Greetings

Hello, Elder, Gramps and I are back home after spending the last two weeks with Auntie Kirsten and Uncle Jared. We had a lot of fun helping at their home! Your new little baby cousin is quite a doll. In addition to being sweet and cuddly, she is a really good baby. She will stay awake for an hour and just look all around and will then eat and go to sleep once again. About the only time she cries is when she gets her diaper changed. She doesn't like that at all.

I did send a couple of photos of her to you. I hope that you could see them.

Little Jacob is Grammy's special friend. He likes to have Grammy tickle his back. He also likes Gramps, of course.

He asked us if we could move in with his family and always be there to play with him and read him stories.

While we were there, Gramps made garden boxes for Kirsten so that she can grow vegetables and herbs.

While we were in Colorado, Julie had an Erma Bombeck day. One of Mary's little friends called and asked to come and play. When her mother brought her over, a bee kept buzzing around the little girl's head. It finally landed on her hair. Bees HATE human hair. So the bee started to get angry. Julie flicked it with her finger and the bee landed in the little girl's ponytail. Julie reached out to grab it so that it could not sting the little girl and it stung Julie on her thumb. Jim happened to be home and it was a good thing because Julie began to had trouble breathing. They had to call a neighbor to come and watch the children so that she could go to the emergency ward. Julie was bottling green beans and had beens on her shirt and was wearing older clothes. She had to go to the emergency ward that way. They treated her and she went home and finished canning beans. The only problem was that the mother of the little girl had come to pick her up by then and found a baby sitter at their house. She mother and father are not active in the church. The father was excommunicated because of his beliefs. Julie could not think of the woman's first name and ended up calling her "Sister" Allen when she called to explain what had happened. You can imagine how that went over.

As we were driving to Colorado, we traveled much of the way in a rainstorm. As we neared the long tunnel, we saw a double rainbow with a smaller one to the side and coming back up toward the other two. It was so beautiful. I am thankful that we have rainbows. Then again Thursday, two weeks later, on the way back home, it rained all the while we were in Colorado. When we hit the border, Utah weather was clear and sunny. It stayed that way until we went to work at the temple on Friday. It rained and rained. We even traveled home in the rain. Do you think the rain followed us home?

On Thursday morning, we went to grandparent's day and Whitney and Emma's school. That was so fun. We don't often get to do things like that. We had a program, then visited classes where they showed off for us and then we ate lunch with them.

While we were gone, little Rachel had to have oral surgery. She needed it because her upper teeth were growing in in back of the front teeth and they were not even getting loose. She did not fair well. The anesthetic made her so very ill. They did not just pull the teeth, they had to go in and cut them out. Maddie also had surgery on her feet but she is doing very well.

David and family are moving back to St. George. We are so happy!!!!! His former boss contacted him in Texas and offered him a job. He said he wanted David back because he was such an excellent tech. He will match the salary and benefits he is getting from Time-Warner. They are moving back at the end of the month.

We went over to Julie and Jim's today and listened to the girls perform in the Primary program. They did an excellent job. Christene also sang a musical number with five other girls, of mixed ages. She was the youngest. She has an excellent voice. She likes to sing and Jim has taught her a Primary song that he sings with her. They are actually quite good.

We are very proud of the work you are doing as a missionary. It is also wonderful that you are so thoughtful of others. We pray for you and for your companion daily. We also pray that you will find the people who are searching for the truth. Always remember how very much we love you!!!! 

Grammy and Gramps