August 4, 2006

August 4, 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s late Friday night and we just got home from having dinner with Lynn Lynes and Ryan Cook and watching “The Grapes of Wrath” for American Heritage. We’ve had a busy week since we last wrote. It hardly seems possible that Ryan only has six more days of classes and then finals before summer term is over. Everyone warned us the time would go quickly and it really has zipped by.

We had company last Friday night in the form of a two-year-old niece (I can’t bring myself to say “great niece” YIKES!) Riley, Alisha and Jacob’s daughter. They moved into their home in American Fork so we kidnapped Riley on Friday night and enjoyed her most of the day on Saturday.

On Saturday, we had Lynn and Ryan over for dinner and to study for the second American Heritage midterm. Ryan, Lynn and Ryan are an unlikely threesome but they have a lot of fun together while they study. On Sunday, Shane and Jacie Summers and Jackie’s roommate, along with Vinnie Meyer came for dinner. They always bring a lot of laughter into our apartment. On Monday, Ryan ran into Stephanie Hillier and her brother, Christopher, and their grandmother in the Wilkinson Center. Stephanie is here for a LaCrosse camp and also for EFY. On Tuesday, Ryan had his second American Heritage midterm. Ryan does the multiple choice section on his own and then dictates his answers to me for the essay portion. That night we had Daniel Leslie, Alex (Dan’s roommate), Ryan Beaushaw (from Baileys in Colorado), and Matt Chandler over for dinner. Daniel is also a quadriplegic from Evergreen, Colorado, and also rehabilitated at Craig. Dan has a great demeanor. He is in the MAC program and is going on to law school when he is finished. Dan lives in our same complex and he and Ryan have a great time together.

On Wednesday, Ryan and I went to see Ryan’s cousin, Marc Michaud, at his work. Marc is amazing with cars and works for a company that makes and installs turbo packages and restores cars in his free time. Marc came for dinner that night and the boys are planning to get together while they are both in the Provo area.

Ryan is building a lot of muscle in his biceps and triceps as well as his shoulders. He works really hard at therapy and gives it all he has. I’ll post pictures of him transferring from the floor to his chair. When you think about moving your whole body with only your arms and shoulders it’s pretty amazing.

Tomorrow, we are off to Park City for a Quad Rugby Clinic sponsored by the National Abilities Center. There are skill drills in the morning and a lecture in the afternoon to talk about how Quad Rugby got started and the rules of the game. Ryan is really looking forward to going and Dan is coming along, too.

Over the past week, I’ve been working on a scrapbook with all of the cards, notes and letters that Ryan received while he was at Craig as well as compiling all of the past blog postings and updating our photo album. As I’ve read your notes my heart continues to be filled with gratitude for the love you have shown us throughout the past seven months. Ryan would not be where he is today without your support.

I would like to close tonight with a favorite quote from Tyler’s wife, Rebecca.

…may each of us know where he is going, be willing to make the

continuous effort required to get there, avoid any detour, and

be willing to pay the often very high price of faith and determination

to win life’s race.” Thomas S. Monson

With our love,

Bridgette, Barry and Ryan