We did a 3 in 1 party for the Randall's January birthdays this year. We celebrated Bryan #45, Afton #10, Brady #16. It was good to get together a little (even with Covid still going strong) and enjoy each others company and visit. And we all enjoyed Afton's yummy birthday dinner and cake!
Yea! Brynnli and Braden finally got some time off from school/work and were not cooped up from Covid, so we got to spend a little fun time with them and Ferf and some of the kids. Afterwards we enjoyed pizza, salad and brownies together!
We got our Christmas tree pretty early this year. I was worried it wouldn't last well because it has been SO DRY this year. We haven't had hardly any rain. We went to get it the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It turned into a bit of an adventure when we got stuck in the tiniest bit of snow and mostly mud on a little downhill slope. Usually we wouldn't even have been able to drive on this road in our 2-wheel drive little pick up, but we actually made it a little ways in because there was pretty much no snow except in shady spots. But we did find a way to get stuck. We tried a lot of things, but finally settled on digging up dirt and putting it behind the wheels to made a path. Between that and Paul's great driving skills, we got unstuck. And then we looked for Christmas trees. We got a really cute one for Anna Lou and then found a pretty good one for us back in among lots of fallen trees that we had to climb over to get it out. It needed a little trimming when we got it set up, but turned out to be a pretty nice tree. And then last night - the 19th - we saw that it is actually sprouting new little needles! We have never had a tree do that! Here I was worried that it would be dry and dropping needles like crazy before Christmas even came and instead it's alive and growing! Very unusual to say the least!
Every year Juge's family get an ornament for their tree to reflect something about the year. This year she made one for all of us. Very appropriate!
Well, we did it...and we are still doing it! Eating turkey I mean! We had a nice, very small Thanksgiving with Paul, me, Bean and Grandma Kurtz. The food was all delicious and we had a nice time visiting. We missed having other family join with us, but Covid-19 has made lots of things different than we hoped for this year.
Afterwards we drove up via Parowan to Cedar Mountain. We made it up to the end of Brian Head before we had to turn around because the road was icing up. The wind was blowing snow flurries sideways. It was beautiful, but not to be driven in. We were looking to see if we'd be able to come up the next day to get Christmas trees.
Luckily today's weather was much improved, and we did make it up and did get a tree for us and for Grandma. (She got the better tree I think.) It wasn't without excitement...kind of as usual. We were able to drive up a little side road since not much snow at all is on the ground up there yet. But as we came over a rise we went just a little too far and started down the other side where there was more snow...and got promptly stuck in our weak, not 4-wheel drive little pickup. Paul tried pushing while I drove backing up. Didn't work. Then I got in the back to add weight...didn't work, he got in the back...didn't work. We put towels under the back tires for some traction...didn't work. The we got lots of dirt and put it under the back tires...didn't work...until Paul went forward just a bit then hit reverse hard and we hit that dirt and moved back several feet. We added dirt again and made a trail back with it and did the same again...and we got out!!! Thankfully those prayers came through. Sometimes I don't really feel too good about asking for help when we are just kind of dumb and get ourselves into these fixes.
I can't believe we've been married so long! And it's still so fun! Paul came up with a great idea for a little get away for this year. Monday is actually the day, but we went on Friday/Sat. up to Midway Utah and stayed a night at the Homestead House Resort. That sounds a little bit fancier than it was, but it was really nice. It's a cute resort with different "houses" spread all around their property. We stayed in the Farmhouse. Kind of old fashioned, antique type furnishings. It's probably a lot prettier when it's not winter, but it's still really pretty with lots of winding paths between the houses and grass and big trees. And the thing we really went for is that it has this giant crater that you can go inside of and swim in a hot spring pool that's inside! The water comes up from below and is 90 degrees. You come ready to swim; we had our jogging suits on over our swimsuits. It was really pretty cold outside (our time to swim and soak was at 6:30 pm), and then put your stuff in a locker, get a life jacket on and just float and swim around this lovely warm pool inside this rock crater that is all around with just a little hole on top. They keep the hole covered with a tarp in winter so the air inside stays warmer like the water. Otherwise you'd be seeing daylight above you through that hole. We had fun just because it's so unique. Just looks like an ugly old mound on the outside and then inside is this beautiful, warm aqua colored pool. People were using snorkels and masks and some people were having scuba lessons there too. Probably about 30 people inside altogether. After your time is up, you get out dry off and put on your warm clothes and go back outside to your car really quick this time of year so you don't freeze to death! We love seeing and doing new things and this was just right. The town of Midway is a beautiful combination of old time houses and crazy awesome gigantic/beautiful mansions.
On our way up we stopped at Beaver to get cheese. We also stopped a few places to look for things Paul was needing and found a wonderful birthday present/Gore-Tex jacket at REI. We love looking in sporting goods shops. And we ate yummy lunch in Fillmore at Costa Vida (had to eat outside because of Covid-19). After our swim/soak we got dinner at Panda Express and took it to our room to eat it because you can't eat inside there either. Then we walked over to the Lodge and enjoyed a few games of checkers (reminiscent of our honeymoon where we drew a checkerboard and used different colored tissue wads for men). Then we explored the lodge and learned more about the crater and town's history.
The next day we had really yummy breakfast in the Lodge restaurant. I tried eggs benedict and loved it. It was really good food and fast. Then we enjoyed exploring the grounds some and did a little Xmas shopping there and then headed out. We stopped by Temple Square and walked around to see how the temple update is coming along and enjoyed walking through the City Creek Mall. Then we stopped in at a giant Costco in Salt Lake for a few things ours doesn't carry. Then we lunched in Orem and picked up some Krispy Kreme donuts to bring home (ate some too). We listened to a good book on the way when we had finished just enjoying talking. All in all, it was just a fun, relaxing, remembering wonderful time to get away and enjoy time together.
We've enjoyed 3 baptisms of grand children this year, and all of them have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. At Tahlia's we had to limit numbers and change the regularly scheduled date that it would have happened. Trigg waited a few months until we could have a bigger group of people attend if we had it outside - he was baptized in a good friend's swimming pool. And now Eliza had her baptism, Saturday, November 7th. We had pretty small numbers allowed and other people watched it on Zoom (the other 2 had that option also), and we couldn't gather outside afterwards for treats as had originally been planned. (It would have been too cold anyway.) One cool thing was knowing that just a couple of blocks away amid the wind and cold, the new Red Cliffs Temple dedication ceremony was underway. It was a very few people could attend event also. Hopefully it will be broadcast sometime. Who knows, maybe Eliza will get married there some time in the future! It was a lovely baptism and she seemed very happy. Her dad baptized and confirmed her. It's one of those "shout for joy" events that we are so happy to have happen. And it's even better when it happens when life has been so crazy all year with this dumb disease disrupting so many things that are important in our lives. So happy for Eliza!
Covid-19 took its toll on even this. Trigg's bday is in May, but at that time his baptism would have been almost impossible with the way things were shut down. Trigg decided to wait a little while for things to open up so that he could have more people come and join with him to be part of this important step in his life. Finally things are open enough that if he had it outdoors he could have the people he wanted most to be there and others could join by watching live in a Zoom session via computer. Saturday, August 19th, we gathered in the backyard of a good friend to witness Trigg's baptism. His dad did the honors of that and his confirmation. It was very nice and good to see family there that we hadn't seen for a while from the Smith side. All went well, and now we are glad that Trigg was finally able to do this!
Next week it's back to school for me, so we decided to escape the heat and camp up in the Tushar's above Beaver. I hate the getting ready, but I'm always glad afterwards. We had wonderful food because of Paul as always - his BBQ chicken stew with garlic cheese biscuits and for our first time, Woofem's (or whop, whops as the Brook's call them) for dessert. Then we had leftover biscuits and hashbrown omelets, and applesauce for breakfast with hot chocolate to warm with while we waited for it to cook. All very yummy! We took a nice evening walk to look for elk, but a 4-wheeler passed us and probably scared anything we might have seen away. Also, I was crabby about 2 trailers parked for indefinite periods of time in a couple of favorite camp spots. And when we checked another one there was a tent and camp chairs there. On the way back from our walk when it was getting late to be coming back to camp Paul walked over to check to see if anyone was really camped there and found the tent was empty...just an old one and old chairs left there as a camp place holder by some other selfish person. I so wanted to take the tent and chairs and put them in the woods where no one could see them and I also wanted to write on the trailers with a permanent marker expressing my thoughts on leaving trailers parked on public lands for long periods of unused time!!! I probably would have except that Paul and Bean just ignored my rants. But, we did find a new, pretty nice spot and did fine there.
After putting away camp in the morning, we drove over the mountains via Big John's Flat and then down to Mary'sville and up to Miner's Park. We looked around there and then Paul and I hiked up to see Bullion Falls. It's kind of steep, hot hike with just a far away view of the falls unfortunately. (We tried a different trail to see it that became dangerous and impassible first.) After lunch as we were driving back down to Mary'sville we came around a corner to see a mother bear and two cubs in the road. Looked like they had come down to get a drink from the stream at the side of the road. Paul was able to get a few pretty good pictures through the windshield. Crazy. First time seeing bears like that. They hightailed it up the hillside into the brush very quickly as we inched closer to get a better picture. It was a steep hillside, but that didn't slow them down a bit. We've seen people bear hunting up in that area before. Now we know there really are bears up there. We didn't see any goats as we came over the pass from Big John's unfortunately. We had a nice back roads drive home and then used a birthday gift card for some yummy dinner. Great last fling before getting back to the grind.
Unfortunately, with all of the Covid-19 restrictions we are going to have to deal with at school and after last year's pretty awfulness with the new administrations demands for constant testing and interventions, the teacher's crabbiness/stress because of that, feeling caught in the middle of the interventionist and the teacher, and the stupid things they did to mess up our OEK lunch routine, I'm not overly excited about going back to school this year. I've always been looking forward to it before, but if I didn't want to pay off the car with my earnings so much, I might not have even gone back. I'm of that high risk age group and would really be justified in just quitting altogether. So, I'll give it a try and see how it goes, but if things go south again, I may quit. We'll see.
