A visit from friends . . .

Last Sunday our friend Jeanette Smalls (in the green dress) came to visit and brought her sister, Sarah. Jeanette & Shannon were married about the same time we were. We attended the same ward where Jeanette and I served in the Young Women's together. They moved into my mom's ward and Jeanette became good friends with her. So mom came over to visit too.

We've kept in touch these past 10 years. They have 3 boys now and live near Austin, Texas. Jeanette & Sarah are from Ghana, Africa, where their father was over the Church Education System program. Their accent is beautiful to listen to. Sarah told us she translates for General Conference and shared some experiences with us. She just graduated from BYU-Idaho and is headed to Texas to live with Shannon & Jeanette. She was wonderful with our kids, letting them take pictures with her camera and then taking several beautiful pictures of each child. It was wonderful to see them again (Sarah stayed with the Smalls 10 years ago so we'd met before). We only wish they lived closer, but Jeanette said they'd still like to move back to Boise. Shannon's parents live in Nampa. He works for the State of Texas with their disaster relief efforts, coordinating with FEMA. Jeanette is the chairman of the activities committee for their ward and Shannon serves as an emergency / disaster preparedness coordinator.

Twin Falls Temple

Last Saturday was my dad's (Caudill) family reunion in Hansen, Idaho. It's a suburb (ha-ha) of Twin Falls. As a part of the reunion we were all able to go thru the newly completed Twin Falls Temple open house. It was beautiful and so neat having our children there with us.

I've started cleaning the Boise temple. It's closed for most of July and I've been able to work during the days. Starting the 29th though, I'll be working 10pm to 1am. Hoping to get a nap in the afternoons, we'll see!

Swim Pictures

Swimming Lessons 2008

The kids just finished swimming lessons last night. Rebecca is now able to jump off the diving board & swim to safety!! We're so grateful. It's awesome to watch her gain confidence and to see it all "click" as she has learned to coordinate her arms & legs.

Sarah seemed completely confident in herself and trusting in her teacher, Miss Jamie. She was grateful to have the swim goggles. Her freestyle form still needs some work, but she'll get it. Yesterday she'd swim with her arms up with only her hands moving. It looked like she was surrendering underwater! But her teacher worked with her more and she improved.

Wyatt just loved being in the water. The goggles didn't fit over his glasses, but he didn't seem to mind getting his eyes wet. He just kept the glasses on. At the end of each lesson, the kids were allowed to get a swim toy (floaties, tube, noodle, etc). Wyatt always chose a big water gun and sat on the steps to play with it. All the other kids would swim, but he was completely taken with this huge gun. Brandon promised we'd go find one to play with at home.

We'll do lessons again next year and look forward to watching Sarah and Wyatt become indepent swimmers. The girls earned swim passes to Roaring Springs this last year in school so Brandon will take an afternoon off this month and we'll go as a family.

Becca got her tooth knocked out!

Brandon & I enjoyed a much-needed date night last Friday. (We saw the new Indiana Jones movie and really liked it.)

My dear mother watched our kids for us and after prayers & scripture study, apparently the girls were playing around and Becca's face hit Sarah's head, knocking Becca's already-loose tooth out. She found it once then lost it again. She left a note for the Tooth-Fairy saying she'd lost the tooth. The Tooth-Fairy wrote her back saying she knew Becca was VERY honest and left her two quarters. Becca was thrilled!