4th of July fun!

We had a fun 4th of July!  We took Jim, Bean, Tasia and Kaebri up to join the Borrowmans at Baker Lake where they shared their kayaks with us!  I didn't get a lot of pics because I didn't want to take my phone with me on the water.  After that we came to our house for BBQ, fireworks and rootbeer floats.  It was a really fun day and I was excited because it was my first time kayaking and it is something I've been wanting to try!  

Brynnli & Braden - to infinity and beyond!

Wow!  Can't believe that we have a grand child getting married soon (Septbember 28th)!  Brynnli and Braden Figgins got "officially" engaged on June 7th!  They seem so young!!! But they are being pretty smart it seems like and we are happy for them!  It will be hard to have Brynnli leave town, but she had left to go away to school, so we are getting used to that idea.  Braden is an awesome guy and we hear his family is too.  We are happy Brynnli has found a young man who wants to take her to the temple.  Wow, makes me want to cry thinking of all this!  She was just our little Beautiful, Brynnli Bucket Borrowman a little bit ago...and now she's a grown up woman getting ready to start her own family!

As she put it, "Engaged?  It does have a nice ring to it!" 

Announcement picture, I think!  

Tavin - Grand Edventure Date 2019

It was time for another senior dinner date - this time with Tavin.  It is also a Grand Edventure date and a pre-mission date I guess.  It was fun to  spend time with this oldest of the grand sons and hear about him getting ready for his mission.  He will be the first of our grands to head out.  Kind of happy/sad about it.  We will miss him but are so happy he is excited and willing to serve.  Our date was fun!  We started with dinner at the Outback...mmm good!  Then we drove out to see Gunlock overflowing.  Everyone needs to see that phenomenon because it happens so seldom.  We even got a little bit wet and it felt good on a summer evening.  Then we took him to play night/hand golf.  He thought it might be a little weird, but ended up thinking it was pretty fun!  He thought the best shot of all was my throw that ricocheted off a bench and came back at us!  Tavin is a fine young man, and we are proud of him and happy that he is leading the rest of the grand kids with his good example in so many ways.  

Zion - it never disappoints!

We took a little afternoon drive up to Zion.  It was sprinkling just a little and was so beautiful!  Love that we live close to so many awesome natural wonders!  

Zade, Koen, Brenden - Grand Edventure Date

Even though it was cold and windy, these boys enjoyed their date to the Bio-Blast at Cedar Breaks National Monument.  They did several things:  a nature bingo game, animal scat and skull identification, and then a nature hike to the Alpine Pond with biology and marine biology professors (a married couple) and a Ranger leading the way.  It was such a big snow year that the trails were not even open yet up there, so we had to have special permission and a ranger along to make sure everyone/the trail was OK.  The biology professor was a world leech expert and in this pond he had identified a species of leech that was just in this pond and no where else.  He taught about leeches, may flies, dragon and damsel flies, caddis flies, boatman bugs, etc.  These boys had MANY questions and the professor was very encouraging and answered all of their questions.  It seemed a little long to me and Paul, but the boys seemed pretty enthralled with the whole thing.  They had really great questions actually.  After the hike, we drove down to Brian Head hoping it would be less cold and windy to eat our lunches there, but the wind was still with us unfortunately.  We stopped off at Arctic Circle in Cedar for dessert.  It was a fun, educational outing!  

Grand Edventure date with the Lillywhite chicas!

While Jay and Brynn were down for Father's Day/their Tolman Family Reunion we took the chance to take Madi, Tahlia and Essie for their date.  We took them on one of our favorite little hikes between Brookside and Baker Dam.  It's just right for kids and this year the water is so high that it goes over the dam and makes it extra cool!  They got to shop for a Lunchable for their picnic lunch and then we hiked!  After the hike we took our picnic to Pine Valley and joined Bean, Jay, Brynn and Clara for lunch.  It was so cool and green and lovely we hated to leave.  We took the girls for the traditional Arctic Circle ice cream cones to finish up the date.  It was a fun time even tho' it was a little warmer than we had hoped.  By the end they were pretty tired out!

And there was Father's Day!

In the middle of the June birthdays we also celebrated Father's Day for Paul.  Jay and Brynn came down for the weekend and took us to dinner at the Anasazi Grill to celebrate that and my birthday!  It was the most tender steak I've ever had and the rest of the meal was delicious too!  It was a really fun week end with them.  The other kids went together to get him good stuff  (they pooled their cash and got us a new smart TV and yummy dinner gift cards) and I gave him some season tickets to The St.George Musical Theater for 7 plays.  (And that's what he gave me for my birthday too!)  

Madi, Lance, Derek, Moss and me - June birthdays!

 The June birthday line up is pretty big.  It started with Madi.  She actually called me while I was on a hike at Pinnacles National Park in CA on our vacation.  I came into range at the top of the mountain.  She had an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for #9!  So glad Brynn shares pictures!

 We caught Lance at the family dinner for the month and celebrated #41 for him!  

 Next we caught up with Derek over brownies and Ice Cream to celebrate #42 for him.  

 We visited Moss and family and brought birthday presents to him at home!  Kai was very excited about the squirt guns Moss got! It was #35 for him.  

My birthday kind of got spread over several days!  The ceiling in the basement hall started gushing water and we had a big mess to clean up and wanted to escape camping and called it my birthday.  I said I wanted to eat the meals at Jacob Lake to really celebrate and make it easy to just get going.  It was along drive to dinner and breakfast from where we camped, but it was a wonderful camping escape to beauty!  And the food was all delicious!  It even waited to rain until just as we finished up brushing our teeth and were getting into our tents for the night.  It made such a lovely sound pattering on our tent.  It was the best camping night's sleep I've ever had I think!  And it made everything so fresh and beautiful the next day.  Ferf was the family birthday shopper for me, so on Sunday evening they brought over lots of nice presents from everyone and I got lots of phone calls.  It was very nice!  

On the actual day of my birthday I went to FHE at Veyo Pool/Crawdad Canyon with the YSA!  That was a really fun thing to do too.  And Jay and Brynn took me and Paul out to a wonderful dinner at the Anasazi Grill on Father's Day week end for our presents.  Like I say, my birthday was spread over a long time and was so fun!  It was #64 for me!  

CA Vacation!

We decided to revisit some places we loved in the past and see some new things as well on a CA vacation to celebrate school out, summer and school about to begin (for Bean).  We took almost a week, tried our first Airbnb rental and had a great trip!  Had time to spare after arriving at our motel the first night and took a beautiful evening hike at Pinnacles National Park - new to us!

Went to church in a great little ward the next day with a very diverse congregation that had the missionaries translating prayers and testimonies.  After lunch we took a hard to find, one-lane, beautiful, sometimes heinous canyon road down to Hwy. 1 and when we came out of a fog bank there was the shore!  Enjoyed amazing scenery of Big Sur, beach walks and a less henious, very beautiful Carmel Valley road back to our digs for the night!  

The next day we headed for the Monterrey Bay Aquarium!  It was awesome...almost too much to see in one day!  

Next day we hit Glass Beach and a few others, and then our first redwoods!  Then we drove another crazy, beautiful road and ended up in Ferndale for Pizza and then on to our Airbnb.

The next day's adventures included Trinidad's Old Home Beach and Agate Beach.  Also Fern Canyon,  and Crescent City and Jedidiah Redwood Park.

Next day we went to Indian habitations and the beach at Patrick's Point, had lunch at the Loleta Cheese Factory grilled cheese bar and Garden, saw beautiful old stonework, heard sea lions and saw more big trees.  

Time to leave our Airbnb (it was a little bit of a hippy style place in McKinleyville, CA) and stopped by at Lassen Volcanic NP (it was still partially closed due to the deep winter snows) and then to Truckee for the night.  

Saturday it was time to head home.  We enjoyed  cool temps at Tahoe Lake, the still snow-capped Sierra Nevada's, and finally the 103 temps at Death Valley (no pics - let's get out of here and get home).  

Overall it was a great trip.  The gas prices out there amazed and terrified us.  It all cost too much, but we are glad we saw all of these beautiful places.  Our new car got great gas mileage, thank goodness!  

Gila Monster...and other cool stuff!

Bean and I saw this little guy along Cottonwood Road the other night!  And we enjoyed seeing the water crossing the road in several other spots...and lots of other beautiful things!