Peter's Birthday and The Wall Street Scandal--Preparing for December Events

We have made it through the first of the holiday festivities with much activity and involvement. It began the weekend before Thanksgiving week. Peter’s birthday was on Thanksgiving Day, but Kortney wanted to put on a big surprise for him and scheduled a surprise party for him on November 23, the Saturday before his birthday. She rented a soft serve ice cream machine and set up a really cute ice cream bar, with toppings of all varieties and syrups and sauces, and cookies and other treats. She arranged to have it in the club house of one of the student apartment complexes in Provo. When he was in high school, Peter cut a CD called Pete Plays the Classics where he played music on his recorder, and had collaborations with a number of his friends. The music really wasn't strictly classics in the classical music sense, but they were silly songs that he and his friends had made up, and traditional songs like “Oh Suzanna” and other folk tunes appropriate to the recorder. There were also numbers that had been original works. Peter had written a poem called: Ode to My Belt, which had been set to music, and a song that he and a friend had written to perform at EFY called Modest Girl. Kortney’s idea was to have these collaborators come and play and sing in a sort of concert honoring the creation of this project. The response to Kortney’s idea to have a concert of the music from the CD was very good initially, although four of the performers dropped out the day before. One of the numbers on the CD was a poem that Paul wrote which Peter recited and for this “concert” Paul performed it. He did a nice job and because it is a humorous poem—got a big laugh. It was a really fun party. There were guests from a lot of different areas of his life. Old friends, of course, family on all sides, people from work, from Humor U, and extras, too. It came off really well, even if some of the performers weren't able to attend. Kortney enlisted the help of some family members to perform some of the numbers not represented by their original artists. Kortney had a photographer (her sister) take pictures of the guests and they are a souvenir of the evening. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving week because I only had to work on Monday and Tuesday and I had the rest of the week off. It is something quite divine to have a five day weekend. I had a few projects that I was working on. I am changing the sleeves on Erika’s wedding dress and a couple of other alterations. And I got much of that alteration done. I am finishing up the last of my genealogical books and I worked on that. I did some of the cooking for Thanksgiving even though it was at mom’s home—I worked on that. And so the days passed away. Paul and I went to Petersboro and put down some grass seed on Wednesday and had a trip into Logan for lunch. On the Saturday night after Thanksgiving, Peter’s friend group held their 10th annual murder mystery party. As it turned out one of the couples wasn’t able to attend and so Erika and Jono made up the fourth set of players. This murder mystery was set in 1987 and was called Wall Street Scandal –harkening back to the market crash in September of 1987. The costumes were an eclectic group of with some characters dressed very casually and some very dressy. This turned out to be the most appropriate time to use the dress that came from Aunt Lela’s collection. Erika looked very lovely in it and it fit her perfectly. She didn't love it, actually didn't want to wear it, but I talked her into it and Jono though it was such an interesting dress that she had to wear it. These murder mystery parties are always a lot of fun. They are work for me because I put on the dinners, but the kids anticipate them very much and there is so much laughter and animated chatter that I just have as much fun as they do vicariously. It is always very interesting to see what the players will be wearing and how close to they are to the costume suggestions that they get with their invitations. It has also been fun to see the participants grow up. We started doing this when the four main boys were juniors in high school and now they are in their late twenties married with children. And still trying to figure out what their lives are going to turn out like. Some are still in school, some just graduating, some working. Erika has been around for much of the years these murder mysteries have been going on. She has never attended one of Peter’s group because in the beginning she was too young and later she was away at school. She has had her own Murder Mystery parties with her own friends, but this is the first time that the two worlds have intersected. She knows Peter and Kortney well, but Peter’s friends have just been acquaintances for all these years. This was the first experience where she has been one of the group. I think that was nice for both Erika and Peter, but I don’t think either of them thought much about it. It just was that was the way it was. This is the end of the November activities and now we are looking forward to December activities. Dad has landed four tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert so we will be going to that. Tonight is my first Christmas Party of the season. It will be a dinner at the home of the head counselor at Corner Canyon High School and will be the five counselors, their husbands and/or wives, and the secretary and her husband (that would be me.) I am bringing the vegetables. Desserts, drinks, appetizers, and vegetables are being brought by the guests and Allyson is providing the meat. She has a lovely home and it will be an enjoyable evening to be sure. We will be having a number of parties, activities and concerts as part of the season. (Which is my favorite part) I will host one of my bookclub Christmas parties. The other one will be at a restaurant. The ward Christmas Party is on Saturday. We also have the Back Country Horseman Christmas Party. I am not doing the dinner this year—but I am in charge of the table decorations so I am thinking about that. I have started getting our Christmas decorations out. I have the tree up and most of the inside decorations up, but still have to put out the outside decorations and that may be a bit tricky now, since we had our first big snow storm today.

Family Dinners, New Calling, Activities, Wedding Plans

This week I put on three family dinners. It is something that I enjoy doing and which doesn't stress me out—so it was just enjoyable and fun for me. The first was the family dinner on Sunday associated with my birthday. The second was with Paul’s mom, Rae and Lynn and Erma and the third was one that was in the planning for quite a long time. It was a dinner that I hosted to meet Scott and Julie Bult, Jono’s parents. Erika, of course, had known them for a long time, and I had met Julie when we went to the caterer’s for a tasting of the menu that we were thinking of for the wedding reception. Neither Paul nor I had met Scott Bult. They were lovely and charming people and we had a great time. I served raclette—. It was the first time for the Bults and we all had a fun time with it. It was new for Jono, too and he loved it. He says a raclette machine is in his and Erika’s future. On Sunday I got some sad and disappointing news. I am in my favorite job in the church, Primary Music Leader, but I was asked to come in for an appointment on Sunday morning and in December I will taking on a new calling and will be released from my current one as Primary Music Leader. This was very bad news—because I was very happy in my present calling. I am going to be one of a revolving set of Gospel Doctrine teachers. I will only have to teach every three weeks or so—so that will give Paul and me a certain amount of flexibility to travel and go to the cabin and make other trips—like the one we have planned to New England in the spring. Paul teaches the high priest group on a rotation as well, so if our weeks are coordinated that will be nice—but I will really miss this calling and being with the children and enjoying primary. This is a sad moment for me. Tonight Paul and I are going out to dinner and then to a play at the Hale Center Theater. It is the theatre that is in the round and we are going to see Brigadoon. We will be meeting Mom and Dad there. It is the final hurrah for my birthday celebration. It was such a busy time the week of my birthday that we didn't try to schedule it until some of the other things that were going on had passed. Erika and I went shopping yesterday for dresses for the bridesmaids to wear. We picked out a skirt that we really liked only to find that it is on clearance and we will probably have a hard time finding enough of them for everyone. Isn’t that just the way things go? Plans and ideas are changing and being adapted regularly as we face the reality as opposed to the fantasy. But we are happy and pleased with the way that things are going and think that it will be a wonderful occasion no matter what happens. Two weeks ago Erika and Jono went to the Main Salt Lake Library for their engagement photo shoot. Yesterday we got the proofs from the photographer. And they are just lovely. There are so many lovely pictures. Erika looks beautiful and radiantly happy—Jono looks so handsome. The photographer did such a great job. I don’t know if you have ever been to the downtown library, it is a modern building with lots of steel and glass, lots of interesting architectural features and angular shapes. It has a very urban look to it with paving stones and tall structural partition. Erika and Jono had two different outfits—one set more dressy and formal and one more relaxed and casual. They looked darling in both of them. It has been fun to be more of a part of the wedding preparations—and I am trying to include Julie Bult in as much as possible because it is her event as well as my event. The library has significance since Erika is an English teacher. Peter’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year. This is the second time that I remember this happening since he was born. Kortney is putting on a surprise birthday party for him on Saturday, Paul and I and my parents are going. It should be a fun event—she is putting on a concert –inviting old high school friends to participate --for him—there will be an ice cream bar and treats. I am looking forward to it—it should a fine event. We are planning on Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad’s home. I offered to hold it at my house this year, but Mom said that she is up to it this year, but maybe not next year so we are off to grandmother’s house for thanksgiving—even though it is not over the river and through the woods.

Busy Week--ACT, Lauper Ladies Luncheon, SLCA Concert and More

Paul has returned from the Far East and Pacific Rim. He had a good and busy trip, but I think he is glad to be home. I am certainly glad that he is home. It has been exhausting to do horses twice a day for ten days in addition to all the other things that have been going on. I enjoy doing horses and the horses seem to be glad to see me---or anyone really who is going to feed them—they are friendly. Indy has become friendlier over the years, and comes up to me to be petted and attended to. Because I have to be at work at 7:00 a.m. and the school where I work is the opposite direction from our house than the pasture, I have had to leave the house at about 5:45-6:00. It has made for very early mornings for me. I have been so tired in the evenings that I have gone to bed consistently earlier than I have for a long time. Saturday was the administration of the ACT Test and we had about 250 students testing. I had twelve testing rooms and a number of proctors who needed to be trained so I spent the afternoons and evenings all week long training the new ones. I use Peter, Kortney and Erika as room supervisors, and then teachers, and college students and even one of my neighbors. I am responsible for hiring them and making sure they are trained so they know what they should be doing. That has been time consuming and fussy since the times are at their convenience and not mine. Thursday Marilyn called and asked if Rusty and Ethan could stay at our house because they were coming on Friday to attend a BYU Football game. I was happy to do it, but pointed out that I would be leaving the house on Saturday morning very early to get over to Brighton High School for the ACT Test. I had to feed the horses before I got there and I had to be there at 6:30a.m. so I was leaving the house at about 5:45. Erika was one of the room supervisors so she had to leave before 7:00 a.m. So there was not going to be anyone at our house to put on a breakfast for them or greet and entertain them or be a host in any way. Also because I had to get up so early and be sharp during the day—I was going to have to go to bed early and didn't know if they would get to our house before I went to bed. As it turned out, I got into my pajamas and robe and went to bed at about 10:30p.m. They hadn't arrived yet. I thought when they arrived I would wake up, but in fact, I didn't. I didn't even hear them come in. Erika came in at mid-night and I was aroused by her moving around in her bathroom. I asked her if she had seen Rusty and Ethan. (I had set up a mattress and sleeping bag for Ethan in the basement and was putting Rusty in Philip’s old room. There were fresh towels and the area was ready for them and I had told Marilyn that I was putting them there. So they knew where to go.) She said that she hadn’t seen them, but that their car was parked out in front. So I guess they made it sometime in the later evening, and had found their way to our basement. In the morning I put out some spoons and bowls and boxes of cold cereal, but Erika and I both left before they came upstairs. I was gone all day on Saturday. I left at 5:45. I supervised the ACT at Brighton and when the test was over, I spent about 1 ½ hours sorting through the documents and test booklets packing them up and getting them ready to ship back. Kortney stayed and helped me get them ready. Then there was a stop at the UPS store to mail back the test booklets and a trip to the Post Office to mail the test documents. On top of that on Saturday afternoon, Mom was hosting the annual Lauper Ladies Luncheon. It is a luncheon she host every year with all the women from the Lauper family who live in the area. Usually between fifteen and twenty women and young women and sometimes a few little girls. She serves a buffet style lunch—usually a couple of salads, a fruit tray, breads, and some desserts. Light and quite easy. Some years I do the desserts—but not this year because I was doing ACT and coming late. Everyone visits, they we go around the room and update our lives in a few sentences and catch up with everyone. There are some silly prizes each year for those who have never missed, who came the furthest and other notable things. Then everyone gets a prize for coming. We sing the Lauper Family Song, (written years ago by my Aunt Paulie) and then more visiting until people want to leave. It began at 1:00, but Kortney and I didn't get there until 3:30, with the work of finishing up the test and getting everything mailed. We didn't arrive until 3:30, but everyone was still there visiting and having seconds on the desserts. I was glad that we had made the effort because it is the only time that I see some of these extended family members. Erika missed this year because she and Jono were having their engagement pictures taken. They had them done outside with fall foliage in casual clothing. Next Saturday they are having a second set done in more dressed up clothing at the Salt Lake Library. And a few shots downtown in a more urban setting. Erika was happy with the fall colors shoot but I haven’t seen any of the pictures yet. They are in post-production now and she will get a digital copy of them later. We haven’t really done much more yet getting ready. This week Erika and I will visit a few possibilities for her reception and then make a decision about that. Jono’s mother is starting to plan the wedding dinner for the evening before the wedding. We will not be inviting every extended family member—some of our extended family members will just be invited to the reception—not to the wedding dinner. Erika and Jono have a large wedding party to begin with and both of our families have large extended groups and the dinner could soon be overly large if there aren't a few limits on it. The wedding is planned for 12:20 in the Salt Lake Temple and the reception will be that evening. Anyway, we are beginning to move forward toward the marriage of Erika and Jono—and happily. This will be a fun time. As if ACT and Lauper Ladies Luncheon wasn't enough for one evening, Erika’s Salt Lake Choral Artists Concert also fell on Saturday night. After Lauper Ladies, I had to drive Kortney out to about 14300 to meet Peter who had picked up Eleanor in Herriman. Kortney’s parents who live out there watched Eleanor while Peter and Kortney did the ACT. So, Peter went to pick up Eleanor while Kortney helped me and went to Lauper Ladies. Then we met on the Bangerter Highway to get Kortney back together with Peter and Eleanor. Then I had to go back to 6200 South to feed the horses, they were out of water so I had to fill the troughs, and then home to pick up the tickets to the concert. I had left home at 5:45a.m. and it was after 6:15p.m. when I got home. I was home for 15 minutes and then left to pick up Mom and Dad to go to Erika’s concert. Paul wasn't home yet so he missed this one. When I was home, I saw evidence that Rusty and Ethan had actually been at our house, they had deflated the mattress and folded it up and the sleeping bag and made the bed and left everything very tidy. And there were a couple of bowls in the sink which seemed to indicate that they had eaten a meager breakfast—not the one I would have served had I been at home—but anyway they had eaten something. Erika’s concert was in a different hall than the one that you attended-- a beautiful and very acoustically live building that made the concert excellent. It was wonderful music and a terrific concert. I really enjoyed it. I thought I would fall asleep, it had been such a long and busy day—but it was so good that I was awake and attentive the whole time. Mom and Dad enjoyed it very much, too. When it was over, though, I went home and went to bed. I had to meet Paul at the airport at 7:10 the next morning, so it meant another early morning for me. But went happily to pick him up. So glad that he is home and safe. He brought home some fun surprises from Japan and the pacific rim. For me he brought some beautiful Noritake plates. (I am a softie when it comes to dishes. They will always please me.) They are lovely fine bone China in a blue pattern with gold trim—and they go with other China patterns that I have.

Another Weekend Trip to Petersboro

Erika and I had an interesting experience with regard to a wedding. Paul brought home a week or so ago an invitation to the wedding reception of the daughter of David Frischknecht, a man that he worked with when we lived in Frankfurt. She was just a little girl then and now she is all grown up and getting married. I put the invitation on the counter, thinking it would be fun to go. Paul wasn't able to go, but I began planning on attending because Nancy Frischknecht and I had been friends in Frankfurt and she had actually watched Erika when I made a quick trip back to the US to solve some driver’s license problems. Erika noticed the invitation on the counter and it turns out that she knew the bride who also teaches at South Jordan Middle School. They hadn't realized that they had both been children together in the same ward in Frankfurt even though they knew each other. So Erika ended up going to the reception with me and we surprised the bride with an old friend of her parents (me) and a co-worker (Erika) being related to each other. It was fun to be a part of that surprised moment. It was also fun to Nancy and David again. They live up near Layton in a place called Fruit Heights—and I haven’t seen them hardly at all since we have been back from Europe. This past week was super busy for Paul, being made up of five days of 12-14 hour work days. There was a group of international managers in for training and he - as the main shepherd of the group-- had to keep the show on the road - but as usual he did a pretty good job of it and drew some attention for a job well done. He was hosting an evening dinner on the night of the reception that Erika and I went to—so that is why he wasn't available to attend with us. Saturday Paul and I went to the brand new Brigham City Temple on the way to Petersboro where Paul did some spraying for weeds and gophers and then picked up a load of hay. It is truly a beautiful building. The finish work both inside and out is the arguably the nicest I have ever seen anywhere. We had intended to attend an endowment session, but they are still so new that you need an appointment to attend an endowment session. We didn't know that and just showed up. They made space for us in a sealing session so we were able to go into the building, but we didn't see the endowment rooms or the celestial room. It was exceptionally beautiful, the moldings and trim work is just sooo lovely. The exterior is sort of the same shape as the Salt Lake Temple, but it is sort of a softer gentler version. There is a fruit blossom motif used in both the interior and the exterior. I am looking forward to going there again to attend a session. We got final word this week that Peter passed his ethics test in addition to the bar and has his JD diploma. We are very proud and happy about that. He is working for Orem City Prosecutors Office right now but is applying for other jobs, too.

News of the Week

Another week has passed in our lives. It has been a wet week—lots of rain every day. The brown places in the lawn have lots of happy blades pushing up again. The week began with us as a big family group. Philip and Camille with Jonathan and Andrew spent the night with us on Monday and Tuesday we took them to the airport. That was a sad moment. We have loved having them with us at our house and also near and coming to dinner frequently. And we just adored the grandchildren. We are already looking forward to having them come and be with us in January and February. We will get them for about three weeks and the DeGoyler's will get them for about the same. They will be near in the not too distant future. And that it is a happy thought. I am already starting to think about Christmas presents and changing the arrangements in the basement to make it work better for them. They are always on my mind. This past weekend we were supposed to go on a Back Country Horseman activity. It was an overnight camping and riding event. We were all going to Settlement Canyon near Tooele where we were pitching tents and some people in their living quarters in their horse trailers. They were going to have a campfire in the evening and members were invited to come prepared to share cowboy poetry or songs—bring their instruments and such. It was going to be a nice time. I was going to go with Paul for the evening events and camp with him and then come home in the morning and he was going to go for the ride which was the next day. I was going to go in a separate car so I could leave without any trouble. But the event was cancelled due to inclement weather. And it was inclement. It rained like crazy on Friday and then cleared a little in the morning on Saturday—but was raining on Saturday afternoon. As it turned out—even if the weather hadn't been so bad, Paul and I wouldn't have gone anyway. I had the flu on Thursday and Friday and Paul wasn't feeling that great either—though not sick in the same way as me. I came home from work on Thursday, feeling poorly, took a hot bath and went to bed and slept all evening and all night. I felt somewhat better in the morning and went to work, but still wasn't in top form on Friday. Friday evening, because I felt like going to bed, but not like sleeping, I needed an “escape book” to read as I was convalescing and I settled on Edenbrooke—a book that I bought at Deseret Book for Grandma Kern’s birthday more than a year ago and which Erika had borrowed from a friend to read when she was at Lake Powell last summer. It was still here at the house so I read it and I knew it wasn't going to be something that would be difficult or have anything too unpleasant in it and that it would have a happy ending. I also knew that I would be able to finish it over the weekend. And so I started it on Friday night and finished it on Sunday. It was a fun, pleasant read and compared to a lot of the heavier things I have been reading lately, it was a bright breezy book. Just right for getting over a sickness. Grandma had read and enjoyed it and had encouraged me to read it, so I now I have scratched that off my list. On Saturday Paul suggested that we take a drive to Petersboro and see how the rain had affected our pasture there and if all of his grass seed had sprouted in the extra moisture. He offered me a movie in Logan as well, but we decided to go to the Logan Temple instead. I had seen the new temple film at the Jordan River Temple a couple of weeks ago when I went to the temple with an old friend, but Paul hadn't seen the new film yet. And it had been a very long time since we had visited the Logan Temple. I tried to think back and the last time that I remembered going was when Jimmy Kern married his first wife—we attended a session with the Demar and Doris Kern family on that occasion. Anyway it was a long time ago. Every temple has its own interesting features and look and things that make it memorable and unique. Paul and I were happy to have the experience of another temple—even if both of us had been there before, it seemed kind of like new because it had been so long. We never attended a session there before the renovations so it would have looked the same way it looks now back then, but neither of us remembered anything about it from 30 or so years earlier so it was as if seeing it for the first time. The next time that we go up to see the property we will go to a session in the Brigham City Temple. We haven’t been in that temple yet. And I have saved the best news for last. Peter called us on Sunday evening to announce that the results from the Bar Exam had been posted and that he passed. We are so happy for him and proud of him. This was wonderful news. Of course, it was a great relief for Peter, too. All the studying that he did this summer, the many hours he spent reading paid off for him. He is now a member of the Utah Bar. There will be a swearing in ceremony in October and we will be happy for that occasion, too. So our congratulations go out to him and to Kortney for the efforts getting him to this point.

We are winding down on our time with Philip and Camille. They leave Tuesday evening for Paris—one night there and then off to Djibouti. I have loved having Jonathan and Andrew near and we have them to dinner frequently. They are moving to our house today and we will have them tonight and then off they go. I have had toys in the family room all summer and I will have to put them away for the season and that seems so sad. Jonathan is three which is just my favorite age. He talks with us and is so imaginative and entertaining—he and Paul have done some special things together and they have a wonderful relationship. They have been coming to our ward all summer and it has been so fun to have a big row of family again. K.C. has returned from his Far East Trip. He was in China, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan. He had a great time. He’s back into the swing of things in Cambridge starting classes again. He enjoyed his experience with Friendemic—his internship this summer, but I think he is glad to be back in Boston, too. I am now working at the new Corner Canyon High School. Sometimes it feels a little like a dream to be here. I was at Brighton for a long, long time and I look around and wonder what happened to me. There have been good and bad things about this move, but I feel good about it and the positives out weight the negatives. I now have a 25 minute commute and I have been tackling some long books on CD that seemed too daunting before. I am listening currently to Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead , which is on every list, but which I had never read. It was pretty shocking in the 50’s, but it is quite interesting to me. It is 27 CD’s and runs for about 35 hours. But I will finish it in a month just by having it in the car. While her introduction states that it was all fiction—reviewers and critics and even the jacket of the CD’s claim it as a thinly veiled biography of Frank Lloyd Wright and his rise to prominence. I’m finding all the discussion of architecture engaging. I just finished a Kate Morton book—The Forgotten Garden—it was a book club book, and Janssen just reviewed it on her blog—not too heavy but leant itself to an involved discussion. We had a dinner at Grannie and Granddad’s last night. It was very nice. The family contingent here is decreasing. We has a good crowd with Philip and Camille and their two, Peter and Kortney and Eleanor, Erika and Jono, Paul and I –a big Kern group—and Stephen and Steve with Grannie and Granddad. Robin and Jeff gone, Merrick and Philip gone, Emily and Otto gone. The composition has changed over time.

Paul and I were up at the cabin over Labor Day. It was a very pleasant to be in Island Park. I had a very relaxing weekend. We left at about 4:30 on Friday afternoon from Salt Lake and it was after 10:00 when we arrived on Aspen Ridge. Paul had a horse ride in the Teton Wilderness area planned with Blake on Saturday and I was really happy to have a calm day with no great plans ahead of me. We did have an early morning on Saturday to get Paul off, meeting Blake at 8:00 a.m. My only agenda item for the weekend was the handwork on a T-shirt quilt that I was working on. I went on a walk in the morning and I had brought a book on CD that I started to listen to. My day went relaxingly and I made some progress on my book—I am listening to Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead which is 27 CD’s so I was happy to get through seven of them on Saturday and on my quilt. The weather was lovely on Saturday. My walk was bright and warm, but it is really dry. There was a fire going near TwoTop and so there was a smoky haze throughout. We were planning on leaving the remaining two horses in Island Park for a couple more weeks, but the pond is getting lower and Paul worried that they might run out of water before we could get back. (We will be in SLC for the next two weekends because Philip and Camille and their little family will be leaving next week and the weekend of the 7-8th is their last weekend here. And the next weekend is a Back Country Horseman Event in Settlement Canyon near Tooele which we will be attending.) So anyway—we decided to take the horses home with us. Paul had a long day’s ride, (he thought they had covered more than 25 miles—and there was also 1 ½ hour travel time on both ends) but got home about 7:30p.m. I had brought some old James Bond movies starring Sean Connery and we watched the first one of the twenty odd James Bond cannon. The first in the series was Dr. No. Ursula Andres was the Bond girl. We had to admit that the pacing of movies made in the 60’s is very different than what is expected now. It seemed a little on the slow and dull side—but we sat through it anyway. On Sunday evening we watched Goldfinger and we liked that better. We are not the least bit committed to watching the entire collection, but it was fun to watch a couple of old movies and see the perceptions that prevailed in the time that they were filmed. I brought four with me, but we only managed the two and frankly I think that was enough. Paul and I had been joking about old James Bond movies and so it was another nice diversion from the normal. Paul and I both enjoyed sleeping in on Sunday morning. We didn't set an alarm and just stayed in bed and kept dozing off until well after 9:00 on Sunday morning. We both get up very early on work days and so it was very indulgent to sleep in so late. The temperature in the cabin was the perfect mix of fresh and cool and yet not chilly. Paul and I both slept so well, I came home feeling really refreshed. Also it was so nice that we didn't have to rush home on Sunday, but had another day to enjoy—the blessing of a long weekend. We took down the teepee while we were there. It is stowed away in the boxes. We were a little bit sad to discover that we had disrupted the storage area of one or more industrious squirrels. Between the teepee wall and the liner there were probably more than one hundred pinecones. I wondered what the poor squirrel (s) thought when they came back to their safe haven to discover that the secure hiding place that they had discovered was completely gone and their pile of pinecones was totally exposed. Paul comforted me by saying that they would just search and find a new secure hiding place. And they still have a few weeks of good weather before the cold weather comes. We had a few rain showers on Sunday afternoon and a few more on Monday, but it wasn't enough to really clear the air of the smoke from the fire. I walked on Monday morning and it didn't even smell like rain, but by the time we were packing up the car, it was sprinkling again. But it stopped by the time we left. We’re back in SLC now. Both back at work. Everything is settling in for the fall. Philip and Camille will leave on the 10th. We will miss them very much. It has been fun to have them a part of our regular lives. Peter starts working for Orem City on September 9th, next week. He is looking forward to that. K.C. is back from his trip to the far east and is back at school at MIT. Erika is in full swing with school again. And so our lives move forward as usual.