20 August 2023

 

Abe cooked a Korean dinner on Sunday and taught Brandan how to make kimbap, which is Korean sushi. The difference between sushi and kimbap is kimbap only has cooked ingredients and uses sesame oil to season the rice.

Besides kimbap, Abe served beef bulgogi, kongnamul and kimchi. Everything tasted very good.

On Monday, Becky, Abe and Gibson drove Helen to Utah to help her move in to the dorms at the University of Utah.

Move-in day was Tuesday, August 15. Helen is living in Sage Point on the eastern edge of campus.

Abe and Gibson were extremely helpful and goofy at the same time.

We made time to watch two sets of Sasha's volleyball team against East High School. Sasha plays for Jordan High School.

Maks enjoyed playing with Abe, Helen and Gibson as much the volleyball game.

After the game we met up with Becky and Aaron's family, Drue and Maggie's family and Parker and Halie for dinner. Sasha's school mascot is the Beet Diggers so Sasha is making a beet with her hands in this photo. 

This is a photo of the cousins after dinner. Front row: Maks, Nico, Sasha and Xander. Middle: Halie. Back row: Parker, Gibson, Helen, Abe, Salem and Sutton. Salem and Sutton came straight from soccer practice to dinner. Their school mascot is the Miners as you can see from the pick axes on their shirts. Becky thinks both Beet Diggers and Miners are funny mascots.

On Wednesday we shopped for a few items Helen needed for her dorm. This meant more opportunities for goofy fun for Abe and Gibson.

We said goodbye Wednesday afternoon, leaving Helen to finish unpacking and get settled in. Her classes will start on Monday.

Abe found this cute throwback photo from 2014. In the meantime, Abe and Helen have traded schools.

We stopped to say hello to Grandpa and Grandma in Pocatello.

They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on August 7. Grandma is pretty much homebound, but both are in good spirits.

We drove by the Pocatello temple which was completed while Abe was on his mission.

Our next stop was Sarah and Joe's house. Sarah cooked some of the salmon that Gibson caught while we were on our Alaskan cruise. The fish tasted delicious and we congratulated Gibson on his excellent catch. Sarah and Joe sent us home with more salmon so Brandan can also try some.

Sarah and Joe took us to breakfast at Konditerei, an Austrian restaurant located in the Sun Valley resort.

The restaurant was beautiful inside and out with extraordinary food. Gibson and Abe shared a large cup of hot chocolate while they waited for their orders.

We spent Thursday at Red Fish Lake located in the Sawtooth mountains. It was a bright clear day and about 20 degrees cooler than the temperatures in the valley.

Becky enjoyed visiting with Sarah and Joe while Gibson and Abe played in the water, a delightful and relaxing day.

We drove through 4 states in 5 days and tried to visit as much family as possible. We stopped by Joe and Keri's house. Joe is a geologist and the chief minerals examiner for the Department of the Interior which means he has a great depth and breadth of knowledge of US history and policies from the Louisiana purchase up to the current day.  

Here's a photo of the cousins: From the left are Gibson, Abe, Hayden, Kolter, Gage and Sy. Sawyer was at football practice during our visit.

By the time we arrived home, thousands of insects plastered the front of our car. Abe and Gibson kindly cleaned them off. Kind for Becky. No comment from the insects.

This weekend was our stake conference. Abe sang in a missionary choir composed of newly returned missionaries, soon to leave missionaries and the missionaries serving in our stake. They sang "As I Have Loved You" in English, Spanish, Japanese, Swahili, Korean, Marshallese and Finnish, the languages which these missionaries taught in or will teach in. Abe is 4th from the left on the back row.

This is a photo of Abe with Gideon, a member of our ward. Gideon is a month younger than Abe and has Down's Syndrome. He spreads the same celestial sunshine now that he did when he and Abe were in Primary together-- lots of hugs. A note about Abe's necklace: before stake conference began, Abe met a 12 year old boy who offered to make members of the congregation necklaces during the conference. He had a sign up sheet with space for 5 people to sign up. Abe received the finished necklace at the end of conference.