Heidi & Trace Allen (Dick)

Editor's Note ~ Please also see December contribution further in the blog
April 4, 2009

LaVerkin, UT

Dear Family,

I’m not sure when the last time was that we wrote for the newsletter. We hope this finds you all well. We send our condolences to the Briggs Family at the passing of Grandpa Dick. He will be missed, but is probably so happy to be relieved of his physical suffering and back with Grandma Gladys again.

We’ve been so busy the past few months. Last weekend, Heidi and Tracey went up to Salt Lake with the ward’s young women to the General Young Women Meeting at the Conference Center. Like in years past, we went up on Friday afternoon and came home late Saturday night. We always have a few girls who have never been to Temple Square, so it is fun to see things for the first time through their eyes. It was a great meeting. Tracey had been in Salt Lake Tuesday – Thursday for an FCCLA competition (family & consumer science). This year she did a group project centered on the after school tutoring she has been doing at a local elementary school. She started tutoring two days a week at the beginning of the school year and really enjoys it. She invited two friends to join her recently so they could do this presentation together.

The weekend before that (Spring Break), Sam got invited to go snowboarding for the first time with a friend and his dad. They went up to Brianhead for two days. The first day was “snowboard school” and the second day they went on their own. Sam had a lot of fun, but did get sunburned. We tried to warn him, but he must not have put enough sunscreen on his face. He was lucky to already have warm, dry clothes that we bought him for his Klondike campout. Before Sam got back, we got a call from Trace’s older sister suggesting that we should come down to see Trace’s brother who has been battling cancer. At this stage he has a large tumor in his abdomen, his liver isn’t functioning and he can’t eat. The doctor’s have said there isn’t any more they can do for him. Trace and I took Andrew and left Tracey with the other boys from Friday afternoon until Monday night. It was good to spend some time visiting with Trace’s brother. We were also there for our niece’s birthday, which was fun and brought a lot of the family over. I spent an afternoon with my Mom, too. It went really quick.

I wasn’t home the previous weekend, either. I worked a full work week, then another 23 hours between Friday and Saturday at a big United Way fundraiser called the Mini Indy. SkyWest Airlines is the main sponsor of the event. We worked for 3 months soliciting and collecting items for the silent auction, for the racers’ race day gift bags, food for the event and other donations to make it happen. We’ve had better years with it, but considering the economy, I think it went pretty well. The first part of Friday was registration and lunch, then we came back at 5:00 to set up for the auction at the banquet. They also displayed their show car bodies had a pit race competition. Saturday morning at the opening ceremony, the National Guard did a flag ceremony, Taylor Viafanua (top 36 on American Idol from Tracey’s high school) sang the national anthem and a guy parachuted out of a helicopter and descended to the ground with a flag behind him while a patriotic song was played. That was pretty cool. 34 teams racing miniature Indy-style go carts around Dixie College on Saturday. The teams were SkyWest vendors and a few local businesses. There was a BBQ contest among some of teams that provided lunch for everyone. I worked in the hospitality tent all day Saturday. We were right next to the Start/Finish line, so we could see pretty well. I went down to the “wet corner” to watch the racers try to hold on while they came around a 90 degree turn, then a quick, wet 180. There were some close calls. Several of the cars had their front ends held on with duct tape before the end of the day.

Trace has been flying a little bit more lately. He enjoys it a lot, as well as seeing the friends he’s made out at the airport. Trace’s company just got another big job for the National Park Service down at Lake Mead. He is swamped with all the paperwork and planning that goes into starting the job up. He also hired a surveyor and another estimator to help with his department’s workload.

Tracey was the Sterling Scholar for English at her High School. She was awarded $150 at the district level. Thursday she competed at SUU against 13 other kids for the regional title, but she didn’t win. We’re so proud of how well she has done in school and what she has accomplished. We hope she’ll decide what school she’s going to this week. It’s down to SUU or Utah State. She did get accepted at BYU, but decided that their teaching program wasn’t the right one for her. She is taking an Introduction to Teaching class that will give her college credit. She has already done an observation day at LaVerkin Elementary. Next week she is going to observe my friend’s science classes at Sam’s school.

Sam is playing on a competitive, traveling soccer team. They’ve been playing for about a month now and will continue until the end of May. Today was a good game; they tied 1-1. It is fun to watch when the kids know what they’re doing and play positions instead of all following the ball around. Sam is very athletic. P.E. is one of his favorite classes. Ethan and Andrew just finished up their season of city league soccer this week. Sad to say, I only saw 2 ½ games all season.

I joined a Bunco group in February, but have had to miss the last two months due to prior commitments. We play once a month. I won low score the first night and got a prize. It was a Valentine’s decoration – 4” brown and pink hollow blocks that spell love. It was so cute I left it up an extra month (or was I just too busy to put it away?). I only know two people in the group to start with, but know relatives of a lot of the others. I’m looking forward to making some new friends.

Ethan is getting close on his Wolf badge and Andrew is working on his Bear. We just had our Pinewood Derby at the end of March. Sam has earned First Class and his Swimming, Athletics, Archery and Citizenship in the Nation merit badges. He is working on Family Life and Environmental Science right now. Trace doesn’t have any 11 year old Scouts that come right now, so he’s taking a little break. Another 11 year old boy moved into the ward. We’ll see if he decides to come. It’s hard to do activities when there’s only one kid there.

Trace and Sam are at Priesthood Meeting and Tracey has gone over to a friend’s house to watch a movie. I hope you all enjoy General Conference. Take care and happy Spring!

Love,

Trace, Heidi and kids