Dear Kids,

Holy cow, conference is coming up next weekend!  It’s going to be a lot like April conference, broadcast from a small meeting room, and not in the Conference Center, with thousands of people.  The Saturday night meeting is going to be for everybody,  like it was in April, too.  I don’t want to give up our tradition of the Soup dinner, so I’m thinking we can still have that, next Saturday night, say at 5:00 pm, here at our house.  Then we can tune in conference on the big TV in our basement, and also on our main-floor family room TV.  If anybody wants to stay overnight at the cabin, or here at our house, contact me for reservations.  Then you can watch Sunday conference with us, too.  If you want to watch it at the cabin, you’ll need a hotspot.  Or something like Trent’s crazy antenna, made with a 2x4 and coat hangers, remember?  We have so many great conference traditions now!

Thursday night we had a get-together with my brothers and sisters at Richard’s cabin in American Fork canyon.  Dad and I took the short route, (but just as long in time,) through Midway, up to Cascade Springs, then to the Alpine Loop, and down to Tibble Fork.  I figured there wouldn’t be any traffic, but it seems Alpine Loop is always crowded, and sort of scary on that skinny little road.  We had a lot of fun with my family, though.  Andy and Renae talked about the troubles they’re having getting their new house built in Orem.  There’s a wood shortage, so part of their house is framed, and the other part is on hold.  I talked to Charley about his brain troubles.  He’s always glad to let people feel the holes in his head, and he’s on anti-seizure medication.  It’s a miracle he’s alive.  It’s a miracle none of my other brothers and sisters have died yet, either, and I’m very grateful.  I hope I won’t be the first one, but I don’t want to lose any of them first, either.  Katie wasn’t there, or Suzy, or Ben and Monica, or Mark and Kate.  Mark texted that he’d been exposed to Covid from several directions, through his YSA ward, so he wasn’t coming.  I would have been happy to see him anyway. 

Starting two weeks from today, our ward will be meeting every week, live! Relief Society, Elders’ Quorum, Primary, etc. will be later in the day through zoom, but we’ll actually have the sacrament together with our ward members every week.  Dad and I have enjoyed doing a little meeting with Donna and Bevan’s family almost every Sunday, and I’m going to miss that, but the fact that church is getting back to normal shows that this virus is on its way OUT! 

Life is good.  I love you all.  Mom

 Dear Kids,

Bentley left for San Antonio on Wednesday, and he’s in a threesome there.  They actually do street contacting, which is lots better than sitting in the apartment looking at a screen.  (But of course they have to wear masks.)  I’m glad he can start missionary work in English, and save Cibuano for later.  There’s no word on when he might be able to go to the Philippines, but his application for a passport has been accepted.  It seems the state department had stopped issuing them, but evidently they’re doing it again.  Bentley’s mission president sent some pictures of him, and Tom said he looks happy.  Go, Bentley!

Sharon has finished three weeks of nursing school, and she had her first lab.  She wore her new scrubs and her white Danskos, and she learned to take blood pressure.  Now she practices on her family.  She e-mailed me a short paper she had to write, so I could go over it and make corrections before she turned it in.  It was actually pretty interesting, saying how she could communicate with her patients without putting up “blockers.”  Naturally Sharon can already communicate with anybody without “putting up blockers” so we know she’ll be a great nurse. 

Yesterday Dad and I went to Donna’s house to help her with a couple of projects.  She’s rebuilding her front porch, so we figured out how much cement to get and how to do it.  Also, she wanted an electrical outlet near her front door, inside, so she can plug in her boot dryer there.  Dad helped her figure where the wiring would go, and my job was putting in the electrical box.  I started by cutting a big hole in the wall, so there would be room to drill down through the 2x4 to string the wire down. Drew watch with amazement as I cut out the sheetrock.  I could just see his little brain wondering why that was OK, and if he could do the same thing.  When we left I told Donna to keep her power tools away from him.  I was just like Drew when I was little, and I would have loved to cut holes in walls back then.

Dad and I have church this morning, which is always exciting.  Starting October 11, we’ll meet every week! I wonder if we’ll be singing by then, or still just listening to the music.  At least things are moving ahead, and life is getting back to normal.

Lots of love, Mom

 Dear Kids,

Bentley will be leaving for San Antonio this week, so tonight we’ll have “farewell s’mores” at our house.  You can show up as early in the afternoon as you want to.  I’m not sure when we’ll be actually be toasting our marshmallows, but it will probably be about the time it’s getting dark. Like all our family get-togethers, it will be wild and fun.

Nora’s family had a sleepover at our house Tuesday night because the 100 mile-per-hour winds in Centerville had knocked out their power. There were trees in the park across the street that were blown down, and one lady was texting around to find out what happened to their trampoline.  They found it up on the mountain.  Some of the houses were damaged, but Nora’s house survived OK.  But with no power, they were having a boring time of it, and it was going to be a cold night.  I encouraged them to come, but when they were packed up and finally on their way, they heard their power was back on. (Of course, if they hadn’t come, it would have been out for two or three days.)  Anyway, it was fun having them here.  And Scout enjoyed stretching out alongside Nora while she slept. 

Yesterday Dad and I went to the Heber airport so Dad could help John put his glider together to fly it.  I went along because I’ve never seen the process.  I wondered how they went about putting the wings on so they wouldn’t fall off.  It turns out there are some long bolts that go deep into the plane.  There’s also tape–it almost looks like Scotch tape, which they use to seal the seams, and hold the wing and tail pieces on if everything else fails.  John reminded me that once, on one of our long drives, I had told you kids a story about him building a plane.  John said he was about seven, so the rest of you can be forgiven for not remembering, and some of you weren’t even born yet.  Anyway, in the story, John finds different airplane parts and fastens them all together, making a plane he can fly.  And here he was, yesterday afternoon, putting together a plane in real life.  It’s funny how prophetic my story was!  When his glider was put together we watched him take off (with the tow plane pulling him,) and a couple of hours later we watched him land.  It was all lots of fun.

I’m still spreading the lava rock out on our corner.  It’s easy and fun, and people out walking stop and tell me what a good job I’m doing. Naturally I’m not in any hurry to finish.  Scout supervises me, usually coming from his hunting territory across the street.  He rubs against my legs while I’m shoveling, and he, too, tells me I’m doing a good job. 

I hope you’re all doin’ great and lovin’ it!  Mom

Dear Kids,

        Dad and I had the wonderful privilege of going to the Vernal temple with Bentley yesterday afternoon.  He was lucky to get an appointment anywhere, since they only take one family at a time into the temple (and wipe everything down in between), and this particular session was just Dad and myself, Carl, Trieste, and Bethany, Tom and Kim, and Bentley. They’ve modified the procedures to accommodate the virus, too.  But it was still wonderful.  Dad and I haven’t been in any temple since March, and I’ve missed that peaceful feeling.  I’m so glad Bentley was able to be endowed before he leaves for San Antonio (and hopefully the Philippines, sometime in the future.) 

        There’s a birthday party for Stuart here at our house this afternoon at 5:00.  Nora is putting it on.  She’ll be serving ice cream and cupcakes, and there will be the usual fun.  We’ll put some chairs out on the front lawn for anybody who wants to keep a social distance from everybody else.  I’m sure it will be a great time for any an all of you who come.

        Paul and Stefanie have been at the cabin since Friday afternoon.  Dad and I went over to have dinner with them (and of course we wore our masks) and it was really nice to get together.  Chloe is getting so cute!  I knew every single grandbaby has been cute, and it always seems like each new one is even cuter.  Josh was busy running around, exploring every single detail of the cabin.  Saturday morning Dad and I went back there to work on our outside projects, and Josh ran back and forth in between us.  Dad is putting a coat of paint over the most decroded places on the bunkhouse, to try to preserve it until we can get the siding up.  I’m still working on the rock wall around the moose, and thankfully I’m almost done.  Josh watched me fill my giant decorating bag with mortar, and he said it looked like I was decorating a cake.  I said it was too bad he couldn’t eat it. 

        Dad and I are going to church this morning, and I get to play the organ.  We’re getting a new bishopric, so there will be two sessions, 9 and 10:30, first for last names A-K, and then for L-Z. I think that’s pretty ingenious.  Our present bishopric has been in for more than six years, so they’ll probably be glad for the change.  Naturally the rest of us are curious about who’s been called to replace them.  We have some wonderful people in our ward, so I can’t even guess.

        I hope you’re all doing great.  I love you all!  Mom