“Oh My Son, Remember…” – Letters to Calder on His Mission

It was SO fun to talk tonight!! I know we covered a lot of things, so I’ll give you a quick picture run down from the week... My Walden circle bday party organized by Maria Staker. Everyone asked about you and sends their love! Both Mikayla and Ally have either hit their year mark or just about...crazy! Jane’s kindergarten teacher. Saying goodbye after testing on Monday. We loved her. Jane cried on the last day of school because she will miss her. Field day for Gwen and her friends Stella, Berkley and Maija. She’s done with Elementary! On to DPMS! Saying goodbye to McKay. Man...we miss him! It was SO much work getting him packed and off. He’s having a fabulous time. I’ll send an excerpt from the last insta post. It made me cry. This experience will be so good for him! I was in charge of Jay's camera for the welcome home - tons of pressure, but whatever! So I didn’t get any good photos! Except this...the little girls were so happy to see him! Anna has a concu...

Calder!!!!! It was such a great week! The highlight being the call from you!!’ Here’s some highlights: On Tuesday night we went to see Les Miserable. It was more than fantastic. I loved so much about it. My two favorite parts were 1) when Javier jumps from the bridge and 2) when Jean Val Jean dies. The bridge part was fantastic because he jumps from the bridge that suspended in the air and falls to a padded something deep down that the audience can’t see. And I’ve never seen the death of Jean Val Jean portrayed that way...the bishop welcomes him and it feels so much like the savior welcoming him into heaven. Our seats were fabulous and it was so fun to have both grandparents with us. It was our fathers/mothers day gifts. I missed you because I feel like you are my child who likes going to the theater the most. Wednesday night we had our annual missionary activity for the YM/YW. Here’s Marty Harris living his best life. His message was very endearing. It was that if you are obedie...

Dear Calder, Well, our trip to Dallas did not disappoint! We had such a great time! I'm exhausted! There are so many great things about a sixteen-year-old trip with one of my sons...one of them is I live like a 16 year old -I stayed up way too late, eat way too much, and it's awesome! Being with Henry was the best! He's such an awesome kid. We have a lot of fun together. I was remembering when we went on our 16 year old trip to Boston but I was in a similar situation before we left. I don't know if you remember, but we had just hiked Mount Timpanogos the Monday before we left on Thursday and my knees are killing me! I was limping around the house wondering if I was going to even be able to walk when we went to Boston. I remember Angela McElroy came over on Tuesday or Wednesday before we left. She was my visiting teacher at the time. I was sitting on the couch with ice on my knees and my feet up. She asked if she could work on my knees for a minute. I gladly accept...

Dear Calder, I always get so distracted when I start my letter to you. I spent about 45 minutes reading through different posts on Facebook in the different groups for your mission. I found a lot of the post very interesting. One thing that was written in the comments about this group of missionaries leaving on May 27th was that most if not all of these missionaries are sisters. That makes some sense to send the missionaries who have less time remaining as quickly as possible. I also read that the next group would not be far behind. Another post was from a mother whose son will be finishing his mission June 16th I believe. My assumption would be that the next group would come around that time. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I'll let you know if I hear anything else that's interesting. I'm doing something new tonight with my letter writing. I am dictating on a Google doc that I will paste into an email. It takes me so long to type one-handed. My broken a...

It was so good to talk to you for a minute tonight. Can't wait to talk more tomorrow. I'll give you a bunch of pics from this week... Pic1 = got your apostel letter FINISHED up. I need to mail it. But then I had that terrible dream. And it's been SOOOO busy. My goal is to mail it before we talk tomorrow. I thought my pic was so artistic at the Capitol building with the lions - hah. Pic 2 = Dad's new truck. He's quite excited. It is a good looking truck. I am happy for him. It's super funny though because it has this safety device when you back up, it's like a UPS truck with a "beeping" noise until you're back in drive. It kind of takes away from the cool factor, but it's fun to make fun of. Pic 3 = Another Art Market visit to buy one of Kimberly's pies. It was so fun and I am so proud of all the hard work she puts into her little business. She's doing great things. Pic 4 = Jane's mermaid party. We had 8 ki...