Small Town Couple: Letter Home

Dear Mom and Dad,

Surprise! Another letter. I was shocked that the last one took all week to get to Wyoming. Maybe this one will arrive faster. The girls love the idea of sending letters so please see the enclosed for news from them.

We’ve had another full and productive week. Tuesday night the Activity Day leaders (primary) took the group to a free outdoor production here in Maple Grove. Parents were invited as well so Mary and I went with Charlotte and Laurel (plus our two neighbor girls) to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. I wasn’t sure what to expect since this was put on in someone’s back yard. It was amazing. 900 people showed up the night we attended – I have no idea how they fit everyone. Each guest brought a can of food for the local food shelf and concessions were sold. The mother teaches music at a local Christian college so there were many amazing performers who could hit the high notes well. The couple’s son was Joseph and I had a group of 5 girls who thought he was so good they had to meet him in person after the show :). It was really fun.

Jacob had scouts Wednesday night. The boys are busy preparing for scout camp which starts on 8/13. And David and I snuck away to watch “The Dark Knight Rises” on Thursday. David told me afterward that I was a good sport because it wasn’t really my type of movie. He, of course, enjoyed it, but I thought it was a bit violent.

David took the girls to our ward’s Father/Daughter campout Friday night. After a week of beautiful weather, severe weather was predicted to hit the cities around 11:00 p.m. After enjoying dinner and games, the person in charge of the campout announced the severe weather heading into the area. When Laurel and Mary heard the news, they insisted on coming home (they’ve never been the same since that hail storm on the mountain in Utah last year). So David packed the tent and brought them home. He had just pulled in (at 11:00 p.m.) when the storm hit. I’m sure they would have been fine, but it did blow and rain HARD for over an hour so I’m glad they came back. Laurel and Mary went to bed, but Charlotte and David crashed on our couches. Charlotte woke him up at 1:00 a.m. to find clear skies so they returned and slept in the van the rest of the night. It was important to her to attend the breakfast but all other activities were cancelled for Saturday because everything was so wet. I was just grateful that we didn’t have a wet tent to dry out, etc., and David didn’t have to deal with two girls freaking out in a tent.

We pulled everything out of Laurel and Mary’s room on Saturday in preparation for a new coat of paint. As I said on the phone, all the chaos is driving me crazy, but I know I’ll be glad we did this when everything back in place and up to date. The girls’ room hasn’t been painted since Charlotte and Laurel were sharing the room so it’s a bit over due. We’ll send pictures once we get it all done.

I included some pictures of Laurel and Mary’s gymnastics camp. Yes, that is Laurel doing a round-off off of the beam. And Mary flipping on the men’s rings very high over the mats. They start classes again on September 5^th and can hardly wait, especially after watching the Olympics. Watch out Gabby Douglas :)!

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

David, Ella, Jacob, Charlotte, Laurel, & Mary

Had to include some pictures of my great nieces (man - does that make me sound old!). Aubrey in the front and Camilla in Laurel's arms. They are sooo sweet. And their mother's are such good mother's.

Baby Brynn

This is my favorite picture of Aubrey - she's running to get candy at the parade. You can't tell here, but when she runs, her whole body moves :).

Charlotte's letter:

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I must once again say, that I had a ton of fun while in Wyoming. I can’t believe that we have been home for almost 2 weeks! Today, I shared my testimony in fast and testimony meeting. It was really funny at church today, because like everybody’s testimony’s were on missionary work. I guess that a lot of people are struggling with missionary work. As well as this letter, I have also enclosed a letter I wrote to you the day we got back from Wyoming. That one was hand-written. I hope that you enjoyed my letter from last week.

On Friday night we got to go to the Father Daughter. (A campout the church plans for fathers and daughters.) Well anyway, it was a lot of fun at the beginning. We were the first people there like we are every year. We even beat the coordinator! Usually when we beat the coordinator (every year) we have to sit outside the gate and wait for him to come with the key. This year, however, the people that were there before us forgot to lock and shut the gate so we got to go inside and start setting up our tent and cooking hotdogs.

I got to start the fire! I built a log cabin and stuck paper in the middle. Our friends played and we went on a 1-mile hike just the 6 of us. (Me, Laurel, Mary, and our 3 friends – Joy, Faith, and Abby.) No parents came with us, it was fun. We camped in the same spot we did last year. We played until it was time for smores and the closing ceremony. The smores were really good. Did you know that some people make smores by using chocolate and graham cracker cookies and marshmallows? Well anyway, for the closing ceremony we told our name and favorite candy bar. (Mine was a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.) Well then, the coordinator said there was going to be a severe thunderstorm, and possible a tornado. That was when the girls started freaking out.

Laurel and Mary started sobbing that they were “terrified” and “everyone was going to die because of Charlotte.” Then they heard thunder and say lightning, it put them over the edge. They were begging to leave. I didn’t want to leave. No one was really in danger. Finally Dad said that we had to take the tent down and leave. That made me mad. We brought the girls home, and then waited until the storm blew over. Than we came back and slept in the car. It was fun. No one died. I got to say the prayer over breakfast that morning.

I miss you both a lot, and hope that you have enjoyed this letter, last week’s letter, and the other letter I wrote you that should also be enclosed in the envelope. Hope that I can Skype you sometime. I love you both a lot. Have a great week and enjoy the pictures.

Love,

Your Granddaughter,

Charlotte Rolfs

Mary's "Modern Art"