Hopefully this won't be a monster post, but since I have three weeks to cover it will probably be pretty long. I have completely forgotten what we did on some of the days, though, so that will help. On Saturday, July 16th my very good friend Jeanine came to visit. I met her shortly after we moved to Maryland and she and I bonded early on because we had little boys the same age. Her two oldest are the same ages as Scott and Tanner, and she was expecting her third boy at the time. (Jared was 18 months old then.) Her family moved to another ward in our stake a few years later and then 10 years ago she and her husband separated and her family moved to California. She has since remarried. But through all those years, our boys stayed friends and she and I have kept in close touch. Jeanine was traveling with her middle son, Kalvin (same age as Tanner) and Kalvin's wife Jessica and baby son Lukas. I haven't held a baby in so long, so it was fun to have one stay at our house! Jeanine took this photo of me with Lukas, but did I think to take any photos with her? No, I did not. 😢
Jeanine and I hadn't seen each other in person for 10 years, but we just picked up where we left off and it seemed totally natural to have her there and to be talking to her again! I just enjoyed visiting with her all day long. They spent the night with us so we got lots of visiting time that day. It was soooo great to see her again!!
Sunday morning the 17th we had to say our goodbyes. They were heading to Westminster to go to church and Frank had bishopric meeting early and I had choir practice so the morning was pretty rushed. The choir sang in church that day, and I think it went fairly well. Frank and I both had a meeting that afternoon because the YW presidency and the Bishopric met together to discuss some issues and do some planning. We mostly discussed whether or not we should continue to have 3 YW classes or combine into 2 classes. We left the meeting thinking that we were combining into 2 classes, but none of us in the YW presidency felt good about that, so we have decided to continue with 3 classes until at least the end of this year. It's the less convenient choice for us, but we feel it will be better for the girls.
Monday the 18th was busy because we were getting ready for our trip and Seth had an orthodontist appointment and I had an appointment to get my hair done. The orthodontist said Seth's teeth look good and he should get his braces off by November at the latest. I ended up sticking around the hair salon a while longer than anticipated because just as I was getting done a big storm blew in and while I was trying to pay, the power went out! It came back on in a few minutes and I finished my transaction but stayed a while longer waiting for the rain to slow down. Otherwise, I would have gotten soaked!!
Frank was able to work from home on Tuesday the 19th and I stayed busy all day with last minute packing and other preparations for our trip. Our flight was leaving at 7:40 that evening so we left for the airport around 4:30. I got a thorough pat down going through security, but we still made it to our gate in plenty of time and had time to get some dinner too. We boarded our flight on time but then had some delays and ended up leaving Baltimore about 30 minutes late. That caused us some concern since our layover in Phoenix was only 1 hour, but somehow they made up for the lost time in flight and we arrived in Phoenix at the time we were supposed to arrive. We had quite a walk to our next gate and then they were waiting on a crew member to arrive, so we had plenty of time before we had to board. We arrived in Phoenix at 9:30 pm (12:30 am, Maryland time) and it was still over 100 degrees there. None of us had slept much on the flight from Baltimore. Two guys in front of us were playing a video game on their tablet for the entire trip, and for some reason they didn't use headphones and they had the sound turned up really loud...so annoying!! The flight to Phoenix was completely full but our flight to Salt Lake City had only 50 people on it, so we really got to spread out which was nice. That flight was short, though, so I didn't even try to sleep. Seth did fall asleep and we had to wake him up when we landed in Salt Lake City. Scott was a real sport to come pick us up at 1:00 am! We went to Mom's house and went to bed.
We woke up around 8:00 am and I had a text from Amy letting me know that Nate had tested positive for Covid-19 the previous evening. That wasn't great news, since we wanted to see them, of course. We spent that day recuperating from our flight and visiting with Mom. That evening we had dinner with some Maryland friends who moved to Utah last summer, the McClatchies. They live in Heber now so we enjoyed a beautiful drive up Provo Canyon to get to their house. Scott and Tanner came with us also. The youngest McClatchie daughter had just been exposed to Covid, so we ate outside as a precaution. It was so pleasant, though...no humidity!!...so we enjoyed being outside, even though it actually rained lightly for a few minutes. Afterwards, there was a rainbow:
We had a really nice evening visiting and getting caught up with their family.
Thursday the 21st was also a quiet day which was nice because the rest of our trip was pretty busy. Amy tested positive for Covid that morning, but I was able to go visit with her for a few hours--we sat in her backyard, more than 6 feet apart, so we could talk. We met Scott's friend, Lexie, that day too. They have been spending a lot of time together but she insists that they are not dating, so we'll see what happens with that. She's a really nice girl, though.
On Friday morning, the 22nd, we all went to Waffle Love for breakfast. That included Mom, Amanda, and Lexie. We spent that day visiting and doing laundry. Lexie came back to Mom's house and hung out all day, although both she and Scott were doing some work remotely. That evening, Scott had invited a bunch of his friends to come over so we could meet them and he grilled hamburgers for all of us for dinner. Tanner and Darlee came over too. It was a fun but noisy group!
There was a brief rain shower that evening and another rainbow (actually, a double rainbow):
We spent most of Saturday the 23rd at Lagoon. Scott, Tanner and Darlee came with us too. It was really hot that day so it wasn't the best day to be walking around an amusement park but we mostly had fun. We were all ready to leave by about 3:30, though! Seth is anxious about amusement park rides so we could barely get him to go on anything and I will not do anything with a really steep drop but Scott, Tanner, Darlee, and Frank were game to go on all the big stuff. However, I'm the only one who doesn't get motion sick on spinning things (I actually love spinning rides!!) so I went on the scrambler alone. Sadly, I had to forego the Tilt-a-Whirl because it is no fun to ride that one alone...you need a couple of people with you, leaning in the correct direction to really make it spin fast!
You can't tell since they're so far away, but Frank, Scott, Tanner, and Darlee are in that roller coaster car. I am super impressed that they went on this ride...it looked terrifying to me!!
Lunch time:
One of the few rides Seth would go on...Carousels are pretty tame!:
Tanner and Seth got pretty wet on this ride:
Scott bribed Seth into going on this roller coaster and he liked it and agreed to go on it again. Darlee and I are in the seat in front of Tanner and Seth; Scott is further back so he's not visible in this photo:
Me riding the scrambler alone:
Here we all are on the roller coaster (except Frank)...Scott is barely visible, in the last car at the right side of the photo.
We went on a lot of other rides, but didn't get photos. We finished up with ice cream. I got a soft serve vanilla cone and the ice cream was so soft that it slid right off the cone onto my hand before I even left the concession window!! They gave me another one, in a cup this time! That evening someone nearby was shooting off fireworks so I went outside to watch for a while. There were fireworks for a couple of evenings, because of the Pioneer Day holiday. I enjoyed seeing those since we had to miss the 4th of July fireworks this year.
We spent most of Sunday the 24th at Tim & Rachelle's house. First we all went to church at their ward because Micah had just returned from his mission and he was speaking in Sacrament meeting. There were two youth speakers and another just returned missionary speaking besides Micah, and all of the talks were excellent. After the meeting, we went to Tim's house for lunch. They had sub sandwiches, fruit, chips, cookies, and lots of other snacks. We enjoyed visiting with them and lots of other family members who were there. Zane was getting ordained an Elder late that afternoon, so we stayed to participate in that. After we went back to Mom's house, Shellie came over for a visit. We didn't get to see the rest of her family, but we are glad we got to visit with her.
On Monday the 25th we headed up to Boise, Idaho to see Erick & Liz and Erin & Dan & family. Mom considered going with us, but she was feeling too tired to go. Scott did go with us (actually we took his car and he did most of the driving), and we enjoyed spending that extra time with him. We got to Erick's house around 4:00 pm, got settled, and then went to Erin & Dan's house for dinner. Seth was excited to ride in Erick's car with him:
Erin and Dan have a pizza oven, and Erin had all the fixings for homemade pizzas ready for us, plus a dessert pizza too. Her kids are so cute, and I enjoyed reading to Harvey for a bit. Erin has a very large and beautiful vegetable and flower garden. After dinner we went to a local ice cream place that some of Erin and Dan's friends own. I wasn't very hungry, but the ice cream was really good. Frank and I got a dish that was 5 small scoops of ice cream...that way we were able to try out 5 of their flavors without getting too much ice cream. We tried Mordor chocolate (The chocolate to rule them all!), snickerdoodle, banana cream pie, rocky road, and something else that I can't remember now. The adutls sat at a regular table, but all the "kids" (that includes Scott) sat at a table that had swings for seats:
After ice cream, we went back to Erick & Liz's house and went swimming in their pool and sat in the hot tub under the stars.
We spent Tuesday the 26th exploring Boise a bit. First we went to a park with the Boise River running through it:
(Liz and Frank were the only ones brave enough to wade in that cold water!)
Then we went to an Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. It was really nice, with water features, walls with lots of quotes, and an outdoor classroom space.
After lunch at a restaurant called The Funky Taco and a stop at a chocolate shop to get some yummy chocolate, we drove to the Meridian Temple grounds. The temple and it's grounds are really beautiful!!
After all those adventrues, we headed back to Erick & Liz's house for more swimming and some dinner. Erick had made pork in his smoker and Liz made some yummy side dishes and a lemon blueberry cake. Erin, Dan and kids joined us too.
We also played a game called Get Wild, which was fun but also frustrating because I never came close to winning! (There is very little skill involved with this game, it's mostly luck.)
We headed back to Utah on Wednesday morning (the 27th) after a delicious German pancake breakfast and another short game of Get Wild. After dinner with Mom, Frank and I went over to Tim & Rachelle's house to visit with them for a while. They also gave us some homemade peach ice cream that Tim had made...it was really good!
Thursday the 28th was our last day in Utah. I met my friend Paula for lunch and then we all went to Tanner & Darlee's house to visit them and to meet their kitten, Penny.
Penny is really cute and fairly friendly! We all went to the BYU creamery to get some chocolate or cookies and cream milk (or both). We said goodbye to Tanner & Darlee and headed back to Mom's house for dinner and visiting with Amy, who came to see us that evening. It was a bummer that we didn't get to see her more and we didn't get to see any of her family but I'm glad we got to visit with her that evening.
We tried to go to bed early because our flight home was leaving at 5:00 am. Even so, we only got about 4 hours of sleep. Scott was such a good sport (again!) and took us to the airport at that terribly early hour. Our flight home was kind of ridiculous...we flew to Chicago, then the Myrtle Beach SC, and then home. (Basically we flew right over Maryland on our way to Myrtle Beach!). We had a plane change in Chicago but in Myrtle Beach there was only a short stop. We didn't plan to get off the plane but then our flight was delayed an hour (because of bad weather) so they told us we had to get off. (We were able to leave our luggage on the plane, though, to save our seats). They had actually already started boarding the flight so those people had to get back off too. Because of the delay, we decided to get some food. The Baltimore airport has a long line of rocking chairs at one of their windows. We were amused to discover that the Myrtle Beach airport has brightly colored Andirondack chairs instead:
Because of the connection, stop, and delay (plus a two hour time change), we didn't land in Baltimore until about 4:30 pm, in spite of leaving Utah at 5:00 am. It was a long day of traveling, although we all slept at least a little bit on the plane rides. We drove home and dropped off all our luggage and then went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Jared & Jessie had come to Maryland for the weekend so Jared met us at the restaurant to visit with us (and he ate with us too). After dinner, we went home, unpacked, and went to bed.
It's been good to be back home again although we miss all the Utah and Idaho folks. On Saturday we woke up late since we were exhausted and still on Utah time. Frank had a lot of work to do for a client. I spent most of the day planning meals and took a trip to the store to get some groceries. That evening, Seth and I went to the Hatch's house for dinner and swimming (Frank was still getting work done). It was great to see Jared and Jessie, as well as the rest of the Hatch family.
On Sunday the 31st Frank had a short bishopric meeting but no other meetings because our poor bishop was dealing with another kidney stone. Since it was a 5th Sunday, all the adults met together and all the youth met together but I was asked to go to the meeting with the adults. Frank helped with the technology for the youth meeting, so he went to that meeting. Jared & Jessie came over for dinner that evening. We also played Banagrams and Jessie opened her birthday presents from us (her birthday was the following day).
The evening ended too soon, since Jared & Jessie needed to head back to North Carolina. We're so glad we got to see them this time, though!!
This week has been a lot quieter so there's not a lot to write about. We've mostly been trying to get back on Eastern time and adjusting back to our regular routine. I had a YW presidency meeting on Tuesday morning and went to lunch with my friend Rebekah on Wednesday. We had a combined YW activity on Wednesday evening...my class was in charge. We had a summer reading activity...we asked each person to bring a book they've read this summer (or a favorite they've read in the past) and to be prepared to tell a little bit about the book and tell why they like it. We also asked each person to bring a snack to share. A lot of people are out of town right now and a few other girls are at FSY, plus Covid is going around yet again so only 3 girls were able to come, but we had 4 leaders there too so it was a nice group and we had a fun time.
I have not been sleeping well at all since getting home...most nights I have a hard time going to sleep at all. Other nights I wake up in the middle of the night and lie awake for hours. Last night I fell asleep really late but still woke up when Frank got up at 5:00 am. Hopefully my mixed up body will figure out what time zone I am in soon!
I've been reading the book for book chat in my spare time, but not making a lot of progress. It is interesting, but not incredibly compelling so I have a hard time being motivated to pick it up. It's also very long!! (More than 600 pages.) I decided before we left for Utah that it was worth spending $15 to get a digital copy so I wouldn't have to take a large book in my backpack, so I returned the library copy before we left. I did read it a little bit on the plane rides, but not much. I've made more progress since returning home, but I need to pick up the pace if I'm going to finish it in time.
I decided to try something new with meals this week...I'm making double what we need for dinner each evening so that there are leftovers for the next day's lunch. I am liking that a lot better than making dinner and then making lunch for the next day. (I have to make lunch ahead of time so it's ready for Frank to take to work with him.) I'm not sure why I didn't think of this idea sooner...perhaps because Frank really doesn't like to eat the same thing for lunch as he ate for dinner the night before. (I, on the other hand, love to eat leftovers for lunch.) Frank says he hasn't minded doing that this week though, so I am planning to continue doing it this way. It is much easier for me.
That brings you up to date on us, I think. We are so glad we got to see a lot of you. We're praying for all of you who are going through difficult things, and will include you in our fast this Sunday. Love you all!!
