Sunday turned out to be just as good as Saturday in its own way. Our ward had the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation. It went really well and the theme "Families Can Be Together Forever" was a great beginning to the evening. We met together for our family dinner at Lion's Park in Benson. The evening was nice and except for the bees it was a good location. We also got together to say goodbye to Vance because he is moving to Tennessee. We had a very nice visit. Vance brought his girlfriend Rachel Bertram and his little boy Emmett. Even my mom came with Beth and Richard. These family dinners are a tradition that our daughter Rachel started when they lived in Tucson. We do miss not having her family and Tracy and Johnny, but these are very precious days for Doug and me. Doug played ball with Warren and we all had a few laughs playing Outburst together. I am so grateful for all of our children, their spouses, and especially those beautiful grandkids. I love you all! Hope you enjoy the pictures. Some of them were from Rachel B's camera.

Doug and I had an almost perfect Saturday yesterday. We drove up to Mesa and spent the night at Ed and Bonnie's. I got up early and went to the temple. I saw Karen Preston, Dennis and Denise Bluth, Cissy Andes Jordan, and then ran into Terry Davidson and his family when I was leaving. I walked around the grounds for a little bit and really didn't want to leave but I did. I went to Deseret Books to browse and then went to WalMart to get stuff to make posters and a D-backs shirt because we were headed for Mark Reynolds bobblehead day at the ballpark. We arrived just a little after 3:00. We found a great parking space so neither Dad or I had to walk too far. First stop was the pro shop where we got two shirts for $14. GONGA! Next we went to Friday's Front Row and had an excellent meal. I had a steak and shrimp meal and Dad had chicken and both had Jack Daniel's sauce. YUMMY!! Tracy would have loved the mashed potatoes. Then we saw a great game which included a Mark Reynolds home run and a Chad Tracy grand slam that spashed into the pool. We even got on the JumboTron probably because of the signs I made. We got out of the stadium and found ourselves in a different place than we usually exit from. We had to walk 3/4 of the way around the stadium and over a traffic bridge for 45 minutes. So our great parking space turned out to not be of any benefit after all. We had a nice safe drive home just as the clock struck midnight.

This is my dog Ginger with Vance. The picture is about 5 months old so she has grown a little bit. She has to be chained up outside all day while I am at school so I take her for a walk in the morning and bring her inside in the evening. This morning I had an exciting walk with her. We came around the corner of the front yard to go down the driveway and there sat three large jackrabbits. Ginger loves to chase jackrabbits or anything else that moves. So, you can probably imagine what happened next. I was jerked forward and dragged down the hill. I thought she was going to choke on her collar or break her leash. She was whining at me to let her go, but, of course, the rabbits took off and she eventually calmed down a little. It certainly got my blood pumping. When we climbed back up the hill toward the house she looked like the huskies pulling a sled in the Iditarod (is that how you spell it?). I hate to misspell things and I am embarrassed because I made a mistake in my last post. I should remember what I tell my students, "Always go back and check your work".

The other thing I wanted to share was something that happened with Chelsea (my 17-year old baby daughter). We were driving to school and I told her about a book I was reading. I had just finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and another book called City of Glass both of which were intense reads. I chose a short novel that sounded like it would be a simple love story but I told her it was starting to get complicated. She said, "When it comes to love it is always complicated." We both laughed. How true, how true. I love all of you so life is complicated, but worth it.

First words can be so important, so I am having a hard time starting this blog. I have enjoyed others' blogs but wasn't sure if I really had anything to share. Thanks to Tracy, our middle daughter, the whole family is trying to keep in touch through these blogs. I'm starting out simple and hopefully I will be able to the hang of this after a while. I wish I was able to write like Julie in the movie "Julie & Julia". (If you haven't seen it, you should!) Anyway, I'd really like to be clever and demonstrate my intelligence and wit. Well, be patient with my ramblings and attempts to communicate the Davidson Doings!