Dear Kids,
      Conference weekend was really a blast. Thanks to all of you who came! It just gets more fun every time, and I think we even listened to some of the talks! Allen and his kids arrived at the cabin just as the last of us were leaving Sunday afternoon, but he had a good time, too. Even without clothes for his kids, because we accidentally hauled out his bags right after he hauled them in. I guess we thought they belonged to Donna. In fact, when we let off Donna at the McDonalds at 45th South, to wait for her ride to Logan, I was surprised that she only took two things out of the car. I was sure she had more than that! But of course, it was Allen’s stuff. He said it was great–the kids just slept in their clothes, and he had less to do. Good thing we didn’t accidentally haul out his cooler full of food, which looks just like ours.
      The next fun event coming up is the Easter Picnic on Saturday afternoon, April 15th. (Don’t worry about the date. Taxes don’t have to be postmarked until Monday, the 17th.) The other reason that April 15th is important, is that it’s Julie’s birthday. In fact, we’re going to celebrate the birthdays of the three little April girls that day (Ellie and Addie, besides Julie.) After conference at the cabin, I was picking up stuff, and I found several pages of Julie’s notes from conference. One page had her “Wising List.” She wrote: conputer, sellphone, vidocamera, didgitel camera, soweing mashine, TV in my room, grand pino, biger bedroom, and paint my room hot pink. Underneath all that, she had written “Birthday List,” but there wasn’t anything listed under that. I guess none of her wishes were possible as birthday presents. Anyway, do we see a little of John in her? I don’t think John’s “Wising List” ever got any shorter.
      Now, back to the Easter picnic–it will start at 4pm on Saturday, the 15th, at a park by Al & Missy’s house, so I guess we can just meet there, and they’ll show us where to go. You can call Missy if you want a food assignment. Nora is sure they will be completely moved into their new home by then. James says that they’re going to totally finish on Friday, the 14th, and have it all done in one day! And if James has that for a goal, you can be sure it will be accomplished! So we hope to see a lot of you that weekend. If you can come.
      Today I drove to Orem, and then I drove Grandma and Grandpa to Heber, because Grandpa had one more appointment with John, to make sure of his glasses prescription. John says that Grandpa is to blame for all of us having irregular corneas, with our eyes changing from day to day. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa were good sports, and the trip went fine. That big storm blew in just as we were in John’s office, and it drenched us when we went to eat at the Dairy Keen, (you gotta love the trainburger) and we drove back down Provo Canyon in a wild blast of rain and snow and wind. Naturally the storm ended about the time we got home.
      I was quizzing Allen about his police work in Centerville, and I was surprised to find out how much is coming together for him. He applied to do security at the Centerville DI, and they chose him, instead of an older guy with more seniority. It seems Allen is more pro-active than the other guy, meaning that he goes looking for trouble rather than waiting for it to come to him. No surprise, there. Al has also been chosen to do bike patrol, now that the weather is getting better. He’ll be out on a bike about 2 hours a day. I think he even gets to wear shorts! And besides all that, Allen has applied to be trained as an accident “Reconstructionist,” the officer who goes to the scene of fatal accidents and analyzes the skid marks, wreckage, & everything else, enters it into the computer, and comes out with figures like how fast they were going, whether they were buckled up–that sort of thing. Maybe he’ll even get to argue with lawyers in court, when the client says he was no way going that fast, so it wasn’t his fault. This should all be very interesting.
      Thanks, Tom, for putting up new pictures of conference weekend on Ackerson.org. It was fun to look at them and remember how much fun we had.
      Lots of love, Mom