Happy Birthdays!

Hello to all and Happy Birthday to Dad, Greg, and Tyler!  I am now the mother of seven adult sons!!  Hope you all still need a mom occasionally because I am not quite ready to hang up my wooden spoon yet!!

We had a good week.  We attended District Meeting in Sunbury, which is about an hour drive south of here.  The Sunbury district has no senior couples and our Mission Prez asked us to go occasionally so they know what this Sr Couple thing is all about.   I brought brownies which made them like us right away.  We enjoyed being with a new bunch of Elders – we all went to Subway after the meeting which was fun.  The drive to Sunbury was spectacular – country roads with amazing farms, pastureland, wildflowers,  beautiful green trees with branches overhanging the road, and deer darting out every so often.  When we drove through the town of Nottingham Village it really felt otherworldly. 

Since we drove so far to the District Meeting, we decided to stay overnight and go to the DC Temple which was another three hour drive.  We met our new best friend Sister Neff the next morning (she spent the night with her family which live there) and we rode together to the temple.  She is a talker, so the time went by fast.  The temple was massive and a real contrast to our tiny (but wonderful) Newport Beach Temple.  After the temple, we drove back to Sunbury area and stopped by the little town where Rose Ann spent her childhood.  What a great experience to see first hand what life is like in a very small town.  We stopped by her Nephew Derek’s new property – 14 acres of wooded, grassy land with a big pond for fishing, ice skating, etc.  Then to visit her brother and wife who live high atop a hill overlooking the little town.  Great people, with a very pretty 23 year old daughter that likes younger men, Ty!! We strolled through the cemetery and on the drive there we saw the homes where her uncles and aunts lived.  Many Neff’s are buried in the cemetery and I couldn’t help but envy Rose Ann for the idyllic childhood she must have had – running through the safe streets (not one traffic light, and no police to this day!), playing with cousins, dropping in on relatives and having a perfectly happy childhood.  I kept thinking of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird and Sister Neff is the perfect Scout!

Aaron Hoke asked us to come up with our favorite scripture for our missionary plaque and we chose Ether 12:4.  What do you think?  Now comes the hard part – finding a good picture of both of us.  Dad has to have his eyes open and I have to look young AND thin!  This may take awhile!!

We head to North Carolina next week for Caleb’s baptism.  We will send our email from there next Sunday and include pictures too.  We hope everyone has a great week and  remember we love you,  MOM and DAD