Cousins and Dancing

Melissa,

So last week, I went to a mini-family reunion! Cami and I took the front runner partway, and then were picked up by her parents and taken to Uncle Alan's to see everyone. There were a lot of people there: the Grand-parents were visiting for pioneer day; Uncle John's family was there on their way to move to Virginia; Kailey, her husband, and her baby were visiting her parents; and Cami's parents and sister were there to bring Lauren to Athletic camp. So we had dinner and played Apples to Apples and talked and it was lots of fun. Jayden is adorable, I can't believe how much he's grown! He's crawling everywhere now and can even stand up with some support. I helped feed him, and of course he got baby food on my shirt. This was probably the last time I'll see Erica for a while, since she's going on a mission in September, but Danica is coming here in the fall! Chadley was super excited to learn I am a My Little Pony fan, and Kailey introduced me to Friendship is Witchcraft, a fan made spoof of My Little Pony; it's funny, but it has some rather dark humor. It's strange to see these cute ponies portrayed this way!

So for the past few weeks, each Wednesday I have been volunteering with BYU's dance program to help Special Olympics kids prepared for Dance Sport. Dance Sport is a ballroom dance competition for students and it's coming up next week. I'm volunteering to help teach these kids how to dance, and then to dance with one of them so that they can compete. It's been a lot of fun, these kids are sweet, funny, and absolutely love being able to dance with someone. We're doing waltz and meringue and despite how simple the steps are, in some ways it's more fun than dancing with really good dancers. There's this one boy, if I just put on a huge silly smile, he'll just start laughing and he has the funniest laugh! I'm excited for Dance Sport and I'm really glad to have this opportunity to serve.

That's really about it, except for my research paper. It's coming along, but I really need to put some work in today before Rachel gets here!

- Jessica