Dear Loved Ones, 24 August 2014
Happy
Birthday, Aunt Audrey! We are celebrating tonight with our annual Stake Women’s
Meeting. I am so excited Addie got to go with me this year. We’ve got a whole month
of stories to catch up on, so here we go with our favorite highlights from a
month that FLEW by!
Monday,
August 4t,h was an epic family night out at the ranch. Kelli’s
brothers and mom were visiting with their families, so we had a massive BBQ and
dance party at the pavilion. It was so much fun to see the kids going crazy and
sharing cousin dance moves. “Gangnam Style” and “Everything Is Awesome” and
“Roar” were three of the kids’ favorite songs that got played several times. As
for the grown-ups…we can still rock “The Macarena.”
We finally
got some good rain that week, and Livingston hosted the International Fly
Fishers’ Convention, opening with a downtown “Hoot” on August 7th,
where there was dancing and dining and fun all over Main Street. John Mayer even showed up to play some songs
for the crowd.
On Saturday,
August 9th, Rich got up early to take the scouts on a 7 mile hike
around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. They met some fun European tourists
on the trail who joined them for their hike. One couple from south western
Germany were exploring mushrooms—the husband had written a book on the
mushrooms of the Black Forest. Rich
LOVED it, and the scouts learned a lot, too. I told Rich we should make them
special little mushroom merit badges. Rich said he called the guy “Mushroom Man”
and Mushroom Man called Rich “Wurzburger.” I was at home that day hosting an essential
oils class given by Kim Triplett and Linda Larson. Thus far I have avoided the
oils craze. I have used certain oils for headaches and stress since I was a
teenager, but Kim had a compelling tale so we invited people over to learn
more. Kim has basically had two sleepless years with her little kids, then she
tried some calming oils on their feet before bed and they finally slept through
the night for the first time. I tried a sample after the party and Ammon and
Niles slept deeper and longer than usual, so I think they are effective. I’m
excited for Kim’s new venture—the class was fun and my house smelled so good!
August 10th
was Ammon’s 3 month birthday—he is getting so big, sweeter than ever! I don’t
know how much he weighs, but it’s well over 15 pounds. He is such a sunshine!
After church that Sunday we took naps then had tostada night with the Jelli
Melins, the Missionaries, The Felkins family, and the Triplett family. It was
so nice to spend a little more time just hanging out with all of them, and the
food was great!
We had
planned to spend the week days playing with cousins at the ranch, but Sunday
Simon was sick with the barfs, then Monday Summer and TJay were sick, then
overnight Tuesday everyone in our family except Rich was sick, so no cousin fun
for us! Luckily we were mostly recovered in time for TJay’s 12th
Birthday party at the ranch on Wednesday, August 13th. The 11 year old scouts, Uncle
Mike and his friend Micki, Ad’s friend Izzi and our two families had a taco
dinner then went down to the pavilion for s’mores and another dance party. This
time, Kelli had stocked up on a zillion glow sticks, so the dance party was
especially magical under a full moon!
Thursday
8/14 we packed and cleaned and had a farewell bowling and pizza party with our
Jelli cousins…it was so fun to spend 7 weeks with them! Then on 8/15 (Happy Birthday to Nana!) we
drove down to Utah and stayed over at Layton’s house in Tooele. Kristen made us
a delicious dinner and Sam took the kids on tractor rides in his backyard.
Cousin Owen was super excited to show us his favorite Star Wars movie, and play
the theme song on the keyboard (he learned it at piano lessons). We had such a
nice visit, then a sleep over and breakfast, then we headed south to Nana’s in
Herriman after a quick stop at Ikea. We swam with Nana and Aunt Sara and her
kids visiting from Michigan. It was so much fun. We had dinner at Café Rio with Laytons then
headed over to sleep over with our Peterson cousins at Uncle Drew’s house in
Lehi.
In the
morning (Sunday, August 17th) we had church, then a big family birthday dinner/ celebration at Nana’s
clubhouse. We celebrated Cousin Melanie’s 16th birthday, Cousin
Brady’s 10th birthday, plus Nana’s, Papa’s, and Aunt Audrey’s
birthdays in August. Great Uncle Matt came down from Logan to join in the fun
and we introduced him to pani-popo. I think he ate a dozen rolls! My cousin
Brent and his family also came, and I finally got to meet his sweet baby girl,
Ruby. In all the regular family-gathering-craziness, it was so very sweet to
see the family bonds, the pure joy of being together between three generations
of family. Hooray for cousins!
After
another night at Petersens, we took the girls school shopping Monday morning,
then took the little boys down to Provo in the afternoon (while the big kids
stayed and played with cousins). We had a sweet visit with the Bucherts and got
all kinds of good news (Ma & Pa Buchert celebrate their 50th
anniversary in November; after 24 years of marriage, Rob & Georgia become
parents this month!). We also got a good look around our ever-changing old
neighborhood. Our first house is now just 5 blocks from the new temple, and the
old park has a new playground and splash pad. Progress! We hurried back across
the valley to pick up the girls and head out to Herriman to have dinner at
Cousin Brent’s new house. We had a delightful, delicious, edifying-in-every-way
dinner with Mayberrys, then went to Nana’s house to say good bye. “Uncle” Matt
Stoker (Rich’s roommate from BYUH) met us there for a short visit and the kids
LOVED HIM (He took them to Maverik and let them blast music in his truck—what’s
not to love?!). We had one last sleep over with Petersens, saw them off on
their first day of school, then hit the road for home on Tuesday, August 19th.
We got right
back in the saddle on Wednesday, August 20th. Rich went to work and
I took all 3 kids to get registered for school. We cleaned up and unpacked from
our trip, then took a nap and woke up to a big thunder storm! That night we had
scouts and Young Women and Activity Days. Addie got yet another recommend for a
temple trip this week.
Friday night
we had another ward dinner, then Saturday morning, Rich and Addie went with our
ward youth to do baptisms at the Billings Temple. There were 20 kids this time
and many of them, including Addie, had their own family names. It is so
wonderful to see the work actually hastening in our own ward on all fronts! I
feel so blessed to be a part of it and so grateful and humbled by what lies
ahead for our kids. Addie had so much fun riding home with the two Jones girls
in our car, she brought them home to hang out and watch Dr. Who after the
temple trip. Turns out they are “Whovians,” too, and they are also into The
Hobbit like Addie is, so she is loving having new friends in the ward (they
have FIVE daughters and one son, and they match up to our kids pretty
perfectly). We also spent time with these girls after the women’s conference
tonight and they introduced Addie to their Bozeman friends. It’s so fun to
watch her connecting with other people; I am excited to watch this exciting
part of her life unfold (I’m tearing up just thinking about it)—Heidi’s , too.
Our conference was beautiful—the theme was “Champion: the defender of a person
or a cause,” about how Christ is the ultimate champion of women—are we His?
Lots of inspiring and encouraging messages.
Rich was
sustained as the new Scoutmaster and 2nd counselor in the Young Men’s
Presidency today. As I told the bishopric when they asked if I would support
him, there is no one I would rather have leading and influencing the boys my
girls will be hanging out with. He is so knowledgeable and patient with the
boys, I don’t know if he will ever NOT be in scouts. At any rate, I am excited
to support him in this—he gets to camp every month and I get to stay home—Win-Win!
;)
We are so
dang excited for school to start! Heidi and James start on Wednesday 8/27,
Addie starts 8/28, and Niles starts 9/8. We will miss having Grandpa and
Grandma over for our Back to School dinner and theme party and having Grandpa
assist Daddy in back to school father’s blessings. Next week we will let you
know how it went and what we chose for our theme for the year. To all our
cousins starting school, we wish you luck and blessings and courage to do and
be your best!
Til next
week, ALL OUR LOVE…
Rich, Jamie, and Family
PS: Happy Birthday to Papa Drews, Cousin Simon, and Cousin Brady this week!
Happy Birthday today to Elder Eric Holm in Albania!!
