October 2, 1989 Orem, Utah

Dearest John; Roy, Patrice & Emily; Bob, Claire, Michael, Laura, Brett & Katie; Rick, Jean, Ricky, Barbara Jean, Mary Ann & Sarah; and Ron, Ann, Susanna, Jessie, Russell, LeeAnna & Jimmy:

Monday morning and Daddy is busy getting all his things ready to leave in the morning on his annual elk hunt with his Lehi buddies. Bob & John can't get away this year so Daddy has decided to go by himself in his truck and sleep in the back of it and take his own food. He will leave with the rest of the men in the morning and they will Kinda' caravan so he won't be alone - I told him I would go with him but I can tell he really doesn't want to have me tag along and I don't blame him. He smoked a big turkey all day yesterday and has made a big pot of turkey soup so he'll have some good food - that smoked turkey is delicious!!!

Last week was a busy and fun one!!! We took the Weinert and Woolley children to West Canyon in the pickup and I think they enjoyed it. It was just a gorgeous Fall day so we just walked and walked in the canyon and they explored things - they found some dried animal bones and brought them home to show their parents. That night when we talked about everything and asked them to tell their " favorite" thing - Ricky said his was playing with Russell - Mary Ann said hers was going to MacDonald's - and both Sarah and Barji said going to the mountains - Ha!!!

We went to the cabin on Tuesday morning with Ricky, Barji, Mary Ann & Sarah and we also took little Frauie. They would have had more fun if the cousins could have come too - we stopped at the grocery store and had them pick out things they wanted to eat. They chose chicken noodle'o soup, spaghetti'os, potato chips, sugar frosted flakes, chocolate cupcakes, grape juice and crackers. We had a fun, Fun time - Ricky & PaPa tore down the little porch at the side of the cabin so they are now ready to build the deck!!! Daddy has built a neat little campfire area and we toasted marshmallows - I ate a million of them. The children played on the playground and also on the beach - they were surely good and we all slept upstairs and it was COLD!!! Sarah says the cutest things and referring to the outhouse after PaPa had taken her there she looked up at him and said, "You don't slush the open house". He laughed until he cried and she didn't even know what she had said.

We left Scofield on Wednesday morning and took the children back home to Farmington - they started back to school on Thursday. After we left them we drove to Brigham City so we could get some more peaches, tomatoes and squash. It was fun - we stopped at a roadside market in Willard and it turned out to be one owned by my high school chemistry teacher - George Neilson. His wife is 84 years old and she is still working there and we had such a good visit - an old classmate was also there, Wally Christensen - he owns a small fruit orchard and takes his fruit to her market. I visited while Daddy picked out the fruit & things.

Thursday, Daddy mowed the lawn and fixed our yard so pretty and I cleaned house. We went to the temple that night - it was our ward temple night and there were about 25 of us there. Daddy is kinda' in charge of organizing that and he was so thrilled with the large attendance.

Friday we got ready for our missionary reunion. We had put the announcement for it in the paper and had received about a dozen phone calls so we prepared for a fairly large group - 4 gallon of "Y Sparkle" punch from BYU and also their famous chocolate mint brownies and then I made Mexican dip and onion dip and we had a lot of chips. Well - it was supposed to start at 7 p.m. and at 3 that afternoon while I was still cleaning, one of our missionaries came by because he couldn't come later and he stayed until 5 o'clock. Daddy went to pick up the stuff at BYU and while he was gone another missionary came with his wife and two little boys - finally at 6:30 we told them we had to go get ready. At 7 p.m. another couple came and they had brought pictures for us to see of a friend's wedding that we had missed and then at 8 the rest of them came - a total of seven!!! They all stayed until about 11 p.m. so we figured we had had our reunion from 3 until 11 with only about 15 coming. We had all our food left over and I think that could very well be our last reunion - it's been almost five years since we came home and I guess they have lost interest - Daddy is glad - Ha!!!

Yesterday - Sunday - we went to Farmington. It was General Conference time and the Weinerts had invited the family to their home for chili and bread sticks. Daddy & I watched the morning session at home and then drove up there - the rest of the family had arrived much earlier. It was just wonderful to be with all of them - the chili and bread sticks were delicious and so was Claire's fruit salad. Annie brought delicious pumpkin pie and apple pudding with a caramel sauce & whipped cream. My vegetable sticks & chips & dips weren't needed but some of them were eaten. WE HAD A MEETING ABOUT THANKSGIVING!!!! Our plan is to have Thanksgiving dinner at our home here in Orem - Annie, Patrice & I will do the dinner. We are still deliberating about "Picture Time" - after lot of discussion about having it taken on Monday or Friday I have come to the conclusion it will probably be better on Friday morning. I think it would be good to have it taken earlier in the week but we can't be sure that Rick & Ron would be in town and also it would Probably have to be in the evening and the children wouldn't be as easy as in the morning. I'll keep everyone posted - we did all agree that we should be in suits and nice dresses rather than casual.

Yesterday was our 42nd wedding anniversary - Daddy gave me a beautiful wrist watch (it's like yours Jeannie). It is big enough so I can see what time it is - it is Kinda' like wearing an alarm clock on my wrist - I LOVE IT!!! I gave him a card. We love each on of you so very much. PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO. Let us know how we can help you.



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