VISITS FROM CALIFORNIA AND BOSTON

Dear Family,

People sometimes ask me what we do all week and it never seems like enough or anything too significant but we seem to keep busy with our church assignments and ongoing family activity.

Last week we had a wonderful time with visits and family events. Rick and Gemina came up from California for a few days visit. We picked them up at the airport on Thursday and drove to Provo. Gemina wanted to see the Karl Bloch art exhibit. BYU has this great exhibit of several Bloch's large paintings of the Savior. Mike, a tenured professor at BYU, could not get tickets on short notice but Gemina was able to get four tickets and we traveled down to the exhibit. It was great and very moving and all should see this if they can.

Rick went off a little to see Mike in his office. We went to a little noodle restaurant. They stayed over and on Friday Rick had business and Gemina went shopping with Cheryl's kids. They always love to go with Gemina who had been a clothing advisor to the Hollywood stars. Saturday, Rick went cross country skiing with Doug.

On Saturday we drove back down to Provo to attend the Provo Temple as Josh went through prior to his Mission to Houston TX. That was great and it so good to be in the Temple with Emily, John , Johnny and Josh. We had Josh's birthday celebration at JF Chang. We had to get a fire extinguisher to cool down Johnny as he chewed on one of those little dried red peppers.

Here is a picture of the gang at the Provo Temple.

That night we had a visit from Becca Christensen who was one of our great sister missionaries in Graz and Vienna.

She has a degree from Simmons in Social Work and is now a social worker in Boston helping immigrant children from all over, especially from Asia. She was a super missionary and we were tickled to see her again. She stayed overnight and went to church with us on Sunday. Here is a picture of Becca and Mom. I gave the lesson in our distinguished quorum.

After Church. Rick, Gemina and Madeline came over for a quick lunch. They had been hanging out at Cheryl's. On Friday night, Rick and Gemina babysat all of Cheryl's kids so they could have a moment of peace. Rick took them all out to Hires where we all had burgers and shakes. It was quite a scene. I kept the little kids busy with games on my Ipad until the food came, which they did not eat completely. Kinda reminded me of the reasons we rarely took the kids out to eat.

It was a great weekend and we love spending time with family and friends. I guess we kept busy.

Alles Gute, Oma u. Opa