Our recent days

We've had a lot going on the past several weeks.  I'm sure I'll end up leaving some things out, but I just wanted to write a brief summary to help us remember our summer.

Our days at our convention were wonderfully refreshing.  Those 4 days of convention really are the best days of the year.  It is amazing to me that the little kids even love those days.  Around 15 hours of sitting (well mostly sitting, anyway - there is quite a bit of wriggling and moving around involved in the sitting) quietly during the meetings isn't something that you would think kids would enjoy, but they always really, really look forward to convention and ask why it can't last longer.  We also were able to be at Friday - Sunday of the convention over at Mt. Sterling.  It was especially a nice convention for us because Laura was baptized there this year.  We're so glad that she is growing up to be such a special young lady.  It is hard to believe that she will be 14 in a couple of months.

On Sunday of convention, Todd got a call telling him that his Grandma Erickson had passed away.  He would have really liked to be able to be at her funeral, but with the distance and the flight schedules we just couldn't make it happen.  We were there in thought, anyway.  My Grandma Fox passed away a few days later.  She lived in Arizona, but her funeral and burial was at Brownstown so we were able to be there.  It was so nice to be with family and friends who came.  Aunt Rannie stayed at our place for a few days before heading back to Arizona.  It was so nice to have her here.  It's been a long time since we have gotten to spend much time with her.  The kids really enjoyed her too.  They (and we all) were wishing she could have stayed longer.

Todd's mom came to visit for about a week.  We had a very nice time with her.  It flew by too quickly!  She even braved riding the horse a little bit.  She would have like to ride some more, but since Todd's dad is recovering from a broken leg, she decided she had better be a little careful so they weren't both laid up with casts on. We went to Tuscola to the outlet mall and hit a few other stores, got some bargains at a few thrift stores, spent some time just being together at home and then went on Friday to St. Louis to spend a few days there before she headed back home.  We went to Grant's Farm in St. Louis for the first time on Friday.  We really enjoyed our time there seeing the animals up close. The kids fed some goat kids bottles of milk - we fed some grain to a camel and a few other animals.  We watched an elephant do some tricks. Saw the Clydesdale horses, and several other animals.  Saturday we spent the day at the zoo and had a lot of fun there too before heading back to the hotel for some swim time.    We went to the Morton's house for Sunday morning meeting and then went out for lunch before taking her back to the airport and heading home.