Dearest Family, July 7, 2013
We’re thinking of our wonderful daughter-in-law, Tiffany, today on her birthday. We love you. We look forward to your family’s arrival in a week!
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| Tiffany with Jackson on his 11th birthday. |
Crismon leaves on Tues. morning to fly to Las Vegas, rent a car and head to Kingman to spend a couple of days with Grandma before attending a Freedom Festival conference in Las Vegas, directed by his friend, Mark Skousen. He will return Sat. evening.
Crismon sent out an email to all our stake members this weekend asking them to join together in a fast for the missionary work in our stake to help with the “hastening” of this work. We know that miracles can happen as we join together in this great work of salvation.
Last Monday evening Crismon and I enjoyed a walk on the Springwater trail for our FHE activity. We are loving these beautiful Oregon summer days. Fortunately, the weather has cooled from the upper-nineties to the mid-eighties.
Tues. I spent a good portion of the day tending the Vance children while Ondalynn & Gary were signing papers for their new home, as well as helping them finish up the packing. Despite a very busy month of preparing to move and then a week vacation in Idaho last week, Ondalynn still looked great.
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| Ondalynn with Paxton |
Wed. late afternoon, Crismon picked up a brand new, bright red, big truck from Gresham Ford for me and the grandchildren to ride in for the Estacada Fourth of July Parade. He is good friends with the owner, Bess Wills, that we hosted at the Portland Visitor’s Center Dedication. They let us borrow the truck for the parade, and we had a big banner on the back advertising Gresham Ford Dealers. After I returned from the temple we worked on the decorations.
We’re grateful for this choice land of America and the freedoms we enjoy. It’s always a good feeling to gather at our Stake Center for a flag raising ceremony, participate in the singing of patriotic songs and hearing a good message as we did this year and as we have done in the past. Then a breakfast was served at the pavillion. Fortunately, the weather was cooler than anticipated. We had to slip away from that event to arrive in Estacada in time to get the truck decorated before the grandchildren arrived.
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| Julia & Sydney holding the American Mothers Inc. Banner and me with Paxton. |
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| Just before the parade begins. |
During the parade, Crismon drove, while I sat in the back with Bryson & Isaac, and Clark & Daisy. Ondalynn & Gary walked while pushing Paxton in the stroller, and Vivi & Brett walked behind as well pushing Kaeley. I told the children that when they saw the people lined up along the street to yell “Happy Fourth of July!” They were very obedient and kept yelling it all along the parade route. It was so cute! Many people responded back to them. Little Julia said that when she was 4-years old she saw a Fourth of July parade and ever since then she wanted to be in one. It was fun that her “dream” came true. She and Sydney held the American Mother’s sign in front of the truck and marched the entire one-hour long parade route. We had a fun event together. I really appreciated their great support to me, in my role as Oregon Mother of the Year.
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| Ondalynn & Gary on the left, Brett & Vivi with Kaeley, soon they were all running up the hill to keep up with the truck. |
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| Cute Daisy! |
Everyone came to our home afterwards for a quick hot dog and hamburger lunch, and then we all headed to the Vance’s to help them move. We loaded up the three vans full of small items and hauled them just 5 minutes away to their new home. They are blessed to get into a lovely home, with a great floor plan, before the cost of houses gets too high. Fortunately, they are in their same ward and same schools. They are just two houses down from a lovely park. It is wonderful location and set up for them. The Vance’s treated us all the pizza for dinner and after a few more loads, we headed home to watch a few fireworks from our bedroom window.
We went back to the Vance’s Friday morning to help with the cleaning. That evening we attended the temple with 33 other members of our stake that were going on the Handcart Trek with our youth. What a choice experience to be in the temple session with our friends.
We had quite a surprise on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. when the Zone Leaders arrived at our home. Talk about embarrassing! We had totally forgotten that Crismon had invited them to breakfast to talk about the missionary work in our stake. Then the high councilman arrived, and fortunately the District Leaders came late. That gave us time to whip together a fast breakfast of hot cereal, pancakes, scrambled eggs with bacon, and fresh fruit. Whew! Their two hour discussion was beneficial in helping Crismon with ideas of what he can do to improve the work in our stake.
We haven’t been using our hot tub that’s in our home working for several years, but we spent some time on Saturday getting it up and going again. We worked together on other projects around the home and yard.
We send our love,
Mom & Dad
Vivienne & Crismon
