School has begun and the first week has thus far been a success. There were no complaints and each boy reports he likes his respective new school which is a great relief. Matthew is excited about science club and Nikolas is talking about band. Hopefully, Week Two will go just as well.

The rest of the Mierins life is pretty much the same. Gail is enjoying the quiet of the day. She is still teaching voice and practicing with her singing group which takes up a good amount of her time. Andy's office had an attorney retire the end of August and thus his work has increased slightly. He also starts teaching his college classes this week and is excited to begin. Essentially it has been the same routine for both.

Matthew and Andy enjoyed a fun trip to the Twin Falls Temple Saturday. Each is looking for many more opportunities. The temple certainly serves as a strength and how grateful we are for them upon the earth.

We hope all is well.

The end of summer for the boys has arrived. In about 12 hours Matthew begins 7th grade and Nikolas 5th Grade. Friday was spent touring schools, getting supplies and preparing for a new school year. It has been a quick summer, but we did quite a bit of fun things. The boys seem excited and ready to begin school.

Monday and Tuesday of this week were spent in SLC. Matthew had his annual checks ups with his doctors at Primary Children's. Everything seems good, which we are glad. We did get to go finish some last minute school shopping.

Gail continues to be quite busy with her singing and students. Andy is about to begin a new semester of teaching next week. He spent a good amount of time getting ready for his two classes; Introduction to American Politics and The Nevada Constitution.

We hope all is well.

We just returned from a nice visit to Boise for a family reunion. We left Friday afternoon. The reunion was Saturday and it was nice to become acquainted with members of Gail's family. We then got together Saturday evening with Gail's brother and his family to do some swimming at our hotel and then some dinner.

Otherwise it was a normal work week for us. The boys start school in a week and it is hard to believe our summer is almost over.

We hope all is well.

We had a fairly quiet week. Matthew spent the week in Idaho with his grandparents. He reported having a good time, but was glad to come home as well. The boys have had a busy summer and it is amazing to think that in two weeks school starts. Nikolas had a great week ruling the house. He will not admit to this, but he missed Matthew. Nikolas and Gail played about forty games of Yahtzee. Mom was the champ.

Andy and Nikolas continued projects around the house. Nikolas is a great assistant. Gail and Andy had typical weeks of work. Outside of work, nothing to spectacular occurred. We hope all is well wherever you may be.

We need a vacation to recover from our vacation. We have wonderful friends who took great care of our home and cats, but Andy returned to quite a pile at his office. He spent Tuesday and Wednesday playing catch up. Then on Thursday discovered another attorney who was thought to be on vacation has retired, so now the workload got spread even more. By Friday he was on top of all assigned to him.

The boys were glad to be home as well and for the last 100 miles talked about how excited they were to see Salem, our older cat. Salem was not as glad his people came home.

Gail had a performance this week signing for the opening of the Elko Senior Games and the show went well. She received an invite to sing for a group that will perform on Temple Square at Christmas. This outlet has really helped.

Matthew was off to Idaho to spend a week with his grandparents. He and Gail left Friday. Nikolas and Andy stayed home. Saturday was a great day. Andy and Nikolas spent the day working in the yard, fixed a sprinkler, did chores around the house and ended the day going to a movie. Both report it was an excellent day.

We hope all is well with you.

We returned last evening from a wonderful trip back to New Hampshire and Washington, DC. We left July 9th early in the morning and drove to Lincoln, Nebraska. Next stop was Cleveland, Ohio and we made it to NH on July 11th. We had good driving weather, no delays which made the trip easier.

Our stay in NH was wonderful. We spent time visiting with friends and family, did some shopping and just relaxed. Gail and Andy left for Washington on July 16th. Andy was attending a national conference on Drug Courts. Matthew and Nikolas stayed with Grandma Mierins and Jim. The conference was held at the Gaylord National Harbor side. Andy reports the conference was great with quite a few informative sessions. Gail enjoyed exploring the area and really enjoyed Mt. Vernon. While in DC, Andy and Gail sampled Korean, Pakistani, Ethiopian and Peruvian food. They also went on a tour of the Capital, FBI Building, the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.

Matthew and Nikolas arrived on Thursday morning and the family went to explore the Museum of Natural History and Museum of American History. Friday we visited the Air and Space Museum located near Dulles Airport. One of the highlights was seeing a space shuttle. Friday afternoon we left for Nevada. We drove as far as Columbus, OH. We left early the next morning and made it to Omaha, Nebraska and the Rock Springs, Wyoming. We got back early evening on the 25th.

While a great trip we were glad to be home.

We had an exciting week. Matthew returned from Camp Kostopolus on Friday. While he will not admit it, he had a good time. Gail dropped him off on Monday morning and within 2 hours Matthew called to say he wanted to come home. Gail convinced him to give it a day and we did not get any other calls. Gail and Andy went to pick him up on Friday and he was excited to see us. Matthew said the food was good and the best part of the week was riding the horses.

Nikolas spent the week at his grandparents in Idaho and he also reported a great week. He went to the YMCA and the zoo and got to spend the week with his cousin. Gail's parents brought Nikolas back on Friday and we enjoyed having them spend the weekend.

Gail and Andy had a fairly quiet week working each day. They did get to go out a couple of nights, but missed their boys and were glad to have them home.

We hope all is well.