Child Highlight: Evan Loel

Evan Loel is named for my father (obviously) and our ancestor who was the nephew of Brigham Young, Evan Greene, the son of John P. Greene, the first convert resulting from the first mission, served by Joseph Smith's brother Samuel. Evan Greene married his first cousin, Susan Kent, daughter of Daniel Kent for whom Evan Loel's younger brother was named. Interestingly, Evan Greene was an early pioneer who crossed the plains with Brigham Young and was the mayor of Provo at one point.

Our Evan, Evan Loel, was born in Yokohama, Japan; our only child not to be born in Utah. He was the biggest baby of record to be born in his hospital. He came at the end of a long baby-drought for us, so he received lots of loving, and kind of had two sets of parents: Lynda & I, and Amanda & Davis.

When Evan was a baby he loved Star Wars, Episode I. When he learned to crawl, he would go to the television and plug the video in the slot in the middle of the night. He would sit and watch the whole thing while the rest of us slept. When it was over, he would crawl back over and plug it in again. There were nights where he would watch that movie up to five times. Needless to say, episode I is now my least favorite of the Star Wars movies.

Evan Loel in Motomachi, Yokohama, Japan.

Evan started school in Orem at Cascade Elementary. He was always our little singer. I can't remember a time when he did not sing with a perfect pitch and vibrato. He will be the best singer of all of us, I am sure. He also shows something of an aptitude for piano and arithmetic. He is now nine years old.

Amanda, Davis, & Evan Loel in our apartment in Yokohama.