Happy Labor Day

Hey, it's only been 4 weeks since my last post instead of 4 months. In that 4 weeks Liz and I have both turned 32 (hexadecimal) years old. Since our birthdays are only two weeks apart, Erin and Anna planned a party for us on Friday the 14th, which was close to halfway between the two dates. They invited friends from all three of the houses we've lived in, as well as friends from MTI (our theater company friends), and one couple that we met back in college that now live up in Idaho City. So, a lot of people there didn't know each other, but it was fun to see them all. Erin reserved a picnic shelter at a local park, and we had a pot luck dinner and cake. It was a bit windy, but that also kept it from being too hot. It was a lot of fun, but everyone went home too early. We like to party later into the night, even if we are old!

On Saturday the 22nd Liz and I drove up towards McCall and went on a short hike down to a small mountain lake called Blue Lake. The hike was a bit steep, but not too strenuous for us 32 year olds. It was a nice little Saturday getaway. I would post a picture or two, but they are on my computer back at home, and I am not there currently.

The reason I'm not there is because we are spending the Labor Day weekend in Utah. Anna and Liz drove down on Wednesday so that Anna could be at the wedding of her first mission companion on Thursday. Liz spent that day visiting with some friends from back when she lived in Provo while her mom was attending BYU. Erin and I drove down to Salt Lake on Thursday night, and stayed at a downtown hotel so that Erin could be at the Church Office Building early Friday morning for an interview for an internship with the Humanitarian Department. The brother she interviewed with wanted her to meet with the actual hiring manager, but apparently he was too busy that day to talk to her. It was a little frustrating that after she arranged to drive down for the interview they hadn't arranged to have everyone that needed to talk to her available to do so. It sounds like it would be a good opportunity for her, and I am sure she would do an excellent job at it, so hopefully they will get their act together and offer her a job soon.

I wandered around temple square taking pictures while she was interviewing. when she got done we had breakfast at the JB's next to temple square. They had told Erin that if they could get this other manager to schedule some time for her they would give her a call, so we wanted to hang around for a while. We went and toured the roof of the conference center, and then went to an organ recital in the Tabernacle. After that we took the shuttle bus over to the Humanitarian Center to take the tour there, and Anna and Liz met us there. It really is amazing all the Church has been able to do around the world. We went from there to the Hogle Zoo (we'd never been there before) and had a couple of hours to see the animals there before it closed. They had quite a few baby animals there, so the girls were all particularly excited about that.

We back south from there through some pretty heavy traffic and eventually made it to Amy's house where everyone from these parts was gathering for dinner. We enjoyed a fun evening of visiting.

Saturday noon we headed over to Edwin's to help celebrate Marie's birthday (she turned 3C hexadecimal). All of their kids came into town and surprised her Friday night, and then they had a barbecue on Saturday. Kathy and Becky came down from Logan, and Alicia and Ches and his wife came as well. It was fun to see all of Edwin's kids, some of whom we hadn't seen for quite a while. Edwin had gone through a bunch of old boxes of Marie's and framed a whole bunch of pictures, and made a scrapbook of letters and stuff, and wrapped them all up and gave them to her for her presents. She also got some pretty nice stuff from her kids.

Liz stayed there to visit for a while, but Erin and I headed back to Dad and Mom's to watch the BYU game. We missed the first two possessions in transit, but we heard them on the radio. Tim and most of his kids and Amy and Nate and their kids also came over to watch, and we enjoyed cheering the Cougars to victory together. Apparently Oklahoma has trouble beating teams that have a B and a U on either end of their names. First BSU in the Fiesta Bowl a few years back, and now BYU! We hope the Cougars can keep up the good work for the whole season. It would be nice to put some more pressure on the BCS to come up with a better method for determining the national championship.

For those who weren't there Friday night to hear in person, I should mention that in the 4 or 5 weeks that Anna has been home from school between terms, we have had two young men spend a week at our house (different weeks). The first was a guy she had met at school, and the second was an elder from her mission. Apparently the relationship with the first guy is now over, and Anna isn't sure what to do about the second guy. I think I might have mentioned in my last post that Erin was spending a lot of time with a young man whose family is in our ward, so I guess I should update you on that situation. They are now just friends, as he has returned to BYU and wanted to basically keep his options open. Erin went to visit him last night, so maybe someday he'll come to his senses and realize he won't find anything better than Erin out there. If not, it's his loss.

Now you have all the juicy details on our last 4 weeks.