May Letter

 Dear Family & Friends, 

Hello. How are you? This month was great. Since spring has started we have had to remove all the branches laying around our property. Everybody in the city gathers all the broken branches laying around their properties and puts them in a pile in front of their house and then the city brings a wood chipper around to every house and chips the wood piles for us. It's a great way to prevent forest fires.

Mothers day was this month as well. We cooked breakfast for mom as usual and it was really good. I'm so grateful for my mom and how hard she works for us. She's always there to support me and she's my biggest fan. Thank you for everything you do for my brothers and I mom. 

I did it! I graduated from Salem Hills High School this month on May 23rd. It's crazy how fast high school went and I'm so grateful for all the friends I made there and the memories I made as well. I'm grateful for my awesome teachers who helped prepare me for the future and whatever it holds for me. I'm going to miss high school but life keeps moving forward and I still have so much to learn and so much more growth in store. 

We had Great Grandpa Barnhisel's graveside memorial this month. He was in the military so he received a military funeral which was really cool to witness. I wish I had got to know him better and spent more time with him though. It was cool to visit his home town of Rawlins as well and get to experience there as well. 

After the graveside memorial in Rawlins, we went up to Grandpa O'Berry's house in Lovell and visited him there as well. It was so good to see him and spend time with him especially after not going up to Lovell in a long time. After visiting Grandpa O'Berry and our Walker cousins in Billings, we stopped in Yellowstone for a day before heading back home. We got to see Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic as well as some other cool sites. I'm glad we took this trip at the start of summer. 

I plan on working this summer before I head off on my mission later this year. I'm glad I have this summer before leaving to spend time with friends and family and have some fun. I hope you all have a great summer. Bye.

Love, Eric James Barnhisel

April Letter

 Dear Family & Friends, 

Hello, how are you? This month was great. We tore up our floor this month. We redid the kitchen recently and my parents hated how contrasting the floor was with the newly painted cabinets so we tore up the floor and put wood lvp and it looks great now. It was pretty fun destroying the old tile and carrying it out. Our neighbor, Ben was the one who spearheaded the project as usual and we were his helpers. 

Easter was this month as well. I love Easter because it is a great time to reflect on our savior and the sacrifice he made for us and the weather is turning nice this time of year so you can do more outdoor activities again. We went up to our old house on Easter and went to the parks around our old house that my brothers and I used to go to all the time when we were kids. It was super fun and great to go back again. 

I didn't like this green park as a kid because it was filled with spinning contraptions that would always make me sick. It was still a big part of my childhood though and was pretty cool to go to again. 

Kyle's birthday was this month. It's crazy that he is driving now and is going to be in high school next year. I feel like the time we've spent living in Woodland Hills has just flown by. Kyle and I didn't get along well as kids but him and I are buds now and do a lot of fun stuff together. 

We had the Bastidas family come up and have dinner with us this month as well. It was great to see them again and spend time with them. We caught up on life and talked about past memories we had together and had a great time. We went to the Woodland Hills park with them as well and that was super fun. Hope we can do more gatherings with their family more often. 

My dad, Sam and I did a spontaneous Moab trip this month as well. We just decided one Saturday to drive down and spend the following Sunday driving ATV's around. We met up with uncle Darren and Koen down there are did some trails with them. I drove all of Hell's Revenge this time down and it was awesome. The weather was great as well and was a good getaway from the rainy weather back at home. I'm glad we did this trip and hope to do more spontaneous trips like this in the future. 

I'm almost done with high school now. I only have 2 weeks left to go till I graduate. It's crazy to think that later this year I'm going to be on my mission and gone for the next 2 years. I'm grateful to all the friends I made in school and hope they all go live happy successful lives. I'm grateful for all the memories I made in school and will always remember them. I plan on working the summer and then going on my mission in the fall. After that I plan on attending UVU and I am thinking on going into foreign relations there. I hope you all have a great spring. Bye.

Love, Eric James Barnhisel