Finally February!

Dear Michael,

It was great to talk to you again this morning. It does my mother's heart good to see your face and hear your voice every once in awhile. I was surprised by your news of becoming the new AP. What a big change! We are very proud of you, and know you will continue to do the best work you can. I’m a bit sad that you won’t be teaching in Chinese and won’t be able to continue working with the Chinese ward. But I think this will be a great learning opportunity for you. Good Luck! I’ll be interested to hear about your new responsibilities and how your mission experience changes.

I understand its been COLD in Boston! Hopefully you have what you need to survive the weather! Is it springtime yet?

This is what we’ve been up to:

1. The most exciting thing to happen this week was that foreign exchange students from Taiwan came to visit FHS, and Blake and Ty got to be their hosts at school. I think they both had a good time hanging out with the kids from Taiwan and showing them around. They were able to do some after school activities with them like Boondocks and Get Air. Ty invited them over to play basketball and some of them stayed to have dinner with us. The stars magically aligned. The house was clean and I had enough food to feed everyone.  It was a fun night. It was almost comical to compare the Taiwanese kids school experience with FHS. The first day Ty took his buddy to English and Ceramics where they basically had free time to do whatever. And then Ty took off skiing for the rest of the day. Ty’s buddy joined Blake for Study skills and then football. Those kids go to school ALL DAY and ALL EVENING! They must think our kids have the life!

2. This week I had a ski pass to Nordic that expired on Tuesday, so I decided to go up by myself for a few hours. It was so cold! But the skies were blue and I could enjoy the sun for the first time in a looooong time. 

3. Blue skies didn’t last long. Heavy smog has descended on the valley, and it’s miserable. I’m hoping the snow today clears up the air. 

4. We’ve had a lot of snow this year, which is really great, but we will need several more years of this much water to fill back up the Great Salk Lake. The Utah Legislature declared this “Water Week” on the Hill. But so far the only real thing they have done is take their picture with everyone wearing the color blue in solidarity with the lake. Everyone agrees the lake is in crisis, and needs a lot of resources. Not everyone agrees on the solutions. The governor made an executive order this week the raise a dividing line between the main part of the lake and another area. The hope is that by forcing the water to stay in the larger section, they might be able to save the ecosystem there. The fear is that if the other side dies and dries up, it will turn into a toxic dust polluter. No great options right now. 

5. Things have slowed down a bit for Dad at work. Hallelujah. But he’s busy with church. They are trying to get all of the ministering assignments finished, and it’s taking forever!

6. Saturday Blake had ACT prep at 8 in the morning, and Jett had soccer at 7:45. And then we had the rest of the day OPEN. This NEVER happens. Our schedule has been much less busy with Ethan taking a break from basketball. So I basically had my dream Saturday: puttering around the house cleaning, organizing, and fixing things. I love ticking annoying little things off my to-do list.

7. Ethan and Jett spent some time mixing crystal growing kits. I’m not 100% confident they read the instructions correctly. So we will have to wait and see if anything grows!

8. Dad has been working hard on planning trips. We are looking forward to some fun things coming up. We are going to St. George with the Rawson family over Spring Break. Olympic National Park with Ty for his Senior Trip. Disneyland with Grandma and Grandpa Rawson and then on to Sequoia National Park with the Bramhall Family this summer. Dad’s also looking ahead and planning a trip for the Final 4, and to Hawaii for Dad, Grandpa, Nana, and I. He just booked me a couple of tickets to go see some friends in Seattle next month and I’m excited for that. It’s so great to have a talented travel agent in the family!

9. Ethan got something called a yummy crate for Christmas. It’s a subscription box that comes in the mail with recipes. This week Ethan’s box theme was berries. He made jam! And then he used the jam to make little tarts that were like homemade pop tarts. They were so good! I love having Ethan cook in the kitchen.

10. Jett’s soccer team played an outdoor scrimmage last week. Jett was so excited to be able to play outside! I told him to dress warm for the weather. He came upstairs wearing shorts and a tank top! Lol.  That’s not what I meant! Jett weirdly takes pleasure in being cold, but I was able to persuade to him to put on a hoodie.  

That’s all for now. Off to another adventure-filled week!

Love you,
Mom















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