Lazy Summer Days

Dear Ty,

It’s so good to hear from you! I hop you had a wonderful and memorable 19th birthday! I’m so glad your friends made it special for you. I’m excited to see this duck tie you told us about. I hope you enjoy your week with Elder Salima before he heads off to Detroit. That’s got to be disappointing to not get his visa in time. But also kinda cool that he will get to serve in different places. Holy smokes! How is Sister DeMille supposed to learn Marshallese in Seattle? Count your blessings that at least you get some formal training in language! I still can’t stop thinking about Sister Enger and her 20 ice cram sandwiches. How is that even possible?! Was she sick for days? I’m glad you’ve had a chance to go to the temple again since you didn’t get to go much before your mission. It must be nice to get out the MTC for a bit, and the Payson temple is beautiful. It sounds like you are having a lot of great learning experiences. Soak it all in!

This is what we’ve been up to:

1. I got a new phone! Yay. But it was a royal pain to set up. Boo. Fingers crossed that I’ve worked out all of the kinks. 

2. Jett and Tate and I had our first afternoon at Cherry Hill for the season. Relaxing in the pool is a great way to spend the day together.

3. I submitted my resume and was offered a job working with Campus Creations taking school photos in the fall. They will train me and provide the equipment. I’m excited to learn more about photography, and it sounds like a great opportunity. Plus, it will only be for 15 days or so in the fall, so should work really well with my schedule. The (major) downside is that they start at 7 am. 7 am! Can I really do that?! To be determined. . . I also went to a free photography workshop at Fotofly, and that was really interesting too—although much of what we talked about applies only to manual cameras which I don’t own. Maybe someday?

4. Blake has a number of football tournaments and camps scheduled for the summer. On Thursday and Friday he went up to play at Utah State. And then he came home and went straight to the airport with Dad. They flew out for a quick trip to Seattle for another tournament. I guess these are good recruiting opportunities. I think they had a really great time together. This morning bright and early Blake was off to the BYU camp for the week. No rest for the weary!

5. Uncle Zach was involved in a terrible river rafting accident last week. He is fine, but one of his employees drowned in the river. He took his employees on a team-building trip to river raft. But they accidentally got too close to some concrete pillars supporting a bridge over the water. Their raft capsized and wrapped around the pillar. I’m not sure when they realized someone was missing, but when they got the raft loosened from the pillar, her body came to the surface. They think she was probably under water for 15 minutes.  I talked to Michael about the accident last night for awhile, and he said it sounded like there was quite a bit of negligence on the part of the rafting guides.  I’m sure everyone is traumatized.

6. Michael on the other hand is having the absolute time of his life on the river. Some of his friends went up to take a day on the river together and they had a ton of fun. They drove up into the mountains, slept in an abandoned bus, a ran across a bear on the way to the bathroom. They went to a party/concert in Riggins to celebrate the opening day of River raft season which culminated in said bear being shot. The band didn’t even stop playing, and Everett said it was the best party he ever went to!

7. Blake and Ethan had a chance to do some home maintenance for me this week. Ethan learned how to replace a toilet seat. And Blake learned how to clear the clogged drain in his shower. They both complained about how disgusting it was. Yup. I fixed both of the Dyson vacuums which were also gross, but didn’t smell nearly as bad. I also spent hours organizing everyone’s hand-me-down clothes, and cleaning up the absolute crime scene that Tate left after he got a bloody nose. 

8. Ethan and I stayed up late to watch A Haunting in Venice while Blake and Dad were in Seattle. And now I want to go back and watch the first two movies in the series. I like Agatha Christie mysteries.

9. Heather Jenkins tells me that Max made it to Bolivia last week! And Alissa Hyde tells me that Cooper is nervous about heading back to the MTC. He only will stay there for a week and a half, so I really hope everything goes well for him. Karene Warby tells me that Elder Miller is a family friend of theirs. What a small world! 

10. I got stung by a hornet last night and had an allergic reaction to it. My arm got all red and swollen. Tate got a bee sting too. I think he handled it better than I did. Dang hornets! I hate them!

I hope you have another great week at the MTC! I’ll look for some piano music to send to you. Also, I’m working on sending Sister Krstic information for your missionary plaque. Look over the information page and let me know when you have selected a scripture, and if there is a particular photo you want me to use.

Love you! Mom
Xoxo