27 May 2018

Dear everybody,

I hope you all got the chance to see the video I sent the other day, with Dad making pancakes at the Fisherman's Breakfast on Friday. They interviewed him briefly, but then while they interviewed someone else, you could see him in the background, super busy! The city invested in a new grill which he says was very nice. He had half of it and could make 18 pancakes at a time. It was nice weather, for a change too, so they had a great turn out. Since then we've had a lot of rain, but it's been nice.

I want to express a big thank you to Zach and Dixie, for giving Uncle Jim and his friend, Clark Myers, a place to stay, a good breakfast, and great hospitality. Jim and Clark had gone to Dante's high school graduation on Friday, in Mt. Home. Then they spent the night at Hessing's and drove home the next day. They are two special and lonely people. I am grateful for your patience and all you did for them.

Tomorrow, Gran and I will take flowers to Granddad's grave in Parker, and then to Shayne's and Hyrum's in Rexburg. I'm sure Reneta and Grandma will go to Grandpa's, Alex's, Kay's, Kason's, Jonathon's, etc. Gran has some beautiful iris's and we have some lilacs that are still quite pretty.

I hope you all have a lovely Memorial Day, and a good week too.

Much love from,

Mom/Nana and Dad/Grandpa

Hi All!

The school year is really wrapping up for us. Just four days this week, then three the next week with graduation that Friday. Then we're done!

Stephen got the job! He starts on June 11th. He is very excited and so is Spencer. He thinks it will be pretty awesome to have a brother that's a firefighter. Stephen is also getting closer to getting his mission papers turned in. Just has to get his physical done this week, then get his wisdom teeth taken out towards the end of June, and he should be good to go! He brought his cap and gown home on Friday.

I got to go on a nice bike ride on Friday with my friend, Katie. She is actually the Relief Society secretary, but we're getting to be pretty good friends as well. She had never biked the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene's before, so we went! It was beautiful!! I have to include a picture I took of a super neat sculpture thing someone had made out of dead wood. It was just right by the side of the trail. It wasn't there when I biked the same trail 3 weeks ago!

On Saturday the four oldest kids got to go to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was Naomi's first time to go, and Stephen's first time to do some of the baptizing. He got to baptize all three of his sisters plus some others.

We've had a nice Memorial Day weekend. Mostly working around the house. I hope you've all had a nice day off!

Love,

Aimee

Hi everyone,

Mom, thanks for always keeping us informed on what's going on!! Every week we look forward to reading your emails, and also every week I think about things I should be sharing with you all. I'll try to remember everything from the last month or so.

Lynsey and I had a wonderful time in San Diego. Jake and Chantrie Anderson our friends from Rigby met us there and we spent 4 days enjoying our vacation. Dolphins at SeaWorld, Pandas at the zoo, the USS Midway, and the San Diego Temple were some of the highlights. It was much needed time away from work. :)

That trip was at the end of April and here we are at the end of May and I'm thinking June can't be so few days away. I must be back to working too much... I did have an exciting project at work this past month that's worth telling about. Starting on May 10th my crew installed a verticle stacking operable wall in an office building in downtown Denver. The same kind of partition that I installed in Okinawa. This one had panels that were 25 feet long and weighed just under 1000 pounds each. The exciting part is that the room this wall needed to go into is on the 14th floor of a 48 story high rise and they don't have an elevator that's 25 feet wide. I'd known about this job for a little over a year ever since our sales team called me and asked if it could be done. I remember when they called I thought it wouldn't actually happen since there are many other options for movable walls. The architect was set on this type of wall and we were able to lift the panels to the 14th-floor balcony with a huge crane. I spent a lot of time doing all the prep work required for a project like this and the whole thing went nearly perfect!! I'll attach some pictures and a link to a rough video. When I find some time I'll put something together with all the pictures and video from the day.

Lynsey and I took Joseph and two of his good friends from school to do baptisms at the temple on Saturday the 19th. It was a wonderful experience and we're so proud of Joseph and his friends for wanting to do that on a Saturday. I think they are planning to go again as a group a few times this summer. Our ward youth are going to the temple on Thursday this week so we'll get to go again.

Our scout troop is working on the cycling merit badge again this summer so Joseph and I have been getting in lots of miles working up to the big 50-mile ride we'll do on July 21st. I'll be riding the Triple Bypass the week before so that 50 will feel nice I think.

Joseph's last day of 6th grade was Friday! He's had a great first year of middle school, his teachers were truly wonderful this year and he's learned a lot from them all. I'll include some pictures of his favorites. Yes, he's taller than one of them. ;)

He'll be practicing his volleyball skills this summer to play on the school team as a 7th grader. Mr. Emmons is also his volleyball coach.

Summer vacation is here and we've got lots of big plans. West coast road trip, scout camp, lots of bike riding... we'll be able to see most of you.

One last update. We have a new (to us) car. It's a dark blue 2013 Toyota Highlander. Lynsey and I have been sharing the van since February to save money and decide what we wanted to get next. This Highlander seems like it will be a very nice addition to our fleet.

I'll attach some pictures.

Hope you all are doing great!!

Love,

Ben, Lynsey, Joseph

The work pictures are not cooperating. I'll put them on a different email.