Letter from Home - Monday, March 9, 2015

Dear Vickie, I had a wonderful visit with Steven as I took him down to Wickenburg, AZ for his job. Then I went to Robert's and stayed and attended church, then to Grandfather and Alba's and had a nice dinner and stayed the night. Monday morning we checked the brakes on the van and I looked at the weather report and thought it would be OK to go through Flagstaff. Not so. We drove and it got slower and slower. People were sliding off the side of the road. But I stayed in the 10 mph line of cars. Finally, the freeway was totally stopped for maybe an hour. The snow was really deep. Trevor and I (thank goodness I made him go with me) stopped and got lunch at Wendy's when we finally go into Flagstaff. Then we continued on our trek home. The roads were clear when we got off of the Flagstaff mountain. So we drove to Kanab. It was barely snowing. We stopped for dinner, filled the gas tank and got prepared to drive through the night so Trevor could get to school. About two miles out of Kanab we hit a blizzard so strong that we couldn't even see the road, let alone how awful it is to drive with snowflakes hitting the lights as you go along. So we carefully turned around and headed back to civilization and stayed the night at a hotel. The next day we got going after breakfast and drove home. We had to go slow several times because of other snow storms that seemed to hit us in waves. We got to Nephi and stopped for lunch. I finally tried that JC Mickelson restaurant that has advertisements for miles in advance. I've seen those billboards for years--even decades and never have stopped. It was really good food and very fresh. There's a train that goes around the restaurant above our heads that is cool to watch.

Oh well, we were glad to finally get home Tuesday afternoon at 3:30. I had called and cancelled both of my orchestra classes and excused Trevor from school earlier.

Wednesday Henry got 5 cavities filled at the dentist. He also needs to have his wisdom teeth removed. Fun, fun!

Thursday, Trevor played in his piano recital and did very well. I enjoy listening to his musicianship. He definitely has a talent for music expression.

Friday, we went out with the Turners.

Oh yeah, Aunt Malinda said I missed putting her in last week's email. We had gone out to lunch. We hardly ever get a good chance to just talk. So we had a great time eating at Kneaders. We need to do that more often. We need Aunt Jeanne to join us.

Saturday, we had a good rehearsal at Symphony. We are doing some pretty high class music. We have a pianist soloing with us doing a Rachmananoff Concerto. Our concert is March 28th--which I put 2 and 2 together yesterday--it is the same night as the General Women's Conference. Bad planning! We'll go ahead with the concert. But we'll meet afterwards and watch a recording of the Conference.

Sunday, Brother Chavez' daughter, Shayla Jenkins and her husband spoke in church. It was very good on doing missionary work. I really think the best way to find people to teach is by visiting the members with a good message and then asking for names from the members. Anyway, we are trying to do our missionary work!

Well, I guess I better get this sent. I made scrambled eggs and grapefruit juice from Grandfather's grapefruits for breakfast. Then I made some banana bread. It's in the oven baking and we will probably have it for family night tonight. So I'm on my way to a good day.

My cousin, Rae, said that there is a missionary, Preston Childers, that is in your mission that probably went out the same time as you did. He went to Bingham HS. Maybe you know him. Preston Childers is in her stake.

We love you sooooo much and pray for you often. I hope you're not keeping your companion awake with your sleep talking. haha We thought that was so funny! Have a great week! Love, Mom