Gifts of Love

Michael took Jacob, Isaac, Will and James on a father/son campout a couple of weeks ago.  William came bursting through the door the next morning and presented me with a lovingly taped up wad.

He beamed as I carefully opened the wad, and as soon as I got the the dingy little treasure at its core he hugged me and exclaimed, "Mom!  It's for you!  I knew you'd love it!"

Then he watched.  He wanted me to eat the unidentifiable thing, which had a suspicious resemblance to the diaper I'd just changed.  So I closed my eyes and ate it, counting on the fact that Michael, who was watching the whole thing with obvious enjoyment, would stop me if it was poisonous.

Michael told me later that William had gotten some dark chocolate from somebody at the campout.  He had eaten most of it, but saved the last morsel for me because he just knew how much I'd want it.  So he kept it in his hand for much of the evening throughout games and campfire, until someone brought him a kleenex to wrap it in.  He taped it up with electrical tape and put it in his pocket for the next 12 hours until he came home.  If that's not love, I don't know what is (except for maybe the eating of it!).

Harper's Bazaar August Cover

Here's a sneak peak for all you avid Bazaar readers.

(Photo courtesy of Kathryn Mikkelsen, entitled Fun With Parker. 

This one's for you, Kik.)

Dare

A bunch of boys were jumping on the trampoline at Gma's and Gpa's house.  Clara and some of her little girl cousins wanted to jump, and it was very much their turn.  In an effort to trick them out of it, the boys concocted a plan, "Clara, you girls can have your turn as soon as... as soon as you catch Grandma's rooster."  This bird is big, and this bird is strong and mean.  Nobody messes with this rooster.  Imagine their surprise when about three minutes later they were presented with:

They relinquished the trampoline for the rest of the afternoon, admitting that they were no match for Clara. 

Few people are.

Adam

7/10:  We had an amazing experience yesterday. We had the address of a man that seemed pretty cool but hadn't been picking up so we decided to go out and find his house. Turned out to be pretty far and we spent a lot of time going there. We asked this really nice guy for directions, just as he was coming out of his business and we realized that it was a fake address that didn't exist. But we started talking to the man we had asked directions from and he invited us into his office. We shared the first lesson with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. He kept saying as we finished the lesson that it is God's will we were led to him. He never works overtime on Sundays and is never there that late. He lives out of our area but I got him info and the missionaries there are getting a hold of him. We were led to someone that we weren't expecting and had an oppertunity share the gospel with him.

I hope everyone is doing well and that you are enjoying the summer. It was extremely dry the other day with a light wind and as I rode I thought to myself "wow, it feels a lot like summer back in oregon." Then we passed a man burning brush in his yard and I got a smell of the smoke and I was reminded all the more. Ha ha . Hope you are doing a lot of burning in my honor.

Elder Boose