Fun with the Lillywhites

It was so fun to spend some time with Jay and Brynn and girls when they stayed in town a bit longer after their Tolman family reunion!  Some of the fun included time at the College art show where Paul had a couple of paintings displayed in the 12 x 12 show.  Essie especially enjoyed the wide open spaces to practice her new walking skills.  We also enjoyed swimming and snacking at the condo they were staying at!  And we had a fun day at Pine Valley picnicking and hiking!  

Rock Trip adventure

We finally got our big truck fixed and since we needed a small load of stone very quickly we decided to go and get it ourselves.  We left after work so we only made it as far as Jacob's Lake.  We camped 3  miles from it at a spot we have used before.  It was a perfect camp night.  In the morning we got everything put away and then the adventure began (6:30 am).  The truck wouldn't start.  It was something to do with the glow plug relay switch and we have had it happen before after a cool night in a higher elevation than we usually drive in.  We tried the regular fix and it wouldn't work.  So we went for a walk to give it time to set a bit.  Tried it again...no luck.  Even after a prayer.  So we thought to call the mechanic who worked on it and said if the fix we had already tried wouldn't do it, we would need some starter fluid.  So we decided to hitch a ride to Jacob's Lake and try to get some at the gas station there.  It was great when a nice guy from BC Canada picked us up pretty quickly. Gas station wasn't open yet, so we ate a great breakfast at the restaurant.  And the gas station didn't have any and neither did the mechanic shop at Jacob's Lake.  So the next option was to try to hitch to Fredonia and back and get some there.    We could call our kids, but that's a really long drive. So we tried hitching again...no luck.  A great day for walking with cool, overcast weather but 29 miles is too far to walk. Then we thought of our friends at Silver Arrow Stone in Fredonia!  They said they would send their helper to bring us some starter fluid.  We walked back to the turn off to our camp to wait and then some nice people did stop to see if we needed help, but help was already on the way.  It was pretty funny when the helper (a kid about 18 and his two friends) in a rattle trap pickup that kept dying (it finally just coasted to the spot) as we drove down to our truck got there to rescue us (answer to our prayers). Our truck started right up after a shot of the starter fluid, but then we were worried if their truck was going to start.  We wanted to stay to see if they would get going, but they weren't worried and said they had friends working in the forest service right there that would help them if they needed it and didn't want us to stay, so we gave them the cookies we had bought at Jacob's Lake the night before and headed on our way - about 11:30 am - finally. Now we needed to hurry to get to Ashfork before they closed.  We made it, got on our way and remembered that we needed one more piece of stone, went back for that and then got on the road once more.  We made it back to Jacob's Lake for a late dinner just before they were closing thank goodness.  It had rained quite a bit and there were flash flood warnings, so we opted to just head home rather than camp out again.  Got home late taking turns driving and were very glad to fall into bed!  It was a fun trip, but I hope we have a few less adventures on the next one!  

Our camp spot.  Saw a Kaibab squirrel on our walk - he wasn't standing still very well to get his picture taken!

Snow Canyon - love this bike ride!

One of our favorite things for a Saturday morning is to ride the West Canyon road in Snow Canyon.  Here are couple of my favorite views on the ride.  

Family dinner/Happy #37 Lance

We had a pretty full crew for family dinner this month.  Ryan had to come late, but other than that everyone who can come did!  It was such a nice time and the day was perfect, so being able to eat outside made it even nicer!  And we added a little extra by doing a late happy birthday to Lance! Love these times with family!  

Eden, Sarai and Noah helped with the birthday cake making.  Lance was nicely thrilled (or not) with his Fruity Pebbles and a Pizza Cart gift card.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, DO potatoes, veggies and watermelon made for a great picnic/family dinner menu with birthday cake and ice cream for dessert!

Summer projects

There are several things that have needed doing for a long time and with summer here I'm finally getting to them.  I don't have a bunch of $ to spend, but luckily I have been able to do most of it without a lot of cost so far.  It has felt good to see things getting done!  So far I have painted the little picnic table with miss-mixed paint from Home Depot (it's really cheap that way), found leftover paint to repaint the bathroom after scraping the peeling wallpaper off, found leftover wallpaper to redo the back splash section behind the sink that was in terrible shape, found leftover paint to repaint the front door (now it makes the trim look shabby and I have leftover paint for that too, so I will be doing that soon).  And I chopped up two pickup loads of leftover wood from a cabinet shop that we will be able to use for the fireplace this winter.  Paul set up and showed me how to use the saw and Bean helped me set up the awning so it wasn't so hot.  I thought it would take forever, but I got two and a half pallets done in an afternoon and a morning!  It is so nice to have those messy piles out of the way finally and I'm glad I could help lighten Paul's load a little by doing it.  I should have taken before and after pictures on all of these projects, but didn't.  

I think the bathroom wall looks like it's smiling - so happy to have that peeling wallpaper off  and have a fresh coat of paint I guess!  I'm not sure the pink is my favorite color for the picnic table, but a gallon of outdoor paint for $5.99 is a great deal, so pink it is!

Visiting Mom

It was good to have a chance to visit my mom after school got out.  She had been a little under the weather - kind of a hard year for with 3 of her sisters passing away and some mix ups on some of her medications of late.  She seems to be doing some better now and hopefully will be getting back to her regular self soon. Her hearing and sight are not what they used to be, but she is 94 now and considering that, she is doing pretty well.  It was a nice visit and we are looking forward to spending some time with her and my siblings/spouses at a little reunion in a few weeks.  Mom paid for my flight and I do have to say that since I have never flown alone before, I was just a little bit worried, but since I flew right out of St. George, on to Salt Lake and into Pasco which is just a dinky little airport like ours, it turned out not to be much a of big deal after all.  It was fast and pretty fun actually!  

Janet and Tony were there some of the time while I was there and Sunday afternoon I got to watch Tony tie flies for an upcoming fishing outing he was going on.  It was cool!  

I loved it when I had a window seat and could look out at the scenery!