Septmeber and October

 September was a quiet month.  School started, Covid cases went up.  But on Tuesday, September 1st, Janette went through the Provo temple for her endowments before she went on her mission on the 23rd.  It was so nice to go through with her and some things have changed.  

After the temple we went to Josh and Irina's house for lunch.  Janette has now started her home MTC and hopefully heads to Taiwan next month.  

Got together with Judy, Margaret, Le Ann and Haeli for an outdoor birthday celebration for Haeli and Le Ann.  Fun to see everyone.  

Relief Society - we've been tring to do doorbell drop bys to see how people are doing.  We stand 6 feet from the door just to say hi.  The weather has been really good and enabled us to continue now into fall.  

At the end of the month we had our mission reunion.  It was done on Zoom and had 120 people participating.  It was fun to see some of the people and it was all done in Spanish.  I could understand most of it still.

Covid has changed many things.  You go into any stores and there are plastic shields in front of any cash register, masks...then those who don't want to wear masks.  We do Sacrament meeting in person and then head home for Sunday School on 1st and 3rd Sundays and Elders Quorum and Relief Society 2nd and 4th Sundays.  

At the same time you have Trump and Biden running for president of the U.S.  I really don't care for either of them.  Will be interesting to see who wins.

On to October

First Friday Jason and I took Jacob to school and then headed up to Gloria falls.  I had seen several people post about it on Facebook and wanted to see it.  It is beautiful!  

I feel like I need to see stuff I'm interested in now before I get any older and can't do it.  My hiking skills were minimal at best before and only getting worse.  Not fair when you have the time and money your body can't always do it. As evidenced in picture below.

As we were hiking down, I was trying to step down on a section, began to slide just a bit and grabbed at some branches.  They didn't hold well and I ended up sliding into them and they cut my neck and face.  Looks worse than it actually was.  Basically scrapes.  Nothing deep.  hi mom bye mom

On Monday, the 12th, I received an email stating that Jacob had been exposed to someone at school who came down with Covid.  So he was quarentined and couldn't go back to school until the 23rd unless he was tested (but not before the 15th) and came back negative.  It was fall break so he only had to do online school 2 days.  We then spent Thursday and part of Friday tring to get him caught up. Ugh!

Got the test reults back (negative) on the 19th and took him to school.  

August

 August started out with vacation!

We had the opportunity to go down to Hurricane and stay at Coral Spring Resort with Catheys.  

We arrived on Saturday and left on Thursday.  Here we are on Sunday playing games.

Wendy had her kds signed up for virtual classes during the summer--which continued on the vacation.  Monday I decided to try and get out and took Jacob swimming...some came with us and others joined later.  

A week before, Jaxon had cut his chin open while bike riding so they were trying to keep his stitches from getting too wet also.  

By Monday night I wanted to go and do something.  So I, yes I, suggested a hike.  Tuesday morning Jason and I left at 7 a.m. The hike we had planned was closed due to road construction so we headed over to another short hike.  We were home by 9:30 a.m. 

On Wednesday we all went to Snow Canyon.  We hike to Pioneer Names--where some boys in the 1800's put their names on the rocks in wagon wheel axel grease.  Today it is called history, in their day probably grafitti.  

We then did Hidden Pinyon.  Probably the least favorite for the kids as it was in the sun.  

We finished with Jenny's canyon.  Once you hike from the road it was shaded by the wall of the canyon until about noon.

Came home and went swimming again.  One of the most fun parts was using a Frisbee, Tom would toss it in and the kids would jump out to catch it.  We did that for hours. 

Playing games.

We had to leave on Thursday.  Wednesday night we did a load of laundry and got up Thursday to put sheets in and make beds.  The laundry took time because the washing machine was not that big.

One morning Jason and Tom went out for a run.  When they got home we tossed water balloons at them.  It was so fun!

We cleaned up and headed out around 2 p.m.  It was a good vacation.

Jacob with his new shirt from Hannah and Steve.

Fighting for space on the couch.

School was supposed to start on Monday, August 17th, but with Covid they moved it back a week to Monday, August 25th.  Here are our traditional back-to-school morning pictures.  No breakfast out this year.  Bummer!!

Christ came in at end of August to visit and to take Garrett through the temple.  Garrett began the home MTC in July.  He flew out here August 25th to begin his mission and Chris flew in later that week to take him through on Saturday.  The DC temple is closed for renovataion so Garrette went through the Provo Temple.  

July - We Finally Got Out!

Beginning of July is MarySue's birthday.  We had Randy and her over for dinner on her birthday. 

 Two days later, on the 4th, we went down to Josh and Irina's to celebrate. We had a BBQ dinner and celebrated March, April, May, June, July and August birthdays.  We have been together before, but never planning for the birthdays. 

After opening presents we went to the front yard to try and watch fireworks.  We couldn't see them too well, but everyone had fun playing and talking.

One of Jacob's gifts was an electric stapler with USB ports! 

Playing Spike bal

 For FHE we got sub sandwiches and went to the backyard for a picnic and scripture reading.

 My friend Marcia...I go walking with her all the time....she has a neighbor with a pool.  The neighbor went up to their place at Bear Lake and lets Marcia use the pool.  She invited us over to swim a couple of times. 
She also invited our friend Andrea Timothy.  Here is Adam, Connor and Jacob playing and relaxing in the pool.

 Monday - Friday Marcia, Sherrie (my neighbor across the street) and I go walking.  This month they repaved 300 E. and it needed it!  Looks great now!

We planned a trip with Jared/Stephanie and Josh/Irina to Flaming Gorge in the middle of the month.  Josh has a raft, inflatable kayak and to inner tubes.  In preperation we purchased a raft to take, but Jared couldn't find one.  The stores are SOOOO sold out on outdoor equipment!  Everyone is looking for something to do outside.

Our neighbors were moving and so Jacob and Bridger had a hammock sleepover.  We don't really do sleepovers, but at times make some exceptions.  

Took a Saturday evening stroll at Silver 
Lake with Catheys.  Fun, but lots of mosquitos!

Tom came over to help secure our gutters

The night before we left was Lilly's birthday.  They brought over cake and we celebrated.  

We left Thursday morning for Flaming Gorge.  We had gotten as far as Coalville and Jared had a problem with his tire.  We pulled into a gas station and he changed it.  We then continued on to the Gorge.  

We arrived and it was WINDY!  The campground was a little barren, but it had nice bathrooms.  One weird thing was they had the sprinklers going for the first 24 hours we were there.  No directly on our site, but right next to it.  I wondered at first how it would work, but it did. 

While we waited for Josh and Irina to come we went down the the water.  It was still windy so we only waded.  

It was our family's turn for dinner Thursday night.  We did tacos and watermellon.  Josh and Irina arrived just as we were finishing.  

Kids played Frisbee

Robbie LOVED to play in the dirt!

Kids playing a card game.  Do you like that face now Jacob?  Wish you had smiled????

Jared and Stephanie cooked mountain man breakfasts.  They were good!

After breakfast we headed down to the reservior.  We floated, paddled, played all morning.  It was fun!

As we were leaving, around lunch time, the wind kicked up again.  So good thing we were heading back.  

We came back to camp, had lunch, some took showers, the others played.  We visited, played Mafia, elbow tag....

That night we had dinner of chili with potatoes.  It was good!

Then we did a fire pit. 

The next morning we had breakfast and packed up.  We came to the campsite going north and then coming down to the gorge.  Going home we sent south along the Gorge to see what else was there.  

We stopped at Lucurrine marina and a little past that was a swimming beach.  We could drive the cars right down on the beach.  It was great not to have to haul everything down....especially since we were packed to go home.

We played in the water and had lunch. 

Everyone was tired on the way home. Part was home the 4 Runner started to make funny noises.  We pulled off, everyone looked at it, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong.  The sound stopped when we were in higher gears so we had to keep going.  When we got home, the next Monday we took it in and they said the rear shock had rusted through and broke.  

Monday, after our trip, we met Ahyous at the park and had a BBQ.  The kids rode scooters and after dinner we played our own version of bacci ball.  Elias and Jacob won.

The winners! 

Irina had texted us about floating the Provo river that week. Jared had time off for the camping trip that extended into the next week.  So on Tuesday we did that.  The water was cold, but it was so fun! 

Josh and Irina coming up to splash us.  So Jason got them first.  

We have met up with Andersons a few times this summer.  We went to the American Fork Marina.  It was OK. A little overcast so the kids didn't try the water.  Then it got stormy so we left.  All Jacob and Chase do is walk around.  

Bike ride time.  Jason and Tom met up for a bike ride and I took the kids and drove them and their bikes up to Potato Hill trial head.  

Jason said they were having a great time.  Then they came to a wide, smooth part of the trail and the boys decided to try and go faster.  Jaxon hit some gravel and went down hard on his chin.  Split it open and had to go and get stiches.  

So overall July went well.  Jacob and I returned to our 4th Sunday church and I had to speak.  So glad that is over!  We got out a little and are headed down to St. George on Saturday for a last hurah before school starts.  

Speaking of school....we are sending Jacob back.  Everyone has to wear masks, they are going to sanitize, try and social distance....It is hard to know what to do, but we're moving forward.  

Corona has changed a lot of things...most of all human contact.  It will be nice when this is all over.