Aleisha's Growing up

Aleisha is growing up so fast, she is a senior this year at Woods Cross High and going to be turning 18 in a couple weeks. Woods Cross High School is known for their drama department and this year they are putting on the play Beauty and the Beast. Aleisha was so excited when she made the part of Babette (AKA the Feather Duster). This year the play will be in February instead of November. We are all very excited to see it!

Just this last Saturday Aleisha went to the homecoming dance with Kyle Larson. I love my sister and hope she enjoys her Senior year of High School!

Girls Night Out!

It was a Girls Night Out on Tuesday with my Mom, Aleisha and my Aunt Melissa. We went to “So you think you can dance” that was touring with season 4 top thirteen dancers. The concert was so entertaining and jam-packed with so many amazing dances! They did all of my favorite dances like the GARDEN danced by Courtney and Mark, the dance with a Door - DUFFY danced by Twitch and Katee, but the dance that stole the show was the BRIEF CASE dance danced by Chelsea and Mark. This dance was so powerful and emotional to watch. By the end of the show my voice was lost from screaming so much. It was so fun to see our hometown people dance…Gev, Chelsie, and Thayne. You can tell that Utah has a lot of talent.
Girls night out was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for next season of So you think you can dance!

Dinner at Rumbi's Five Guys Named Moe
Aleisha & Melissa The Garden
The Girls

The Brief Case Dance - One of the Best Dances

Jeff Prince Got Married

Aaron's mission companion and our good friend got married to Kristina on September 13, 2008 in the Detroit Michigan Temple.  We are so happy for Jeff and wish them the best of luck! 

UPDATE: Busy, Top of Utah & Someone is Prego

The month of September has been really busy for Aaron and I. After our fun vacation to Disneyland it's been nothing but GO GO GO! We were sad to come back from our vacation to find that our ward had split and we don't know if they will need us to teacher our primary class, which made Aaron and I really sad. We love our kids and happy that we were asked to teach this Sunday until they figure out what is going to happen.

This weekend is “The Top of Utah Marathon” in Logan and I have 7 family members running it. My Mom, Dad, uncle Scott, uncle Todd, aunt Melissa, uncle Matt, and my uncle Chris. This is going to be my uncle Chris' first Marathon and we are way excited for him! Good luck this weekend Marathoners!

I also wanted to mention that our cute friends Katie & Kole Sorenson are prego with not just One baby but TWO. Katie is having TWIN boy & girl and is due Feb 1, 2009. We are so excited for them and ready and willing to help when the babies come along.

HARD WORKER

I'm so proud of my husband! Aaron is such a hard worker and is really stretched to the limit this semester. Aaron was recommended by his political communications professor to the Hinckley Institute & Senator Howard Stephenson for an internship this semester. He has been working with the Senator for about a month now producing a radio talk show that takes place on Saturday morning from 8:00 am to 10:00 am. Their first show was last Saturday September 6th and went really well. The show is called "Inside Utah Politics: Setting the Record Straight" and the concept for the show is to give the Utah State Legislators and other elected officials the chance to set the record straight on erroneous and biased media coverage. Aaron is putting in 20+ hours a week for this internship and is working full time at Symantec down in Lindon and not to mention that he is taking a Spanish class 2 nights a week up at the U of U. He is one busy man! I keep asking what I can do to help and he keeps saying "Can you put more hours in the day" I told him I would try.
***If you would like tune into the show its K Talk Radio on Channel AM 630***

Disneyland Family Vacation

What an amazing vacation we had in California for Labor Day weekend. We left on Saturday and returned on Wednesday night. 27 members of the Hardy clan (My Mom's side of the family) joined us for the trip which added to the fun & experience. The main reason for us all adventuring down there was the Disneyland Half Marathon which 18 of us ran. Disney does such a great job with their marathons and of course running with my mom we took a lot of great photos with Disney characters. After we had all finished the half marathon my Mom surprised us with WICKED tickets for that evening in LA, I think that this play was the highlight of the trip. WICKED was so good it gave me chills, Aaron also loved it and we can't wait to see it again in April at the Capital Theatre in Salt Lake. It was such a wonderful surprise and made running a half marathon soooo worth it! We spent the next 2 days playing in Disneyland from morning when the park opened till close. Aaron and I had so much fun and loved all the memories that we had from our family trip. Here are some highlight of our trip…….

What a cute Family - Our first day in the park

DISNEYLAND HALF MARATHON

We Finished and got an awesome Disney medal

At Mile 3 running through Disneyland

We were on the last mile and stopped to take a picture with Monsters Inc Friends

Posing with the Green Army Man from Toy Story

Running past Angles Stadium at Mile 10

WICKED

My hot date for WICKED

The Robins Family

Wicked Party



DISNEYLAND FUN!!!

Toy Story Ride

Aaron trying to pull the sword out of the stone

Jacob and Justin

King Arthur - My Grandpa is so cute!

The boys with Grandma

Walking down Main Street with Goofy

Before Splash Mountain

After Splash Mountain

Bugs Life Cadets

Carmen and Austin enjoying Mickey Ice Cream

Attack of the CAMERAS -This is what we dealt with the whole trip

Justin, me and Aleisha

My cute cousin Katelyn

First Class Baby - My uncle Scott gave me his first class ticket, what a sweetheart

Where in the world is Jacob Rennaker? (Hit it Rockapella)

Here's the latest update of Jacob's travels in the cradle of civilization:

Well, the good news is- if I don't come down with anything serious from Egypt, I think I might be immune to every disease imaginable.

That's what EVERYONE in Egypt says after they've offered to help you. It kind of got on my nerves. It was interesting living in a country that was so devoid of selflessness, benevolence, charity, or any other shade of altruism. It really got me thinking about the principle of helping others without expecting anything in exchange. In my mind, I compared my experience with the people in Egypt to my experience with the people in the Philippines. The people living in those two countries had very similar economic circumstances (i.e. poverty-stricken), and the cities of both were crowded and dirty (with crazy traffic- trying to cross a major street to get some food was like playing a game of Frogger on cocaine. Or maybe some really bad crack). I marveled at the incredible difference between the attitudes of the people. Like I said, the people in Egypt were looking to get as much as they could from you, even in the guise of being helpful. On the other hand, the people in the Philippines were very accommodating and willing to help you with whatever you needed, asking for nothing in return.







The sights of Egypt were fun. There were a TON of tourists, though, so that was a bit annoying. I guess I got spoiled when I visited so many places in Northern Israel where I was the only person there. The pyramids were probably my favorite places, despite people trying to hound me for money and super-ghetto souvenirs. Attached are a few pictures for your enjoyment. And if you don't enjoy them, deal with it.

It's really nice being back in Israel. Just crossing the border was like walking into a whole new world (with new horizons to pursue). Now I can eat pretty much anything I want and not have to seriously disinfect my toothbrush if I accidentally use the water from the sink, and then drink a whole container of hand sanitizer. Oh- and the money here doesn't resemble used toilet paper. THAT was pretty gross.

Anyway, church at the Jerusalem Center was amazing. The view from the seats in the chapel makes it very difficult to concentrate on the speaker, but it's a burden I'm willing to bear. I was actually asked to bless the sacrament (white Nikes and all), so that was a really good experience, being so close to the places where Jesus' body hung and where His blood was shed. Brother Huff (my first religion teacher in Rexburg) just moved to the Center with his family, so I met them and was invited to their apartment for Sabbath dinner. It was really nice being around a family again. It'll be even better to get back to my own in a little over a week.

So that's whats been happening in a nutshell. I'm still staying with Tom, one of my classmates at BYU who's at Hebrew University right now. That means I'll have internet access pretty much every day (but probably still only a limited time).

Thanks for praying me back to Israel.

-Jacob

(Sunset at Mt.Sinai)