MY AMAZING FAMILY

Here is my family. Everyone is in here except Chris, Lori's husband, who is in the Air Force. Also not pictured are the two youngest grandchildren, Felicity and Nicholas. I love my family. They are so precious to me. What would we do without family? I am very fortunate to have such a wonderful family that I am so proud of.

Today was July 24th. We started off the day with a parade. Kaya, my oldest granddaughter who is 16 now, drove my Mini Cooper in the parade. I had red, white and blue balloons on it. We had a lot of fun. There were 31 entries in the Ivins parade. It was pretty neat. At noon Dennis and I went to the park where they had booths. I bought a couple of pair of earrings from a lady who makes jewelry. I saw my friend there, Janet, who has lost tons of weight. She is now down to 125 pounds and looks fabulous!

Later in the afternoon Randy, Kaya and Nathan came over (Oyunn is in Norway visiting her mother). We had grilled salmon, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and home made chocolate cake for dessert. We played Wii and I fell asleep in the recliner downstairs. I was so tired I slept until they went home. Now my night is gone and I have so many things I need to do to get ready to leave for Salt Lake tomorrow. I'm excited because Jenny got tickets for the Osmond concert Saturday night with the Tabernacle Choir in the new conference center. We are going to 2 family reunions. One on Saturday, the Woodard family reunion (my newly discovered family which is another long story I will write about later), and the Hancey brothers reunion which they always hold around Dennis' mom Norene's birthday. That one is in Mill Creek Canyon. It should be very nice and cool up there. We will spend the day up there on Sunday, and then come home Sunday evening as I have to work on Monday. @%*$$*!!! job. Well, anyway, I am thankful that I do have a good job with benefits, even though it ties me down so much.

I'd better go and pack my stuff now. See you soon! Love you all.

MY FRIEND THE BARONESSA

This is a picture of my friend from Germany, Baronessa Helene Christina Hoffman. She moved in next door to us in about 1987, just after we built the home we are living in now. She was the most interesting person. She had so many stories of Germany and growing up in a small town and being part of the "royalty" there. She was in the summer olympics in about 1932, as I recall, entering the swimming contests. She showed me her swimming suit which she still had, and told about seeing Hitler come along and congratulate the people. For a long time I would go over to her house just about every day and spend several hours in the afternoon just sitting and listening to her stories. She taught me how to make veinerschnitzel and German potatoe pancakes. She had cancer and died about 10 or 12 years ago, if I recall correctly.

ADVENTURES IN SWEDEN

This is a picture I took last 2 years ago when we went to Sweden. I loved Sweden, so did Dennis. We had a great time there. This is a part of the town called "Old Town" where the buildings all look like this. The streets are cobblestone, and it is really beautiful. It was very cold there and I didn't bring my jacket with, so we went into a little sweater shop on a side street and bought a Norwegian "Dale" sweater. We walked and walked and loved every minute of our trip.

DINNER AND A MOVIE WITH FRIENDS

Friday night we had a great time with our friends Lynn and Edna. We hadn't done anything with them in a long long time. We went to dinner and talked and talked about everything, especially our kids. Then we came back to our house and watched a movie.

t was so great sharing what has been happening in our lives and the lives of our families. When we were raising our children years ago, before we both got jobs and became working mothers, we used to spend so much time together with our kids. We went camping together, shopping for sales, etc. It's great to have friends, and great to get together. Thanks for being such good friends!