Dear Kids,
          Tom and Kim are having a boy! We’ve had a long string of boys now–there hasn’t been a girl since Anna. The new baby will be grandchild #33 for us, but I haven’t stopped to figure out how many girls and how many boys that will make. If any of you can tell me, that will save me the trouble of figuring it out.
           Early Wednesday morning, Dad and I went flying with Richard and Trish Gerlach in their Grummen Tiger plane. They bought it five years ago, and they’ve said several times they ought to take us flying, and we’ve always said, "OK," and it finally happened! We flew over Heber Valley, Kamas Valley (where we had a good look at our house from the sky) and Park City. All that took about an hour–as long and we’d planned to be up. The morning was cold and clear, and the reds and yellows of the trees were gorgeous. We couldn’t help comparing the Gerlachs’ small plane with John’s glider, especially how noisy it was. We had to wear headphones to hear each other. It wasn’t as smooth, either. But it sure was fun.
           I’m loving the long, warm fall we’re having, because we can still work in the yard. We turned off our sprinkling system about 3 weeks ago, when we had a heavy freeze, so now, about once a week, we’re watering our trees and shrubs by hand. Dad watered yesterday, and he counted every tree and shrub. 106, he said. I was digging on the north side of the house, making a hill for our new deer to sit on. We got some railroad ties to put along the edge of our gravel parking strip, and I’m excavating for those, too. Dad painted the skirting on our deck with oil stain, and it looks really good. So many projects, but I’ll never get tired of working outside.
           My hand is almost healed, and I’ll be playing the organ in church today. I’m looking forward to that.
          Lots of love, Mom