Midwest Mid-Year Mini-Reunion

Surprises come in many ways and this certainly was an unexpected, but joyous weekend that wasn't planned. The week before we received a call from Seth that he had been called as the 1st counselor in a newly formed Bishopric. He wanted his Dad to come out and ordain him a High Priest. We couldn't work it out to leave immediately, but gratefully the stake presidency said they would wait a week to set him apart to give Dad time to get there the following Sunday. Seth was good to wave his magic wand (airline points) and bring us out. My flight was free thanks to a companion pass with Southwest.

We soon contacted Dallin & Janelle to see if by chance they could drive over and join us. This meant Dorothy missing her last 3 days of school. We are so thankful they were willing to drop everything and make the trip to be together for this special weekend.

Crismon was introduced to cute Gwendalyn for the first time. She is so precious! We had a wonderful time being with our precious grandchildren, Dallin & Janelle's 4 girls, and Seth & Tiffany's 4 boys.

We enjoyed hearing the piano practicing by Jackson and Addison, and Preston on the violin. Dallin was helping teach Dorothy on the piano. She is very determined and can stick with something at length. Norah wanted to share her picture of her when she was "a mermaid" and the sea animals. Preston has a new pet, a Bearded Dragon. It was quite attraction. 

Sunday morning we went to the church for Seth's ordination. I will always remember the sweet spirit that filled the room as Crismon ordained him and then he was set apart by a counselor in the Stake Presidency. Later we had time to go on a walk to the lake just down the road from Seth's house.

 

 

 

Monday we traveled to Stillwater, a quaint town about 30 minutes from Seth & Tiffany's home. The children had great fun playing at a fun park, then to their famous main street where we enjoyed samples from a Chocolate factory. Of course, we had to all get a bag of candy. We played in the nearby river, some in kayaks, and the younger ones digging in the sandy beach. We topped off the evening with yummy ice cream cones at a steal of a price. Then home for dinner!

 

Seth was good to help us with some of finances the next day. Dad couldn't resist joining in on the water gun fight that afternoon, along with a family basketball game. One last picture with the grandkids before we headed for the airport. The others went on to Lake Elmo that evening. Dallin & Janelle's family left the next day. Thanks everyone for a super fun few days with our Midwest families. We don't see you often enough!

4th of July

How blessed we are to have this free, great land of America. I love that everyone celebrates it together outside. Our Fourth of July celebration started with our Stake flag raising ceremony and patriotic message by Brigham Baird who just returned from a year of service, leaving his wife and six young children. His wife offers tremendous support. Then a delicious pancake breakfast...not your typical mass produced one, but instead the pancake recipe was from Heidi's Restaurant. The syrup was half butter and half syrup. Dad said they had paramedics on hand! We were especially delighted that Ondalynn and the children could join us. We then all went to their home to help with the staining of their new fence. We've had an unbelievable hot June with it in the 90's-100 for 3 weeks solid. No rain in sight. Everything has gotten especially dry. We saw a fire along the Springwater Trail on our way to the Vance's that morning. After the staining of the fence in blistering heat, we had a BBQ. Bryson challenged Grandpa in a game of chess. Then Dad and I headed home before fireworks to prepare for Sunday as Dad always has so many agendas and details to take care of. We did see some fireworks from our deck that night before heading to bed. We love America!

I thought I'd include some other 4th of July pictures from the family. Meredith posted on July 1st: "And to think God created all of this! Even this cute kid." This was one last beach trip with Bryan before the intern year of residency begins!

Tiffany wrote: "Happy 4th! How I love celebrating America's birthday with these four firecrackers."

Fantastic Fourth for the John's kids.

As Ondalynn left the pancake breakfast, her children marched out all in order like this. I said you've got to get a picture. So fun to see all our grandchildren all having such a fun Fourth of July!

Events in June

The end of the school year always brings school programs. We enjoyed attending Daisy's performance with singing from each of the grades. She's a sweetheart, but gets shy when performing.

Corinne Ritz and Emily Jensen put on such a fun bridal shower for Emily. They went all out and it was very nice. Many wonderful friends came and "showered" her with lovely gifts. Emily was especially excited about the Bosch that her sisters and sisters-in-law and Smith aunts and myself gave her. She was over the top about it.

June 13th Crismon and Danielle arrived back to America from living in Taiwan for a year. They were extremely tired and slept for hours trying to recover and get back on our time zone. The long 24-hour trip was rough. They were glad to be here and we enjoyed having them. We had all the family gather on Sunday for a family dinner. During the evening, Bryson played his piano recital piece and others performed. Crismon worked odd jobs to earn money. They were with us until the end of June. We were gong to Utah for about 5 days, so they didn't have to be in our home alone, they stayed with the Vance's for some of the time.

We enjoyed meeting Corwin and Lynette at the temple to do a session and then visiting afterwards at the cafeteria. It was funny, one time Crismon and Corwin showed up with the same time. They are very much alike in many ways. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed Visiting Teaching to Verla Jeffries over the years. She is just two months younger than Grandma Lewis born Nov. 22, 1920. I have been inspired by her faithful good life and her positive attitude despite her trials. She has been an avid reader and has kept us with the current news. Every night when she prays, she says each member of her family out loud by name. There are about 30 or so of them, so I was impressed by that she does that each day and that also helps her remember and think of each one. I want to be better at doing that.

We left on June 23rd to drive to Pocatello, Idaho to pick up Julia. Then headed to Utah for Brad Allen's retirement dinner and honor given to him by the Boy Scouts in that Council. He has been an incredible leader in the Boy Scouts as well as being the LDS Relations Director for a number of years. There were dignitaries there, along with Sister Rosemary Wixom, the General Primary President, and YM General Leaders. We're glad Alice-Anne could go with us as well as Emily and Bronson came up from Provo. Cousins Alejandra and Jasmine Gimenez and Harrison McCullough were at our table.

We loved staying with the Johns family, as always. We didn't have a lot of time to play with the children, but we enjoyed some time with them. We headed back to Idaho to take Julia home on Thursday, the 25th. We stopped at Grandma Julia's for a delicious lunch and visiting. Geoff and Peggy were out of town, but Roger & Andrea joined us. We then hurried on to Nampa Idaho to do a Reliv presentation for Cecily Croston and Shauna & Mike Arnell that evening. It went really well and they had a good turn out of guests. We spent the night with Cecily and then after a training in the morning with the two of them we headed home. 

We had one last dinner with Crismon & Danielle, the Vance's and the Caudle's at the Vance's home on Sunday evening. We also celebrated Sydney's 12th birthday. She is maturing in to such a beautiful young lady. But then again, she has always been beautiful. She never went through an awkward looking stage. She's always been a special delight to us, as each one of the grandchildren are, too.

It was a busy, productive month. Along with everything else this month, we somehow squeezed in a trip to Minnesota for Seth to be ordained a High Priest and set apart as a counselor in the Bishopric. We left on Saturday the 6th and returned on the 9th. I'm amazed that my health was such that I could do it all. I know I suffered after the fact, but He blesses me beyond measure.