Sunday July 5, 2015
Dear Cassidy:

Happy day after the 4th of July. Was it weird to be in a foreign country on the 4th of July? Or did you even notice that it was a holiday at home?

So you asked me to look up a few things about the concentration camp that's near you. I did and I'm hopeful you really get an opportunity to visit there. Although, you should be prepared that it is very sad. Like hard to understand exactly how people survived sad. Or how people could stand by and feel ok about subjecting other humans to such horrible things. I hope you get to go because I'm certain that will feel like nothing you've seen before. You'll have to let us know. The only person it really said was there was someone that was also hiding with Anne Frank. This week I finished a book called, "The Boy on the Wooden Box." It's about the youngest person (boy) on Schindler's list. Do you know about Schindler's list? Anyway, it's a great book and Oskar Schindler was a great man who risked his life several times to save the lives of as many Jews as he could. I was reminded when reading this book of what an amazing part of the world you are in. You should definitely be writing down any stories that people tell you. The people there went through so much.

I again loved your last email. I was excited to hear that Michael came to church AND that you have so many people to teach! That's just awesome! Can't wait to hear about this week!

So as for here...this has seemed like a very long week. It's been fun, but seemed long. On Monday we took Marlee and Maycee to 7 Peaks. It just so happened that 7 Peaks ran a special that you could bring a friend for free if you were a pass holder so we were able to get them in for free. Chelsie's family came with us and it was hot and became quite crowded by around lunchtime. We got there early and the kids were able to lots before it got too crowded. We brought Keaton home with us and I met Chelsie later to bring Bryton back to our house. The boys slept over that night. For FHE dad ran the show and it was great as usual. He paired the kids all up and had them act out a scripture story. We played 7 up and ate Fun Pops (which are like Otter Pops, but about 100 times better). Later that night most of the kids were still wanting to play and run around (even though everyone was tired) and Hadlie got very upset because she didn't want to play anymore but people were bugging her to. I ended up having to take her out of the house to the store with me til she could calm down. She went to bed after that and was fine the next day:/

Tuesday I took all 7 kids in our house to Taco Bell and then to paint pottery at the new place here in Spanish Fork. It's called Wildflower Studios and we're quite liking it. It's right by Dr. Joe's office. I think everyone had a good time. Chelsie picked the boys up from there and all the girls and I went to meet Dad and see the new movie Jurassic World. Colten had seen it the weekend before and wasn't done with his plate painting so we left him there at the studio and Logan picked him up later. All 4 of the girls loved the movie and River will never admit to thinking it was scary because this is the first time we've let her see anything like that. She's a big kid now.

Wednesday Hadlie and I had a Naet appointment. My tendons on my feet are slowly but surely getting better I think. They hurt really bad while I was in Vegas but have done better since I've been home. It's sort of fun/weird have your ankles chiropractically adjusted but they sure feel better when he works on them! He's really working with Hadlie on some coping skills for stress. When she remembers to do them or doesn't refuse because she's too upset then I can see they're making a difference. River and Maycee hiked to the cross with the activity day leaders and girls this morning. I was proud of River that she went and participated - she of course didn't want to. Grammy came and picked Marlee & Maycee up that morning to spend a little time with them. Hadlie went to the salon in Payson and got her toes painted and then we had some much needed down time. We all needed a little time at home with nothing going on. I finally did some laundry.

Thursday morning I help Hadlie with the horses and then took River to gymnastics. When Hadlie and I went back to cool the horses off in the barn that afternoon one of the horses had gotten out of her stall and was walking around the barn making a giant mess! So we got her taken care of and I did the latch the right way this time. Then we had to clean everything up. That night Dad and I tried to go to the temple. We got there and there was nowhere to even park. We finally found a spot, went inside and the next session available was over an hour out and was in Spanish. We decided to get all dressed and go do sealings. I got lucky and got a locker and changed. Dad couldn't even put his stuff in a locker, they were all full! So we finally got up to the sealing office and there was a huge crowd of people in the hall. There were only 3 sealers working and tons of people waiting. Soooo, we just went to the Celestial room, sat together in the silence and peace and then went home. We'll try again in a week or so.

Dad had Friday off for the holiday - even though the 4th wasn't til Saturday. He and Colten worked in the yard almost all day. The girls and I ran errands to the bank, JoAnns, Walmart, the Dollar store, Sams Club. Hadlie leaves for camp tomorrow so we had to get several supplies for her and of course all her secret sister things! By the end of the day everyone was tired and I did not have the best of evenings. Sometimes being a mom feels more like being a maid/chef/errand runner. I lost my temper and then cleaned the house. Dad helped. I remember being a kid and my mom doing the same thing. I remember thinking, "She's the mom. What's the big deal?" Like she should want to do all these things, right? I do want to do all those things - it's just harder when people don't respect you or appreciate anything you do.

Saturday Dad, Colt and Had got up and hiked the Y with the rest of my family that wanted to. Right when they got home Nancy called to see if we wanted to come down and help her with the horses a little. She decided to saddle and work with her horse that she's breaking (same one that got out of her stall). So Hadlie and I went down and helped her work that horse a little bit. Nancy was able to get up on her and sit in the saddle for the first time ever. She did great. Then Hadlie got to ride around the round pen a little bit on one of the other horses. Riding a horse that isn't ridden a lot is quite different than riding at the ranch but Hadlie did great. We ate lunch and then headed over to Chelsie's. The afternoon was good. She had a bunch of different things set up to do. They didn't have teams, just a do whatever you want sort of day. It was fun. Hadlie and River decided that they really wanted to try to watch the fireworks from up by our house this year - so that's what we did...and it was great! It was quiet and not crowded and you could see the whole valley! There were just fireworks all over the place. The stadium fireworks were of course smaller - but we could still see them great. Colten went down to Provo with his friends to watch.

And then here we are to today! I always like the first Sunday in July. I like singing the songs about our country and I like hearing people's testimonies about America. We'll just be home today for dinner and then we're dropping Hadlie's camp gear off at the church tonight. Sister Kay is the camp director and I think this should be a good one for Hadlie. They're going up by Bear Lake. It's only 3 days. It looks like it might rain on them but I'm sure they'll have fun.

River and Maycee lugged our 2 crappy mattresses out of the storage room up to River's room for Maycee to sleep on this week. On Monday night Keaton took one mattress and they all 3 slept in River's room. Oh and they think they stayed up until 4am which they didn't, but they think they did. So after Maycee left on Wednesday we found out that the Johnson's will be here tomorrow-Wednesday so River wanted to just save the mattresses in her room til Ellie came. So she stacked all those mattresses on her bed and she's been sleeping like the Princess and the Pea on all those ridiculous mattresses! I thought you'd enjoy seeing that!

Well - that's about it for today. We did get a package sent off to you this week so hopefully you'll get it soon! I love you Cassidy and still miss you every day. Enjoy everything about what you're doing because the time is going by fast! You're almost half way done! Be safe and have a great week!

Love - Mom