Here we go Chemo 7-29-21

Last year this is where we were…the Tetons! 

So here I am hanging out at the cancer center for my first round of chemo. This morning google showed memories of past years at this time. Crazy how things change!  I was climbing up to hard mountain peaks just 4 and 5 years ago. Now I’m climbing a 6 month “high” mountain of chemo treatments to shrink enlarged lymph nodes from this disease that’s wreaking havoc on me.  Staying as positive as possible and praying for a good, long remission after I get through this. 

Tushar Mountains by Beaver looking for the mountain goats - 4 years ago.

    

Colorado 50 miler with Family and friend of Supe’s - 5 years ago. 

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Falls Park, Smith's Mesa, Lava Point, Barney's Trail, etc.

 We had such a beautiful day out yesterday!  We kind of just went wherever we wanted along the way to driving over Cedar Mountain.  We stopped of at Falls Park to see how the water was...it was crazy, filled with silt and so high, and one of our favorite jumping in  spots now has a big tree clogging the way.  It must have washed down on the recent flash flooding.  

Next we drove up the crazy road to Smith's Mesa and over the top.  There are such amazing views from the top!

Then we drove on and over to Lava Point.  We had a great picnic lunch there...and finished just in time for a rainstorm to start.  Then we drove down the dirt road below Lava Point to where the West Rim Trail starts.  Along the way we saw a .03 mile hike (Barney's Trail) that went back up to Lava Point and decided to do that to get some exercise.  It was very uppity and beautiful.  And then on the way down, it really started raining.  It was a pretty slippery deal coming back down.  

Then the rain really started coming down and we decided it might not be such a great idea to drive over the mountain.  So we started down and pulled over and took a little nap.  Afterwards the rain seemed to have slowed down, so we decided we would drive over the mountain after all. The road was kind of a mess in some places with rocks and tree debris, but since we were in the pick up, it worked out fine and we saw so much beautiful scenery on the way. 

It rained clear down to Cedar City, but it wasn't going so hard as at first.  It was so good to have the rain coming down!  And it made everything even more beautiful.  We go home in time for dinner.  What a great day!  Oh, then that evening we took a was on the golf course to get the rest of our exercise for the day.  It was beautiful too.  We saw a red bird that was amazing!

North Rim Grandeur!

 On Saturday morning we got up and went to Cracker Barrel to enjoy our Grandma's sampler shared breakfast.  Then we came back and finished getting ready and headed to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the day.  We are trying to get out and enjoy lots things before I start Chemo next week and might not feel like doing much for a while (maybe 6 months) until I'm through with it and back to feeling well.  This was a wonderful day in a beautiful, cooler place!  There were flowers, especially pink Fireweed, growing everywhere!  I didn't take pictures of all that I could have, but oh, how we enjoyed them!  And there was green everywhere! And there was a little rainstorm and lots of cloud cover.  All of that together made for perfect weather.  We stopped in and got some snack and after lunch cookies at Jacob Lake on the way by of course. 

We drove out to Angel's Window and them walked down to Cape Royal to see the magnificent views!

After that we drove of to Point Imperial stopping by at Vista Encantada to eat our lunch overlooking the canyon and with a "pet" squirrel that ate our over ripe grapes and dropped curds.  

                This was not the "pet" squirrel, but another one that was willing to pose for the camera.

Next we stopped by Harvey Meadow and almost missed, but then found, "Uncle Jim" Owens cave that he lived in while he hunted over 500 cougars as game warden of the Grand Canyon in the 1900's.  He thought he was saving the deer population from the cougars.  Instead the deer population overran the area and many starved without the predators to take some out.  So they say.  

Then it was on to Bright Angel Point Trail and then to the Lodge to see Brighty the burro and the geological display.  

After that, it was time to head for home.  We stopped off at Jacob Lake for dinner and a way too big shake and cookie that we ate outside with Smokey the Bear!  

Pine Valley Picnic

 We thought we wanted to go camping, but then it was so hot we didn't even want to pack up/put away all of the gear in this heat.  So we opted to take a sub sandwich picnic dinner up to eat in the cool weather and take an evening walk along the trails.  And it was the right choice!  It was so much cooler up there.  Perfect evening!

Red Hill rockfall

We've enjoyed hiking on the Red Hill (Owen's Loop) for years now and have never seen this happen before.  The other morning after a night rain I went up for a walk and found this little rock fall in the middle of the trail by where the "holy sheep petroglyph" is.  I'm not sure if it fell that night, because it had been a few days since I was us there, but it certainly was new since the last time I'd been for a walk up there.  It was a nice walk with rain  puddles, clean rain washed air and moss that was fluorescent green from adding rain water.  Lovely walk.  

July Birthdays!

 Beacher, Tahlia, Jem and Supe share this birthday month.  We dropped Tahlia's birthday present off to her early when we were up that way.  She celebrated more on her birthday with friends and family!  Happy #9!  We love you!

We went over for an early celebration for Jem.  He's such a cute little guy!  A one year old already.  His first year was kind of crazy because of Covid-19.  He won't remember it, but we will always remember hardly getting to see him during that year because of all the restrictions.  He's having a big Luau Hawaiian style on his real birthday.  It's a tradition and his other grandparents are putting it on for him, and Supe and Beacher's birthdays are getting thrown in.  They told us not to give them any presents because they would rather have a donation to some young men from Ghana that they are trying to help get over here for college.

Happy birthday to my favorite little buddy Jem Bob and to his awesome mom Beacher @beachesncream10 (two days ago)

Jem is one year old today. Hard to believe it’s gone by so fast. I feel so lucky that I get to spend two out of every four weeks at home playing with this little guy. He’s awesome and I really like hanging out with him!

1. Rocking the overalls

2. Not too happy about his one year old pancake. He’s got a fever today

3. Gazing off into the middle distance while playing at grandpa’s splash pad

4. Playing in the dirt on one of our hikes

5. Eating cherries. He’d live off these if we let him. But we don’t cuz black cherry poo is not awesome

6. Getting ready to take Auri on a walk. He loves her! His first word after waking up is usually “Auraaaa”. How he says Auri

7 - 10. Hanging out with his mom, who is definitely his favorite person in the world. Can’t blame him there! She is awesome and we are both so lucky to have her

Looking forward to another great and crazy year with these awesome people!

And another July birthday has been celebrated! Kai turned 4! He wanted motorcycle things...and he had a motorcycle themed party too!

Ellie is the last of our July birthdays. This was #15 for her. Brady said the blessing and blessed her and everyone else to be safe while she learns to drive! Thanks big brother! She's a beautiful, sweet young lady who has really grown up and gained confidence in herself these last few years. It was fun, as always to join the Randall family dinner celebration for her! She was very patient while Bean and Brady were pests!

The Earth has music for those who listen...

 I found this beautiful poem while looking for the author of the quote.  

The earth has music for those who will listen…

This beautiful quote is often attributed to Shakespeare or George Santayana, but only recently was it discovered to be written by an unknown poet, Reginald Holmes, as part of his poem, The Magic of Sound.

I’ve heard the soft whisper of wind in the pine trees,
The silvery ripple of brooklets at play;
I’ve heard the low voice of a sweet singing mother
As she sang to her child at the end of the day.

I’ve heard the faint rustle of sails in the sunset
And blue waves caressing the wild, rockbound shore;
The whistle of trains as they cross the green prairie
And mountains re-echo the cataract’s roar.

The notes of the organs in ancient cathedrals,
Where hearts of the faithful are lifted in song;
I’ve heard the gay laughter as children were playing,
The chatter and buzz of a large, happy throng.

The earth has its music for those who will listen;
Its bright variations forever abound.
With all of the wonders that God has bequeathed us,
There’s nothing that thrills like the magic of sound.

So long YSA good times

I can't really just let this go without putting something here.  It's been a truly wonderful experience to serve in the YSA (Young Single Adult - 18-30 yrs.) 3rd Ward.  We served there for about 4.5 (2017-2021) years.  We went in thinking it would be for about 3 years and came out wishing it wouldn't end.  It's been so great to serve with amazing senior leaders and to rub shoulders with so many also amazing young people throughout these few years.  I can honestly say, this has been my favorite of all church callings so far.  I did not go in thinking I would like it very much at all.  I'm used to working with kindergartners, cub scouts and serving in Primary as the main things in my daily and church life.  I just couldn't really see myself liking the 18-31 age group all that much.  But, in this I was very wrong.  This calling has been to us like a mission.  We left our home ward and were completely immersed in this on Sundays, Mondays and other times as well.  We had the wonderful experience of seeing some of these young people make huge life changes - become active and worthy to serve and to move forward in good ways in their lives.  We've loved them, cried for them, celebrated with them, and had so much fun with them.  For me, it meant coming out of my shell and with Paul being the first people to greet and welcome them when they came to church.  We served as ward clerk and ward "clerkette" aka member coordinator.  When we went in for our calling interview they actually gave us two options:  Paul could be a high councilman and I could be some kind of very undefined "member coordinator" or Paul could be the ward clerk and I could still be the undefined "member coordinator".  After all the years of me basically following him through scouting, I decided it was time for him to let me choose instead of him and be just getting the calling because he was so good at it that I should be too.  Well, in this case, after we talked about it, he was willing to give in to my wishes.  As I said, the member coordinator calling is sort of a made up thing that you just have to figure out.  It is nowhere in the handbook.  People have come up with an idea of what it could be, kind of a liaison between the home stake area that our YSA ward drew from and the YSA ward.  Well, to do that, there needed to be the other half of that team from the home stake, and they never called anybody to do that.  The lady whose place I took had nothing at all to tell me about what my responsibilities would be.  Her husband pretty much did it all and she "cooked" a lot for the many gatherings.  The calling of ward clerk, was made for me, in many ways.  I always liked being the Primary secretary, wished I could be the RS secretary.  Paul is such a people person!  He shined at that part of the calling and I was good at the background part of this calling - the record keeping, and together we just loved being with, cooking for, partying with and serving however we were needed to.  This truly became a shared calling and was like a mission in that way.  It was very much a working together and using each of our best talents to bless the ward.  I feel like that is what made us good at this.  And it helped other people with the calling, especially the women who felt like they were there because their husband was called and they didn't really have anything much to do. We shared with them how we shared this calling and many have told us how that helped them.  I felt needed and useful and busy in the work.  Paul will always be everyone's favorite.  I'm just not the people person he is, but nevertheless, I felt loved and appreciated here more than I ever have in any other calling.  Just as an additional note.  We should have been released at the release of the last bishopric we thought, but they surprised us at the release "party" by saying we were staying in with the new bishopric.  I think that's because Covid-19 was just getting started among other reasons there may have been.  That proved to be the hardest part of our service time there.  It was so hard to get to know people when we were not meeting in person, meeting wearing masks, and not able to have activities other than church.  We were just now fully getting back to activities in the summer of 2021 with some of our first summertime combined with other wards FHEs and sacrament meetings.  It's a good time for the new people to be called.  They would have had a much harder time with the Covid-19 restrictions coming in with no background knowledge of any of the young people or leadership.  

We served with 3 different bishoprics:

Craig Booth, Ted Spilsbury, Hans Hafen

Alan Orchard, Ted Spilsbury, Lee Scott

Jeffrey Tuscano, Wayne Stucki, Dave Kinzie

We need to give special thanks to Stan Plew - the ward clerk before us, for always being so willing to help us while we got going in the first place.  Also, lots of thank to the Stake Clerk, Bro. Dean Losee.  He was always wonderful to work with also.  

I made a memory book of pictures from all the years we served.  That will be where I put the rest of them instead of here.  And this photo is in memory of Dr./Bishop Craig Booth who we served with first and who is now deceased.  He is a one-of-a-kind guy and it was lots of fun to serve with him and Maureen and the other bishopric members we started out working with in 2017.  

Tushar Mountains - escape to the cooler clime

 Yesterday we made the drive up to Beaver-Tushar mountains to escape the 100++ heat of St. George.  And escape we did!  We drove the loop around the little lakes and stopped off at Round Flat to eat lunch.    Then went to over to Big John's Flat and up to the top.  We kind of got stuck in a mountain bike race on the way and had to wait a while.  And Paul was also having bloody nose trouble, so we didn't hike, but we did walk around and enjoy the wonderful wild flowers and cool weather at the top!  It was so lovely, as usual.  It is not without the trouble caused by the excessively dry, hot weather, but it was still quite green and even had a few snow spots.   Glorious, majestic views as always!  Lots of smoke in the air from nearby fires unfortunately. 

Happy Father's Day!

 Opps!  Forgot to post for this day!  

Paul got the sweetest card from Kaebri (Sister Smith).  She sent it from her mission.  It's one of the nicest things ever!