We got to see Kindin. Yeah, for the first time we got to hold and talk to Kindin. She was fun. She was really uncomfortable with the small space and all the guests, so she was a lot unhappier than at home. That stressed out Mandy. We all had a great time and thought it was fun to play with her. Dad took her out for walks on the beach all the time, and Elisa and I got some turns at that too.

I think the favorite sport this year was Bocce ball. Waterskiing was way down on people’s list because the weather has already turned cool. I got to learn how, though, which made me really sore when I was doing “Once There Was A Snowman” with the primary kids today. I think Elisa hung on the rope really tight. She got up right away and went for quite awhile. Your Dad says that I got up in “1 ½” tries, but I think it was more like six. I went bare footing once and skiing about three times. Each time we went it took us a couple hours to really feel warm again. So we hung around the houseboat and read more often than usual.

We got beached. It was on the last day. A wind kept pushing us during the night until one pontoon had gotten pushed into the sand. Also in the middle of the night the powerboat’s mooring rope broke and we had to go tie it up again. In the morning, Dad kept swinging the houseboat left and right to get the pontoon free. Finally he had succeeded in walking the houseboat an extra 10 feet further onto the beach! The sand was soft or something so the usual techniques didn’t work. We finally had to call the marina to get a tow.

After that we hurried to Hobie Cat beach to meet the family we were handing the house boat off to. They didn’t arrive by 11 am, or even 12 or 1. Finally we gave up on them. There is no cell service there so we have no idea what went wrong. We left the houseboat on its buoy and drove away at about 3:30 pm. That gave us a pretty late start on the trip home.

When we were driving outside of Price, we drove through a snow storm. Most of the nights we spent on top of the house boat we were pretty cold. I think next year we would need for the temperature to be about 20º higher.

Friday night Elisa and I stayed with Jeff and Sarah and Sophia. Sophia was way more alert and active this time. Saturday morning we all went up to Temple Square. There was a video in the Legacy Theater called, “Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration.” We liked it. I bawled the whole way through. I guess that doesn’t necessarily show that it was good, but it was.

Now we’re back in Seattle. It’s so nice to be home. I agree.