Dinner with the Browns

In June our friends the Browns from our old neighborhood in Utah rented a beach house and we got the chance to have them over for a bbq. It was great seeing all their kids, spouses, and their children. They were such great neighbors and I consider it one of the best blessings in my life to have had the freindship of Gaye. It was so nice at Education Week I meet with her and my old next door neighbor Pat for dinner one night. I have such fun memories of our old neighborhood- water fights with hoses brought into the house, kids playing night games till late, parties, walks around the block. Gaye has always been an example to me of what we should be striving to be. She has dealt with the loss of a sweet daughter, teenagers, sickness, and the such that comes our way with a grace that astounds me. Gaye never failed to show my girls boundless fun and lots of love. The last several years she has been involved with an organization called "Reach the Children" which helps out in Africa- she now has a grant to develop a program dealing with AIDS there- wow! When I think of Elder Bednar's talk about "tender mercies" it makes me think of her in my life!

Ode to my GIRLS!

For the longest time it has been a dream of mine to go to Education Week with all of my daughters- I used to go when they were younger and see moms with their grown-up children and think how much fun it would be to share that as a family. So by some miracle it worked out this time!! Since three of the girls are now in Utah it of course made it much easier. I flew up Monday night, Whit flew in Wednesday, and we spent Thursday and Friday enjoying classes all together and did a little bit of shopping on Saturday before we flew home. What a blessing it was to have this time- a big thanks to Lynn who sacrificed not only being alone in the office but dealing with a sick Trixie and having to give her medicine! He never once said it would be hard to deal with everything, but just how happy he was that we could go- he is absolutely the best! We learned lots of great things in lots of great classes, but the most important thing we learned more about was each other and how fun it is to be together. I of course got lots of Emma and Sopie kisses too!! So thanks girls for being willing to join me this last week- it was awesome!