Dear Kids,
          Dad and I had a great trip to Idaho last weekend. We drove to Boise Thursday afternoon, and we had a lot of fun visiting with Katie, and going over her life story. Saturday morning we drove across the state to Rexburg, and we met Chris Harper at the temple there. (It’s high on the hill, and the air is totally clean, unlike any temples in Salt Lake or Utah County.) We stayed Saturday night with the Harpers in Newdale, and then we drove to Pocatello Sunday morning and went to church with Vanessa’s family. They were having stake conference, and we got there an hour late, but the talks were good, and we enjoyed it. We also enjoyed our Sunday afternoon there, eating pasta and going on a hike up in the hills. Early in the evening we left for home and had a nice drive. The weather was beautiful the whole way, and we saw some great scenery!
          While we were at Katie’s, and I was reading her story, she complained that it was starting to get boring, and I said we could fix that! We did–some of it while I was there, and I took a copy and worked on it Saturday and Sunday, on the way home. Katie really wants to have it done by Christmas, so we arranged for her to come here to our house so we could put in the pictures and print it. And that’s what we’re doing now. We worked for two days straight, and then she took off to visit Laurie and Bonnie. I was in a time warp, lost in the Katie’s story, so I just wandered around the house. Katie’s coming back this morning, and we’re hoping to finish the book asap. I don’t know how long she can stand to stay here and work on it, but I’m eager to keep going. You don’t count the hours on a project like this–you just keep working. 
           Tonight we’ll be having our usual Zorro-watching candy-eating get-together, but next Sunday night the Messiah practices are starting, so we’ll be tied up with that for several weeks. The performances are Saturday and Sunday night, December 12th and 13th. We’ll have an after party one of those nights, probably at Tom’s house, like we usually do.
         Winter is coming up! So is Thanksgiving! I’ll be calling to find out your plans as soon as we’re done with Katie’s story.
          Lots of love, Mom