Dear Children,
Happy 13th Birthday Adam!!!
We
have had some fun travels since the last time I wrote. We started by going to Las Vegas.
Months ago Nate suggested we come down to see Wicked at the new Smith
Theater. Nate has season tickets there
for their Broadway series so he was able to buy extra tickets before they went
on sale to the general public. We
scheduled it to coincide with Dad and Aaron’s Gran Fondo 122 mile bike ride in
September.
We
arrived in time to eat dinner and then head to the theater. We met Nate there as he had a company
commitment right beforehand and he rode to the theater on his motorized bike
(the kind that you pedal until you use the electric motor). We had great seats and loved the
performance. It was especially fun to be
there with two of our family members, Nate and Aaron, who had never seen
Wicked. I forgot to mention that Katie
also went with us since she also arranged for a ticket months ago. She came with us and then left early the next
morning.
Dad
and I thought that we might be helping Morty with the clean up of his store but
that is now all in the hands of the landlords.
So, we didn’t have any projects in Las
Vegas; just to relax.
Aaron learned at the last minute that his registration for the event
never went through so he did not ride but Uncle Jerry, Brian and Chad
did all ride.
Dad
left VERY early for the ride which began at 5:00 am as they rode right down the strip with a police
escort while it was still dark. They
left in waves of 250 riders with 2500 riders in total. There were so many riders that Dad had
nightmares the night afterwards about avoiding crashing into other bikers. He enjoyed riding into the Lake Mead-Hoover
Dam just at sunrise. This was Dad‘s longest ride ever so he did have some
problems with his legs cramping but he still finished strong at about 200 of
the 500 riders that finished the 122 miles.
While
he was cycling, I went to Joy Concannon Burleson’s home and had a nice visit
with her. I went to high school with
her. She was never a member of the Church but married an inactive member and
her three girls are all members of the church.
She told me that she is a better Mormon than her husband! Joy retired
from being a PE teacher this summer since she is a new grandma now.
At
Sunday dinner at the boy’s home we enjoyed hearing about Nate’s trip to Israel
and seeing photos he took. Zappos sent
him to meet with the person in charge of a company that they use in Tel
Aviv. Then, that businessman for Nate to
do some traveling and sight seeing around the county.
While
we were away, Katie was in New York
for a week. She sent a photo of herself
with the Smurfs thinking that Meeja would especially like it since she was
crazy about the Smurf movie the last time she visited.
Our
other trip was to Utah
for William’s baby blessing last weekend.
Dad has had lots of work so we arrived late Friday evening to be greeted
by Heidi and all the children at the airport.
They are all so fun. The girls
all headed to bed as soon as we got home, we worked on Heidi to allow us to
take something to help with the Sunday afternoon food and then headed to
Pleasant Grove where Adrianne met us with a Mediterranean feast that she and
Blake prepared. Blake and Adrianne have
been working had on their home. They
have new carpeting, all the rooms upstairs are freshly painted, a new chest
freezer and dishwasher. The guest
bedroom is very inviting all fixed up with new colors and curtains. I was able to grab sometime to hem up (or
prepare them to be hemmed once Adrianne gets a sewing machine) the curtains to
help with a little project. The guest
bed is cleverly on top of their water storage.
Both working for Shelf Reliance, they have done well getting their food
storage. Dad tried to help Blake attach a new screen door but the store didn’t
have the correct size to replace their existing frame. That happened on Aaron’s home also; they
should all be standard!
We, as always,
combined this trip with several other fun things while there. Dad has wanted to go to Snowbird’s Oktoberfest
for years. Snowbird is one of those
places that makes Dad’s voice quiver! We
squeezed in a trip to Snowbird in between Adrianne making rolls and myself
making brownies for Sunday’s gathering. We went with Adrianne and Blake and met
the Brady family there after Bill came home from camping. It was beautiful with the changing
colors. I would like to do that
again. We met up with the Young family and
Grandma Biter for a few minutes. All the
Young grandchildren were having a blast together.
The day of William’s
blessing was fantastic. One of my favorite parts was when I drove up to Salt Lake
to pick up Katie at the airport since she was flying in for the afternoon to be
at the Brady’s event. The back seat of
the car was filled with platters of brownies and rolls. As Katie walked up to the car and looked in
she said, “Uh, oh” and then seconds later Morty and Nate walked up to surprise
me! That was so fun! One of Katie’s coworkers had switched their
tickets for them so instead of returning from the University
of Oregon game to Las
Vegas, they flew into Salt
Lake and then Katie gave them buddy
passes to get home from Salt
Lake. Thank you Katie (and Nate and Morty also)!
There were lots
of family members at the Brady’s sacrament meeting for the blessing. After the blessing was testimony
meeting. I appreciated that Heidi bore
her testimony about true happiness. I
also appreciated the testimony of one of the men in the Brady’s ward who is a
temple worker. He described an event
that happened at the dedication of the Brigham City Temple
just recently. He talked about the
session where one of the men giving the opening or closing prayer had been in
prison for part of his life. He said it
was a great reminder of the power of repentance and the fact that everyone can
change and be forgiven.
After their
church meeting, we all gathered at one of their friend’s home who had offered
their home for the dinner. It was a
wonderful gathering. We got a chance to
catch up with Wendi’s plans. She hopes
to travel to China
with a group of students to teach English next year and then graduate after
that.
Dad and I came
home to another short week where it is hard to know what day it is (that
happens to me when I travel home on a Monday).
We both have lots of work to fill each day and the weather is still
cooperating with the concrete work so we must take advantage of these dry days. We traveled to Albany to pick up Adam for the evening for
his birthday. We took him with us to
Meeja’s soccer game. You KNOW her energy
level. She runs just as far vertically
and she does along the ground with her jumping and “hoppy”, happy run! She was goalie for the last part of the game
and saved a couple of goals from going in.
But, as little as she is, that big net looks like it was going to
entangle her at times. We enjoyed talking
with Adam over dinner at his choice of restaurants, Izzy’s. He is sure growing up. Turning thirteen; can you believe it???
Now we are off
to Clovis to
spend General Conference weekend with the Aunt Carla and Uncle Scott. Originally we were scheduled to be in the
Lake Berryessa Triathlon but now we are doing our own triathlon in Quail Lakes
with some of Carla’s friends. That will
be better for me anyway as I am still trying to heal my knee and hip
problems. I will just have to go much
slower than I had hoped. It should be
fun.
We hope that you
are all enjoying this warm fall weather and getting excited for upcoming
holiday plans. Have a great week! Love, Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment