May 3, 2006

Dear Family---

It’s May and school is out soon, and I’m still having a hard time believing it is 2006. The older you get the faster time flies. I guess it’s time for our family to bring you up to date with us. I promise within the next week I’ll have an agenda out for the family reunion. Thank you everybody for getting me your money and your credit card numbers. I’m excited about spending time together. I’m tired already from looking forward to our schedule for this summer.

Dean is working a lot still. He is still doing the hotel and that youth facility when he isn’t doing his normal stuff. He is also doing another elementary school. He is playing more tennis than he did for awhile, so good for him. He is still doing scout master and figuring it is probably time for the younger generation to be taking these boys on campouts and doing merit badges. He figures he’ll stay at least until Brady turns 14 next year and then give some younger more energetic man the opportunity. The scouts are going down the Green River in canoes the week before the reunion. Drew did that with Dean 11 years ago and the kids still talk about it. It was truly one of the most fun scouting adventures the boy ever did.

I (Trudy) have enjoyed have the semester off. I have done a ton of quilting and gearing up for my last semester in school this summer. I haven’t taken any night classes since last summer, so the adjustment might be substantial. I have to take Behavioral Analysis (the one I dropped last summer because of Brady’s playoffs in San Bernardino) and I’m taking a ceramics class at Dixie for electives. That will be it. I’ll be an official college graduate with a major in Psychology and a minor in Family and Human Development. I’m still Primary President. It has been 2 ½ years, and that is a long time and I start thinking I need to move on, until someone in Relief Society says they want us to be released because they want a couple of us from the Presidency in Relief Society and then I am truly grateful I’m in Primary. Just keep me away from those old ladies, I want the little kids, we have more in common.

Kyle, Sheree, Konner, and Taylor Marie are doing great. They just inherited the motor home. We have talked about selling it for years. I have, Dean and the kids wanted to keep it, but it didn’t seem financially wise to insure it for one trip a summer, so it has sat. It wasn’t running very well and Kyle and Sheree wanted it bad and said that her dad would fix it up because he is an auto mechanic. He’s retired and wanted something to do anyway. I guess it is running like a charm and Konner and Taylor Marie love to watch videos and play in it. Sheree is working part-time at nights at a hotel at the front desk to get out of the house for a bit.

Erin and LeRand (Dixon) are getting married on May 20^th, which is also the day that Dean and I got married. Several of us went to Erin’s shower last Saturday and it was good. I’m glad it is over though. Erin is working just a little bit and finishing school up this summer. They are going to live in Provo. LeRand is going to start at BYU. He is currently selling insurance for State Farm (I think that is the company?)

Drew and Jennie are making some minor changes. Drew is going to go sell alarm systems in Denver, Colorado for the summer. His work gave him the time off, and the bosses daughter is home from school and going to work in his place and then he’ll get his spot back come the end of summer. Apparently, you can make a lot of money at this alarm selling business. Jennie is still in Davis County, but has applied at Draper City for the same job and wants to get it because her supervisor is hard to deal with in Davis County. I think Jennie will move in with her sister for the summer. Drew will live with a bunch of guys while in Denver. They house you while you work for them.

Alix is doing well. She is still at Albertson’s and going to school. She just got a promotion at work. She was going to move home, but just found an apartment for her and lives alone. She plays on a girl’s softball team and soccer team and enjoys them both.

Katie is closing in on the final month of her sophomore year in high school. She was elected to the Junior Class office of Publicity. She was excited. She still sees double. She goes to the doctor next week and if things are better, and they seemed to stabilize three months ago, she’ll need to see a specialist at Primary Children’s Hospital. That means more surgery. She has her learner’s permit and should be doing her driving with the teacher soon. She is playing on a soccer tournament team, but couldn’t play softball. She played softball in gym and said she could have done better swinging at the ball with her eyes closed as opposed to double vision. She will try out next year when her vision is back to normal. She passed the UBSCT test they have to take to graduate. You take it as a sophomore and then don’t have to take it again if you pass.

Brook is growing tall. I’m tickled because she is going to be taller than I thought. She is playing percussion still in school and has signed up for it next year. She loves percussion. Can’t you just see Brook as a drummer in a rock and roll band? She is going to get contacts this Friday. She is nervous. She goes to EFY the first week in June and then girl’s camp the end of July and Youth Conference the end of June and Katie has EFY the first week in July followed by a week of soccer camp in Cedar City. Brook will be at the high school next year, so that is good news that she is taller.

Brady is playing little league baseball right now. He is on Tanner Smith’s team. Tanner’s dad is the coach and Dean is assistant coach. They have about six good players and the rest are really bad. Some of them don’t even know the location of 2^nd base. Brady pitches and catches. He’s their first pitch. He is a good pitcher. He has that Green River Canoe trip and he will be playing in the Summer Games with his border league basketball team. He moves up to the middle school next year. That’s a crazy thing.

I guess that is probably enough information to digest. As kids get married, you have more and more to write about. We’ll be glad to see and visit with everybody at the family reunion in July.

Love, tb