Dear Kids,
          I was sorry to miss the farewell party for Sharon that you guys had at Nora’s on Sunday night, but I was completely partied out. Besides our family reunion, and the wonderful trip to Idaho for the eclipse, and having Sharon’s family here, we’d also just had a party with our former Sunday night study group. Mark and Laura Ulrich are back home from Manchester, England, where he was the mission president for three years, so we got together at Spencers’ house for a dinner. All of our old group came, including Herb and Amy Rasemussen. They’re both past 90 now! Mark and Laura had lots to tell us, and of course they were great mission parents! We talked until nearly midnight. We hadn’t seen any of our old study group for more than three years, and we decided we need to have a party together at least once a year now. I volunteered our house for next summer. That means I absolutely have to get the yard finished. I’m glad to have a goal.
          We’ve had a cardboard prototype of a 75" TV on our basement wall for more than a year now, but now we finally have the real thing! John picked it up at Costco last week. We also needed his help installing it, because it weighs 91 pounds. Now it’s up and running. If anybody wants to come and watch Zorro tonight, you can see it on a really big screen. Or you can bring a blu ray disc of a movie you like, if you’ve got one. The TV is ultra HD, 4k, all that technology, so it’s capable of a really great picture. I’m sure we’ll have lots of good movie nights now.
          Last night Dad and I drove to West Valley for Adam Fulton’s wedding reception, and we stopped on the way at O’Reilley auto parts. When we came back out to our car, a man was sitting in it! He had locked himself in. (For just once, we’d left the car unlocked.) There was a good Samaritan on his phone trying to get the police, because the man was disoriented and had been acting crazy. Finally the good Samaritan coaxed the crazy guy out of our car, and led him away. It struck me, what I miss about West Valley–the crazies! Everybody in Kamas Valley is so normal! We went on to the wedding reception and had a great time there. So many old friends! I couldn’t count them all.
        The fun goes on! Lots of love, Mom