Accomplishments & events this summer

I was so happy I tackled the book Russka, a historical novel about Russian history. It was quite the project to get through it as it was 948 pages. For the record, I finished on Friday, July 16th.

Kristina Muldoon is a sister I visit teach. We worked with her a great deal this summer getting her into new housing, after she spent several days with us. She has many challenges, and I'm grateful that when she was in a time of need she reached out to me. She is pictured in my post about friends.

Julia was such a good "mommy" to the Vance children tending them for about 10 days. We had fun having all the cousins together for time in the hot tub and treats. I had a special day with Julia before she headed back to Idaho. We had so much fun walking on the Springwater Trail together, making bread, and going to our favorite, traditional place together, Truffle Hunter for lunch. She is my Julia Joy. I will always remember that day as I marveled I made it through the entire day without pain in my legs and feet. It was very unusual as I walked about twice the number of steps I usually do...over 7500 steps. I know the Lord blessed me to have this special day with her, and to enjoy it so much.

Ruby and Norah had made some cupcakes and they brought them to us as they wanted us to have some, too, when they came the end of May. We hadn't had a chance to try them yet, but they were hard as a rock by that time, but Julia loves this picture of us, so I included.

Isaac graduated from Kindergarten. We couldn't be there, but we were glad we could attend Sydney's final orchestra concert. We were so proud of her receiving the outstanding student in her class that night, too. More beautiful pictures in Hawaii. I'm glad Bryan gets a chance to relax with his family, and I'm especially happy when Meredith & Bryan can break away for a date together, usually hiking in their beautiful surroundings.

Our Malin Lewis Reunion

After our family reunion at Bear Lake we stayed at Alice-Anne & Gary's home over the weekend. Seth & Tiffany and their boys came by for dinner that Sunday evening and Ondalynn surprised us and came by to to wish Dad a Happy Father's Day. It was a fun mini-reunion.

Monday evening we flew to Phoenix where Meredith Ashton picked us up at the airport. It was so fun to see and Norm. We stayed that night at their nice missionary home by the Mesa Temple. In the morning we went to the Visitor's Center to see their displays and have Meredith do some of the tour for us. By noon Malin, Sally, and Jacob came by to pick us up so we could drive on to the Gila Valley for our Malin Lewis Reunion. It was an extremely hot day about 110-115 and the air conditioning in Malin's car didn't work all the well. So it was challenging. The desert is so dry and hot! We finally made it. 

We enjoyed a very fun reunion that Wick & Lynn had organized. Most of the food was catered. Many stayed at the Marriott and we'd visit family at breakfast. It was a little more expensive than some of the other reunions because of the hotel cost. Duraye stayed in our room with us. The other difficulty was the extremely hot days. We held the dinners and some of he activities in a church building. Crismon went with the youth to the Safford temple early one morning. The last day we spent up the Graham mountains where there are many fun family memories being in the mountains that Grandpa Lewis especially loved. We also took a quick look at the cabin that the Lewis' have had for many years. Now Wick owns it and it is used by his family, or others who want to stay. We appreciated all that Wick & Lynn did to organize and prepare for such a great reunion.

One of the funnest times was attending the David Archuleta concert in Safford. Because David had been in Slovenia early in the year and Elder Lorenzo Lewis escorted him around the mission while he was on a concert tour, he had heard about our family reunion in Safford and that we were going to go to his concert. He promised Elder Lewis that he would give a shout out to the Lewis Family. He forgot to do it, so when he saw Instagram messages that the Lewis Family had been in full force to his concert, he asked if we could come back to the Performance Center so he could get a picture with us. That was very fun!

Crismon shared some ancestor stories of how the Lewis' came to Arizona. We had a wonderful reunion with our extended Lewis family. This was the first reunion that none of our children were with us, so that was different.