We had another beautiful day today. My friend Heidi and I brought our boys (five in all including Charlton) to a really nice and big playground with Mount Diablo as the backdrop. We all loved it. The part of the playground that our children were playing in was full of white, warm sand. The ocean was all we were missing. After the boys were all tired out, they wanted to eat their picnic food. My favorite part was when Tyler, one of Heidi's boys, wanted to put his blanket on top of the sand in the middle of the playground. I wished I had taken a picture of it, but Heidi and I were engrossed in conversation, and I didn't think about pictures at that moment. He put his blanket under this gigantic jungle gym and sat down according to his pleasure. I loved it. It made you want to kick your shoes off and just relax. I did take a couple pictures toward the end when the kids wanted to play some more. Thank you, Heidi, for a fun afternoon.
Tonight I attended a celebration for our Relief Society's birthday. Our ward Relief Society sisters had organized a wonderful evening with delicious food, great games, and uplifting messages. I truly enjoyed being with sisters who love the Savior and follow his teachings. I was just talking to Heidi today about how grateful I am to belong to this church. I know it's led by a prophet called of God, and that our Relief Society organization is an inspired program. I love it that it doesn't matter where I move and live, I will always be able to rely on the sisters of the Relief Society in any ward I find myself in. It is a comfort to know that we can offer and accept service to each other, we can make lasting friendships, and we can help each other develop our talents. The Relief Society is truly the gospel of Jesus Christ in action. Here is a new clip posted on lds.org about the role of Relief Society:
Speaking about service, here is a picture of the pies Elijah made for our neighbors. I'm not a fruit pie eater, but these apple pies were out of this world. We had to keep one for us.
