Week 40
Another great week.  On Wednesday my great-great niece Halle Anne Grant was born to Ken and Lauren--that was also my nephew David's birthday so he became a grandfather on his birthday.  Ken and Lauren are living in and taking care of our house while we're gone, so it's fun to think of little Halle livening the place up!

Yesterday Zack was baptized.  Elder Kerr confirmed him today.  This young man was so ready to hear the gospel--he asked the sisters if he could meet with them every day so he could get all the lessons as quickly as possible because he knew it was true and wanted to be baptized.

Zack with Brother Dobie--the Sisters right behind

The day before that, we took the sisters, Zack, Nicole, and Daniel to the temple so that Daniel could perform baptisms for the dead for the first time.  Daniel was so excited to be able to enter the temple, while Zack walked around the grounds and sat in the waiting area.  Elder Kerr baptized Daniel for three of our family names and four of Sister Smith's.

On Monday we went out to Blackwell Lake for FHE--Brother Linsenmeyer has a boat and the kids took turns tubing.  Hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner.  For the less adventurous we brought our giant bubble makers, and you can see the results were stunning.

Sarah the Bubble Master

Thursday was move-in day for all freshmen (they have to live in the dorms their first year), so Stillwater suddenly got crowded.  At church today we had several new students as well as lots of our "regulars" who were away for the summer.  It was fun to have a larger congregation than we've seen for several months.  And tomorrow school and institute begin again.  We're excited to be teaching Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon, and Teachings of the Living Prophets.  Won't know until after the first two weeks if they will all carry.

Oklahoma note:  Architecture is not Stillwater's strong suit.  There are no skyscrapers, and the tallest buildings in town are the Kerr-Drummond dormitories (well, actually, the tallest is the grain elevator at the feed mill).  When we visited Kim and Doug in Tulsa last year we saw lots of great art deco buildings downtown, and even Enid has several art deco buildings.  But Stillwater doesn't have a whole lot of interesting buildings.  A very common home style in the older section of town is arts and crafts.  They are circa 1940s (maybe even 1930s), and there are many variations on the porch and pillars theme.

Top is a typical arts & crafts style, below are two old homes converted to law offices-- All on Duck Street

An interesting church building