This week all the kids were out of school ALL WEEK LONG. I know what mom is thankful for this holiday season. Sadie and Davis both got glasses to help a slight eye-strain when reading close-up things (see Sadie pic below).
On Thursday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson’s new house. Chris and Naoko, Tia, Yuki and Evelyn (Yumi), Adrial, and our family were all in attendance. There were a couple of soccer games, a few movies, and a canasta game included in the day.
The next day, Mom and Grandma went to a material store in Salt Lake City, while Grandpa and I took the rest of the kids to the airplane museum on Hill Air Force base in Layton. It was cool. You can see about 10-12 planes outside, but they have 40-50 planes inside the hangars. They started with replica’s of the Wright Brothers flier and worked their way through World Wars 1 and 2 in the first hangar.
Drew's and Pace’s favorite airplane was a black, customized WWII bomber that had 12 machine guns (3 on each wing and 6 on the nose), 6 soft target missiles, 4 hard target missiles (armor piercing) and 2 bombs.
Porter’s favorite was a cut-away internal combustion engine that showed all the pieces moving and working together. Tad liked the massive cargo planes outside the building, the biggest of which had an open front that would allow a semi-trailer to drive into the inside of the plane.
Sadie liked the Navy’s F-14 tomcat, which has swing wings for variable slow and super-sonic flight. The museum didn’t have one on display, but the gift shop had a 4 inch replica that she liked a lot?!? Davis just liked them all.
My favorites were hearing grandpa talk about what he flew (F-4s, F-16s and C135s, primarily), and about some of the experiences he had like landing a c-135 refueling plane with a damaged, non-retractable refueling boom full of fuel… which did catch fire as they drug it down the runway when landing the plane, or overseeing the Air Force’s adoption of the F-16. Turns out he oversaw the team that accepted and tested the very first F-16 which was at Hill Air Force Base. I was also amazed at the size of some of these aircraft which look much smaller on TV. They had a Sikorsky helicopter that was as long and taller than our house, and the SR-71 Blackbird that ‘officially’ flew at about Mach 3, although we heard an SR-71 pilot unofficially say he outran missiles with a max speed well above Mach 3 :).
We also wanted to thank you for the letters. We’ve received Pace, Porter and Drew letters. They appear to have been sent in a bottle across the Atlantic (see pics :) They’re fine, but they got a little moisture, and in one case, transferred the ink from another letter (see pics).
Porter spoke in Sacrament meeting at Mikayla Fullmer’s ‘farewell’ to Brazil. Her dad Alan is making really good gospel progress. Porter did a great job speaking about how to prepare to serve a mission. He had good insights about Ammon turning down the kingdom 3 times in order to be a missionary.. first Mosiah’s, then Lamoni’s, then Lamoni’s father, and how there is application to us as we prepare to serve. Mom is recovering from a long week, and the flakiness of Primary Teachers today who have a hard time keeping commitments (sound familiar). She’s going to bed early, even though the boys and I made lunch and dinner.
Drew says Happy Christmas.
We’re grateful for your letters, and look forward to reading the Christmas version. If you don’t have anything to write about, here are some thoughts:
How far away is the ‘grocery store / market’ from your apartment?
How far do you walk in an average day / week?
Do you have any stories or analogies that help people you’re teaching understand important gospel principles?
Is there a gospel principle you didn’t really think much about before you left that has proven really important?
What do you say in a typical ‘door approach’ or ‘street contact’ to initiate a gospel conversation?
Is there a strong military or police presence, and do you interact with them very much?
Could you give us a recipe of something you’ve eaten recently?
We love you.
Dad
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