July with the Johns and more!

We loved having a mini-reunion with five of our children and their families the first week in July. Alice-Anne and her family came from West Jordan. Seth & Tiffany, fresh from moving home from Oxford, were staying with the Vances until they could move into their home. Julia and family from Kenmore, WA, and daughter Vivienne and children are here in our home. Ondalynn’s beautiful, spacious home was our gathering spot. Some of our activities included: games and walking in the nearby park, blueberry picking, a hike and picnic at Lewis River County Park, watching Hamilton on Disney-Plus, a day at Rockaway Beach, joining in on a Zoom call for the blessing of Emily & Bronson’s baby Elise, a special home-church meeting with nearly everyone bearing testimonies, a family service project working a miracle on our yard, board games, more park fun, and lots of visiting. A glorious week indeed!

We appreciated the kindness of our friends who allowed Vivi and her children to stay in their beach home, in Garibaldi, for 3 days, and then we followed, staying 3 days in their home for the rest of the week. It was so relaxing, and the weather was so nice.

Crismon has enjoyed a Zoom scripture study with the teenage grandchildren on Sunday afternoons, and I loved doing “Special Time with Grandma” discussing how to prepare for baptism with two grandsons who turn 8 soon.

Summer events in June

The highlights of the month were seeing family. We had a delightful visit from Julia & Austin and their cute little Dallin who just turned 2 years old. He brightens our home so much. Vivi’s children adore him, and he loves playing with them. While they were here, they performed the special musical number for their ward Zoom Devotional. It’s nice that you can do Zoom from anywhere.

Earlier in the month, the Area Seventy gave the direction that although some wards are opening for church meetings (In other places like Utah and Texas), we were not going to open for some time. They also didn’t want us to hold “Zoom Sacrament Mtgs.” Two weeks later, that restriction was completely changed. Now they want us to meet with our wards weekly over Zoom for a Sacrament meeting. Other meetings like RS, Elders Quorum, YM/YW, SS, will be held once a month and Primary on the 5th Sunday.

On June 22, Seth, Tiffany and boys arrived from Dallas. It was a joyous reunion after having them gone for one year. They are staying with the Vance’s. If it wasn’t crazy enough over there, Tiffany talked Ondalynn into helping her paint her kitchen cupboards. It’s been a huge project, but it looks great! Sunday afternoon they all came to our home for visiting, dinner, and games. We enjoyed an evening of seeing some of their photos of their Europe adventures, but we’ll need another night to see the rest.

Saturday, June 27th, we enjoyed a lovely Brunch with the nine stake presidents and their wives, the mission president and his wife who were leaving after 3 years of service and his counselors. The Area Seventy and his wife have us to their home each year to express their appreciation. They have a beautiful, amazing yard where we gathered for visiting and eating. We feel blessed to associate with such good people. It was our first gathering with friends. We sat next to the temple president and it was fascinating to hear updates from him.

We love our good friends, BJ & Kenneth Lansford's. They live just down our hill a little ways. We are their ministering sister and brother, but mostly they are our friends. We have stayed in touch, either in their home or over FaceTime nearly weekly during the year of this pandemic. It has been a blessing to them, and to us. We love them so much, and they keep us laughing with their great stories.