Richard’s projects – Letters from Home

New York City

I had never been to New York City, so Richard took me there this week. We stayed in an Airbnb not far from Times Square, but definitely on a quiet street. We could walk to our shows in about five minutes.

Vacations and major family events are tough to condense into blog posts. Trips planned by Richard are usually so full that it’s impossible to cover everything, and this trip was just the two of us, so it also feels more personal.

Still, I know that Paige will probably like to see her old stomping grounds, and the future me will like this place marker in time showing some of our adventures together, so here goes.

The Starry Night was at the Met for a special exhibit.

We saw a lot of beautiful art, but this was one of my favorites, also by Van Gogh.

I cannot capture all we saw in the nearly 5 hours we spent at the Met.

9/11 Memorial and Museum: Somber, heavy, dark, important.

Beautiful view at lunch in lower Manhattan

Trip Stats, according to Google maps:

12 miles of walking
59 miles of driving
6 miles of cycling
13 miles on the train
4,019 miles by plane
11 miles on a ferry
11 hours of culture
8 hours in airports
5 hours at parks

Ross reunion 2023

Moab Trip

The Ross family tour bus departed on Memorial Day, just as most people packed up their RV’s to come home. We passed masses of traffic traveling home in the other direction, and discovered that the places we visited near Moab were not crowded. Richard made excellent plans and accommodations for us. He is so good at this.

After such a wet winter, the landscape was more green than we can remember. There were so many wildflowers, that whole fields were dusted in color, mostly orange, but many other colors, too.

Do you spy Paige and Michael, and Daniel and McKenna traveling with us? Lucky us! My brother Joe shared his van with us so we could all ride together.

This disaster is actually a tender mercy.

Richard awoke at 3:30 am on Saturday and had an impression that he should check the furnace room. He found the beginnings of a flood in this basement area, and bleary-eyed, we cleared out the wet boxes and vacuumed up excess water on the floor through the early hours of the morning. We were able to discover the leak was from the water heater. There was minimal damage, and the carpets are fine.

We were disappointed, as we had plans to go to Susanna’s wedding reception on Saturday, which we had to miss. We were also without hot water for a couple of days.

The thing that we will remember is that we were so completely cared for by the Lord.

He inspired Richard to wake up so he could protect our home. The flood began before we were scheduled to be away from the house. Mark was home on Saturday and could help Richard move out the old water heater and bring inside the new one. Richard had tools, knowledge, skill, and some helpful insights from others so he could install the water heater himself, long before any plumber could come.

I don’t know why we were spared the trial of a fully flooded basement, but I know who spared us.

Snow pictures

We had quite a storm this week. The last 3 pictures were taken a day after the nonsense, so the snow has had a chance to compact and melt a bit. We are thankful for the snow and for a high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle.

A new television on a different wall

We bought a new television for Christmas, and this began the rearrangement of chairs, tables, pictures, plants, decor, floor coverings, power cords, dishes, and bookshelves throughout the house. We are mostly making do with the furniture we own, so this has taken some trial and error to find the “next” perfect place for each piece. One morning, after days of shifting, I looked over the rooms and I was finally satisfied. If our furniture could click like a padlock, this is the sound the living room would have made. I’m just going to own that it was kind of fun to rethink the rooms where I spend my days.

Apples

The family has been working on a really big apple crop from our tree. We have prepared applesauce, frozen apples, dried apples, and caramel apples. Apples, apples, apples, apples, apples, apples, apples. I have named this weekend Apples.

General Conference Weekend

Richard arranged for our family to enjoy one last camping trip this year. He reserved a large campsite in Midway with beautiful views of the changing leaves on the mountains and Heber Valley. It was chilly, but we enjoyed generous food portions, a break from phone service, plenty of hot cocoa, and singing around the fire with a guitar. Life felt pretty good. Happy 23rd Birthday to Daniel! And happy Conference weekend.

General Conference

Neighborhood Gathering

I hope these familiar faces continue to also feel like a novelty. I won’t forget their kind acts when we have experienced sickness, grief, and storms. May these people who have cheered for our children understand what that has meant to us. May they see that we love them. May we appreciate the blessing it is to gather. I hope they always feel welcome in our home.

Sara and Christopher

Sara and Christopher’s reception completes our summer as a wedding reception venue. I don’t have many photos, but it was a lovely evening. I love celebrating events and milestones at our house.

Besides the happy couple, my favorite memory is the cousins from Shari, Richard, and Rebecca’s families laughing and joking together in our kitchen as we packed up lots and lots of marbles and flowers. Little things.