Life in a Northern Town: FAMILY LETTER 03.31.19

Dear Loved Ones,

We are savoring our last day of Spring Break today, thankful for lots of fun memories made this week! Today was 5^th Sunday at church, so the presidency wrangled the kids so the teachers could go listen to the Bishop. It was quite the rodeo, but it ended on a sweet note, when the kids all wrote little letters and pictures on big rolls of paper for our 4 ward missionaries. I hope they will enjoy them—I was always delighted to get letters from little kids as a missionary.

I guess I need to go back two weeks to get us all caught up. On Monday March 18^th I did a ton of house work and took Addie to the doctor. She can’t seem to shake her cold/flu/whatever, so I thought she should be checked for mono and/or anemia. She doesn’t have either of those, and the doc said everyone is struggling with this virus for about 8 weeks—sore throat, general malaise—very much like mon symptoms. So that was kind of good news. After dinner I took her by her boyfriend Kenyon’s house to check in with him and got to meet his mom and step dad and had a nice visit. On Tuesday 3/19 I had a fun date with Heidi. We went to her favorite dinner at Olive Garden, talked about Personal Progress, and did a little shopping. She is always fun to hang out with. While we were at dinner, our friend Alec Hopkins got his mission call to CA Fresno, leaving in July, so that was fun (his brother gets home in June). On Wednesday 3/20 I worked hard on laundry and getting kids packed for our Spring Break Trip to The Black Hills, but I also felt very sick. All the cold/flu the kids had finally caught up with me, so my saint of a husband did school pick ups for me so I could nap and try not to be sick on Spring Break. I did the same thing on Thursday, basically, plus going to Costco with Ammon to get food for the trip. On Friday, Heidi and Kristina and Ammon stayed home with me and packed and helped with chores while the other kids went to school for the last day of the quarter.

Saturday (3/23) morning bright and early we hopped in the car and headed toward Billings, then Wyoming. We stopped in Gillette to eat at the Long John Silver’s/A&W restaurant there—it’s one of the boys’ favorites. We had planned to go see Devil’s Tower on the way, but it was super rainy and cold, so we just drove straight to our rental in Whitewood, South Dakota. It was the coolest little Airbnb! It was built in an old west store front/hotel. We had the store part as our living area, with 3 big bedrooms (each with a queen bed) and 3 big bathrooms in the back, plus a queen daybed in the living area, and a hot tub out back. The oldest Saloon in South Dakota, the Bullwhacker, est. 1885, was right across the street. The old cowboys at the bar got a kick out of Niles and Ammon strolling in and climbing up on the bar stools (at a walnut wood bar that was shipped from London in 1885), ready for dinner, hahaha. They had a nice dining area and delicious food we enjoyed on our last night in town. That first night we just settled in, watched movies, and got Japanese take-out (sushis, soups, and stir fries) from a restaurant in Spearfish. The next morning (Sunday 3/24) we slept in nicely, had a yummy breakfast, and did home church on our own. Around noon we headed out and ate lunch at HuHot Mongolian Grill in Rapid City, then went to see the creatures at Reptile Gardens. On our way home, we ate at Pizza Ranch, which was not our favorite, but it did the job. We stayed at our rental that evening, playing legos and games and watching movies. Monday morning it was still pretty cold and rainy, so we decided to do more indoor things. The WaTiki waterpark didn’t open until 4, so we packed up our swim gear and headed in to Rapid City for lunch, then the boys went to the air museum while the girls shopped for Prom shoes and mom jeans. We all met up at 3:45 and headed to WaTiki to swim and splash and ride water slides until closing time at 9pm. Our little boys wore themselves right out! The girls were still not feeling great, so after we ate dinner and hung out for a bit I drove them all the way back to Whitewood, took a quick shower and got warm clothes on, then drove straight back to get the boys at closing time. We got milkshakes at a drive thru on the way back to Whitewood and they were crashed out by the time we got home. Tuesday morning, we got up lazily and headed out to Mount Rushmore around 11am. First we stopped in Rapid City for lunch at a Nepalese restaurant called Everest. They had a delicious lunch buffet of different curries, soups, salads, and tandoori chicken, plus fresh naan and mango lassis. It was wonderful! We headed out through the hills to Mt. Rushmore. We stopped at the Ranger station to pick up junior ranger guides and a German tour “wand” for Kristina. The boys did all the activities in their Ranger booklets as we explored the visitor center. We watched movies about the sculpting of the mountain, and why each President was chosen. It was a crazy ambitious project, and even now that it’s done it seems a little nuts, but it’s a cool place, and the set-up of the whole monument and visitor experience is awe-inspiring. After a stop for ice cream and a lap around the gift shop for postcards and magnets, we headed back out to the car. We got back to Whitewood and started doing laundry and cleaning up to go home in the morning. We went across the street to the Bullwhacker, as I mentioned earlier, for our final vacation dinner. It was really yummy, but the best part was the appetizer—fried green beans and dill pickles! The kids took one last dip in the hot tub, then started packing up their stuff and getting ready for bed. We got up at 8 on Wednesday 3/27, checked out at 10am, and drove over to Devil’s Tower for a quick visit. There was some talk of I-90 being closed so we worried about which way to go. Everyone at the visitor center was saying we should take back roads, but we felt like we should just stay on the interstate and follow any detours. That was the right choice because the flooding that had caused the closure near Crow Agency was gone by the time we got there, and we got home safely at 7pm. We had lots of unpacking to do, then we all crashed hard. It is always so nice to be home in our own beds!

Thursday 3/28 we spent doing morning chores, then Addie and I went shopping in Bozeman while the other kids had a chill day watching movies and hanging out. Friday was much the same, but with the bonus of it being Papa Bill’s birthday, so I made a yummy cake. We had planned to go see the new Dumbo movie that night, but everyone was so dang tired! We went to bed early and planned to go on Saturday afternoon as a family. Addie had plans with Clara, so they went and had a fun day in Bozeman and saw a movie they’d been waiting to see (Five Feet Apart). Addie got home just in time to meet us for dinner at Fiesta in Jalisco. We had such a nice chill night together as a family.

It was nice to be at church in our ward today after being away for two weeks. Like I said, Primary was kind of crazy, but also wonderful. We had lunch and some of us napped, and Addie’s fella Kenyon got home from his spring break trip to Mexico this morning, so he came over. We had home church, which was a little bit wild, but I watched a Jeffery R. Holland talk with the big kids (2013, “Lord I Believe”) and it was really great. After we got the boys to bed, we watched “Say Anything” with the girls and Kenyon. It was funny as ever…

And now we head to bed, ready to get back in the saddle tomorrow. I didn’t have much of a post-trip funk this time; I’m wondering if I will feel it tomorrow…? At any rate, it’s always good to be home and back to routines. Addie takes her first ACT on Tuesday, so we will be glad when that stress is over! When we wake up, it will be April with so much to look forward to—conference, Heidi’s birthday, Heidi’s and Summer’s Quinceanera party, and EASTER! I’m so excited!

We love and miss you all and wish you a wonderful week! Enjoy Conference—it’s gonna be sweet.

Love, Rich and Jamie and Family