Right after I got back from Louisiana, we celebrated my husband's and daughter's birthdays (they share a birthday).  Then, the day after that, my husband took my youngest son and oldest daughter on a trip to southern Utah.  They visited Bryce Canyon and did a hike there.  Then they drove to Escalante and camped.  The next day they rented a Jeep (the dirt road is brutal on cars as we learned from sad experience) and drove out to Lake Powell via Hole in The Rock, hiking a few slot canyons on the way.  They came back to their campsite that night and then left for home the following morning. Bryce Canyon: Slot canyons: Lake Powell in the background: The Jeep they rented in the background: On the last day, they drove to Upper Calf Creek Falls which is near Boulder, Utah, and took a plunge into the very cold water.  Talmage couldn't figure out why Susanna was hesitating so she informed him, "Because my pre-frontal cortex i...

On August 18th, our missionary son came home from his mission in Armenia.  He was originally supposed to come home on September 15 but the mission president recognized how hard it is to come home and not be able to start school for several months because you have just barely missed the beginning of the semester.  So he sent home about 7 missionaries a few weeks early so they could all start school. Here they are at the airport in Armenia together: Everett's travel day was unbelievably long.  Armenia is 10 hours ahead.  He got up at 7am on Friday, August 17th (9pm on Thursday for us).  Then he didn't sleep at all on Friday night because they had to go to the airport at 2am on Saturday morning and he was busy talking to all his missionary buddies.  They flew to Vienna at 4am, then had a long layover.  Their next flight was to Chicago arriving 1pm or so.  They had a long 6-hour layover there which became even longer when the flight was dela...

The day after we got back from Nauvoo, I flew down to Louisiana to visit my grandchildren.  My daughter-in-law had a new baby at the beginning of July.  Meanwhile my son was required to work several 90-hour weeks shortly after the baby was born.  With two other small children to take care of, she definitely needed some help.  Her mom came for three weeks and then I came for one week. I enjoyed seeing my grandchildren and getting a little break from my own house and children. We did a few things like swimming at the neighborhood pool, visiting a children's museum, going to the library, and going to Costco (about 30 minutes away).  But mostly I stayed around the house, keeping the kids entertained and helping out with cooking and cleaning and unhappy babies. After the week, it was time to say goodbye.  Fortunately we weren't too sad because my son and his family were coming out to visit the very next week.  I'm thankful ...

Another great thing about going to Nauvoo are the people and places we see.  On Monday we went to Carthage and ran into our former stake president who just got released as the mission president of the Orem Utah Mission.  Their family was having a family reunion. On Wednesday, Camille's kidney donor drove out from Chicago to see us.  It was a long drive for them to come so I appreciate them making the effort.  Camille loved seeing her. We also got to see a few people from my son's church in Louisiana because their youth program came to Nauvoo at the same time we did.  They remembered us from our visits there. One blessing of our week in Nauvoo was that the family of my good friend since college was also there, the whole week, also participating in the Gold Cast.  We did the Community of Christ tour with them, had a pizza picnic, did ice cream, and hung out during the pageant.  It was great for my children to make new friends. ...