This summer we all went to Virginia for a family reunion. Ken, my brother, rented a lake house about two hours south of DC at Lake Anna and invited the family to come down. Lake Anna is a man-made lake that has a constant water temperature of between 73 and 100 degrees. It is heated by a nuclear reactor. It was kind of weird to hop out of the boat and feel like you'd gotten into a hot tub. The three-eyed fish were not too frequent and all our warts fell off within 24 hours. The water skiing was fantastic. It is amazing how easily the kids got up on skis when we told them about the alligators.

Josh, Jessica, Art and Andrew all went skiing on the fourth of July at Snowbird this year. Here we are at the top of the tram before heading down to the Little Cloud lift. Art went with his brother Ken the last time the resort was open (on July fourth, in 1995). The skiing wasn't bad, but the lines were horrendous. We only got two runs (and a tee-shirt). Later in the day we went to Ogden to meet with Carolee's family and go swimming.

Andrew was already in DC, having attended the Scout Jamboree at Fort AP Hill. He got in at the last minute when one of the young men in one of his cousin's troop dropped out and Carolee's sister called to see if Andrew wanted to fill in the slot. Andrew and his cousin David had a blast together and everyone came home with virtually everything complete to get his Eagle.

Jessica finished her first year of college. She has made plans to go to Ukraine and teach English to children between 3 and 7 years old. Her friend Abby told her about it. She looked into it and thought it would be fun. She had saved enough money because of her scholarship at Weber that she could write the check to go. So, she decided to go. Later she asked her parents if they thought it was a good idea. We talked about it, did a little research and felt it was probably a good decision. She still works at the hospital. They like her there and say her position will be there when she gets back. Earlier this summer she ran a relay half-marathon from East Canyon Reservoir to Hogle Zoo and the U of U with two of her friends from college.

Joshua earned his eagle this year. He is a senior was recently awarded Sterling Scholar in English and runner up for Sterling Scholar in music at Park City High. A few months ago he was nominated as "Mr. Miner." Once nominated you go through a kind of strange-beauty-contest with several different short sketches. He is did a stand-up comedy sketch as his talent (and helped another competitor and good friend do a song). When he was asked to dress up as a jungle creature, he came out on stage dressed in a very tight (as in, "I have not worn this since sixth grade," tight) Winnie the Pooh costume. And he won! Recently he went to the Homecoming dance with a cute girl from orchestra named Alysa Patterson. The theme was "Through the Decades." He rented a disco suit and a wig and she bought a 70's style dress. He looked like John Travolta's half-black-brother. His seminar teacher told a story to us about how on the first day of school some girl in the class asked Josh if he had a pencil. He dug around in his backpack and drug out this pencil that was about a foot long. His teacher sighed and told her she could use it if it wrote. It did. Then she asked Josh for an eraser. He drug a matching eraser out of his backpack that was about 6" long and 3" wide. Everyone started laughing.

Sarah made a move to a new school again. This year the Park City district put all the 6th and 7th graders together in one school. (We think it is a good idea. There is such a huge difference between 6th and 9th grades.) Now, all the 9th and 8th graders are together in another school. So there is less friction between grades and less pressure to act older than they really are. She spent some time at Girl's Camp and hung out with her cousins in Ogden. She got to be pretty good at knee boarding at Lake Anna. Her viola and piano skills continue to improve. She loves to read and is a good thinker.

Rachel is on track to be baptized next April. She is in second grade and loves her new teacher. We recently found a large Wolf spider on the back deck (it was a little larger than a man's palm). Some still think it was a Tarantula. She took it to school in a plastic container. Her teacher was horrified--- then she grinned and said, "show it to the teacher in the next room. She hates spiders." We did. She said, "Oh sure, I'm not fooled. That's a fake." We took the lid off and it moved. She seemed a little less sure "oh sure--- battery powered, or something." It started to crawl out of the box and she screamed, "it's is real, get it out of here." Rachel grinned widely and was content. She loves being obedient at times like these.

Art was recently called as second councilor in the Bishopric of the Canyons ward. (He has asked Carolee to send him pictures of his children from time to time.) A few weeks later he was cleaning leaves from a second story gutter and fell about twenty-five feet to the ground. He came away with five broken ribs, a gash in the head and a cracked lumbar. They kept him in the hospital for three days. Carolee saw the whole thing and was sure he was falling to his death. Given the length of the fall, all the medical personnel agreed with her. She could easily have been right. We feel blessed that it was not worse. One of Art's less active friends quipped, "Rather than jumping off the roof, wouldn't it have been easier to say no to that new calling in the bishopric?"

Carolee was recently called to teach Relief Society. She is sad to leave her Primary calling. She loved teaching Matthew's age group. She is an amazingly well prepared teacher, a great mom and even though she feels a little anxious about Relief Society, Art feels sure she will be great at her new calling.

Over the summer, a friend of hers at work got married in the temple. Her family was not LDS and had practically disowned her for joining the church. Care helped her by listening and offering advice on how to get through it all with her heart in one piece. She got to practice what it was like being the mother of the bride when her friend asked her to help her through the endowment and stand in for her mother as she prepared to be sealed. It was a sweet experience that she hopes to do again with all of her daughters.