August 12, 2019

Dear Family and Friends,

Today is Caden's birthday.  He is twenty years old.  He will finish his mission in January.  I can't wait for him to get home!

We had the Kerns family reunion up on Willow Creek last weekend.  I admit I was skeptical about camping up there, but Steve Moultrie put up a shelter and brought in some port-a-potties, so it was almost as good as home.  (Not really, but it was as good as any other camp)  The first night was beautiful, and I slept really well considering there was a cow bawling all night looking for its calf.  There was something about the acoustics down in that draw – there were times the cow sounded kind of like the T-Rex on Jurassic World.  The kids spent the time making whips, throwing knives, and making and using boffer swords.  It could have been the training facilities for the Dauntless faction!  Friday evening, it started raining, and we had about 90 minutes of lightening.  I had been down at Grandma and Grandpa’s with Abram so he could have a breathing treatment.  When  there was a little break in the weather, we hopped on a four-wheeler and raced up to camp.  There were about sixty people crammed under the shelter that could comfortably hold twenty.  I told them they looked like a bunch of refugees.  Most of us wimped out that night and slept under real roofs, but some of the die-hards camped.  All-in-all the reunion was a success, and I appreciate Katie and Steve making it happen.  And you should all know, that no one was injured, even with all the "dangerous" activities for the kids.

Friday was my 23rd wedding anniversary.  When Amy and I chose to get married in August, we really had no idea how many things would interfere with our anniversary.  It has been a long time since there hasn’t been some other event conflicting with our celebration.  As it turned out, I walked with Amy to the place where I proposed and told her that even though I can’t write poetry to express it, I really love her. 

The other night I was talking to Kami about painting a picture for the cover of my book.  We were discussing what it might look like, and I started saying, “I need some art, but I’m not . . .”  then I trailed off like I do sometimes while I try to get un-distracted.  Before I got back to my train of thought, Abram helped me out by providing the word, “Famous?”  Kami started chuckling softly, and said, “That’s one possible way to end that sentence.”  By the way, I think I have finally finished all the editing on my book, and I will be publishing it on Amazon.  Also, I let Kami off the hook on the artwork.  Stock Photo’s will have to do.

I started building a table for the basement.  We are going to move all the exercise equipment into the “dungeon” and  turn the exercise room into a school room.  Hopefully that will make the home schooling go more smoothly. 

We have had a pretty chaotic couple of weeks.  One night, we were eating dinner, and for some reason, Amy wasn’t there.  Annie kept begging to get out of her high chair, so I finally let her down.  She immediately climbed up on the table to look at something, and I sternly ordered her to get off the table.  As she slid off the table top, she started talking in this super sweet voice, “Do you like your dinner, Daddy?  Is it yummy, Daddy?  Do you want some more dinner Daddy?”  I’ve never seen a kid figure out how to attempt distracting a parent so young!

Saturday afternoon, Kami and I took Maddie to Rexburg.  Kami didn’t want to miss her shift at the temple, so we didn’t leave until about 2:00.   Kami and Maddie drove the Granny (our 2005 Buick Le Sabre), and I drove the Toyota.  We arrived at 12:30 A.M.  I went to Sacrament Meeting with my parents, and then went back to make sure the girls were up.  We went to Sacrament meeting at the Burton 4^th ward so we could hear Clay Wasden report his mission.  He looks good, and is going to be working and going to school.

Well, that’s about all the news I can think of.  I hope you all have a great day!

Shawn