has spent a lot of happy time watching PBS Kids with his Papa.

Jane was officially one month old today. I know, I know- one month and she's just getting her first bath?! What can we say? It takes more advance planning when you've got a little guy like Colin constantly enacting his plans of destruction. We did give her little sponge downs, but this was her first real bath and she loved it. She was a little bit fussy before she went in, but as soon as she hit the water, she was totally mellow.

And her bath led to the discovery of...

Cute fuzzy head.

I know she looks a little perplexed in this shot, but I think it's adorable. Her eyes are lightening up, and you can see the blond coming in behind the brown hair, so it looks like we've got another aryan on our hands.

Jane still spends a lot of time sleeping, and loves to sleep on her Daddy.

Colin loves to hold his baby. He gets so excited when she looks at him. He is a very sweet big brother.

We finally took some more photos of Jane. She is a sweet baby and doing well. She has a few more alert times during the day as she is an entire 2 weeks old now.

So Colin got a hold of the camera this morning (like the bedhead?) I decided that I would let him have a little supervised time with it before putting it far out of his reach. Here are the results.

I think Brian had a bit of an exhausting Father's Day. Colin has been under the weather and most of the Colin care has fallen to him since I am nursing our new born baby nearly non-stop during the day. Colin has been very contrary and a extra hard to handle. It has been sad to see Colin sick and without energy since that is so opposite from his normal self. He seems to have had a sore throat since he told us he had "owwie mouth" and has had digestive troubles, which make for an "owwie bum". It is hard too because it is good for him to have diaper free time, but this has proved most dangerous. Brian got Colin bathed today and had not yet gotten him in a diaper. I was dozing on the bed with the baby and I heard Colin announce something about a poopy. (Yesterday he had an accident in the bathroom after his bath and he told me his poopy had fallen out.) I called to Brian because I was not very fast-moving and Colin went streaking across our room. When Brian came in it was very clear the path Colin had taken. Hmm. . . and since I am not really leaving the house, we did not get out to even get Brian a Father's Day gift. We will try to make it up to him as he is a great dad and has put up with a lot recently.

I can't even remember how we stumbled upon this blog, but we enjoy what Jessica has to share. Since it is orange themed, I emailed her the photo Brian took of the orange drink and she used it in a new orange Flickr group. Anyway. . . just for fun.

Baby Jane loves to cuddle into her Daddy. It is very sweet. She really just burows into his chest. She does not do this as much with me since I think the milk things are too distracting. Brian has been great both with the new baby and with Colin. I am very spoiled to have him here full time since I know most women have to be alone all day long. It is a sacrifice and has taken some careful planning financially, but it is the best thing for our family right now. Colin has been a little under the weather the last couple of days and I know I could not have handled a sick toddler and a newborn without Brian here. Keeping baby Jane fed is my full-time job right now, but she is getting the hang of it and we hope for many months of successful breast feeding.

Below is a not-so-nice photo of me, but is cute of Brian. This was at the Birth Center about 4 hours after Jane was born (so about 2 am on June 2). I look a little bit like I just had a baby. I kind of wanted to write about her arrival into the world, mainly for me and my handful of interested friends who I have not spoken to.

So I really thought Jane would be born in May, but she had different plans. Several times in the last few weeks of pregnancy it looked like labor was starting but things always stopped. She was postierior (back to my back, which makes for a more difficult delivery) and I felt a lot of back pain with some of my false labors. Lucky for me, she turned from her postierior position, but stayed really high until the end. On June 1, I did not really want to go to church, but since I did not really have a good excuse, I got dressed and we walked over. In Sunday school, I started to feel a few more regular contractions, but nothing serious and nothing outside of what had been happening over the last several weeks. We left church a little early and took Colin on a long walk to get him to sleep. It was a beautiful day, maybe in the low 80's. When we got home I took a nap with Colin and when I woke up I was still having contractions. I took this as a good sign since other times if I layed down everything would stop. By about 6pm, things were getting going a bit more and I thought I should start timing my progress. This is also right about when Brian's parents and sister arrived, but I was not feeling very social. When I started timing things, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. After 45 minutes, the contractions were making me concentrate and I was not able to answer questions during a contraction. We called our midwife around 7 pm and decided to head over to the Birth Center in about 40 minutes. We got there a little late because we had to get some gas, and I had a couple very strong contractions while filling the car. We arrived and settled in and our midwife checked to see how things were progressing around 8:15 pm. I was dialated to 5cm, so I thought we would still be there for hours (as it is fairly typical to progress about 1 cm an hour). My labor was getting pretty intense, and Brian was so great laboring right there with me. He really helped me stay on top of the contractions by staying right with me and giving me counter-pressure on my back. There is no way I could have done this without Brian (obviously since he is the baby's daddy) but he really worked hard to help keep me together. My contractions were really on top of each other and sometimes I did not even have 20 seconds in between contractions. When it was obvious that my labor was not going to stall, the midwife suggested getting in the tube We were in the birth room with the biggest tub, which was great. Also, I was the only laboring women in the center at the time which was so nice and peaceful. The midwife would check in with us every now and again and would check the baby's heart tones, but she really left us a lot of space to just work together. At one point in the tub when things were really intense, I announced that I better be in transition. Since it had not been very long, Brian was a little worried since it still could have been a long time. Not long after that, I felt my water break and announced I needed to push. The midwife and nurse got everything ready and trusted I knew what my body needed to do. They did not even check to see if I was fully dialated, they knew I knew what had to happen. It really is a pretty amazing experience because my body took over to get the work done and there was no stopping it. About 2 minutes later, Jane was born in the tub. I knew a water birth was an option, but I kind of thought I would maybe get out for the birth. But there she was and I insantly felt so much better to no longer be pregnant. There are many more graphic details, but since it is not exactly polite conversation, I will save those things for friends who ask. We are so happy with our Birth Center experience and to not have had a hospital birth. Having a child is one of the most nornal, natural things and I am very grateful for our health and our good expierience.

Colin really has been great with the arrival of a baby sister who demands an enormous amount of attention. The Stucki grandfolks were here for a few days after Jane was born and Colin had the advantage of lots of playtime with his Grandpa Stucki, who has a special gift for entertaining kids Colin's age. Since they left, we've tried hard to give him special dedicated time with both parents. Today he made birthday twinkle star brownies with Mommy in honor of Jane. He had a great time and was really involved in the process.

He enjoyed announcing, "I mixing it!" He's forming more and more complete sentences these days and it's very cute to hear his thoughts.