Time Experience Thoughts

Just ran across a print of this photo. Carrie, you are GLOWING! Happy Anniversary you two! Love, Scott & Becky

MY ONE TRUE LOVE With such comfort as time lends, With such longing as hopes yield, With such love as tears reveal -- Hear now our Hope and Desire. As great and precious promises anchor our souls, As eternal ties bind us, As experiences knit us together -- Grant us true Companionship. Being strengthened in struggles, Being tried in trials of faith and will, Being refined in furnaces of affliction -- Help us Overcome all. Together learning through love, Together stretching through service, Together growing through giving -- Make us Instruments in thine Hand. How we worship thee, How we understand thee, How we commune with thee -- So reveal thyself, thy True Nature. With experience we truly know thy character, With yearning we find our true selves, With true love we see our destiny. -- Wrap us in the everlasting arms of Thy Love. Scott L. Vanatter, 24 December 2000 (Christmas Poem for Becky, my Love)

Sean pulling funny faces Ryan pulling funny faces Both boys pulling funny faces, plus (Reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes pulling funny faces.)

Within seconds of Carrie getting down onto the floor to play, the boys jumped onto her back playing horsey, etc. (with light sabers)! They are full-on boys, rough-housing, and having fun, fun, fun whenever feasible. (Always a good thing!) Grandma Becky reminds me that the boys are as quick to play horsey, etc. with their dear ol' Mom when she gets down on the floor with them, as they are with their Dad. The boys love love LOVE their Mother. They tell her so; they tell her she's pretty; they follow her; and respect her. She is -- along with her dear hubby -- raising a team of righteous sons. A sight to behold (their interaction, their eyes, their council, their nightly prayers, their Family Home Evenings, etc.). Happy Mother's Day Carrie. (And Grandma Becky, and Grandma Lee, and Grandma Dot, and all.)

The boys have MOVES! A little bit of Kung Fu Panda, add in some Star Wars lore, and a lotta BOY, and you get excellent martial arts moves. See the movie for a long strectch of Ryan's improvisational Kung Fu moves. Loved being with and watching and admiring and loving these boys.

[During the last half of April Becky and I visited Carrie and all the Motley Boys: Kyle, Sean, Ryan, and Scott Motley. Of the 1,000 stories I could tell of the experience, here's one.] Well. I missed shooting Part I. (And boy did I miss something.) After spending a Saturday afternoon walking up and down a river in Auburn, CA, skipping stones, and taking in the blue sky and mountain air, we stopped by McDonalds for a soft ice cream cone. It was a pretty hot day. Everyone got their own one, except Kyle. He was just turning one year old. I ate the top portion of my cone, then handed the cone and a short mound of ice cream to Kyle. He was sitting wedged in the corner next to Grandma Becky. So, he puts the cone up to his mouth, and begins tasting, then eating it. After a few seconds of getting the full measure of the vanilla taste, he suddenly realizes how REALLY good this ice cream stuff REALLY is. He raises both his hands (cone still in one hand), and with a wide-eyed, big wide smile ...