Summer Guests

I never realized that Boise is a convenient stop-off for a variety of places until we moved here.  Summers are full of temporary guests, often not visiting us directly, but stopping off here on the way to somewhere else.  The visits are usually not long, but offer some enjoyable opportunities to bond with people we don't usually get to spend much time with.  This summer has brought us an especially busy time with guests.  This past week one of our Mongolian daughters, Bayaraa Hopkins, and her family came to visit.  They are a family who loves adventures so Layne scheduled a river ride for us on Saturday.  It was 100 degrees that day, but the river kept us cool.  I learned that river rapids are classified from 1-5 in roughness.  Our trip included levels 2 and 3.  The 7 of us loaded up in a raft, guided by a darling girl, who led us down the Payette River for a 2 hour ride.  I've never done a ride like this before.  It was lots of fun, and much cooler than I expected.  Here we all are:  Ryan and Bayaraa, their three kids, Gordon, Nolan, and Gwenalyn, Layne and me.  Our guide is in the back.

We anticipated a wild and crazy weekend as, in addition to the Hopkins, we were also expecting Fremont friend, Margo Layton, and her two daughters, Gerald and Frances and kids, maybe nephew Rus, and son-in-law Cliff's brother Chris and his family.  We would have been mobbed!  But our weekend turned out to be much gentler.  Margo and girls arrived, as did Gerald and Fran and kids.  They all got along very well.  Rus didn't come.  And the Adams-Hart family decided to stay in town.  So we had a light, fun time on Saturday and Sunday.  By tonight everyone was gone except Ger and Fran.  Lovely.

Here are Ryan and Bayaraa Hopkins and their kids, Nolan, Gordon and Gwenalyn, with Layne.

Laura, Lindsay, and Margo Layton left us Sunday morning.

Tonight our stake held a special meeting to create a couple of new wards and rearrange the rest of us.  Our ward is now considerably smaller.  But we are in the same ward, meeting at the same time, in the same building.  I'm happy for the change.  Perhaps I will be able to keep up with the members who are left and actually remember who they are.  I'm hoping!