August 19, 2012
Dear Children,
Tonight
we had a fun dinner, zucchini lasagna.
The most fun part about it was that it was a recipe from Adrianne from
when we stayed at their home, plus I was able to use some of my Self Reliance products. I love using the tomato powder instead of opening small cans of tomato paste from now on! We all
worked on the dish after church in Pleasant Grove and then I tried to make it from
memory when we came home. This time, I
had her recipe and you would all be proud of me. I opened my lap top in the kitchen and read
the recipe from the lap top instead of paper!
Now that is something that I have seen Heidi and Adrianne do but not me;
I have never done that!
We have had
great visits with many of you this summer.
One of my favorite parts is the fun of learning new things as I watch
you take care of your homes. It is so rewarding to watch all of you in your
daily lives. Our last visit to Utah was to help Heidi
when William was two weeks old. What fun that was even though I arrived
in Utah kind
of exhausted from a week of cooking at Girls Camp but that is another story.
William is a
doll baby. The girls are so excited to
have a baby brother to hold, kiss and cuddle.
He is going to have lots of mommies!
I left for Utah as soon as I could
arrange to be there after arriving home from Washington and Dad followed at the end of
the week. This time we slept at Adrianne
and Blake’s so we were a little closer to South Jordan
since we would be driving back and forth each day. Heidi and Bill are in their townhome now that
the owner of their rental is back from her mission. The townhome is just not big enough for
guests.
I had fun with
the girls and doing some things to make Heidi’s days a bit easier, reminding
her to drink lots of water and eat greens like a “cow” so she would have enough
milk. That is supposed to be funny but
it is exactly what would go through my mind as I was tired and nursing
babies.
There is lots of
do in a home with four children; you forget with time. I didn’t even run the laundry but tried to
help fold it. You wouldn’t believe how many vegetables go into Heidi’s
spaghetti sauce! That is another trick I
learned! I followed her instructions one evening for dinner and then came home
with Bill’s recipe for pulled pork with coleslaw and dill pickle
sandwiches. I know; that sounds
interesting but it was yummy. I have
already tired it and it may end up on the menu for Girls Camp next year if I am
the cook again.
We were able to
spend one afternoon at Grandma Bitter’s which spread to the evening since it
was so relaxing and enjoyable to visit with other relatives that came and went
from her home. Heidi’s girls love to
visit Grandma’s home and could be happy spending hours upon hours there. Dad needed to get to Provo to that day to rent his bike from BYU
for the Ulcer Century the next day.
He did the ride
faster than any of his other century rides saying that the trail had fewer
hills than any Oregon
ride. Adrianne, Blake and I met up with
him after the ride at Thanksgiving Point and just sat and talked with he and
Uncle Jerry, who also rode in the Ulcer.
Dad is getting pretty good at these long rides. He rode out to Hagg Lake
yesterday and rode around a couple of times and needed up with an 80 mile ride
for the morning.
On Sunday, Dave
and Karla invited all of our family to their home for a barbecue. It was very nice to be in their home. On Monday
Heidi was able to take Rebecca school shopping while we stayed with Jenna,
Ainsley and William. We were too
carefree about our return to the airport and almost missed our flight. I don’t like cutting it that close. I think there was only one seat left after us
so that could have meant bad news for us arriving so late at the airport!
After we came
home from Utah,
Kyre, Alina, Amanda (Alina’s friend), Adam and Klaire cane to visit. It was hot so the sprinkler was under the
trampoline and we played a lot outside plus lots of game playing inside. Alina was also determined to beat me at ping
pong again but, she did not succeed this time!
She will needs to come back!
Conestoga was having their Big Truck day so Dad took Adam, Klaire and
Kyre while Alina, Amanda and I went to the Cedar Mill Farmers Market to take a
booth for one of my business organizations.
I was able to catch up with some of the weeds a little in my garden
while watching the children play in the back yard. We went ice skating and we also had a fire to
roast marshmallows while they were here.
Before our trip
to Utah, I had my big assignment to cook for Girls
Camp at Camp Ensign
up in Washington
about 3 hours away, a new place to our stake.
I had a good crew of ladies and Adrianne gave up her week vacation at Shelf
Reliant to help in the kitchen. She came
up the weekend before so we could pick berries and make jam.
Adrianne was an
incredible help and I even came home knowing how to use the different blades of
my Bosch! She was good to think outside
of the box for making the kitchen more efficient. The camp photo was taken after she made cream
cheese frosting with the Big Bertha mixer for two days of cinnamon rolls!
We went through
a ton of food and so many sweets and desserts.
If I am in charge again next year I think I would like to cut down on
the desserts. We went through 900 fresh
baked cookies alone! When we served
chicken Caesar salad for lunch, we cooked all of our 240 bread sticks thinking
we would have leftovers for later in the week.
Not one bread stick left!
The weather was
perfect and the camp was beautiful. We
had a lake so I tried to close the kitchen at least an hour each day so we
could go swim. There is something about
swimming in a lake that just creeps me out so I need to practice for Lake Berryessa
coming up in October. I have this odd
fear of not knowing what is under me when I swim! It even makes me shorter of breath.
It
is hard to say we were exhausted Saturday afternoon after we returned home from
camp when Dad came home not much after us after having ridden his bike for 100
miles for the Tour de Cure! He rode it
this time in six hours. Last year was
the year everyone remarked about his old bike so this year he was able to break
his personal records with his new ride!
Scott
enjoyed a visit with Adrianne while she was here. He loves any amount of visits with
family. And of course, he always loves
it if you can drop him a note. He likes
hearing about what everyone is doing and he gets the Dad and Mom interpreted
version if you don’t tell him directly!
He is continuing his running and now started playing with a volleyball
team.
This week we
welcome back Sunhee and Meeja and look forward to rematches of games that we
play like the new one, Ticket to Ride.
Sunhee loves that one! Dad has another ride this Saturday to Stewart Stubbs Park
and it is the neighbor party. Then,
Bryce Whisenant’s wedding reception is this Saturday.
It has been a
fairly busy summer with SendOutCards. I
have done several outdoor events were I gather leads but my favorite part of
the business is still sitting with one person at a time and showing them how to
send a card. It is always fun to watch
their face as they realize the many features the service offers.
The concrete
business has thankfully been very busy. I
keep hoping he can find stronger and better workers so the work can get done
faster. We are trying right now to
figure out if we can squeeze in a day visit this week with Shawn and Aubrey and
boys. The plan would be to head down for
an afternoon Oakland
A’s game but Dad is worried about being gone right now for a day mid week. There is another game we had planned to see
at the beginning of September but we forgot the boys would be in school by
then! Morty and Aaron were there this past weekend for a University of Oregon
game.
We will be in Utah two more times this
fall. William is being blessed on
September 30 and Grandma Bitter’s birthday (and BYU vs. Oregon State)
is on October 13. On September 20 to the
23/24 we will be in Las Vegas
to see Wicked and for Aaron and Dad to ride in a century there that is really
120 miles.
I love being in
our ward on Sunday when DeLys Ostlund teaches Sunday School. She had some great perspectives on Helaman
and his warriors and the letters at the end of the book of Alma.
I walked out with a new resolve to be strong and stay true!
I completely
forgot to mention our vacation at Aunt Carla's Boot Camp in Clovis. We had a blast. I look at
it as total vacation: no schedules just relaxing and yet we had bike rides,
swimming laps and walking around the lake in each day. I was trying out
Carla's older bike for Lake
Berryessa. They
have a beautiful place just to relax and Aunt Denise joined us for a couple of
days also. On Sunday afternoon, we got a call from Katie asking what we were
doing. She also flew down and joined us
saying that she didn’t have anything to cook for dinner that night!!! Relaxing
by the pool; it was heavenly! We were there until July 4th afternoon so we got
to see fireworks each evening up until the 4th since they have a waterpark
right by their community. We were also
there the day Scott rode the Kaiser ride that is an excruciating long bike
ride. And then he did shorter ones with
us ladies and then longer ones with Dad and friends the rest of the week! Dad was in 7th heaven to have such
a great rider ride with him. Besides the
exercise, the social part of riding is fun to Dad.
I
blew it on trying to get a WorldMark
Oregon Coast
property for next summer. I can put us
on the wait list for several options.
The Black’s just came back from Running Y in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Would anyone be interested in traveling there
and making day trips to Crater Lake? It is beautiful down there but 5 hours from
here and not by a convenient airport.
See you all
soon. I love you, Mom
