June 14, 2010

Dear Children,

It is summer here! Or, at least it was this weekend. It was a good thing for all the Rose Festival celebrations over the weekend and also for Adrianne’s Helvetia Half Marathon. It was great to have her here for the weekend for that and for some visiting. She came in on Thursday and left last night just in time to pass Aunt Denise in the airport, who is here visiting Grandma Maldonado until her birthday(Denise’s) on the 17^th.

Adrianne had an excellent run. She had been sick earlier in the week so was a bit worried since she hadn’t been able to train for almost a week. But she and Sharon Gueck ran the half marathon in 2 hours and 17 minutes which is really good. You may be able to see form the picture that the run is in the country. Dad and I biked to about her 11 mile marker to get a picture of her. Then, in order to avoid the roads of the runners, we had to make a huge loop to get back to the end point at the Hillsboro Stadium but we didn’t get back in time to hear Adrianne’s name announced as she came in. She looks very happy in this picture but on Sunday, she could barely walk as her knees were hurting so badly. She wore her half marathon shirt from the Provo run that she and Aubrey were in. I am glad she did as it helped her stand out.

Speaking of Provo and BYU colors standing out, Adrianne had Dad open his Father’s day present early. It was wrapped in BYU paper and it was a BYU T-shirt. It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the BYU era in our lives with our last child graduating from there this next year. We had a quick Father’s Day gift opening in between Adrianne and Katie going to singles ward, having a quick dinner with Grandma here and then rushing to the airport before a Primary teacher meeting at our home last night. Adrianne also wanted to practice an ice cream cake that she was planning to make for Blake’s birthday this coming week, a German chocolate, four layered cake filled with chocolate chips, coconut, carmel, Score candy bar pieces, cool whip and two flavors of Tillamook ice cream. So, she made an ice cream cake for Miss Kitty’s birthday! It was yummy; too bad Miss Kitty didn’t get a piece!

Meeja was able to stay extra days here in Beaverton and with that extension, she saw Adrianne for a few hours. She went with me to the airport on Thursday morning to pick up Adrianne and to Portland to pick up Adrianne’s marathon packet and registration. We had time to kill before a hair cutting appointment so we went to lunch at Bridgeport. Then, Meeja and Adrianne kept them selves busy at Bridgeport waiting for me before we drove to meet Georgia so Meeja could return home. Meeja remembered going to Bridgeport to a concert last year where she spent lot of her listening time there playing on the slide and children’s playground. It was raining though so she couldn’t slide this time with Adrianne.

Katie was able to work with the singles ward on the Rose Festival floats for Family Home Evening this week. I have done that before and think it is fun. It is especially fun to watch the parade for “your” float after you have been a volunteer. I don’t think she got to the parade though. I am sure the parade was especially packed since the weather was so nice that day. Adrianne was at the barn Saturday afternoon while we spent the afternoon in the garden. I am excited to see what changes will be in the garden with some sunshine! It is also time to get out and get some strawberries for some jam.

On Friday afternoon, Katie and I were at a funeral for 13 year old Natalee Walton. I am not sure how many of the children of the Walton family were your ages; just the younger part of our family probably. They live in Summerlake Ward so they would have been Southridge students. She died of a rare form of cancer; it was diagnosed about this time last year. They still haven’t figured out exactly what Risa Whitaker’s cancer is but started her on a chemo for what it “might” be. They will know in a few weeks if this treatment has made any difference. There are certainly a lot of hardships going on right now. They released Robin as Relief Society president yesterday considering her efforts need to be turned toward Risa right now. Elaine Green is our new RS president and I think she will be great.

What a difference a week can make! Last week we walked into church through torrential down pour and this Sunday it was beautifully warm on a sunny Sunday morning. We had a great sacrament meeting this Sunday. It is always nice to walk into church and be excited for who is sitting on the stand. That is the way I felt when I saw Kathleen Westhora up there. The topic was the Atonement. Both she and Eric Motto had very good messages. Kathleen reminded us of the principle of the Atonement “covering” our repentant sins because of the Hebrew meaning of the word so that is my final thought for this update:

Take advantage of the Atonement through repentance so that Christ’s gift to us is not wasted and CAN cover our sins. I love you all! Love, Mom