Weird turn of events

Well, it’s really weird that someone wants to stop us from sharing the experiences we have been having in the mission. I have kept the things I say very positive. We have one month left in this great mission.

You can follow this LINK to read more about it.

Good times!

Trip to Washington!

We had such a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa Wright. Wow G&G Dickson are getting so old. 94 and 96, and I'm pretty sure Grandma didn't know who I was at all. They just mostly sleep all day.

 I was so happy to get my 5 generations photo.  Avery was so funny. She was afraid of Grandma Dickson at first, and you could tell she wanted to go up to her, but when Grandma would look her way, she'd get shy and run. Eventually she went up to her and started talking, and then she climbed on a stool and counted, "one...two...three" and was about to jump into Grandma Dickson's lap. I grabbed her quick before she jumped. I think it would have killed Grandma. Avery has such a huge personality. 

We went to the Ice Caves while we were there. We went on quite a long hike to get to them, then the boys hiked a little further to this  waterfall, there were several falling into the ice caves, but they were all so hot, they took off their shirts and took a shower in the waterfall. (Dad, Conner, Uncle Lee, and his boys)

Conner and dad went deep sea fishing. Conner caught a salmon, but the waves were terrible, and dad got really sea sick. I don't think they'll go again any time soon. 

The cabin was fun. We were right on the ocean, it was really windy, and we flew a kite right off the balcony. Avery gathered probably 50 sea shells. As we'd walk she would hand them to me. I'd accidentally drop them here and there because I couldn't carry them all. She really got along good with Emi, she calls her Mimi, and Parlee is Molly. But she really loves them!

Steve came into town to see Sarah and go with her family to Lake Powell, he ended up getting really sick. Diarrhea and throwing up for 4-5 days. He was absolutely miserable. He had to cancel his flight back to Pennsylvania and stay at Sarah's house, because we were out of town, and he couldn't fly in that condition. It turned out to be salmonella. There were about 16 of the 36 people on the house boat that got sick, but Steve was the worst! He's back now, and we are proceeding with the wedding plans. 

Engagement Photos

Steve Jr came in to town today. He flew in and surprised Sarah. Her family had planned to go to Lake Powell, and invited Steve to come along, so he secretly got a plane ticket, and came home. Marsha, Sarah's mom had arranged to have their engagement pictures taken tonight as well. Sarah was so surprised when Steve showed up at their house. Hopefully they have a fun week at lake Powell. 

Conner had football camp that started today. He was really excited to go. They will take a bus to Cedar city, and stay until Thursday. He is just going crazy with football this year. The coaches say he really has a lot of talent.

I got to SKYPE with Avery yesterday. She's getting so big! She's a princess now, and wears her princess dress and crown all the time. She LOVES Ariel, Flounder, and Donald Duck... that one surprised me.  She cracks me up. 

Freak of Nature!

Just today, I called Steve's mom, Marcia, she had asked me to find some family names that she could give to Aunt Judy who is coming into town. I was going to tell her that I found 23 names last night...yay... but when I asked how she was doing, she said, "Not well at all." She proceeded to tell me that her stomach was really hurting, and it made her come home from church. She was breaking out in a cold sweat and was in a lot of pain. When she described it to me, I told her to go to the emergency room, because I think it's her gallbladder. Guess what? I was right!! They said she has all sorts of gallstones and sludge in her gallbladder, and she needs to schedule to have it removed. I'm so sad for her, but so glad that I was able to tell her to go to the hospital. She says she doesn't believe it's a coincidence! I called at just the right time to tell her to go. I think it really helped her.

Conner went to the Nike SPARQ combine, which is a football program where they test your skills in 5 or 6 areas, and rate you against other football players nationwide. They rate in each area individually, and then give you a combined score. So Conner's best event was the vertical jump, he rated in the 99th percentile, which means there are only 1% of football players in the entire country who can jump as high as him. Then he did the 40 yard dash and got in the 97th percentile. Only 3% can run as fast or faster than him. All of his events went really well and his combined score was 80%, which means he is talented enough to get into any college just based on his football skills. Crazy huh!  Coach Cloward says Conner is a "freak of nature", he's so athletically talented.

I went in on Wednesday and had Sarah Hardy cut my hair.  It was getting too long, and was really bugging me. I had her cut about 3 or 4 inches off.  I was starting to feel like a frumpy old house wife. It is so hard for me to control. I really like how she cut my hair. It's layered around the edges, and feels so much better. She also waxed my eyebrows. I told her I my miss my daughters so much, Kaylea and Jessica are the people who take care of the eyebrows for me. Haha! 

Jessica and her family went to Disneyland. I haven't talked to her since they got back, but she of course, posted a lot of pictures. Avery LOVES Minnie, and Alice (in Wonderland), she looks like she had a blast. Huge grins in every picture.

Here's a little bit of Kaylea's letter:
We had some referrals to contact this week and something HORRIFYING happened!! Well we opened up this gate and knocked on this door... and well the family wasn't interested BUT they forgot their back door was open so their dang pitbull came RUNNING AT US!!!! And while we were trying to invite them to come unto Christ, here we were about to die... and I had two thoughts cross my mind.... number one... RUN. Number two... Hold out the Book of Mormon!!! because I have heard so many stories of the Book of Mormon deflecting crazy animals! Well... I don't want you all to think that I don't have faith... because I decided to just run and hop over the fence... BUT! THIS was the first time I have EVER been actually chased by a death seeking monster.... hahaha! You can't be a missionary without a dog story right?? So... I'm definitely a missionary!

Summer in full swing

So Steve threw out his back this past week. He's been trying to get it to heal, taking pain medications all week, but nothing is working. He's been hobbling around like a little old man. It's really cute, but he's miserable. He was lifting his horses foot when it went out. Weird... 

Jessica and her little family are on their way to California tomorrow. They are taking Avery to Disneyland. She absolutely loves Ariel, and Alice in Wonderland. They think she'll have a blast. I do too! 

I haven't heard from Steve this week, but Sarah ran a marathon Saturday. She ran with Coach Allen and one of the Palmer girls. Big accomplishment. She's awesome.

Conner has been pulling weeds every day for Turf-it. And going to football to work out. He has really stayed busy this summer. I can't believe he'll be a senior this year!! Crazy!

A couple who have been taking the missionary discussions in our ward asked if Steve will marry them so they can get baptized. Of course he said yes. He's rocking this missionary work!! It's so fun to see lives changing. I'm so happy you get to experience this every day. What a huge blessing.  I'm at about 1,000 names I've submitted for temple work from our family. I may not be a very good missionary, but I'm getting people baptized!! I'm hooked!!! Love family history!!

My job is great! I love working days. I've met several of the families we help, and the kids we send nurses out to. We have to go in every 60 days and do a physical assessment on these kids and then send in paperwork to keep them on as our patients. There are so many kids with such terrible diseases. I'm happy we get to help make their lives easier. It's such a blessing. The parents are pretty incredible too. They just work hard to keep their lives as normal as possible. Most of them have such great attitudes, and love their kids so much. I'm blessed to get to see them.

June

I was offered a job as a Case Manager at Ivy Lane where I'm working now. It will be nice to be able to work days instead of nights now. We'll see how it goes. I start my new job tomorrow. I will be working 2 days a week while they train me, and then two nights a week. So every Monday and Tuesday I work 9-5 and then I'll work two night shifts sometime between Wed and Saturday. After 60 days of training, they'll decide if I can stay on board as a case manager, or go back to night nursing. Apparently the last case manager they hired (instead of me) really struggled, and they wish they had given her a 60 day trial period... boo.

Steve Jr is in Pennsylvania, he is doing amazing. It's only been 3 weeks, and he has done half the sales of what he did all summer last year. So he's pretty happy. He's on target to make $40-60,000. It's crazy!

Sarah came by today and picked up all of my scrapbooks, she is going to put pictures of Steve on a video. It was fun showing her pictures of him as a little boy. Even in high school, he was so much smaller than Jessica... he was so cute!! She bought me a pretty blue dress for the wedding. I can't believe Steve's getting married. But I love Sarah to death. 

School is out for the summer. Conner will be working for Turf it and doing football. So he should stay pretty busy this summer. 

Here's a snippet from Kaylea's last letter: The COOOLEST Part about Ventura is that every night the ocean Fog rolls in! IT LOOKS SO COOL!! its like a black wall that just ONLY rolls over Ventura! And the clouds come SO FAST! It just comes ROLLING in!! I LOVE it!! :) I guess it always happens in June and everyone calls it the June gloom... But I really just think it's awesome. :) AND I CAN SEE THE OCEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kinda... I can see it when I email on Mondays! At the stake center! OH!! AND the Stake Center has like an old chandelier in the sacrament room! It's gorgeous! 

Chris has been interviewing for jobs all over the West. I know he and Jessica are anxious to move to a new location, and just get on with his career, but I sure enjoy having them close by.  There are a few jobs available in Utah. I hope he is able to pick up one of them.  

State Track Meet

This weekend was amazing! Conner qualified for State in 3 events. Two relays and the long jump. The State track meet was on Friday and Saturday at BYU. Steve and I went down on Friday and were able to watch the medley relay. Conner did so well! The boys broke the school record by 5 seconds, and were so excited.

 Steve and me watching in the grand stands.

 The boys before the race.

 Conner running the 400M leg of the Medley Relay

After beating the school record by 5 seconds.  

Lorenzo Silva, Nephi Meono, Conner, and Colin Arave

After the races, we talked Jessica into letting us take Avery home for the night. We knew we would be back in the morning to watch Conner take on the long jump.

We had a lot of fun with Avery. 

 She loves to walk around my yard, picking all the pretty flowers. 

Then we went shopping, needed the bare necessities, like a binkie, or she wouldn't sleep for me.

It was a fun night. Avery went to sleep around 11:00, then at 12:30 we got a call from church security asking Steve to go check out a building that was alarming. Which got my adrenaline flowing, and I wasn't able to get to sleep for several hours. Avery got up the next morning by 6:30, but she decided to snuggle in my bed watching cartoons, so I got another hour of sleep. 

Then it was time to get back to the track meet. Steve had other commitments, so I met Jessica there, and we had a very exciting day!!

Conner was in the first flight, and wasn't expected to go to the finals at all. His distance going into the meet was 19.08 feet. He jumped 20.07! The furthest he has ever jumped, and it put him in the finals!

On his first try, he was running down the track and a kid ran toward the judges, and almost crossed in front of Conner. Everybody screamed, and the people in the stands said he should get another try, but Conner didn't let it get to him, he jumped farther than he had all day, and got 21 feet! (We think maybe it gave him a rush of adrenaline to almost run into that kid) He only gets 3 tries, and the next two tries he stepped over the line, and scratched. But his 21 foot jump put him on the medal stand! He took 5th place!

A very, very good day!