Sunday June 7, 2015
Dear Cass -
Well - how about some news first today...

1. Ben Spencer left for the MTC this week.

2. Zack Hood came home the same day Ben left for the MTC. I don't think they got to see each other. Has Zack written you about this? He has a skin disorder that they think they can treat and he can go back out in 8 weeks. Poor guy. He apparently was at the Temple celebration, but so were 50,000 other people so we didn't see him.
3. Ashley Lewis has a mission call. She's opening it tonight.
4. Cheyenne Bushman got her call to Michigan.
5. Deven and Kylie are getting married in the TEMPLE! (heard that from Joy - she's been talking to him about doing the right things for the right reasons!)
6. Most of this info I get from your facebook page when I log in to put your link to your blog.

Well - we've completed the first full week of summer. I really hope you're feeling more rested than you were last week. Your weeks are full and busy and I feel tired sometimes just reading about them. I think it's great that you share some things that are hard - especially for Colten and others preparing to go. But there was so much positive in your email too. I love how hard you sisters work! It’s great that some members and taking notice of that. And I LOVE that you're having chances to help people garden! That just makes me laugh - at least you have an understanding of weeds now:)

Let me give you a quick rundown of things here. Hopefully you don't get tired of hearing a lot of the same stuff from Dad and me. If you do - let me know and we'll change up how we write.

The girls and I have done plenty of swimming this week. PG pool, SF pool and they swam at Brooke's house after sleeping over and helping her by babysitting. We also started a sewing project (River & I). We got a little book to try some things with. We also got our Amazon order of Hadlie's 8th grade honor's English reading assignments. Remember that? She has to read the Outsiders. Please send her some encouragement because she's furious she has to read. I told her perhaps that means she should get out of honors? But she doesn't want to. She can do it - if she just puts her mind to it! I even told her I would do it with her:/

The other biggish thing this week has been helping Sister Jensen with her horses. They live in a log cabin looking house just down on Powerhouse road. She has 6 horses plus a baby colt. I'm amazed at the age of 73 she does everything she does. She also has about 20 cats (no kidding), a few dogs and 55 chickens. So Hadlie and I spent some time Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday down there. We've already learned a lot and Hadlie is being able to use this experience as a YW project. We cleaned stalls, learned which horse eats what, how to groom them and bring them in from the fields. Sister Jensen will start working in the temple on Thursday this week so Hadlie and I will go Thursday afternoon to let the horses in, give them food and water and Hadlie can groom them if she wants then. I think Hadlie's enjoyed being down there this week. I have too, except my allergies are out of control when we deal with the hay and cleaning the stalls.

We also made our summer list of things to do. I'll send you a picture of it. Colten had zero things to add. He's been working quite a bit at the ballparks and he went and worked one day out at Grandpa Jim's - starting to take over what Ben did every summer. Other than that he's been with Logan, Abby Melton and Erika mostly. He did go to a pool party at Hannah Bateman's house in Mapleton.

This weekend has been most exciting though! Yesterday was the temple cultural celebration. This has been such a huge undertaking for all the leaders and youth. They really pulled it off though and it was super good! Sister Hansen from our ward who was in charge of the whole thing did a great job. She ended up finding out she's got a brain tumor - just this week. President Erying gave her a blessing yesterday so that she could be able to attend the celebration before they do her surgery. The kids spent all day yesterday in Provo running through things, then they spent a few hours at Dish 1 (just our ward) to eat lunch and watch movies before they had to be back to the stadium.

We arrived at the stadium at about 5:45 just as it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then they announced that the program was temporarily suspended due to the bad weather. They pretty much cleared the people out of their seats and everyone spent an hour under the bleacher part of the stadium. There was hail, wind and tons of rain. Amazingly in about an hour we were able to take our seats and they decided to start things. The whole program was great! I'll send you some pictures and a video clip or two. Can you watch those???

My favorite part of the whole thing was President Erying. He along with Elder Nelson, Elder Oaks and Elder Cook and their wives were there last night. But when President Erying got out of the little golf cart to go to his seat the kids were SO loud! Like being at a concert loud. It was really fun to be somewhere where the kids could cheer for a church leader like that! He's pretty much a rock star. And he was so happy. Just an ear to ear smile the whole time.

We all got home between 10-11 pm. The kids were starving (there was no food places open at the stadium).

Today was the temple dedication. We went to our stake center to watch it at 10am. It was really good also. I hope this whole experience will be something that Hadlie and Colten will remember. Even though the practices were long, hot, tiring, and wet last night it was still a great experience. Something they can tell their kids about.

In the news...yesterday a horse called American Pharaoh won the Triple Crown! That's the first horse since 1978 (Secretariat) that's won all 3 of those races! Pretty exciting!

Well - I hope you've had a great week. Please know I love you and pray for you always! And - oh ya! I thought those pictures you sent last week were beautiful!!! Especially that panoramic one! Wow!

Love you! - Mom