Happy 59th Birthday, Mother Dear!

I was up late editing pics, so I decided to call Mom and wish her a happy birthday since it was 7:00 am in South Africa. We talked for quite a while (until 1:20 am my time), and I just miss her so much! She was telling me how they hosted all the senior missionary couples over at their apartment yesterday for a Father’s Day dinner. She said her plans for today are to do all the dishes from that party. What a lame thing to have planned for your 59th birthday! They can’t use paper plates or cups b/c they’re so expensive and are the cheap flimsy kind, and they don’t have a dishwasher so she has to do everything by hand. We both said how we wished I could have been there to help her for the party & the aftermath b/c we’re such a good team and work together so well in the kitchen.

She sent me a picture of the before and after and said, “I’m done!!! I ate some breakfast and then thought of you, channeled some of your energy and love, and ‘snap the job is done.’ Thank you for being my best friend and sweet daughter.” I keep asking her when they’re coming home, which is funny b/c they aren’t coming home until Oct 2016!

She sent me this picture of the gate just outside their apartment. Sis. Morris & Sis. Taylor did this!!! The reason there is a plastic snake wrapped around one of the bars is b/c a couple of weeks ago they went to a snake place on their day off and she fell in love with a milk snake. She said it was so soothing to hold and she let it crawl in her hair!!! It was so pretty that she wanted to take it home w/ her, but Dad said no.

I was able to get up and go to work fine this morning, but got tired in the afternoon. Tonight Autumn & I met up w/ Liz and Jacob at one of the local park/amphitheaters for some free food and a free concert. They had free In-N-Out cheeseburgers, chips, and a drink for the first 1,000 people! It was so good and hit the spot. We took our food and went and sat in Liz’s car and talked while we ate so we could enjoy the air conditioning.

The concert started at 7:00 so around 6:45 we wandered over to the hillside and set down our blankets to stake our spot. I feel like I haven’t seen Liz in such a long time so it was great to spend time w/ her and catch up on the latest stuff that’s going on in each other’s lives.

The band was good, but they were way too loud and they played blues & classic rock music that I don’t know or listen to. Jacob was CRACKING.US.UP! He was dancing around like a mad men and was having the time of his life. At one point he had on one flip flop, was rolling around on the ground, and then he stood up and started dancing w/ Liz’s purse. Everyone around us was laughing too b/c it was so funny and he was dancing w/ such freedom of expression.

I took the kids down to an area where they had a springless trampoline they could jump on. We had to wait our turns and it took about 20 minutes. They had fun when they finally got their turn to jump. Liz & I made up a game called, “oh, look they must be Mormon.” Seriously, it was like a big Mormon party/reunion. We saw so many people in our stake that were there. We would look at a family and guess if they were Mormon or not b/c they weren’t wearing tanktops and their shorts were to the knee and they had a bunch of little kids! LOL!

It was a great evening and I’m sad this is the last one of the season and that it was our first time going. We’ll have to make sure to go to them again when they start up in the spring next year.