The Old Folks at Home, July

We have our two-week vacation from the temple. We were thinking about going to visit family but we have decided that since the family will be visiting us, we will stay home. That works out with Braden’s visit just fine. We will make a fishing trip while he is here, something he said he would like to do. We have also invited Grandpa Pitts and will take the boat. The plans are to go to Ferron over the 24th if any of you would like to come.

Gramps is painting the house. It is called almond and, we think, matches some of the brick in the house. Braden helped him get ready to paint one afternoon, which took about four hours, but it was not his favorite thing to do. Eric helped Dad get the scaffolding from the high school and get it in place for the back of the house. The front of the house, unfortunately, is all ladder work. I keep worrying about it because the doctor told Dad “No climbing, no mountain trails and no un-even terrain.” It is going to look nice, though. The trim is a creamy white. The brown will be gone forever (or at least, for now).

Grammy and Gramps like summer because we like having the grandkids around. They are a lot of fun and each one is unique. Time is going by so quickly. Soon they will all be grown up and will have their own families. I suppose they will no longer have much time for the old folks. So we are going to enjoy them while we can. Thanks to all of you for sharing. The only thing we wish is that we had just a bit more money so we could go places, like Disneyland, together. Oh, well, making cookies in the kitchen isn’t all bad. It is the memories that count.

My friend from high school, Sharlett Hamilton Wells, works at the temple with me. We always had a lot in common during high school—art, poetry writing, newspaper, yearbook—and we still do. She likes her grandkids as much as I like mine. They have costume days, which sounds like something I should start. (By-the-way, she says I haven’t changed at all from the girl I was except for a few wrinkles and gray hairs.)

At the Jones family reunion they had a kitchen band. That sounds fun. In addition, Grandpa Jones bought fish (trout) from the fishery and put them in a wading pond for the little kids. They caught them with their bare hands. They had a fish fry that evening I think that sounds fun and maybe we should try it. What do you all think? Is there something wrong with keeping up with the Joneses?

The garden is growing, the plants are growing and so are the weeds. Come and visit and see for yourselves.