Dear Kids,
         If you step out our door, your lungs fill with smoke.  Sometimes the wind blows it away, but then it comes back.  There are fires burning all around.  The worst one is down near Spanish Fork Canyon.  My sisters and I had our annual retreat here at our house Friday night, and Jane thought she’d be getting up out of the smoke. (She lives in Springville.)  Katie was coming from Laurie’s house in Mapleton, and she had the same hope.  But there was a fire burning north of Kamas when they got here, and ash was collecting on all our cars. 
         But the smoke didn’t stop our fun. We drove to Heber to eat at the Dairy Keen, and we went to John’s office to try on frames. Then we came back to Kamas to shop at the New West store, where I bought a new cowboy hat and Jane bought a Don Weller cowboy print.  We bought our dinner at the Food Town deli and brought it back to our house to eat, and then we watched “Coco.”  None of them had seen it!  I have to thank Donna for introducing me to that wonderful movie.  And Anna, for all the times we’ve watched it.
         Saturday morning we shopped at the outlet stores, where the sky was mercifully clear of smoke,  and we ate at the Red Rock café.  And talked and talked and talked. Yes, I heard a lot of gossip, but nothing specific I can pass on.  It seems like nobody’s expecting babies right now, and everybody’s pretty settled in what they’re doing.  Still, nobody tells good stories like my sisters.  I enjoyed every minute of it, and I was sad when they all had to go home.
         Three weeks till conference!  We’ll be having the Saturday night soup and bread party here at our house at 5 pm, and then all of us ladies (and girls over 8) will go off to the women’s session, while the guys babysit.  Of course we’ll have brownies and ice cream afterward.  Sunday, does anybody want to watch conference here, or at the cabin?  Do we want to have a Café Rio lunch at the cabin, between sessions?  I’m willing to help, if somebody else will plan it.  Let me know.  Now, about conference itself, there have been lots of rumors swirling around.  Everybody’s saying that the last conference was only the tip of the iceberg.   My favorite rumors are  (1) The 2- hour block, (2) Members don’t clean the chapel any more, and (3) Stake conferences will be cut down to an hour and a half.  Others I’ve heard are that the boys’ mission age will be raised to 19, all missions will be cut down to 18 months, and everybody getting married will have a civil marriage first, and then go to the temple.  It’s all interesting stuff.  Maybe none of it will be announced.  Maybe it’s all just rumors. 
         Anyway, there’s always excitement ahead.  I love you all!  Mom