A quiet week

Hey Michael! Thanks for the great letter this week. Glad to hear about both Alex Liu and Caiping. It must be a really satisfying feeling to watch them both grow and change. I had to laugh about the Dragon Boat festival and the EQ activity. The Dragon festival sounded awesome, the EQ activity not so much! Lol. You get put into so many interesting situations! I’m sorry about all of the harassment from crazies, and glad you are able to keep a sense of humor about it.  

We had a pretty slow, quiet week around here, which is totally unusual. But you, Ty, and Ethan were gone—and having 3 kids at home is definitely easier than 6! (Ethan had a deacon’s camp to go to, and he said it was one of the best campouts ever! He came home so filthy and reeking with smoke).

1. Dad got an invitation to a soccer event from a client or colleague, so he took Jett along. They got to order customized jerseys. Dad’s said “Rawson.” Jett’s said “Drip Lord.” The employees were all very curious about who ordered the Drip Lord shirt! Lol. That kid is so weird. He is still wearing his shirt backwards every single day, and practicing his maniac laugh.

2. While Jett went to the soccer game, Tate got to go to the movie theater to see Shrek with aunt Krysta, grandma, and cousins. So fun. I think it was his first time in the movie theater. 

3. Blake passed his driver’s permit test this week. Hurray! I let him drive around the parking lot for a few minutes, but Dad took him out for his first lesson today. The job he thought he had lined up for the summer fell through, so he’s been spending a lot of bored hours at home this summer. I'm trying to encourage him to find a hobby (if not a job). He said he thinks cars are cool, so we checked out a bunch of car books from the library for him.

4. Tate and Jett and I spent Friday afternoon at the Scott’s pool—just long enough to get a bit of a sunburn. Tate is making some progress at learning how to float on his back. He’s starting swimming lessons tomorrow. Hopefully we can get him swimming soon.

5. I went to see West Side Story at the Hopebox theater on Friday with Summer Barrett. It was a fun night out. Wish I could still sing and dance!

6. Dad took his bike up to the trails on Saturday morning. He said even the green trails were kinda hard and scary. His bum is super sore. Gotta get him some padded biking shorts!

7. Jett got to go out to Rio Tinto again on Saturday night. Grandpa had extra tickets and took Jett and Andrew’s family for dinner and the game. Jett says he wants to be a professional soccer player. The kids is growing like a weed. He put on his church pants this morning and couldn’t even come close to buttoning them up.  Like the pants he wore to church LAST WEEK and suddenly way too small! Crazy.

8. Big News! Tate was able to get his first dose of the covid vaccine. We’ve been waiting so long. He was “nervous,” but also brave.

9. I’ve decided Primary isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

10. This was a really tough week in the news. The Supreme Court put out a lot of really big decisions this week including overturning Roe vs Wade. That was unthinkable just a few years ago. The ramifications of this decision are enormous and complex. But every woman in this country went to bed with fewer constitutional rights that night than when they woke up that morning. Especially in the short term, this is going to cause a lot of confusion, chaos, and heartache. I’ve also been watching the January 6th hearings which are FASCINATING and DEVASTATING. Oh. What a time to be alive. I’m not feeling especially patriotic this 4th of July.