Snow in August?

It has been 30 years since Doug served his mission in Stockholm, Sweden. Some of the missionaries he served with decided to plan a reunion to honor their mission president - President Holmgren. That is the reason we found to go up to Utah this past weekend. We try to find reasons whenever we can to go up to Utah to see our family - Scott, Evan and Shanna, and Lindsey, Rob, and Sadie! Sadie is growing so fast we have to try to see her as often as we can. We also had dinner with Doug's sister Yvonne and her family. Seeing everyone was great!

The reunion was a huge job and fell on the shoulders of a few - but they did a great job! It was wonderful! They had an afternoon picnic when the missionaries and anyone from their family was invited to come. Our family had on matching t-shirts and I think we looked really good! I even made a cute outfit for Sadie so she could match with us. The evening program was a catered dinner for the missionaries and their spouses. There was a wonderful DVD of mission pictures put to music, a memory book compiled for the mission president, engraved cheese slicers for each missionary, and a couple of close friends of Doug's. Most of all I think President Holmgren knows that everyone of "his missionaries" truly loves him and came to honor him.

We have two birthdays this month - Evan and Shanna - well Shanna (13th) and Evan (16th). So we had a little birthday dinner for them on Sunday. They are a wonderful couple and a great part of our family. We had to go home on Monday. This time on the way home we went through Fredonia and on up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. That little side trip added a couple of hours to our trip home - but it was well worth it. The scenery can't be beat! We also had a great surprise while we were there. We not only got to see a herd of buffalo just off the road. There must have been 50 or more. Better than we saw in Yellowstone years ago. As we were there we saw some clouds rolling by and heard a bit of thunder. It sort of came and blew past. We didn't think much about it. When we were driving back out of the park we started to see that the road was a little wet. Then we saw some curious white stuff in patches along the road. The white stuff started to get more obvious and more thick. Until we couldn't stand it anymore. We stopped the truck and I got out and it was hail! About 2 - 3 inches of hail! That cloud had dropped all that in the hour's time since we came into the park. It was just amazing! We were really glad that we had decided to make the trip to the Canyon.
Anyway, we are back in Phoenix now and already trying to figure out when we can make another trip to Utah to see the family. WE HAVE A GREAT FAMILY!!