18 August 2019

Helen met some friends at 6 am on Monday to go pick pears. From the left are Elise, Mary, Mia, Helen, Annie and Ava.

Becky, Sofi, Helen and Gibson left on Wednesday to visit family and drop Sofi off at school. Our first stop was to visit Sarah, Joe and Zina. We got to help Sarah decorate a bulletin board for her classroom. Helen made these posters using quotes Sarah picked out.

 Here is the finished bulletin board. We all worked together to create a Viking ship sailing on a tempestuous sea. Later this month, Sarah will help her class make their own ships to add to the bulletin board.

 Joe and Zina took us to ride their horses, Roany and Duke.

Sofi is the best rider out of the 4 of us.

Joe keeps his horses at his friend, Dave's, place. Dave has this helpful sign on his barn.

Here's a photo of Gibson and Joe riding Duke.

Our next stop was to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Pocatello. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broke ground for a temple in Pocatello this spring. We stopped by the construction site. Right now the workers are pouring the concrete basement. 

We drove from Pocatello to Salt Lake City. Abe was able to do baptisms at the Salt Lake temple a few years ago. Since the Salt Lake temple is going to close for 4 years for renovation, we wanted Helen and Gibson to be able to go before the temple closes. We should have taken a photo before we were dripping wet😄

 These are the sweet missionaries who took our photo. One sister is from Arizona and the other is from China. She joined the church 10 years ago-- in China! We learned Chinese people can be baptized in China as long as they aren't the first member of the church in their family. The missionary's aunt joined the church in Hong Kong. The aunt introduced her nieces to the church and they were baptized. Two years ago the missionary's mom and dad were baptized. It was exciting to hear how the gospel is spreading one person at a time in China.

Saturday was move in day for Sofi. She's back in the honors dorm she lived in as a freshman, but in a different wing. With Helen and Gibson's help, we took everything up to her room in one trip. Sofi's dorm is an apartment with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room. She shares it with 3 other women.

We had lots of cousin time while we were in Utah. Saturday night we went swimming at Cherry Hill. We were last in Utah in January and we couldn't believe how much the cousins had grown in a few months!

It's much easier to drop your 21 year old off at college than your 18 year old. Sofi is set for a great school year! We missed having Brandan and Abe along. Brandan stayed home to work and Abe had soccer practice. It was a fast trip and we're already looking forward to our next trip out.