Lillypad Good Times

Monday, July 8, 2019

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!

A Saturday full of pretty places!

Checked out some pretty stuff Saturday! And finished the day off with a walnut caramel apple pie crepe and lemon cheese cookies at Park Place in Cedar City. Yummy Stuff!

Tavin - HS Grad, Brynnli - College Grad

One of those proud days. Proud to see Tavin do the hard work to succeed in his goals and get ready for the next steps forward in his life! Awesome job being one of the valedictorians chosen to speak! He worked hard in school, sports, and had a part time job on top of all of that! Big sister, Brynnli, also worked hard and got her Associate's degree all wrapped up at SUU in one year! Lots of family came to town to celebrate with them!

Grand Edventure Date - at the concert!

Fun date night with this cute, amazing grand daughter!DQ after for treats and a little excitement after that when we discovered a phone was still at the concert! Luckily we have a friend who was still inside working and a sone who showed us how to use our find my phone thing!