🏖Lake Powell🏜

Dear Caleb and Jacob,

Good morning from Arizona! Sariah still calls it the country that Jacob lives in. To her, the world is still small. Small enough, that she thinks that we could maybe even run into you, Jacob, while we're in Page at the grocery store. We arrived last night after dark. We were going to check into a hotel because our day on the houseboat didn't start until today but Dad thought, "why not save some $$$ and see if the boat is vacant." We stopped there first, walked down, and sure enough, no one was there! So, we just walked on and slept here! Crazy!

How was your week? Are you looking forward to General Conference? My favorite Sunday, other than the primary program. It was Homecoming Week for Green Canyon High School. They had a chalk color festival at Meadow View Park on Monday. The route for the parade started at Elk Ridge Park but essentially lined up right in front of our house, down the street. Adam and Sariah just ran down to meet there friends. The powder puff football game was on Thursday and Sydney played. It was probably the coldest day of the week. We even had snow on the mountains. Sydney went to the homecoming dance on Saturday and went to Top Golf for her day date. She took a picture just like Jacob did in honor of his birthday! I hope you had a great day, Jacob! We were all thinking of you!

A cute thing happened on Friday after Samantha ran an errand with Sydney. She came to me and said "I just saw the saddest thing...I read a sign on the side of the road that said 'Kids for sale.' How could anybody do that?!?!" And she almost cried as I started to laugh because I remembered seeing that sign in Hyde Park. I clarified it for her and she was ok. (Refer to photo below).

Well, that's about it for this last week. We sure love you and are so proud of your continued example of service! We'll think of you every day this week and especially as we listen to Conference!

Love,
Mom

Letter 9 24 2017

Caleb and Jacob:

A few weeks ago, I had a friend call to tell me that the end of the world was going to be on 9/23/2017; Jacob's birthday.  He pointed to the recent eclipse and another one a while back, he then said that the Leo and Virgo constellations were aligning the the heavens to fulfill a prophesy of John.  As he droned on, I found myself aware that even without Leo and Virgo aligning in the heavens, the earth is in commotion.  Prophesy is being fulfilled in our day.  We get so used to the commotion that it's easy to miss.  So, I generally agree that we are in the latter days of the earth as we know it.  

He continued to drone on about food storage and remote tent cities...  As I disconnected once more from the conversation, I decided the best approach would be to live my life, try to be a good boy, and not get too rattled about it if the end did come.  When I focused once more on the conversation, he was quoting more scriptures... after an hour of listening to him rant, I finally asked to get off the phone so I could be with my family.  I'm careful not to poke fun at these prognostications because I don't want to end up on the wrong side of history, but today's the 24th and I'm happy about that.

This experience raises the question, what is the right way to prepare for the end?  After going through this experience, I've decided that the right way for me to prepare is to live each day the best I can while doing the little things right.  I would commend that advice to you.

I hope you are having success in missionary work.  I am certainly uplifted by your letters as I read and then consider the experiences you're having.  Keep up the good work.  Stay positive and focused.  I love you so much.

Dad

Letter 9/17/17

This past week was the extended date for corporate deadline tax filing.  This year my key manager had a baby and was out for much of the summer.  The result was that I sent the last week in crunch mode.  The accounting profession relies heavily on other people, our clients, to provide information so we can do our job.  This is not what great entrepreneurs do.  They get up and get after it each day even though what they are doing is being done essentially alone and by their own doing.

I have a ton of respect for my clients.  They go through life trying to make the best decisions they can based largely on their own life experience.  They have to take desperate information, organize it, and then act on it.  Once a business becomes established, employees can manage the day-to-day stuff.  The reality is that the skills developed by the business owner make it so that only they can train people to truly replace them.

How does this relate to you?  You get up every day on your missions and in school and each day looks a lot like the previous day.  Earl Nightengale said, "People form habits, and habits form people."  I often wonder why it is that my life has ended-up being so incredibly blessed.  I've concluded that a lot of it comes from watching my Dad love his work.  He was very good at teaching and as a result, he became a great teacher and someone his students loved.  I knew that I didn't have the personality to teach but I determined that whatever I did, I would do it well.

Your missions are great training grounds for your future life.  There are skills that you aren't learning and you will need to acquire as you go through life.  I hope you are focused and doing everything in your power to become great as a missionary.  I'm sure that you are and I'm thankful for it.

Keep up the good work.  I love you,

Dad

🔥Hazy days and Smoky nights 🌕

Dear Caleb & Jacob,

WOW, Where did this week go? In order to remember what happens from week to week, I always go back to look through the photos that were taken. I can't find any so therefore this may have been a boring week. Actually, it was a very fast and busy week. Adam finished up his Drivers Ed class and had his first drive at the Sky View driving range. I started the American Festival Choir season again. It is going to be the busiest one ever as they celebrate their 10th anniversary. I can't believe that it has been 10 years! I guess a lot has happened in that time and you guys would've been young when I started! Both Sariah and Samantha have already missed a little school with a seasonal cold virus. They're getting better though. There have been so many fires here in the northwest that the days have been sunny but hazy and even kind of dangerous to be outside for a prolonged amount of time. They even had the kids at school stay inside for recess. The full moon has even showed orangish red.

Sydney told us, after the fact, that she auditioned to sing the National Anthem for a ball game at Green Canyon. She's hoping to be able to sing at a football game this time. When she did it for us after, she sounded awesome! Her good friend Hannah put together a surprise birthday party for her last Monday. She truly was so surprised that she started to cry!

Sariah signed up to play the violin with the 4th grade orchestra program. Her ultimate goal is to play the cello but maybe she'll land on the viola. The primary program was yesterday and Sariah sang her HEART out! All the kids did. It's always the favorite Sacrament Meeting of the year.

Dad must've left a lasting impression on those YSA kids because a group of them wanted to come to our house last night to watch the Worldwide YSA fireside. It was fun to have them here again but I had to leave for a meeting right after they got here. He sure misses that calling.

Well, it's probably time to retire the boat for the year. It's always a sad thing to do. Dad's really not sure if he'll keep the boat or sell it. It all depends on what Mitch decides to do and whether or not you two boys want much to do with it next year.

Our neighbor, Ben Duncan, left for his mission on Wednesday for Ivory Coast in Africa. After they said "goodbye," they turned to go down the escalator and saw Chris Pratt (Parks and Rec & Guardians of the Galaxy). He has a secret place here in Utah to go hunting. I'll throw that picture in for kicks since I have no others.

We're very concerned about Baxter this week. He heaves when he breaths and is constantly throwing up in the garage after he drinks water. He doesn't seem to want to eat much, if at all. I wish we knew a vet to ask if we should take it serious or not. I'll go to PetSmart today to ask what NEW food they recommend for him.

Have a super week! We look so forward to your letters! Love you a TON!

Mom

High on a Mountain Top

Letter 9 10 17

Caleb and Jacob:

Where does time go?  The weeks race by and Sundays come around at a pace that is unbelievable.  Then, in moments of quiet introspection, I look at the years that have gone by and realize that the two of you are men.  It seems like yesterday when Mom and I were living in a triplex with two little boys and Mom was telling me that we needed to get a real house.  Looking back, I sort of stumbled and bumbled into the house in North Logan where the two of you grew up.  After we had six kids, Mom was encouraging me to get into a larger house so here we are.

This morning, I was looking for binoculars so we could see what was on top of a fence post across the field.  I opened the locker where all of your adventure gear is located and realized that within a few years, you will have moved on with your lives and there will be no use for that locker unless you need storage.  Anyway, we won't need it.

Time marches on.  That is the deal.  We can do a great job with our time here or not.  One of the things we learn about as accountants is how to help our clients save for their children's college.  That sounds like a great idea but the reality is that when we were young, Mom and I didn't have the means to put money away and now we are in a position to help as we can.  Frankly, we are lucky and blessed that we can help if needed.

There are a lot of things I'd do differently if I was young and wise.  But, I'm older and wiser and still a long way of from being wise.

I tell you this stuff to encourage you to think about what you are doing.  Don't float through life.  Be actively in charge of directing your own affairs.  As you are on your mission, take time to reflect about what you are learning and then make commitments to yourself to keep your life directionally accurate with the things you believe.  You will be happier if you take charge and direct your life according as you believe.

I have thought a lot about career and have come to the conclusion that those who are truly happy are those that pursue their career with passion and purpose.  Those who float through their career find that they are living an empty life.  This goes back to taking charge of your life.  Do it in every aspect and you will do well.

We love hearing from you and continue to pray for you.  Keep the faith and be great.  I love you,

Dad

☀️Indian Summer🌾

Dear Caleb & Jacob,

How has your week been? We're to the the point where the things that happen around here become pretty routine so there's not a lot to report.

We celebrated Sydney's 18th birthday on Sunday. Can you believe it?...
I honestly cannot. It was important to her that things were "just right" for her meal so she prepared most of it before and after church. She wanted an Indian dinner with 2 kinds of chicken curry and naan. She's getting pretty good at it and enjoys cooking. She even made her own coconut cake on Saturday night. Even Samantha ate some chicken curry for the FIRST time and loved it!

Andrea Blake came last night and is going boating with us today. We're going to meet Julann and Allyson at Cutler Reservoir this morning. It's going to be B-E-utiful day here.

I hope all is well with both of you. Jacob, we missed your letter last werk so we felt a little "incomplete." We can't wait for your update!

Love you both so much!
Mom

Letter from Sariah

Dear brothers,
Monday is a holiday so our school when it got out on Friday everybody was saying see you on Tuesday I was puzzled. When we go out on the lake on Friday I tried surfing but Adam and Sydney couldn't come they were at the Green Canyon game. Then on Saturday we went in the morning Adam and Sydney came to.

Sent from someplace really cool

School luck and bad luck

This week I got my new classes for spring creek and in college and career awareness we were using tinker cad which is really fun because we get to print things on 3-D printers. Not much going on this week except for Friday. On Friday, when I got to school I had a locker malfunction. My locker was jammed when I put my backpack in and when I closed it, I couldn't open it again. Me and my first hour teacher had to go get the janitor and then we opened my locker. I squished my backpack in the locker and re-organize my locker that way my backpack would fit in my locker when I closed it again. And then the rest of the day I had bad luck such as pencils falling all over. The day before I lost my pencil and I couldn't find it that day on Friday, until I got to college and career awareness class. I opened up my binder and there it was, so I wrote my bell ringer and started class and then I couldn't get onto my computer to do tinker cad. Then when I got onto my computer I couldn't get into the website and then when I got onto the website I couldn't really login and then when I got logged in, I had trouble finding my tab so my neighbor helped me. And then in ceramics, I had to write add on's to my graffiti and then the school bell rang. I got off my bus stop and then Mom wasn't there to pick me up so I had to walk home in the super heat.

From Samantha

Sent from my iPhone

Letter 9 03 2017

Greetings!

Today is Sydney's birthday.  She's 18 years old.  A year from today she tells us that she'll be in the MTC headed for her mission.  Good for her.  I think she's so much fun to be around and I can't believe how quickly time has gone.

I took a call from a good friend on Friday.  He's about my age and has some success in business but now has too much time on his hands so he's begun to search for the deeper things of the kingdom.  Now, I'm all for scripture study but I'm thinking there is a point where things don't make much sense if things are taken too far.

In this situation, he is convinced that the second coming is going to happen on Sep 23, 2017.  First off, he may be right, I'm not saying that.  I'm simply saying that he's pointing to the scriptures as having proof of that day.  He quoted Revelations and Isaiah and then the D&C to substantiate his position.  I was impressed that he's spent this much time in the scriptures to put everything together.

My understanding of the scriptures is somewhat more elementary.  I use them to try to understand how to be a better person and more fully live the basic principles of the gospel.  After he was done, I thought to myself that he might be right in his views and I'm certainly not going to mock someone for predicting the Second Coming.  The last place I want to be is in the position of mocking those who are in tune enough to recognize the signs of the times.

I will study what he suggested and give it ample consideration.

So, he wanted me to do a financial transaction with him before the 23rd and I told him that I couldn't do that.  I simply told him that I appreciated his opinion and hope that if the Second Coming happens, finances will be one of the last things that Jesus Christ is concerned with when he makes his appearance.  Maybe I'm wrong and if I am, then I'll have to deal with the consequences.

Anyway, I hope your lives are in order.  I hope that the direction you're setting for the rest of your life now, will be set such that when you come home, you will find the internal strength to continue with the simple and basic performances such as praying, going to church, and reading the scriptures.  Pray that you will find strength the endure and be victorious in this life and that when your race is done, you will have finished well.

I love you.  Keep us the good work.

Dad