September 17, 1991 Orem, Utah

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

WOW!!! It has been so long since I have written I have almost forgotten how to use the computer.

We have had an absolutely WONDERFUL Summer and it's hard to think it is coming to an end - our temperatures are in the low 40's at night now and we have had our heat on during the day so I guess Summer is about over. I want to get our "journal" up to date so I'll start my letter from where I left off when I wrote last on July 29th.

We left for Alaska on Saturday, August 3rd as we had planned. Chris & Wayne drove their customized van and we drove our Toyota van. We talked at greet length before we left how we were going to take it easy on this trip and drive slow and sleep late, etc., etc. Well - we drove 8,000 miles in 21 days and for four of those days we were camped at Soldtana, Alaska where Daddy & Wayne fished for salmon on the Kenai river. SO we didn't drive very slow and we didn't ever sleep late. We made it into Montana our first night and we had the most gorgeous scenery from then on until we got home. We went through British Columbia, into the Yukon and then into Alaska - we went through many of the same places we had gone before and that made it special because we felt more at home. We think Canada would be a beautiful place to live but gas and food were twice as expensive as in the U.S. When we stopped for gas, which was often, our bill was always about $25 and Wayne's was $50 - we felt bad for them but they were good sports. Wayne said it cost him $700 to get through British Columbia. Milk was $5 a gallon and soft drinks were $7 for a six pack.

Daddy & Wayne made friends with some people from Texas who had camped close by us in Soldotna. They take a huge motor home up there every Summer and stay for four months and smoke and can a lot of salmon - they let them use their smoker. They caught a lot of salmon and then they chartered a boat and went fishing on the Cook Inlet by Homer and caught some halibut. Daddy said it was really hard to reel in those 20 - 30# halibut. I guess they use weighters that take the line very deep. Chris & I had lots of fun shopping and sight seeing while the "guys" fished.

The only traveling problems we had were the road repairs being done on the Cassiar highway - we traveled 400 miles on terrible roads. The huge trucks would fly by us and throw rocks onto our windshield and that was hard. Daddy had wanted to buy new tires for our van before we left and I talked him out of it - we are happy now that we didn't hut we had some scary times. Wayne had one of his top windows completely knocked out.

You'll never read all this but I want it for my journal!!!

Saturday was a wonderful day. Emily & Timothy were SO good and Dorothy brought her grandchildren over and they played and played. Emily didn't want them to leave and Dorothy just begged to take Emily with her back to their house but I was too worried to let her out of my sight.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and Emily & Timothy & I played out in their yard all afternoon. They have a wonderful yard with lots of play equipment and a great sand box - Emily and I made many sand dinners and little Timothy was SO happy & good.

I went to bed when they did, about 7:30 and I was glad I did. Little Timothy awakened about 4 o'clock Sunday morning crying and he just couldn't stop. I rocked and rocked and sang and sang and finally got into their medicine cabinet and gave him some children's Tylenol that Patrice had marked the dosage for him. He was so tired that he would sleep periodically but for just about five minutes. Joy & Chris both called that afternoon to just visit a minute - when Chris called back the second time found him still crying she said, "Barbara, I'm coming over and you're going to take him to the doctor". I would not have done that on my own, I know. I would have waited a few hours for Roy & Patrice to come home. We went to the after hours pediatric clinic at Baptist Hospital and the doctor who treated him was just wonderful - in fact, he gave him a very thorough examination and found that his one ear was red and also some antibiotic. I couldn't have done it without Chris - she stayed in the car with Emily because she had fallen asleep and of course she really knows her way around. The pain medicine helped almost immediately and the rest of the evening was great.

I really only baby sat for two days and I feel bad that I couldn't keep them well but Roy & Patrice were SO sweet and were happy that I had taken him to the doctor. Little Emily is a jewel and helped SO much. We were trying to do some craft works and Timothy kept crying and I said, "Timothy, I'm going to throw you to the cats" - Emily looked up at me and said, "Grandma B, do you think you could find a nicer way to say that?". I felt like two cents. Timothy got insect bites on him too and he had two large red welts on his face.

I was SO proud to show their home to my friends. It is really beautiful and they have done SO much to it since we saw it last. Chris was very impressed with the art work they have displayed. I just LOVED my trip there. I knew I needed to go and appreciate very much all Roy & Patrice did for me. When we drove into our home from the airport there was a beautiful floral arrangement waiting for us from them.
John did a marvelous job with Daddy - got him videos, food, etc. Daddy also loved Ann visiting him and bringing him goodies. We went out to dinner last night for our 44th anniversary!!!

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