June 30, 2010

Dear Children,

We spoke with Nate on his birthday Monday night. He was out to dinner with a friend. I forgot to ask him if they did anything special at work for him. This picuter is one of my favorite baby pictures of him. I have a big one and noticed a little drool coming out of his mouth and immediately thought of some of his shenanigans he does now with his “drool” with 26 years of experience behind him! I sent him a postcard of Nate’s drool 26 years ago and now!

Our Monday was a beautiful summer day here; we have enjoyed a little bit of summer warmth here and there. It sure makes you appreciate it. Plus, the sun has allowed Oregon strawberries to ripen finally. They aren’t as sweet as normal since there has been a lack of sun but they are big!

On Friday morning I took Katie to the MAX early so she could catch a flight to Oakland for a day of training, her first day as a Southwest employee! Afterwards, I headed to Jaquith Farm to pick a few berries as I am out of strawberry jam. I picked 22 pounds (I always get more than I plan) and made enough jam to last the year, strawberry that is. I need to pick Boysenberries and Marionberries when the time is right. I am not really a fan of strawberry jam but love the other berries.

On Saturday Dad and I rode our bikes over to Sherwood to Al’s Garden Shop. My basil finally died; the roots probably rotted with all the rain. So we packed up a basil plant in Dad’s bike bag. It was a nice ride. Dad rode ahead so he could get more exercise and then came back to ride at my pace. I liked that much better so I didn’t feel like I was slowing him down. He brought his road bike (the one Schwinn with the skinny tires). I wondered why since he didn’t need speed when he was riding with me. But this worked out well. It was even fun to see how far I could get before he would come riding back. It reminded me of some of the first times snow skiing with him when I feel in love with him by watching his “poetry in motion” as he skied so beautifully.

Adrianne was offered a job at the barn that she is volunteering. This time, it is with pay! She was asked to give riding lessons one day a week in the fall. She is going to have ONE BUSY FALL as she squeezes in some of her most difficult classes into her schedule to prepare for an August graduation. She still is working on the Sun Bear research job. I thought that would be done so long ago but it took so much work to prepare all the samples to be tested. I always thought research work would be fascinating but there is certainly a tedious side.

I don’t have many current pictures from this week so I will add an amazing one from last week. Morty sent it to me but I hadn’t saved it. I remember thinking that the people on the JumboTron looked a lot like Katie and Morty. But, when I saw a Happy Anniversary greeting next to it so I thought it was the couple to whom they were wishing a Happy Anniversary. Later, Katie told me it was really them on the JumboTron and Morty had amazingly captured a picture of it! Morty and Katie just have “a way” of getting on the TV screens!

Katie is testing out her new wings today. It is her day off and she is flying to Salt Lake to see her friend from high school, Lindsay, for the afternoon in the city. She works tomorrow so she must find an empty seat to get home tonight. It sounds like fun to me! This morning when she was up at 5:30 am I asked her if she was flying somewhere. When I learned she was headed to Salt Lake City I told her that I should have prepared Heidi’s birthday present for her to deliver! Now that would be a handy delivery service! But, Katie isn’t going to take any chances and venture far from the airport with such a small window of time. I have read that these “space available” seats can be kind of risky to plan on but it will be fun to see what it is like!

Today, June 30, is Heidi and Bill’s wedding anniversary. I am sure that they have something fun planned to do. I just got an email so here is our answer: Bill and Heidi must be in St. George with the family to celebrate their anniversary. Here is a picture of them at In-N-Out! It looks like it is warm there with all those red cheeks.

I love you and hope you are all enjoying the summer. I am. I just came home from picking up Sunhee and Meeja. They get to be here until next Tuesday! We have lots of fun adventures planned. They just helped me load my storage shelves with new canned goods we bought on the way home. They are great helpers. Now it is off to pick raspberries form our own plants. Dad and I have left the berries alone since we knew that the girls would have so much fun picking. They will get to pcik blue berries before they go home also! Love, Mom