16 October 2016

Hello everybody!

   We're all thinking of our Aimee today, and wishing you a happy birthday!  But seriously...38!  You know what that does to your Dad and me?! Oh dear.

   Friday evening, Dad and I drove to Salmon for the retirement party of Sheriff Lynn Bowerman, the Sheriff of Lemhi County. He and Dad have been friends for quite a while. We had a nice time and they had a really good turnout of family and community people. Two other Sheriff's and their wives came too: Sheriff Wilde, from Bonneville County and Sheriff Anderson, from Jefferson County.

   Tonight I have Stake Auxiliary training meeting at 6pm. I hope I'm ready!  My talk is pretty ready...and the peanut butter cookies smell really good; so I should be okay. 

   I've known for quite a while what I wanted my talk to be about...but I couldn't seem to make it come together. Also for quite a while, Gran has been trying to get me to read a story that Lois Hanks loaned her. It is called Upset in Upset. It is by Amil Quayle; he is a brother to Sister Hanks (Burke's mother), to Ernie Quayle and to Inella Douglas (the school bus driver). Anyhow, the story is of back in 1966, when he was a 28 year old white water guide in the Grand Canyon. And strange as is may seem, the other day when I had set aside time to work on my talk, I saw that story sitting by my bed and felt impressed that I ought to read it first. I almost didn't, cause it was almost crunch time for this talk! Well, I followed that prompting and I'm so glad I did! In the story he took a family of four, a geologist, his wife and their boys 8 and 10 years old on his "33 foot pontoon tail dragger." He had already lost one of his two motors on a previous trip down the river, but had no choice but to take them. Things went about how you would imagine, and some even worse than that. But they all made it out alive and as they headed for Havasu and the worst was about over,  he said, "I knew as we floated along, that I had been blessed to have these particular people for this particular trip at this particular moment in time. And I also knew that this was a turning point in my life, but I did not know if it was for better or worse. We still had miles to go before I could relax and contemplate more on that notion." 

   Well, the story, and especially that quote brought my talk together even better than I had hoped. I really think that telling his story will catch their attention and get my message across better than I could have done without it. He was a very unique person, a white water guide, an artist and a poet. He passed away in St. Anthony, just a month or so ago. 

   In the daily hospital email, they include a corny joke each day. I have included a couple of them below. If you like them, I'll share more each week. 

Q: Why was the mushroom invited to the party? 
A: Because he's a fun-guy 

 Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.  

After that who cares? He's a mile away and you've got his shoes.

Well, I'd better go, Dad and I are going home teaching in a few minutes. Love to each of you. I hope you have a wonderful week. I look forward to hearing about the Fort Collins Temple dedication (from Ben's and Sam's families), and about that hunting trip (from Zach and Calvin). 

Love,

   Mom/Johanna/Nana

Hey everybody-

Fall is in full swing, and we are loving it. Cooler temps, changing colors, and pumpkin flavored stuff is always awesome! We set up a small burn area behind our shed where we have been burning dead tree branches and where we will most likely be burning a few leaves – there are already plenty of leaves on the ground that will be rounded up – might as well burn em! Before I left for Colorado last Wednesday, I blew out the sprinklers and Nat is working on winterizing the ponds and fish, as well as swapping out some of our summer stuff for winter stuff – always have some seasonal chores to do around here seems like.

Maddie is doing really well in kindergarten. Riding the bus has been a little rough, but she is doing it pretty regularly. Maddie’s teacher, Mrs. Anfinsen, says Maddie is a “sneak attack writer”, whatever that means?? What I get from it is that she is impressed with Maddie’s early writing and storytelling skills, which is great. Macy and Alida are putting up with each other better each day – we actually moved them into the same room about the time Maddie started school, so they would have extra time to bond. And, since the change, Macy and Maddie play better together than ever before – they will play happily for hours, which is cool.

My trip to Colorado last week was superb! The weather was about as good as it gets, and we were able to fit in a ton of fun outdoor and a few indoor activities. However, I will say there was one significant downside to the whole trip – puncture weeds!! Between myself, Bradley, and Ben, we racked up 7 flat tires due to the unusually high level of puncture weeds – it was NOT COOL! Oh well, we still managed to get in about 40 miles of biking and a few games of disc golf, so we did well. We also had the very cool opportunity to remotely attend the Ft. Collins Temple dedication, which was streamed live to most of the chapels in the Temple District. Elder Renlund conducted the meeting while President Uchtdorf presided. The whole event took about 90 minutes and started at 9am Sunday morning, which meant there weren’t any regular church services happening in the area that day. There was a local choir that performed several nice numbers, and then there were about 6 people who gave nice but relatively brief talks. The final speaker was President Uchtdorf, who gave a great talk, and then performed the actual dedicatory prayer, which was very neat and special. The other part of the dedication that was pretty cool was when they did the cornerstone sealing, which was when President Uchtdorf went really off script and became a total jokester! He wasn’t being inappropriately funny, but still, the level of humor he was displaying was something I had never witnessed from him – it was really something to see. Another thing I noticed is that he would quietly speak German to, Sister Uchtdorf, and then quickly switch back to English once he was speaking more directly into his microphone. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they primarily speak in German with one another, but I sort found it interesting. All in all, it was a super spiritual meeting that I am very happy I was able to attend. I’m not sure when I would have had an opportunity like that if I hadn’t just happened to be in town that weekend – it’s not like they dedicate temples all the time in MN.

That’s all I can think of to share right now – hope you’re all happy and healthy! Some pics are below.  BTW – the girl on the rock with Maddie and Macy is their new friend, Skyler, who lives down the hill and down the street about 5 houses. Skyler is in Maddie’s class at school.

Sam