Summer 2006

Dear family and friends,

We’ve passed several milestones, and have had many exciting things happen the last two months. On the “business” side of the family, David finally took his STEP 1 board exam on June 30th after studying 8-10 hours per day, six days a week for six weeks. This is the exam of most consequence to his medical career, so he wanted to do well, needless to say. The time he put in sounds formidable, but he took plenty of occasions to relax and spend time with Emily and William all the while. The Lord blessed him, and this week he received his results, and he was very pleased with how well he did. In August he will start his 3rd year Family Practice clerkship, followed by Pediatrics, and Surgery, which will end in December. David is excited to be finally advancing to his clinical years.

William has advanced much since we last wrote. Besides getting bigger and more social, he has started reaching for and grasping things. Our first experience with this was discovering a small piece of sausage in his hands that he grabbed from Emily’s dinner plate while on the way to the Grand Canyon. Since that time he has enjoyed playing fetch with Mom and Dad by plucking his pacifier from his own mouth, extending his arm outward, and letting it drop to the floor. Sometimes he even gets a good throw. We are constantly amazed at how far the pacifier can go. In Emily’s estimation, William’s biggest accomplishment over the last couple months was learning to fall asleep on his own (with or without minimal crying). She has been waiting for that for a long time!

Since David could not take off less than a full month for the Miller family reunion, we decided to make the most of it. Emily, for the most part, planned a full and rather ambitious vacation for us that lasted sixteen days. We also took three days to paint our bedroom and living room, and David took a few more days to prune the long-neglected trees in our yard. The yard looks better and better ever time he works out there. We also managed to see a couple movies.

For our vacation, we started by camping at both the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, and spending an afternoon at Zion National Park. William seemed to really love the scenery, especially the first day at the Grand Canyon. I’m sure he will treasure those memories forever. People seemed to enjoy seeing such a little baby at these sites. We all had a great time. We have some photos here.

For the Miller reunion, we spent one week at Aspen Grove in Provo Canyon. There we stayed in “rustic” cabins (they seemed luxurious after camping in a tent!) and ate at a buffet-style cafeteria. Some of our activities included paint-balling, air rifle shooting, repelling, making pottery, hiking, climbing, and, did I mention, eating? We really enjoyed spending time with family. David got a chance to wear himself down on the slopes of Mount Timpanogos. He certainly now has an informed respect for his great-great grandfather, Frederick William Clark, who made the same hike from the bottom of the trail to Emerald Lake at age 80. To put it into perspective, he farmed and built houses and barns until he died, so outdoor activity was what he had always known.

We got a chance to spend an evening with two of David’s former mission companions and their families, and David had a great time catching up. As it turns out, all three of us have a two-to-three month-old child now. After the visit, David remarked how much he had changed since he first met these friends.

While in Utah, we enjoyed a good visit with Emily’s Grandma Miller and Grandma Priday. Emily and William also attended the Keith Miller reunion while David unfortunately was in bed, sick with the virus that had been passed around at Aspen Grove. David and Emily really enjoyed attending a session in the Salt Lake Temple, thanks to Mom and Dad Miller watching William. On Monday, July 24th, Mom, Dad, David, Emily, and William joined Creed and Heidi and their children for the Pioneer Day parade in Salt Lake City, followed by a great barbecue at Heidi’s parents’ home in Sandy. On our way home, we stopped for the night at Emily’s cousin Mandy and Bill Mannewitz’s home in Dalhart, Texas. We enjoyed visiting with them and their 5 children. Even though we had a great time on our trip, we were happy to get home and settled back in to life.

Love,
David, Emily, and little William