Sunday May 31, 2015
Dear Cassidy:

Hello from summer - officially! The kids are out of school, it's loud and the house is dirty, despite my efforts yesterday of cleaning up. Here we go!

So, how was your week? I was trying to get around to emailing you before Sunday night so you could maybe read it on your iPad before you email us in the morning, to maybe save time. Would that be helpful? Anyway - it didn't happen this week - maybe next.

I loved reading all about your new area. We've looked it up on the map and saw the picture of your zones all receiving your iPads. I can't wait to see pictures of where you are, your apartment, etc. It sounds like the area is beautiful! How did the week go with your investigators? I'm always anxious to hear. I had to laugh about the ward members being offended about who "got you for dinner." You're right, I think you're sympathetic to those feeling of wards merging, etc. and will be able to help!

Question: I'm sure it's getting a little hard to think about your current President leaving and the new one coming. When do you meet with your President for the last time? How are you handling that?

Well - I've learned Dad's emails are pretty darned detailed...you should be thankful for him! I'm not sure there are many dads out there that email so detailed, or every single week for that matter! Anyway - I hesitate to go day by day in detail for fear that I'm duplicating everything he's already told you. I'll give you my version of the biggest things of the week.

Monday was Memorial Day. Nice because it's one of the only holidays Dad gets off. We went to the gym together, worked in the yard a little, took everyone to see Tomorrowland (new Disney movie), with some of Dad's family. We went up to Thanksgiving Point for the movie so we could meet Kari's family there. Really nice theaters, a giant pain to get to because of course "road construction season" is upon us here in Utah and the freeway is being worked on. Again. Anyway - the movie was good. Not the best ever, but I'll still put it on "your list."

Tuesday we ordered Colten a new phone off of Amazon. Hopefully it gets here safely next week and we get that all settled. He's pretty much been without a phone this week because his is biting the dust.

I went to the Jr. High 5K on Wednesday and walked with Hadlie, Sadie, Tarlan and Sadie's mom. Hadlie's been the first of our kids to not run at all. Anyway - we had a good time, it was a beautiful morning and I was a little sore the next day. Not bad though.

My new visiting teaching partner is Marsha Barney. We went visiting teaching on Thursday to Cassie Holt, Tara Jackson and Michelle Nelson (lives next to McInelly's). That took pretty much all day.

Friday all the kids were done with school by noon. We got Little Caesar's pizza for Hadlie, Sadie, Tarlan, River & Ella. I didn't see Colten until much much later in the night. He thinks he's all grown up. After pizza I took them all to Rita's for ice cream. They all hung out here until later Friday night and we had our fair share of disagreements between Hadlie and River. Hadlie especially continues to have a hard time with being kind, and especially with listening respectively to us as parents. I was pretty spent by the end of the night and wonder how we might all make it through the summer in one piece?

Yesterday was the giant dress rehearsal for all the kids in the Temple Cultural Celebration. Something crazy like 13,000 kids there! It was pretty much all day and was very hot inside the stadium for them. Colt & Had both came home exhausted. The performance is this coming Saturday night. They'll be glad when it's done - even though it is a very cool opportunity! It'll be something they remember for forever! We'll be sure to send you pictures!

Dad and I watched Abby & Logan Miser for the morning yesterday while Grant & Liz were at the rehearsal. Did we tell you they are our Stake coordinators for the whole thing??? Their kids were super good and it wasn't bad at all. Wyatt's mom picked them up around noon.

So that's pretty much it. Oh! Except Dad and I have been walking. I think he sent you a couple of pictures from the trail. We ran into the Mohler's last night. They said to tell you hello! Their kids are getting big and they have another baby boy! So five kids all together.

I hope you're doing awesome as usual and can't wait to hear from you!
Love you so much! - Mom