September

Picture with the girls

Jacob started classes the first week of September.  He has calculus, government, English and Intro to Engineering.  He is ok with them.

The first week there he had his Connections class for 3 days, but a lot of other unstructured time.  Once classes started the structure helped.  He gets along with his roommates and they seem nice.

He did deicide to come home for Labor Day weekend.  He arrived home Friday afternoon on the bus.  We had dinner and then Jaxon Holbrook picked him up and they went to his house.  They come back to our house around 10 to watch a movie.  

On Saturday morning he went to Sam Smith's house to see his truck and then met Jaxon at Cars and Coffee for the car meet.  They then went out to In-n-Out for lunch and then to Jaxon's to play games until Jaxon had to go to work at 2 p.m.

At 4 p.m. Jaxon H and Paul picked him up and they went to the mall to hang out.  He got home around 7 p.m. and was with us the rest of the night.  

Sunday we did church and later in the afternoon we went to Elizabeth's for Hannah and Julia's birthday dinner.  
 

Hannibal (Emily's husband), Nathan, Debbie 
(Nathan's mom), Emily (Nathan's sister), their 
child, Matthew, Jason and Joy

Happy Birthday

Spreken zie Deutsch?

Joy and I worked on dishes.  We began to sing; "A spreken zie Deutsch, ya, ya, ya, ya. We did that as kids with our cousin Heidi Hansen.  

He spent so much time with friends this was
our only photo before he left

Last moments with the child

We took Jacob back up to school on Monday and then went in the afternoon to Randy's to celebrate Karen's birthday.

Cove Fort

Our first weekend of empty nesting.  The week before I received an email from the Shakespeare festival about 2 for 1 tickets.  So Jason and I headed down to Cedar City on Thursday and came home on Saturday.  

On the way down we stopped at Cove Fort.  I have driven by many times, but we have never stopped.  It was built by Gordon B. Hinkley's Grandfather and his dad grew up there.  When you get there it seems like it is off the beaten path....which for us with I-15, it is.  But in their time it was half way between Beaver and Filmore so it gave people a place to stop for the night, the mail came and the stage coach came in 2x a day.  So there were people coming and going.  

Ira Hinkley had 2 wives and 11 children while at the fort and they worked hard.  It was set up well in that they had 6 rooms on each side of the fort.  One side was offices, the kitchen, telegraph/mail room.  The other 6 rooms were living quarters. Each room had 3 doors.  One to enter in from the court yard and then 1 door on each side of the room so if they were all open you could walk straight through from one end to the other without going outside.

Court yard

Living quarters.  This viewed from the door 
coming in from the courtyard and
you can see the doors on either side. 

The Pub Spirits & Kraft Kitchen

Thursday night we looked online for places to eat and this one seemed different and fun.  It was!  They had an Alice in Wonderland theme and the menu had normal items (salad, sandwiches, burgers, pasta, appetizers, etc., but they were juzzed up.  Meaning they had additions that brought it up a notch.  I had a burger with caramelized onions, chipotle sauce and bacon.  It was so good! Jason had a 1/2 cobb salad and a Tweedledum sandwich.  We were full afterwards!

That night we went outside and relaxed.  It was a nice area, but noisy from the road.  They should have put the patio on the front of the hotel.

The next morning we got up, hit the gym, had breakfast of fruit and cottage cheese that we had brought.  Since we had eaten a large meal the night before it was perfect!  We even sent a picture of us with it to Jacob commenting that we were doing breakfast like Mike and Frankie Heck from The Middle tv show.  Jacob commented back, "Don't forget the blue bag!"  Meaning the food bag they always forgot.  

Breakfast

A new crowd

We headed over to SUU campus and walked around for a bit.  We looked at the old (now closed) Adams outdoor theater and various statues they had placed about.  Then we went to the play orientation for the play we were seeing in the afternoon...She Loves Me.  As we looked around it dawned on us that we are now part of a different crowd.  No little kids running around, lots more grey hair.  It was funny!  

The play was written in 1938, later it was done as a movie..Shop Around the Corner, which then lead to You've Got Mail in the late 1980's.  

Play orientation

We then headed into the Jones theater to see it.  I liked it and it was well done, but I enjoyed the evening play more. 

Love the chicken, bacon. ranch pizza!!

After the 2 p.m. play we headed to The Pizza Cart.  We usually try to stop here for lunch or dinner when going down to St. George.  It is so good.  They are so good that they are not open on Saturday or Sunday!  Sometimes if you go in around dinner time they may not be able to take your order due to call in orders etc. that will make they busy until closing at 9 p.m!

That night we went to the play orientation again and then saw Something Rotten.  This play was written
about 16 years ago and is about 2 playwrights who are contemporaries of William Shakespeare.  But Shakespeare is the one getting all of the fame and love. They want to write a play that is better than his.   They introduce Shakespeare like he is a rock star, flipping his hair back and all the girls acting like groupies.  It was very well done!

Nigel Bottom, Shakespeare, and Nick Bottom

Shakespeare

  Saturday we got up and headed out so I could make my friends birthday lunch.  It was great to see everyone and to hear that Margaret and Brenda have both been able to retire!

Shanae, Le Ann, Me, Brenda, 
Margaret, Haeli, Judy

That night we had our first ward BBQ.  It was a pretty good showing.

Jacob seems to be doing well at school.  He is taking care of things like going to math lab, getting to classes, etc.  He is growing into things!

August

 The beginning of August.  Chris came into town to help Amy move into their new house.  On Friday, the 7th Joy, Chris, Erick and I got together for lunch.  Fun to see them.  We met down at Joy's Mapleton house since she was there packing the last things up as that house is selling.  

Saturday morning we went down to Amy's new house to try and help them unload. They had several people there so we didn't do much, but it was fun to see their house!  Great place.

Then I went to Heidi's for Julianna's baby shower.  It was so fun to see all the girls there for it and cute baby Carter--Linnea's.

Kolton's mom was there and she brought 3 bags of gifts!  They were all such cute things...by the end of Julianna opening her gifts we were all laughing at the amour of things!

A darling dress and purse

Nicole (Kolton's mom), Kolton's Gr., Carter,
Linnea, Sam, Kelly, Amy, Erin, Kristina,
Emily.  In back...David's aunt Linda and
her daughters

Cute Malia

Quilt Heidi made

I went to the temple on Tuesday and noticed these flowers.  They were planted in June and I noticed there is not a dead flower among them.  There are no dead spots in the temple grass.  Maybe the Lord has a special gardening secret???  ;)

Catheys to dinner

Fence fixing

 

A week before Jacob left we had Catheys over for dinner--one last hurrah.  We had our traditional pizza and then watched a movie.

 

On Saturday Jacob and Jason replaced a board in our fence and then we went to MooYahs for lunch.  It was a pretty good burger.                                                              

The last couple of weeks before Jacob left were kind of hard.  He was nervous about the unknown of college and the classes and at the same time he wanted to be off and spreading his wings.  It has been a balancing act for sure!         

MooYahs

A quiet time on the swing

Special delivery from Grandmaa

Yummy!

Grandpa Wong had grandma bring over a bunch of treats for Jacob to bring to school with him.  Lots of his favorites...Oreos, Nerds and Grandma brought a Wendy's frosty to go with it. 

That week the packing began.  We had sorted out some of his stuff in his room, that he wanted to take, previously.  He had begging, clothes, toilet paper, cleaning stuff, etc. The night before we took him up Jason gave him a father's blessing. 

Father's blessing

All packed

On Saturday, the 22nd, we packed up the car and headed to Logan.  We got there about 1 p.m., unpacked the car at the loading zone and I went to park. 

When I came back Jason was there with a load and we waited for Jacob to come back and get us for the 2nd load.  When he arrived he was not too happy about how small his dorm room was.  😄  That was funny to us because we know how small college living is. 

Leaving.

Once we got everything unpacked and situated it was better.  Some of his other roommates were moving in also and they seem nice. We took him to In-n-Out Burger and back to his dorm before we headed home.  

Home is quieter (though we never had tons of noise) and different without him home.  His first weekend he sent this picture and said, "You were right.  This can be fun doing things on your own!"

He captioned this with "winning". ;)

An newly mowed and edged lawn

Jason and I have done fun stuff like mow the lawn...On Thursday Julie Spilker and I went the the Johnson Files Improv show in Orem.  I went 2 years ago with Jason and Jacob and I think that show was better. 

Johnson Files show

   

2026 Laurie Palmer, Marlin Palmer,
Me, Linda Beck

  

2001 Janice Young, Marlin Palmer,
Me, Betsy Simmons

Friday night I went down to Provo for the memorial for Janice Young the former school secretary at Franklin Elementary.  

Marlin and his wife Laurie, and Linda Beck, the librarian, were there. Betsy passed away back in 2021.  Elaine Bergener was there with her husband.  She lives at the same place as Janice did.  She is now 95 and moved in a few years ago with Bob due to her Alzheimer's.  I did not recognize her at first.   She was in a wheelchair and not as I remember her.  I was telling Marlin that the people at Legacy Village, where all of this was happening, would never know the Elaine we knew.

It was a very nice memorial and after I telling Marlin....you spend a lot of time with some of these people during your life on a day to day basis.  Then you begin to go to their retirement parties, and then funerals.  It is just weird because you don't imagine yourself at this point.  When I am with these people I think of myself as the 30ish year old I was when I knew them, but I am now 62.  That is 7 years older than Marlin was in the 2001 picture!

Back to Jacob.  We have talked to him a few times.  The Connections class went well and on Friday night they did the walk from the Spectrum to the "A".  The university president talked about that is 4 years they will be walking from the "A" to the Spectrum for graduation.  He is struggling with wanting to be home, tired of the dorms, liking his roommates, but not clicking completely.  It is hard.  

I think he would be bored if he were at home.  I hope he can get through this.  I know he can, he may just need some more support.  

July

 Ah, house projects.  We have decided we need to replace our shower.  We've gotten 3 bids...2 of them were around $16,000 for just shower...the third was about $9000.  Ugh!!

We have a California shower
tub set up

Trying to find a shower wall
color I like

Another angle

   The problem with picking colors is they don't always make what you like.  Our current shower is cream with a soft swirl of white running through it.  You hardly see it, but it is there.  The only thing close is this one with brown in it.  If it is too much brown I don't think I'll like it.  I hate doing stuff like this!

Utah State Orientation
No, I don't know why Jason is making that 
face

Schedule

On Wednesday, July 3, we went up to USU for orientation.  Jacob went up the night before and stayed overnight.  We got up and drove there that morning.  We met altogether and then had breakout session separately. They give lots of information and show how they support students.  It was pretty informative. 

We had lunch and then more classes.  We headed home around 4 p.m.

Lucy, Julia, Tanner, Emma, Hannah &
Olivia

MarySue's bday and 4th dinner

Watching fireworks

4the of July!  250 year celebration!

On Saturday the 4th we went to Joy's for lunch with the family.  Elizabeth, Amy, Barry and Linda, Gayle, Joy's friend Sue, Taylor, Mike and us.  It was fun to see the kids and how round 2 of the grandkids (or mom's great grandkids) are beginning to fill in.  By the end of this year I think Mom will  have 23 great grandkids!  

We got home about 4 p.m. and around 5 p.m. Randy, MarySue and Karen came for dinner.  It was low key, but very pleasant and we visited until 9:30.  

After they left Jason and I drove over to South Town mall in time to watch the fireworks out the car window.  

Jacob went with us to Joy's and then he left to go over the Elias' house for a party.  They ate, swam, watched a movie, went to Sandy South Town to watch fireworks and then hiked to the suspension bridge in Draper.  He had a good time.  

Sunday was America's Potluck dinner to celebrate America's 250th birthday.  Not many people came, but Cathey's joined us.  I'm glad we went.  Afterwards we went to Cathey's and played games.

Dinner

Ashlyn, Morgan and me

Happy 4th!

Draper Days parade

Back at the park in the afternoon and staking out
our spot for evening concert and fireworks

Draper Days goes on for a week.  The past couple of years we have participated just on Saturday.  We began by going to the parade with Catheys.  There are a few freebies passed out and it always fun to see what you get.  

After the parade we went to Draper Park for the Fireman's pancake breakfast.  Then we went to Central Bank for their street tacos.  It was very hot, but fun.

We then went home to cool off!  At 3:30 we went back to the park to play Bingo.  There were 8 of us and out of the 8, 5 of us won!  I got a cooler bag.  

Our view while eating. 

We then walked around the park looking at the vendors booths.  As we passed one of them someone said, "Jason."  It was his cousin Tara.  We stopped to talk to them for a few minutes and Tom and Wendy continued looking around.  

When we were done we continued looking at the booths and then met up with Catheys.  They decided to walk up the hill to Macys for deli sandwiches.  I knew with my hip I could not do that hill so Jason and I stayed and split a salad from Costa Vida.

Great spot on the hill, in the shade, enjoying
dinner.

After we ate we went back to our blanket area and as we got there we ran into Jason's other cousin Ty (Tara's brother) and his wife.  Fun to see them.  

We played 5 Crowns with Catheys until the fireworks started.  The day itself was very hot, but that evening was comfortable in the shade and later darkness.

Getting ready for the fireworks

Heidi, Rio and me

The next Saturday I went over to Heidi's to see Mackenzie and the kids.  They have been in town for Mackenzie's sister's wedding.  It was fun to visit.

Sunday nap

Celebrating Rob's 9th birthday

Ethan, Jacob, Grace, Sage. Sarah, Dan,
Lilly, Irina, Rob playing softball

On Sunday afternoon we went over to Jared's

to celebrate Robert's birthday.  We had tacos for

dinner and a cookie with ice cream cake for dessert.  MarySue was not there as she is visiting Jenny for a few weeks.  

Jason's work has been crazy this month.  He has to do a report that has taken him HOURS to do.  Its not just him...his counterparts in other refineries have had similar problems.  

Can't believe July is about over.  It has been a very hot month!  In 3 weeks we take Jacob to school!  Wow!!