July 23, 2001 Farmington, Utah

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RON TOMORROW AND TO JIMMY ON WEDNESDAY!!! Ron will be thirty something and Jimmy will be 15 years old!!! WOW!!! I remember SO well when Jimmy was born - we were all hoping he would be born on Ron's birthday and he almost was. We were taking care of Lee Anna and we called her our "Little Sunshine" because she was such a joy and just smiled all day long. We didn't expect our "little" baby Jimmy to grow to be so "big". I hope both of you have very happy birthdays.

HAPPY 24TH OF JULY TO ALL OF YOU!!! Utah is full of celebrations but the 24th of July is always the biggest. It is SO wonderful to be able to watch the parade on television now - we would never have thought about not going to see it in Salt Lake when I was growing up and it was always very hot and uncomfortable. We would usually meet our relatives from Lehi there and then go to Saratoga for a picnic and swimming after the parade. That was such a treat because the pool was heated with the natural hot springs and it was enclosed and very large. There are so many pools around now that swimming is taken for granted.

I have thought about the Bob Mellors all week and I hope they have had a good time in Seattle - I have expected an e-mail telling about their trip but Claire said they were going to go to some Island so maybe they couldn't find a computer. I believe they will be home this afternoon. I miss them when they are gone even though I don't see them all that often so I'll be happy when they get home. I have also thought about Michael a lot since there has been a lot of news because President Bush has been in Genoa. There are always demonstrations when government officials visit foreign countries and I guess Italy isn't an exception. It's great for me to have a personal interest in things like that now since I have a grandson living there.

I am also thinking of Russell and wondering when his departure date is - I hope you won't just slip out of the country and not tell me!!! We had a missionary welcome home in our ward this morning - Elder Kent Phippen has just returned from Switzerland. He gave a good report and expressed gratitude for his four older brothers who had also served missions - and he has three sisters. I always enjoy the missionary meetings.

Emily - thank you SO much for your sweet note. I am REALLY looking forward to your visit in August and I hope you have some fun things planned to do on your way to Utah. That is a long trip but one I am thankful for after all these years. Some of my favorite memories are of our car trips with all five children in a regular car - not a van and we would never have thought about putting a television in it - Ha!!! The good old days. We surely did have a guardian angel watching over us didn't we - we didn't ever stop except for gas for 1,500 miles!!! I know you will be smarter than we were and stop at nights and during the day for short rests.

John - thank you for your message this morning. I will start sending you some of my favorite genealogy pictures. When John visited with me a couple weeks ago he said that all my pictures were going to be ruined if I didn't get them put on discs and he said he is willing to do that for our Family History. The one I will send you today is one of my favorites and taken when we were on a family trip before you all started going your separate ways. I believe it was taken about 1970 making John, 4; Roy, 13; Bob, 16; Jean, 18; Ann, 22; Daddy, 50; and me 45. Is that right?

Jeannie came over one day last week and we had a good visit. She tells me that Barji and Boyd have a darling apartment and are getting settled in. They have some VERY good friends who packed up all their belonging from their apartment in Stillwater and brought them here for them. It was a couple and they drove both of their cars out too. This couple is from Utah and they wanted to come out anyway so it worked out just great - Boyd and Barji gave them airline tickets to go back to Oklahoma.

I have had a fun week. Ellen Mae and Mel took me to Salt Lake with them on Wednesday - it was time for Mel to have a check-up on his new hip. They called Clinton and Eris Holmes and we all went to "Sweet Tomatoes" for lunch and we had a wonderful time together. Thursday they took me to the Layton Amphitheatre for their outdoor program and that was fun too. The program was "Nunsense" and the players were from Utah State, BYU and Weber - five young women and they were very talented. Our weather has started cooling off in the evenings so it is much nicer than it was a month ago.

Margaret has invited me to go to Star Valley with her tomorrow and I haven't decided yet whether or not I will go. There are two couples going and they all play golf and I worry that I will be "in the way" - they are SO sweet and tell me that's not so but it's kind of a problem. Don and Cheryl have spent the last week in Star Valley with their family. One of their daughters-in-law has a family cabin there so they were going to stay there and fish, relax and some were going on the river run. Cheryl said she was going to baby sit the children - their autistic grandson just loves it there and goes on the river rafting thing. Don is feeling pretty good.