"right to right, left to left"

          This has been a week of many firsts. First parallel park (seems dull, but you gotta take the little excitements in life.) First time wakeboarding (I got up on my very first try!! I feel quite ninjatastic about that.) First DATE. First time teaching Sunday school. It was a very fun, very exhausting week, packed to the gills with work and play.

          Teaching Sunday school is about a thousand times more terrifying than teaching in young women. Teaching Sunday school is probably less terrifying when one is actually and adult and not younger than most of the kids in the room. I dunno, just guessing here. Either way, though, it helps to remember that everyone in the room is busy falling asleep.

          Luckily, I also had my parents there. Part of me cringed because it meant I was standing there laying my soul out not just in front of my peers, who couldn't care less, but also my parents. Part of me was relieved because they'd be there to save me when too many minutes of silence confronted my questions. The lesson was uneventful. I survived. My mother tells me it went well; personally, I don't really mind either way, because I know I was prepared. And it's over. I'm glad to have had the opportunity; I always feel like I gain more from teaching lessons than anyone else does.
          What sticks with me, though, is how grateful I am to have such excellent parents. They are both so smart, and eloquent, and always know just what to say. I was talking about the lesson, but it goes so far beyond that. I know they love me; I'm never in doubt of that. I know they love each other. And by so much of what they do, I know they love God. Because, according to James 14:15 and Elder Uchtdorf (read this talk), we show our love to God by keeping the commandments. And every day, my parents show me that they love God.

          My dad's reserved. Very dry humor, sort of tongue-in-cheek. It's hard to tell whether he's being ironic or actually agrees with you. He lets his quirks and fun and goofiness show, and he's not afraid to be vulnerable; his emotion's just not often visible from the surface. It's subtle. You can tell, though, as he plays with his boys in sacrament meeting that they've got him wrapped around their little fingers. You can tell that he loves them, loves to be with them and make them laugh. "What a delight," he said one night of Gabe playing happily in George. He loves the way Jack mispronounces family and secret, the way he so eagerly shows him the train or sand or movie on his mind. He loves to hear Anna sing and practice her ukelele, and plays that game of Settlers with her when no one else will. In Ashlei he loves his little bike-riding companion on early-morning runs, and her sweet, mild temper. I get texts in the middle of class wishing me luck for the day, and he tells me how he likes it when he hears me sing. I know that he's proud of Jens, his work ethic and his compassion for others. He's always updated on Nena's busy life in Provo. Max tells us that Dad has never missed a week to write; not once has at least a quick email from my Dad been waiting in Max's inbox come p-day. He loves my mom and extols her patience with the city and kisses her in the middle of the kitchen sometimes to make us kids groan. By all these things I know that my dad loves us, and for that I am so grateful. There is so much more I might say, and it is all wonderful too, but the very most important stuff is right here. He loves us, and he loves God, and we will all get to live together someday. I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and my Father in heaven who loves us too.
       Have a wonderful week!
       Love, Grace

Kevin took us boating, and it was a blast.

My favorite of the tubing excerpts. Rachel, you are adorable.

 Talmage and I doubled with his cousin, Gavin Sundall, and Katelyn Connors. We hiked up to Patsy's Mine, which I didn't know existed, and then had marshmallows in his backyard. It was SO FUN. Dates. I want to go on lots of them.

Happy Father's Day.