Idaho and beyond

It has been a while since I wrote because we settled in at Nampa for a while. We had a very refreshing stay at my brother's and sister in law's house in Nampa, ID. We actually got to unpack, hang up our clothes, and put our undies in drawers. It was the first time to do that since we left!! I also got the chance to spend along sessions with my foot on ice -- especially the first week. We spent quite a bit of time with the saints in the church in Boise, and were invited over for dinner 5 times in 2 weeks -- not including the first weekend with the Collinses in Boise the first weekend we were there. Most of them were families we have known from another time or another place but they usually had others over that we didn't know, so we felt like we got acquainted with a lot of people there. It is a very friendly and warm church that has a lot of care for each other. They also just sent a campus team to Austin to be trained. Boise State University is across the street from the meeting hall.

We had a lot of fun with Dave and Carolita (my brother and his wife) eating ice cream, cooking, celebrating birthdays (Dave's and mine), their anniversary, cleaning up after workers on their addition, eating ice cream, cooking new recipes like pineapple flambe and Navaho fry bread, laughing, eating Hagen Das, and having lots of good fellowship. There just isn't enough room to tell you about everything. Nothing dramatic or very unusual, just a lot of good times. Stan finished the pergola but there wan't anything else to do since the workers on the addition were behind and is wasn't ready for Stan to do the cabinet they wanted in their new dining room. So maybe another time...But we kept ourselves busy around the house doing odds and ends that need to be done. Did I mention that we tried different flavors of Hagen Das?

We left Nampa this past Monday morning and got to Salt Lake City where we spent the night with a very sweet Korean family with 3 teenage daughters. We had a great night's sleep in a nice room in their basement. In the morning another couple came over for breakfast and our hostess sent us off with bags of strawberries of grapes. We drove a long day down to Flagstaff, AZ but along the way we saw some spectacular scenery in the Vermillion Cliffs region of Northern Arizona. We got to Flagstaff and spend the night with a couple we had known in Huntington Beach in the 70's. It was a short but sweet time with them and their 21 year old son. We liked Flagstaff but kept moving. Our hosts had recommended for us to take a little time to go through Sedona, which we did and were very glad we had the time to do it. The red rock formations were icredible. If we were rolling in money we would have liked to take a helicopter tour of the area, but we aren't so we didn't. So we went out to lunch and are now heading toward Chandler, AZ, outside of Phoenix. We will be staying with Stan's mom for 2 weeks and will be participating in the church life there as much as possible. There are a lot of things to do there, like getting some new tires, shopping for clothers for Stan, getting caught up with correspondance, getting together with some family members and working off all that ice cream!!

Right now, as I write, we are driving through the bleak rolling hills of the desert in Cental Arizona. It is filled with seguaro cactus which looks like giant cigars sticking up into the air. I hope to add some pictures....

That's all for now. Our next stop in Anaheim for the Middle Age Training.