Week of July 8 - 14, 2018

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting with talks about the importance of Book of Mormon study. One brother shared a quick version of his conversion story (he was the final speaker and time was short) which I really wanted to hear more of. I substituted in Primary and Dad taught the Deacons Quorum lesson. I attended choir practice in the afternoon.

I attended a session at the Phoenix Temple on Tuesday morning. Dad attended a session on Thursday evening. Dad and I attended an endowment session at the Los Angeles Temple on Friday evening. The distance from our hotel was only 12 miles...took an hour in LA traffic to both get there, and to get home. The experience, however, was totally worth it. The temple was built in the1950s and the style of the exterior and murals throughout reflect that time. It is HUGE compared to ours, though our session, referred to as "full" did not have that many people in it. While it was very spacious and lovely, I do enjoy our smaller Phoenix temple. There is not a bit of wasted space anywhere!

I am in 2 Nephi 2 in my Book of Mormon reading.

I have indexed 12324 records and reviewed 21676 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Allison was called to serve as  the Primary Chorister in her ward.
 Cousin Bradyn came for a visit before leaving for Europe.

Tuesday, they celebrated Dress Like a Cow Day, and got some free Chick Fil A

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and Cameo had a great fourth of July celebration And a great camping trip for the weekend.

Ethan headed to Denver for work on Tuesday. He had been struggling with an upper respiratory infection for a week or so, so the trip was difficult. Meanwhile, Cameo and the kids also dressed up like cows to get some yummy food.

Kaylee got her training wheels off her bicycle when Daddy returned and now she is a skilled two wheeled bicycle rider! Wadey learned to open the circular doorknobs this week. Watch out Mommy and Daddy!!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber and the kids spent their Monday night till very, very late helping out. The storm hit most of the Phoenix area, and someone she knew had put out a rescue call on Facebook. I saw pics of Doran helping to haul out a full china cabinet. They all moved items out through the mud and much, even Kelsie and Kooper. Amber said that when people saw the report on the news, they also began coming...total strangers! The family lost two pigs they had raised since little piglets, but all else was safe and moved to a safer location.

Morgan

Morgan had a good work week.

Kayty

Kayty's big adventure was with us to the Los Angeles Forum in Inglewood California for her Harry Styles Concerts. Yes, two. Friday and Saturday nights.

Kayty got Dad to a Deseret Industries Store in Lower Deathland...aka Downtown LA, but he found no books he wanted, though there were a ton of books! The rest of the day was spent fighting traffic and avoiding traffic. We spent time at a small park where we rested, ate sandwiches, and watched planes land at the airport. We saw three A380's land!

We walked around stores for hours, killing time...then to the next concert she went while we killed time in a Sizzler Restaurant till she got out. 

Got home at 6 am...long and tiring trip but she had a great time!

The Nathan Rice Family

Happy Birthday, Jessica on Monday! Hope your day was special!!

Nathan and Jessica are busy winding up projects for the end of school in a week. Jessica graduates on the 23rd. Nathan's project was completed, painted and was ready for testing. Their garden is going gangbusters. Anna eats their carrots as soon as they are picked and washed. They harvested broccoli and tons of snow peas too. They continue to get salad greens and are so enjoying it. 

Dad's Garden

Still getting key limes and Dad busily juices them. Grapes aren't ripe yet. 

Christmas In July
I cleaned on Monday to Christmas music. It was awesome! I finished watching Rudolph as I painted more on the ornaments.

Other highlights

We had a very windy, rainy storm on Monday afternoon/evening. We were blessed with rain, but did have roofing damage that we called into the insurance company. Dad and I spent hours cleaning up leaves and pine needles, the pool, the front porch, and searched for our boat cover. We did find the boat cover behind our back fence. More rain came Wednesday night. We are so blessed and our grass is loving the water! I pray for our big pine tree that shows signs of struggle after so many drought years.

My car passed emissions and we are so thankful!! There is some clog somewhere in our system but we just can't find out where. Glad everything worked out!!

Our Los Angeles Adventures included
A long drive with tons of traffic

Jerky stop in Quartzite

Got gas at the Flying J right by the border in Arizona...did that on the way home but it was 3:45 AM then...

Stayed in a dive of a hotel! Scary. Even probably heard gunshots. 

Kayty went to concert night one and we drove 12 miles taking over an hour to the Los Angeles Temple.

This temple was absolutely gorgeous inside. Murals inside every room depicting the creation, the Garden of Eden, the world. We had a beautiful time there. Then we found traffic just as bad on the way home.

We didn't venture out too much more without Kayty's magical phone that told us where to go and which freeway to take. Dad and I were fish out of water with no direction service. The Deseret Industries was a benefit to the community surrounding it for sure, but not for others. It was a mess. 

In fact, every store was a mess. We killed time in a Target, a Ross, and an Old Navy store and all three had merchandise all over the floor. So sad. So, no beach because we just weren't sure of the traffic and time.

Not so highlights

I put my car keys in my checkered backpack to just have with us. Well, they have disappeared. We have looked everywhere, called the dive hotel, taken apart everything we could. Since I dutifully locked my car with my alarm remote, I now have a totally disabled car until we can get the alarm system undone.