Fun in Washington

Eric and Laura were the perfect entertainers when I visited Washington.  Thursday evening on the 5th of July I arrived.  Friday morning we drove to have breakfast at a place in Maltby.  No pictures, but you can order a plate-sized cinnamon roll for an appetizer. Then we took a quick tour of a small village of shops.  Just my luck there was a quilt shop there too.  We were busy most of that day doing family stuff like going to swimming lessons. We rested.  Friday we went to a fair at a nearby park. Saturday we drove 2 hours to a German tourist town.  We had fun.  It was so nice to see this family.  The boys are growing and were so so well behaved.  Here are a few pictures.

Cell Phone Fun

July 5th I flew to Washington.   The weather was sunny the whole time I was there.  I had fun seeing Eric and Laura, the kids, and the chickens.  I brought two old cell phones with the chargers and cases for each of them.   I was amazed at all the things the phones could do without service.  The kids mostly took pictures.  Since the calendars and clocks worked they put the birthdays of family members on the calendars. All the ringstones were still on the phones.   So many other things they figured out how to do.  Carefully they plugged in the phones to charge them every night.   The boys had fun playing with the phones and I had fun watching them.

Mom Gets Married

Summer finally came after my 18th year of teaching school.  The Merrell Family held our annual family reunion June 1, 2, and 3rd.  It was held in Virden this year.  Didn't take pictures but will next year.  I stayed at Mom's house.  When I arrived one of the first things Mom said to me was, "Can you believe it. Adele is giving me dating advice.  She told me that Jiggs Pace and I should be dating.  Jiggs is still married.  His wife is in a rest home."   Well the next Wednesday when Mom was at the temple working she saws Jiggs who was also working there and told him what Adele had said.  To make a long story short Jiggs's wife had past away the previous August.  Two days later Mom and Jiggs were engaged.  Then on June 30, 2012 they were married in the chapel next to the Gila Valley Temple where we had a nice dinner with family and friends. Jiggs Pace and my dad Ned Merrell were best friends growing up.  Also Mom and Jiggs dated steady during high school. After high school Jiggs went to school in Las Crues and then joined the military.  Dad stayed and went to school at Eastern Arizona College.  The service wouldn't accept him so he continued going to school. On the weekends he would take a car load of girls to a dance or a ball game.  That is where Mom and Dad's  courtship began. They dated exclusively for a while and then began their life together.  We are all so happy for Mom and Jiggs.  They will no longer be lonely and can renew their friendship with each other.  Most of their time will be working at the temple and attending the temple.

Trip to Washington

Well we had fun! As soon as I can remember how to transfer my pics I will.

The first pic would be of my team, the blue team, who I rode all day in a car with touring the area in a race against the red team. That was our first day.  We were competing  in an Amazing Race around Seattle planned out by Eric and Laura. Laura was the team leader for the red team.  Josh and Jacque were on that team along with Kacin, and Wade. I didn't take pictures of the red team, but you can see them in the next photo at Kyler's baptisim. 

The second most amazing thing we did was go to the baptism of Kyler's on Saturday. He is such a good boy. He bore his testimony on Sunday, along with Kacin and I.  Kyler read the Book of Mormon before he was baptised.  That is amazing!!

In the afternoon, on Saturday, we spent time in the front yard and backyard playing.

Notice the nice fenced in back yard.

Also, you can see the front of the cool house they just bought.  With a great amount of effort I think Eric and Laura painted most every room in the house.  The house with the open garage doors , three of them, is their house.

I took pictures of all the quilts I have given to the Allred family.

What I didn't take pictures of was the delicious food that Eric and Laura prepared for us.
They are great entertainers.

Also we had fun performing in the "Untalented Show".  No pictures. Sunday evening ended with all of us singing songs that Kyler had picked to sing at his baptism but there wasn't time to sing them all.  That was a spiritual moment with Kyler leading the songs and me playing them.. Kyler stole everyone heart.