Another wonderful month in missionary service. Lovely time of year. Great to see so many missionaries in training, learning, studying, becoming disciples of Christ. A few challenging cases, a few challenging parents too. We are getting closer to our return home, and looking forward to seeing our loved ones again. I have felt blessed by your support, your prayers, your Skyping, and your support of our little newsletter. Thank you for helping with the house, yard, cabin, with my finances, with Aunt Linda, great grandmother, and visiting relatives. We are looking forward to a possible visit now from Aunt Ronda and Uncle Doug. Those visits really make our lives exciting, as we see this beautiful country through the eyes of others. Hope you all had a wonderful summer. Enjoy the cooling weather and autumn now. Snow may not be too far off!

GRANDMA NOLA

Our time is flying by here rapidly. With more than 800 missionaries here there is much work to do. We used to have all the sisters meet together for Relief Society now the sisters are meeting in small zone groups of about 10 sisters. It is amazing how much better this is. These young people are learning Spanish, learning how to teach the gospel to investigators and now preparing a RS lesson. A companionship teaches together and leads the discussion. There is a lot of participation amongst the sisters about the gospel principle as it applies to them directly. I have been asked to provide lesson help if they want it. That means I have to prepare some ideas and lesson discussion questions and have them ready if they want them.

I am going to the temple on Wednesday and Thursday each week with the missionaries. (A 6 hour excursion) I always benefit from the temple. I just wish I could speak more Spanish because there always seem to be some little problem that I need to communicate with the Spanish speaking temple workers.

Our best p-day in August was an overnight drive to El Tajin. It was a lot of driving but very interesting to see the countryside of Mexico. We saw miles and miles and hours and hours of corn fields. I say corn fields but it was actually corn growing all through the countryside. They planted corn going up the hills and alongside the road and in between the trees. It was amazing to see all the corn. They were also fields (or country side) of sugar cane and potatoes and many, many orange trees. Workers were in the fields with their machetes and hoes. We walked along the beach in the Gulf of Mexico and saw families with their children. It was very heartwarming.

Because I believe the Mulekites landed on the east shore of Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico it was particularly interesting to me to look around and imagine them living there before they made their way inland to Zarahemla. I believe that part of the country is also where the Jaredites lived so it was nice to be there on that account as well. We got as far south as Vera Cruz and then headed back to Mexico City.

CHAD AND JEANA

The month of August started out with us returning from Utah to Kentucky by way of the northern United States. We stopped to visit the highest points in the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. We also enjoyed visiting some sites along the northern shoreline of Lake Superior. We toured an old copper mine in Michigan and stopped for some fun activities and amusements at the Wisconsin Dells. Chad and Spencer were only home for one day. Then we packed our bags and flew to Maine the second week of August. We had a fun week hiking to the highest points of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. Spencer did very well despite some challenging 10 - 15 mile hikes on steep terrain.

Now Spencer has started middle school and Sophie is enjoying 4th grade. Soren goes back to the nearby Montessori school for mornings only beginning next week. Spencer is going on a 4 day/3 night field trip with the entire 6th grade at his school to Green River Preserve in North Carolina next week. He enjoys his new school so far. 3 or 4 children of other Lexington Clinic doctors happen to be in his grade and he takes classes with some of them. They have gone out of their way to make him feel welcome. He is also playing on the school soccer team. He noted his appetite has increased now that he is attending soccer practices for nearly 90 minutes/day 4 days per week. Sophie ran in her first 5K race at the end of August and really enjoyed it. She wants to do more.

Jeana is staying busy with her church assignments in the primary and cub scouts. Chad is busy with work, but not as busy as I would like to be. Obamacare has hit our clinic hard and we have lost a lot of business partially because the trend of more socialized medicine is diminishing access to our doctors. As a result we are downsizing and laying off many employees. It's sad to see them go.

ROB AND RACHEL

I went to Hawaii thinking that I'd be overcome with desire to retire from working and live forever on the island on the beach. that didn't happen. i do, however, feel so sad that summer is over. i guess that my retirement dream is to live in a summery place and always have lots of sunshine, but not far away from family and the lifestyle that i like. it was a wonderful trip to Hawaii though and a wonderful month of August, the last month of summer.

thank you to all my sisters who took care of Ely while Rob and I went to the Big Island. We are so grateful that he could build family relations with cousins, aunts and uncles. He loved the trip as well! we called every day for a check in and heard of the fun activities and hanging out that happened. we couldn't have asked for any better place for him to be. thank you!

rob and i pretty much had a second honeymoon (to celebrate our 10 yr anniversary). it was one week of exploring and seeing beautiful beaches, lava tubes, turtles, flowing lava, and eating some local treats. We had a great time.

we were unsuccessful getting pregnant despite help from the fertility clinic and meds. so we're disappointed, but trying again in Sept. i realize that maybe lots of folks don't want to hear details about this issue, but it's a pretty huge constant desire in my life and has been for the past 3.5 years, so i'm talking about it. reaching out for support.

ely took lots of swimming lessons and significantly improved his technique and confidence. he's also starting to read signs in our travels around town. i think he's excited for 1st grade to start next week. we got him enrolled in the elementary school near the new home, thank goodness. even though we haven't closed on the house yet, due to problem with the appraisal (requiring a new one) and so we won't close until sometime mid Sept.

rob is still traveling often to California for work. he enjoys it although he went on a job interview with Uber. rachel worked the last early morning and as of next week when school starts will only work 23 hrs/week while ely is in school. excited about having more free time with ely. looking forward to some down time in the new house and settling into a routine including gym and meal planning each week. we went on a fun kayaking trip as a family in a new area we hadn't yet explored. it's been a great summer. wish it weren't over. but at the same time, it will be good for ely to get back to school and other things to look forward to like getting into the new house and maybe getting pregnant!

JARED AND CANDACE

In August I had a great birthday. We started a basement project with a goal to finish a bedroom for the girl's in the basement before Tessa's birthday. I am so excited to have a finished storage room down there and a finished garage!!

The boys had their first scout campout adventure with Jared along. He is saying goodbye to cub scouts for a while now with a new calling to serve in the Young Men presidency.

We had a last summer family vacation with the Clark family to Steamboat, Colorado.

Summer ended too abruptly and we worked on all the preparations and jumped into school. Especially now that labor day weekend is here, it feels like Fall. We want to fit in one more kayaking outing this weekend before our local ponds and reservoirs close. The kids enjoyed their last trip to an outdoor swimming pool last weekend. Summer was great, but we are welcoming the changes of pace for school and our next season.

In August (and the last weeks of July), Michael and Jordan started working with their business to save money for missions. It's called Game Day Flags. They signed up BYU and Ute fans in our neighborhood for a flag service. September 1st was the first home game and Jared took the boys around to the 25+ Ute contracts and posted the flag in the morning and then took it down at night. Next weekend they will do all the U of U flags and all the BYU too for their game against each other. I think the boys are learning some great skills doing the work in the meantime.

We love having bigger kids that we can leave at home by themselves when we squeeze in a quick date! Leisel seems to be growing tall and so big. Sometimes I say she is turning 13, but really it's just 4 next week!! Tessa has been a sweet helper and is looking forward to the next year before her baptism. Jonathan just loves being part of all the things every day. His biggest challenges lately are growing lots of teeth and being petrified when he hears neighbors' dogs barking.

The boys were able to fit in a summer get together with school friends before the summer ended. We love the fall and we're already enjoying the break from the heat! I always enjoy a little canning, juicing and fruit drying with the harvest of produce. It is great to have a full stock of fresh picked things from generous growers. (I am still figuring out how to do the growing myself.)

Tessa and Jordan auditioned for our city's theater production of "Aladdin" and they will now rehearse until the show in the middle of October.

It is always nice to have the occasional activities with local cousins. So Ely's visit was a big highlight and gave us extra reason to get together often. It was a real treat to have a few days of free cousin time at home with Ely. We even got a quick visit with Rachel for a couple hours one weekend and another hour the next.

It was nice to go to Alyssa's beautiful wedding and have the opportunity to visit with the Hatch family. We love the updates from all of you in this newsletter and on Cluster! Have a great September.

DARREN AND AMY

We had planned on having a relaxing August but the last minute it started filling up. The first weekend we went to Logan and spend a few days with his family. Then we decided to head to Bear Lake the following weekend . We swam and did a lot in common with our trailer up there. Then we go to Lake Powell for five days. We stayed on a houseboat on adventures and did a lot of boating and skiing. We had a few days to bang out with Ely before school started. The kids attended three days of school. Tyler is in fifth grade and Ella is in third grade. Abby starts preschool soon. We flew to Wisconsin and stayed with Safra for four days on Lake wabesa. Then yesterday we drove to Minnesota to start the celebrations for Darren's sister Ranell's wedding. It's been a wonderful month

ERIC AND JENNY

August was a great month for visiting. We visited with the Van Dusen's (med school), the Ferrins ( from Idaho), Andrea Johnson and her kids (from middle and high school), and with Rachel and Ely. Great relationships. :). The kids were in school for a little bit at the beginning of the month but then had a three-week break. We called it our second chance at summer. We took a little road trip back up to Idaho to visit old friends and our old ward. We bought a bigger and stronger swingset. Eric and Miles and sometimes Grace helped to build it. We also went on a little camping trip. Soccer has started and we are attempting to manage that schedule as well. Plus, at the beginning of August we got some landscaping done in the yard and we are so excited to have grass and a few trees and shrubs.

BEN AND RENEE

August was my paint the basement month- which consumed 3/4 of the month. We did celebrate Ruth's 5th birthday with a fun water party in the backyard. Thank you Allen's for the awesome water slide! Ruth felt celebrated so it was successful- we certainly love her! We enjoyed Alyssa Aramaki's lovely wedding dinner and reception as well as two of Ben's family members get married and we enjoyed the festivities for them including hosting the wedding dinner for his nephew Calvert. We fit in a date to Top Golf- a super fun golf place that's unique and we're excited to take Dad there when he gets back! We went swimming at Megan Gardner's pool as a last hurrah of summer and my sisters were nice enough to take my girls to the 2 Sandy splash pads when they went with Ely. We really loved visiting with Ely and seeing Rachel who totally spoiled us with her Hawaiian goods! I turned 30 and for my birthday I wanted Ben to install the kitchen cabinets in the basement which he did amazingly! The basement is coming along with the counter-tops being installed this week, carpet next week and I'm tiling the bathroom currently which includes leveling out the floor. Our friend Anya and her mom and two kids will be able to move into the basement in 2 weeks. Thanks mom and dad for letting them stay here for a couple weeks before it's done. We made some last minute changes to where we decided to do school this year and switched the kids from the spanish dual immersion program at Midvale Elementary (15 mins away from our new home) to our new local public school where they have 8 cousins attending and all their new ward friends will go there too. So Beth and Ruth started 1st grade and Kindergarten at Silver Mesa and we'll hope they can get into the Spanish program at that school. So far they love it there especially because they walk home with a bunch of cousins to Grandma Beus' house where I pick them up. Our Peony Way home is still under contract but the inspection and appraisal are done and they have submitted the loan for underwriting so we are hoping to close in a week or two. We are blessed so much and we're grateful for our many blessings which you are all included in!

Nola's Journal

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

August Family Blurb 2016

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