The Gathering Begins...

 Libbie and Jeff's family arrived back from California and Jen and the kids returned from her sister's so the party began.  Cousins start  to get acquainted.

 I went with Jeff and Libbie to the sites downtown.  Benson and Sadie really enjoyed the children's museum. 

 I think Sadie could have practiced her Spanish dancing all day.

 After enjoying the flowers of Temple Square and a burger at Crown burger, Jeff and the kids hit the condo pool.

 The next morning Jen and I took the kids to the zoo, while Jeff & Libbie had some together.

 That afternoon Taylor arrived.  Boy was his family happy to see him!  Then they headed north to CV.

 That night I picked up Tiffany and Abigail from the airport.  We were happy to get everyone to bed in the cozy condo.
The next day was Sadie's birthday.  It started off with Abigail creating fancy hair styles for Sadie and herself.  We met Grandma Great Ann for lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then we headed for CV ourselves.  We had planned a pizza party complete with a pinata and fancy birthday cake which Sadie had requested.  I think that she had a fun day with so many of her cousins.

The Quickest Month Ever...

 Our last weekend before the official reunion, Steve and I spent in CV preparing for company.  The girls helped me make goodies and played with new (old) dress ups.  Steve cleaned the garage with the result that we can actually park two trucks in it.  Hooray!

 I was so excited for August to come so our entire family could be together.  Now it's been a month since I posted and the whole month just blew past and it's all a pleasant memory.  I hope that I can capture part of this historic time before I forget the important parts.  McKay arrived on August 2nd and we had an hour or so for him to swim with the kids in the condo pool.  Tricia was especially happy to see her husband again.  Their weekend was full of high school reunion activities for Tricia.  I'm sure they enjoyed it.

Welcome Wagon!

Yesterday we were visited by a counselor in the bishopric and asked if we would serve as the Welcome Wagon greeters.  Actually, he called us to be the ward historians.  They way he described the job was that we are assigned to visit all the new members of the ward, take their pictures and write up an article spotlighting them for the ward newsletter which we will give to the ward newsletter editor. Then we are to get with the secretaries of each organization and get their historical reports on a regular basis (I'm not sure how often that is-monthly? quarterly?)  At the end of the year, we will use all of the information we have gathered to write a historical report.  In the meantime, we will keep a ward blog recording all of the activities and pertinent information and update it regularly.
Steve is excited about this calling because he thinks it is right up MY alley.

Today at church, they sustained us and mentioned that it is interesting it is the first time new ward members have been called as ward historians.  Oh, well.  We like firsts.
Then they asked us to say the prayers in Sunday school.  Right after Sunday school, they asked us to talk in church in a couple of weeks and gave Steve a home teaching assignment that can be done on Sundays because we are only here on weekends.  In Relief Society they needed a last minute fill-in for the chorister so I did that.

We are definitely "on the radar now."  I guess this is home now.

Airport Shuttle Driver

 I'm the airport shuttle driver and I love my job!  On Tuesday afternoon, the 23rd, I was happy to pick up Cameron, Jessica, Thomas and Tricia from the airport and deliver them to Tricia's parents.  They will spend the first portion of their visit with their cousins and grandparents on Tricia's side of the family.  They have a lot of fun activities planned.  It was so great to see them.

 Late Wednesday evening on the 24th, I picked up Jeff, Libbie, Benson, Sadie and Xander from the airport.  The flight arrived at 1 a.m. their body time, so we got everyone to bed as quickly as we could. The next morning at 7:30, I was back at the airport picking up Steve as he arrived from his trip to North Dakota.

 We planned to spend a day together checking out the church sights downtown.  We started with a tour of the Conference Center because we all wanted to see the amazing roof.  It was a little lengthy for the kids but they were awesome.

 We decided the next stop would be lunch so we went to the Garden Room at the JSMB so we could enjoy the amazing view of the temple. 

 After lunch we walked around the AMAZINGLY FABULOUS gardens on the plaza and the grounds of the LDS Church Office Building.  The beauty was truly breathtaking!

 We decided to check out City Creek and let the kids do some running around in the play area near the food court.  There seemed to be hundreds of kids and about 10 adults.  Benson, Sadie and Xander all loved it.  At least our family was supervised with 4 adults to 3 kids.

 We wanted to be sure to see temple square and visit the Tabernacle designed and built by our progenitor, Henry Grow, and the Christus in the vistors' center.  Sadie just can't stand still for even a minute.

 Friday morning we prepared lunches and snacks for their family trip to Vegas and California to visit with Jeff's family for the next 10 days.  Hope you all have lots of fun.

 I worked all day Friday previewing and showing homes.  I was most hopeful that I would be writing an offer as I had carefully selected the very best options.  We drove up late to our CV home with plans to write the offer and email it for signatures the next day.  It didn't happen but not for lack of effort on my part.

 We had heard about the local Farmers' Market but just kept missing it.  This morning we were determined to see it.  It is like a mini fair with lots of local vendors selling not only produce ( we bought beans, raspberries, and iris starts), but also bakery goodies, food, fresh squeezed lavender lemonade (yummy), crafts, jewelry, arts, etc from local artisans and businesses.  I loved it!

 Then we went fruit tree shopping.  I don't know which tree I love the most--either the Elberta peach or the MacIntosh apple--but the cherries, plums, pears, and apricots will be good too.  We bought 9 fruit trees and picked out a couple of others for the yard.  It was raining but we didn't mind.  We loved visiting the local nurseries and found one way out in the sticks that we really love.

 Later in the afternoon the sun came out so we cleaned our patio for the first time.  We are getting ready for company.  We love watching the gorgeous sunsets from our deck.  Last night was another beauty.