August 3

The quilt that we finished at the reunion to give to Myrle at her retirement party.














Elliot and Ella doing their best in the watermelon seed spitting contest.














The cousins out on the banana boat.














Cec, Anna, and Caroline on the boat.














Building sandcastles on the beach.














A bunch of little girls and Elliot watching "Little Einstein".














Here is Elliot's team, which won the Adidas Cup in Orem, and all of the families that were there.

















All of the Parnells except Nate. We almost brought out Hailey's life-size Han Solo to stand in for him- he was doing something silly like playing his trombone with the Tabernacle Choir.














Two of the little cousins Sumo wrestling- uh, I can't tell who it is....














Elliot and Ryan sparred a little using the volleyball as a soccer ball

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

My favorite thing about the Willmore family reunion was probably camping out. I slept in a tent with Audrey and my dad. It was fun because it was kind of exciting to do all of these things outside kind of in the forest, you could say. I just like camping out. I liked floating down the canal and the ropes course and going to the swimming pool. At the ropes course, Nathan, on the trapeze type thing, when you get up there it's 37 feet above ground, so you have to jump and reach for the trapeze, and Nathan, when he got up there, he made this little sound because he was so afraid, like a little puppy, and it was really funny. It was also kind of funny floating down the canal because we had to wait, so a few times people went by me because I was in the lead, but I had to show what the rose bushes were. I went down twice, once the whole thing, and once just the tarp part. I kind of had a hard time. That day the flow toward the pump was really strong. John probably had the worst time at all, because he had slippery shoes and he was trying to get Alyssa out.

I think ice skating with the Mexico kids was really fun. I thought some of the kids that were really good at sports would be able to do it really well, and Christian and Cande were the best of the Mexico kids. Cristobal was pretty good, too. Alondra wouldn't let go of the side. I liked Lagoon. Because I got to spend time with them and there's a sign there that says, "Don't scream alone", and it's showing two people on a ride, and I think that's actually really true, because if I would have gone alone, I wouldn't have thought Wicked and Colossus were fun. I got to just have fun with them there. I got to show them the really cool rides. My favorite ride was probably Colossus, because there was the loopedy-loops, but Wicked was almost as good. Their favorite was probably Colossus or Wicked too. I hung out with Christian and Cande and Javier, and a little bit Cristobal. Having them with me made me braver, if I they didn't go on Wicked, if they chickened out, I would have chickened out, too. I got to play a little bit of soccer with them, but it wasn't like games, it was just skills. They were really good- Cande and Christian were really good. They showed me a lot of tricks. Hanging out with them was probably just the most fun. I did all kinds of things with them then, and that's probably why it was the most fun. We looked at the stars. They thought that was kind of fun, and when they went to the airport, they wrote us some notes, and Cande said in mine that every time he even touched the soccer ball that he would remember me, and he hoped that I would do the same. I haven't even seen a soccer ball at all from that time on to now, but maybe I will. Toilet papering was really fun, except the only bad thing about it was it was really windy, so when you threw your toilet paper roll up, you'd have to run and get it. I miss them. I was sad the morning I had to saw goodbye. I was really sad. I just wish I could play with them some more, just see them all the time and play with them all the time. I want to see them again, maybe I'll see them again.

We had a soccer tournament down in Orem, and it was called the Strikerfest. They were considered State teams, they were supposed to be good and we thought we'd lose, but we went undefeated the whole way. I almost had a shutout except for the final game- Extreme XC. They were pretty good. But they only scored two. And my team and me had a record of 34 points to 2 points in all of the games. My best game was probably the first game against Extreme XC. I made a lot of saves, good saves. They told me that I was kind of the MVP of the tournament. I saved lots of goals. In our first game, against Sparta, there was this one time when this really fast kid broke away, so I went up on him and he lost control of the ball, so I was going to kick it to one of my teammates, but I angled it, and I was out of the goalie box, but luckily, it had rolled into the goali box, and I just dove for it, and I got it without getting hurt. Afterwards, my coach and my teammates were like, "You fixed your mistake, that's what you always want." Then, against Extreme XC the first time we played, not the final, but the first time, the guy was coming on my left side, so I kind of went out to the corner of the box that's inside the 18, it's called the 6, and I went right there, and he kicked it, he tried to angle for the outside post, which is usually what they would aim for, but it was a really hard fast kick, and I just dove really quickly, and I got it. Then there was another time when they kicked it and I got it because it was right to me and I went up and kicked it as hard as I could to Demi, but I got past Demi and Luis ran up and he shot it and it went in. And everyone was like, "Nice assist, Elliot, nice looking for the run." It was a mistake, but it turned out good. But everyone else played really good too- B was back from Argentina. He's a little rusty, but we still need him.

I brought my Logan Fun Run shirt to the Parnell family reunion because I really like that shirt. It looks pretty good on me. But when it was tie-dye time, my mom decided that I would like to do my Logan Fun Run shirt, so she laid it out. At first I didn't really want to do it because I thought it looked good white. But then I ended up doing it. Maggie showed me how to do it and I put the rubber bands on and stuff, but she squirted the ink. I thought it was pretty cool. Now I have a different one from everyone else. I liked the barbecue ribs. They were really good, except most of it was bone! You had to go get seconds and thirds before you were full. Then we went to Bear Lake, and I liked riding on the banana boat. Because it was kind of fun being tipped over. It was just fun. Nate did a good job of tipping us, except one time he tipped everyone but my dad hung on. And Nate said afterwards that he almost left the ones that were in the water in the lake to go dump my dad. But he didn't. I got to go with Nate and Ryan to take the boat back. The rope had a loop in it and it sprayed me the whole way, and Nate was going pretty fast. I had to let go of it and rub my eyes and they I could see that he wasn't turning, then I would get splashed again. So eventually I just had to trust Nate that he was going straight.

Love you, miss you.

Elliot

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I was so sad to see the Mexican kids go. I wouldn't say goodbye to them, because every time they said bye to me, I just said I didn't want them to go. I liked it when Cristobal was the tickle monster. Except he didn't know that he was the tickle monster the first time I came up to him and screamed "Oh no, it's the monster!!!" And he looked at my mom, nervously, saying that he really hadn't done anything to hurt me.... So Daddy had to explain that being the monster was not a bad thing, and from them on, I would come up and scream that to him, and then he would know that our game was starting and he'd chase me around the house.

I had so much fun at the Parnell family reunion. First I got to swim in the swimming pool. I had some water wings on and learned that I could tread water and kind of propel myself around by myself. That was really fun. It was also fun pretending to be baby sea monsters with Mary and Anna and Caroline and Harriet. I didn't sleep very well, and neither did anyone else around me. I had fun doing the Sumo wrestling during the Olympics. My little cousins and I couldn't even walk in those mats without falling over. We thought it was pretty funny. But what I really loved was going to the beach. We could make sand castles, and the water was so warm and shallow that I could wander out into the water quite a ways and it would still only go up to my belly. I had a little bit of fun on the boat, too, but I especially loved being in the water. I liked to walk out with a float tube around my waist.

Things have been pretty boring in our house since then. There have only been five people in our house. I can't survive on so little attention.

Cecily

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I went to Willow Park with the Mexico kids for the 24th celebration. We just walked around and looked at all of the stands and Jorge asked me questions. We watched the parade and everyone was tired. Then my mom called and said that the van wasn't working. We found JC and he took us back to their house and we had lunch there. We watched Iron Man. Then we went to the Dollar Store. We took the kids toilet papering. They thought it was crazy. It was a windy night, so when we went to throw up the toilet paper it would blow away from us. We did the Cottles' house. I was sad when the kids left. I didn't cry like Elliot, though. I got lots of notes and letters from them. We had a few, and then we found a ton a little tiny notes, and they toilet papered our house the night before. It was sad to go to the airport, but some of them still write to us.

Going to Bear Lake with the family reunion was so fun. I wish we could have gone there more. I wish we could have done it all of the days. I liked the place where we went because it was a nice area and it was mostly shallow so the little kids could play. The boat was fun. I wish we wouldn't have gone water skiing- I wish we would have gone banana boating more. I thought the Olympics were pretty fun, but I was the one in charge of it. I thought the Sumo wrestling or the water balloons were the most fun. My mom and Liz were the funniest wrestling together. It was just funny to watch. But I got sick, that wasn't a good thing. I threw up for like one night. A few other people got sick too. So it was probably something we ate.

I went school clothes shopping and mostly just got clothes. I got a yellow shirt that I really like. It's a nice color of yellow.

Love you.

Audrey