More Oregon, Family, Great-Granddaughter, and a little bit of work

Clan at the Molalla 4th of July Parade

Monday was a pretty laid-back day. We got more pictures of our beautiful great granddaughter. She is so cute!!! I also worked with Sean on getting the new version of HawkSoft installed and a quick little training on all things new. I managed to even work a couple of hours to get to know the new way of doing things. Sean wants me to retest all our previous certifications in the new version so it looks like I will have plenty to keep me busy for a while. 

Tuesday was the Fourth of July. It has been several years between COVID and our mission since we have been able to attend the Molalla 4th of July Parade. We took Anna, Alyx, and Elle with us. Our oldest son, Douhet set up two big canopies so we could all sit in the shade. I think there must have been nearly 40 people under the two canopies. We had lots of fun and Elle got lots of candy. She sat in the front row and was right on top of it. 

Baby Ruth Talei Hawkins

After the parade we stopped at our house to pick up something we needed before heading back to our daughter's house. We just lounged around and even dosed for a while. I can't remember the last time I took a nap. Lol 

Sierra and Shonee showed up around 4:30. Alena showed up an hour or so later. We had such a wonderful visit with them and enjoyed a delicious dinner. We checked out Alena’s apartment since we haven’t seen it since they added the second bedroom. It all looks really nice. We told Alena she can stay there if she gets a permanent job locally so that eased some of her worry. Her temp job ends in August, so she is looking for something more permanent. After the Langfords went home, I jumped in the shower. Sean took the girls to the middle school close to the house to watch fireworks. We ended up just watching some TV.

Douhet at the Parade

We decided we were going to go home by way of Idaho Falls so we could have some time with our new great granddaughter. We were going to stop overnight so we were in no hurry to leave at the crack of dawn. We finally got on the road around 10:00 AM. With some construction on the normal road home, Steve decided to take the scenic route by going around the backside of Mt. Hood. We had a couple of slowdowns with some traffic and then a low tire indicator. We added air to the tires, reset the indicator and were on our way only to have the indicator come on again. We were afraid we had a nail in the tire. We found a Honda dealer and got it all checked out. They reset the indicator again and sent us on our way. We had no further issues. 

Shonee and Alena on the
4th of July

We stopped in Mountain Home, Idaho for the night. Djeryd said they had a baby doctor's appointment in the morning and could we come in the afternoon. So, again we made it a leisurely morning getting on the road. We rolled into their place around 1:00. We had a wonderful visit and I got to hold baby Ruth to my heart's content. I even got great grandpa to hold her too. Such fun. We had another appointment to see two of our granddaughters who are attending BYU-I so we hit the road again. We met up with Madison and Audrey at a frozen yogurt shop and visited for almost an hour. it was so fun to see them. Audrey visited us a couple of weeks ago and we were trying to talk Madison into visiting before our mission ends. We arrived home around 7:30 Thursday night.

Technically, we were still off on Friday, but we checked in to see if there was anything that was needed. The Linfords had left for their vacation, so it was good that I checked in. Originally, we were supposed to be back to work on Thursday. Baptiste and Xenia each had something for me to do. I took care of Baptiste's request in the morning and then we went to the movies to see the latest Indiana Jones movie. We went to dinner afterwards. That was fun. By the time we got back, Xenia had sent me her request, so I took care of that for her. That was the extent of my "work". 

Saturday, Steve went grocery shopping, and I went to work on HawkSoft. It actually took most of the day. Darrin had several certifications for me to do and now I must check them in both Version 5 and Version 6 until everyone is officially moved over to Version 6. That could take up to a year, probably sooner. It was nice to settle down for the evening. 

Elle at the Parade

Sunday we were up early to attend choir practice in our new ward. They are having all the missionaries sing a song for Pioneer Day. Actually, we will be singing next week, but it is a Pioneer Day song. It is an original. The son of the sister who is playing the piano for us wrote the song. It is pretty easy, once you learn all the codas and such. Lol We sounded a whole lot better today than we did the last time we practiced. I think we will probably do just fine. We have been asked to help with visiting the care facility every other week until our mission ends. I'm glad about that. We will go again next week. We have also been asked to speak next Sunday so that will be fun.

Eva, Great Grandpa,
and Baby Ruth

Sunday afternoon we attended a One Heart Gathering at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to mingle with our mission. Since they dissolved the branch and put us all in different wards, we don't get to see our missionary friends much anymore. We only see the ones we either work with, sort of live with, or attend Church with. There are lots of other friends we have made that we never get to see anymore so they decided to have this One Heart Gathering at least once a month so we and mingle together. It is a way to welcome the new missionaries into the mission and say goodbye to those who are leaving.

Well, we are getting back to normal. We have an event on Tuesday and three events the following week. July is pretty slow. I don't see anything else on the calendar.

Anna, Elle, Grandpa, Grandma, and Alyx

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July!!! Enjoy your Summer!!!

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox