Dear Kids,
      I thought I was done snowboarding for the year, but we had a pretty good storm early this morning, so I went to Snowbird with Bekah Davis, and we had a great time on the bunny hill. Of course I wished it could have been Brighton, and after today Bekah is definitely ready for a bigger hill, but that will probably be next year. Still, it was a great day. Bekah also likes to golf, and she asked me if I wanted to start, but I remember how Tom said that golfers are often angry and unhappy. They’re mad about their last round or their last drive or their last putt. But you never see unhappy snowboarders. Everybody has fun. So I think I’ll hold off on golf.
      Dad and I are looking forward to the weekend, the Saturday party at Allen and Missy’s, and our trip to Pocatello for Macie’s baby blessing. Hopefully we’ll have Grandma and Grandpa Allen with us at both events. I don’t know how many of you have noticed that Grandpa seems really confused sometimes–it seems to come and go. My brother Mark sent out this e-mail, and he wanted us to pass it on to our kids. So here it is: “I'm going to spare you the technical details and give it to you straight, Les has a moderate to severe case of a condition known as "vascular dementia." The bad news is that there isn't any effective way to stop its progression. If it follows its normal course, it's very likely that within 1-2 years from now he'll have a hard time recognizing even close family. I hope I'm wrong, but I think you should know this isn't just wild speculation on my part. As of now, his cognitive abilities fluctuate quite a bit, which is unfortunately a bad sign, because it most likely means that his brain has poor perfusion (blood circulation) in addition to his corroded blood vessels, and so his mental abilities fluctuate with changes in his blood pressure. We've got to start thinking about the ramifications of this now.”
      So there you have it. Grandpa and Grandma have moved back into their house, so it’ll be a challenge for them to keep things going normally. As always, Bonnie is coordinating everything for them.
      I just saw the news in the paper that Ryan Thomas is stepping down as president of CEU, after seven years. They quoted Brad King as saying that everybody was waiting with great anticipation for the announcement of the new president. He said, “I don't even know what kind of president they'll be looking for. Thomas has definitely left the woodpile higher.” What do you guys think? Who’s probably the best qualified person to be the new president of CEU? I’m putting my money on Brad.
      Speaking of which, I think we’ve pretty well decided what kind of student we want to sponser at CEU, somebody with good high school grades, who might not have done spectacularly well on the ACT. I haven’t talked to all of you, but most of you seem to agree we don’t want a super scholar, since they get taken care of anyway. I need to e-mail Brad about our preferences, and then I’ll let you know when our money needs to be in. I’m excited that all our family has done so well, that we’re finally in a position to help someone else. I told Jana McGettigan about our plan, and she’s hoping Tyler will go to CEU. Maybe we’ll be sponsoring him one of these years! That would be cool.
      I love you all! See you soon! Love, Mom