By Special Request

My good friend, Hedy Eyre, asked me a few months ago if Layne and I would be willing to give a pornography awareness and prevention presentation to her ward in Fremont, CA.  It's our old ward.  We agreed that we would come October 30th.  So Layne and I drove out to CA to do the job.  We stayed with Audrey and Cliff, as we usually do, and managed to fit in visits with all our kids and give the presentation, as promised.  It was total joy to be with our Fremont friends.  We have spent 40 years with these precious people so being with them was especially sweet.  We raised our children together, worked and served together and grew in the gospel together.  They are in my heart always and forever.  Being with so many of them again was a little piece of heaven.

Relationships are where it's at so I'm willing to go out of my way to keep them fresh and alive in my life.  We visited with Reed and Dorothy and took a picture of our grandson, Bruce, in his Halloween costume.  He is in kindergarten now!

Reed and Dorothy are solidly good people.  I love being in their company.  Ben and Jess have purchased a home in Palo Alto.  We saw it for the first time last week.  They are so excited to have their own home, where they can do whatever they want to it without worries.  They've put fingerprint locks on their bedroom and pantry, two places where their babes love to go and explore with abandon.  The house is bigger; there is comfortable room for everyone.  It is lovely too.  Alexis and Abigail asked me to paint a mural for each of them on their bedroom walls, above their beds.  So we researched pictures online that they liked, then painted them on their walls.  Abigail wanted mermaids and dolphins and Alexis wanted outer space.  Here is how they turned out:

The girls were excited and pleased, and that pleased me!

We visited with Uncle Mike again this visit.  He is 97 now!  Cousin Judy and hub Stan Perry came with us.  They are a lovely couple and we enjoyed the 2 hour drive to Healdsburg and back with them.  We chatted the whole way.  Uncle Mike seems healthy and spry.  He lives in Kiser chaos.  As with all the Kisers I know, he saves everything!  I got a DNA sample from him for Maryanne, who is really into DNA for confirming family relationships and nationalities.  I feel the need to see Uncle Mike more often since we don't know how long we will have him.  He is the last of the older generation; after he is gone, we are it!  Here he is, with Judy and me.

We stayed with Audrey and Cliff, giving us some nice visiting time with Audrey.  Cliff is quite busy with work.  He leaves very early in the morning to beat the traffic.  Audrey also leaves early to teach seminary and Allegra also leaves very early for work.  So they are all in bed by 8:00 or so.  That is fine with us, for who doesn't like sleep?  It is always fun to spend time with them.  We were there for Halloween.  They had tons of trick or treaters; far more than I have ever experienced!  It was fun.  Cliff turned their front porch entry into a Halloween monster; pretty clever!

Our little great-grandson, Hunter, wasn't with us in California, but we found this cute picture of him in his Halloween costume, in Black Foot, ID.  so I had to insert it here!

 We drove to CA and back, but this time we divided the time by staying in a motel in Winnemucca half way into the drive.  It made the trip so pleasant!  Fall colors were everywhere and, happily, during most of our CA stay it rained.  The countryside had a lovely new green, nourished by the rain after so much drought.  Perhaps this winter will end it.  The Sierras had snow; a good sign this early in the season.

All throughout our drive the sights were lovely.  We live in a beautiful world.  I'm grateful.  This coming week we vote.  Our prayers are for the best possible outcome.