Weekly Review August 14 '26

My last post was so long; this one will probably be pretty short, and I only have a few photos to add. I didn't get the last post done and posted until Sunday evening, August 9th. There were so many photos to add and blogger had several issues, such as putting photos in the wrong place, so it took even longer than I anticipated. I worked on adding the photos for hours on both Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th.

Saturday August 8th: Besides working on the blog post, I got a lot of other things done. I made some wheat bread using a recipe Amy gave me because it fits all the criteria for the diet that I am trying out. The basic rules are: no sugar (in anything, and most bread has sugar--honey is okay though), no red meat or pork, no dairy, no oil of any kind besides olive oil, no corn, only whole grains. For the first couple of months, I am also supposed to avoid nuts and avocado. So what can I eat, you may be wondering? Chicken, turkey, and seafood are all okay. Fruits and vegetables are great. Quinoa, brown rice, potatoes, eggs, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread (without sugar) are all allowed. It actually hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. That was a bit of a tangent...back to the bread. I mixed it in my breadmaker, but baked it in the oven because my breadmaker lid is broken, so it won't seal and get up to the correct temperature. I really like the bread--I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to store bought--and so does Frank. We're going through it a lot faster than I anticipated, so I had to make another loaf on Wednesday.

Besides making bread, I worked on several things related to church. I sent our bishop a list of the things that need to be done for the Labor Day picnic, with suggestions of what to assign to each organization. (He told us the next day at church that everyone had accepted their assignments 😊). I contacted the RS secretary to ask if I could meet with her to learn how she creates flyers using AI, as well as how to post them in our ward's Circles. We set up an appointment for Monday afternoon. (I need to know how to do these things for my RS activities calling.) I emailed the stake executive secretary to ask for an appointment to get set apart as a service missionary (haven't heard back yet, though...I need to follow up on that). I contacted my stake president to ask him to double check my application, because the mission lead for the group I'm joining emailed me and said my application still needs my stake president's approval. My stake president answered me and said I should be good to go, but the mission lead says the stake president approval is still pending. However, he said I could go ahead and get set apart, so I'm just moving forward with that. 

Besides all of those things, I also practiced the ukulele and prepared dinner for the missionaries. Seth ate with us and then he had to leave for work. After dinner with the missionaries, Frank and I went to the auto parts store and purchased and then installed new light bulbs for my rear license plate. Then we took my car to put gas in it. 

Sunday, August 9th: Frank had YSA stake meetings at the University of Maryland. He felt like his foot was well enough that he could drive (even though it was still swollen and painful). I spent the morning reading scriptures and texting Amy about autoimmune disorders (she wanted to know which autoimmune the eye doctor thought I might have; I actually don't know). Frank came with me to part of our ward meetings (he used crutches to get around so he wouldn't have to walk on his foot as much). He left our sacrament meeting early to attend the YSA Branch council and then he went to their sacrament meeting. I attended our usual ward meetings and then waited for the YSA sacrament meeting to end so that I could take Frank home. After church, I was in the hallway talking to the sister who was called to replace me as a Seminary teacher. One of the girls in my Seminary class walked by and commented "It's the ghosts of Seminary past and Seminary future!"😂

After church, we talked to Jared and had dinner and family night before Seth left for mission prep class. Tanner also called to talk for a little while that evening.

Monday, August 10th: Frank arranged with his boss to work from home this week since his foot is so painful.

This was a pretty busy day for me. I had a dentist appointment in the morning. Afterwards, I went to see my friend Wanda, who lives in a nursing home nearby. I haven't been able to visit her in a long time; she was very surprised but happy to see me. She doesn't get out much anymore, and it is sad to think about that. She is mostly in bed all the time. It must be very difficult for her, but she is always cheerful. 

After visiting with Wanda, I made stops at Target and Costco before going home. At Target, I got some fruit strip snacks that fit my diet criteria (and they are tasty!). At Costco, I stocked up on chicken, shrimp, and salmon. After my errands, I went home to lunch before heading back to do the regular grocery shopping. Somewhere in there I also vacuumed and got laundry done. We had family night and I read John Adams until bed time.

Tuesday, August 11th: I woke up at 2:30 am and didn't go back to sleep until 5:00, then I went back to sleep until a little after 8:00. I just got regular chores done (cleaned bathrooms & planned meals) and listened to some of the Follow Him podcast. I had my temple shift that evening. Frank didn't go because of his foot. I got a ride with my friend Mary Kay, who is in my ward and works the same shift that I do. It was nice visiting with her on the way down and back. At the temple, we had an awesome training. Then I worked in the laundry for a little while, was a hostess in the celestial room for a little while, and then worked in initiatories for the rest of the evening. We didn't have very many patrons, but that was nice because it gave me a chance to get some practice without feeling super overwhelmed. Everything went smoothly, and I am feeling more comfortable and starting to really love working at the temple.

Wednesday, August 12th: As I mentioned earlier, I made bread. I spent a lot of time reading John Adams and got within 100 pages of finishing it. I probably would have finished, but there were a lot of distractions--I'm in a group of people in my ward who are providing rides to work and back for a sister and her children--they don't have a car--and there were a lot of text messages going back and forth to arrange all that. I had book chat that evening. We had a great discussion and will be reading Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen next (I've already read it, but I'm planning to read it again). I still haven't finished reading John Adams, but I have to say that I have gained a whole lot of respect for him while reading this book about his life. He sacrificed so much to serve his country, and he stuck to what he thought was the right thing to do, even if it hurt him politically. We need more leaders like that!

Thursday, August 13th: This was another very busy day. I exercised and did regular chores in the morning (grocery shopping, started laundry, vacuuming). I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah, so we could get caught up on everything we've been doing for the last month. (We went to Chipotle, where I was able to get food that met my diet criteria.) Then I took Frank to his PT appointment and after dropping him off at home, I went immediately to an eye doctor appointment. This one was my annual visit with the optometrist to check my vision. My eyes have changed only slightly, so I don't need to get new glasses. He's going to have me try a slightly different prescription for my contact lenses, but if it doesn't make much of a difference, then I won't change those either. 

After the eye doctor, I came home and made dinner; I also finished folding laundry. Then I went to pick up two of the previously mentioned sister's children from work and gave them rides home. One of them is living with a friend and the other one is living with her mom at a campground. I was anticipating a very uncomfortable ride with two teenagers / young adults who would just stare at their phones and not speak to me (we had never met before Thursday), but I was pleasantly surprised that they were friendly and they talked and laughed with each other and with me. Also, they both thanked me when I dropped them off. 

In between everything else, I tried to read John Adams when I could, but didn't have a chance to read much. 

Friday, August 14th: I didn't wake up until 8:15, which suprised me because I went to bed around 10:00 and slept great all night. It was pretty awesome to get that much quality sleep! The only down side is that the day felt half over before it started. 😂 By the time I exercised and showered, it was practically lunch time. I spent the afternoon updating finances. After dinner, I went to a game night with a few other sisters in my ward. Frank was invited to a guy's game night too, but he decided not to go because of his foot. I had a fun time; we played several games and there was a lot of laughter. In one game, I kept banging my elbows on the table by accident. I hit my left elbow right on the tip, and it is really sore! (I did win that game, though, so I guess it was worth the sacrifice? 😄)

Frank finished his last dose of prednisone on Tuesday and since then has been taking another anti-inflammatory. He's really not seeing much of an improvement; his foot is still very painful. As a matter of fact, I would say it is more swollen now than it was earlier in the week. This is how it looked on Wednesday:

And this is how it looks today:

I think he's going to need to follow up with the doctor next week if he doesn't see any improvement. I really hate seeing him suffer! He keeps going along doing what needs to be done anyway and doesn't complain much, but I can tell he's hurting. Everyone please keep him in your prayers. 

On a happy note, look what I got in the mail today:

Hopefully I will be set apart soon and can get started on learning what I need to do.

That's all of our news for this week.

Weekly Reviews July 17th, 24th, 31st, and August 7th '26

Whew! It has been a month since I last posted--July was mostly all traveling. I figured out that I was only at home 5 days in July, and I slept in my own bed only 8 nights. It's been crazy, but I am grateful for all the people I have been able to see and the things I've been able to do. The last time I posted, we had returned from Florida a few days before. I'll pick up where I left off, which was on Friday, July 10th. I went to the temple that morning. I spent the rest of the day (after writing that week's blog post) working on updating the finances. I also worked a little bit on planning food for the upcoming Pew family reunion. Frank wasn't feeling great, but Seth and I went to DQ that evening to get ice cream and we brought back a treat for Frank too. On the way home, we saw a rainbow:

While I was making dinner that evening, I sliced my left thumb while chopping vegetables. Such bad timing, when I was going to YW camp on Monday and would be cooking / cleaning / doing dishes all week! I had to keep a bandaid on it, and bandaids really get in the way (and are constantly coming off) when cooking and doing dishes. One of the co-chairs of the cooking crew brought disposable gloves, though, and that really helped. I wore a glove on my left hand a lot of the time, which protected the bandaid and kept it out of the food. 

Saturday July 11th: This was a very busy day. I had a haircut appointment first thing in the morning. Then I went with my friends Rebekah and Sherrie to a fabric store in Gaithersburg--it's called G Street Fabrics. Rebekah and Sherrie both needed to get fabric for projects they are working on; I just went along to see what this fabric store has to offer. It's about 30 minutes away, but it does have more fabric than any other place nearby, since JoAnn's closed. I looked at some pattern books and was amused that they had vintage 1980's patterns. Mom made me a jumper / blouse from this pattern when I was about 14:

I enjoyed visiting with Rebekah and Sherrie on the trip to the fabric store and back, as well. The rest of the day was busy with chores and getting ready for camp. I went to our storage unit to get out all the empty bins (needed to store food at camp, because there are mice); went to Wal-Mart to get bottled water and some food items I needed, packed for camp, and went back to the storage unit to get our water cooler / dispenser. I also cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced ukulele a bit, worked some more on family reunion meal planning, and ordered a gift for Kayla (my nephew Jeremy's fiance--I was planning to attend a bridal shower for her which was being held the day I flew into Utah). 

Sunday July 12th: Frank had YSA stake meetings in the morning. I did some more reunion food planning in the morning (including calling Amy to discuss a few things). We went to church, and I did get released as a Seminary teacher, which was a little sad but mostly I was glad that it finally happened. I saw Tammy in the hallway afterwards, and she said that even though she knew it was coming, she cried! That means a lot to me because I loved working with her so much, admire her so much, and will really miss the time we spent serving together. Frank attended the YSA branch sacrament meeting but we came home after that so that I would have time to eat dinner before going up to camp for the kitchen walk through and some of the kitchen set up. I got home from that around 6:30. I was slightly slowed down on the way home because there was a traffic back up because of a wreck. A car had gone off the road and was stuck, flipped sideways, between two trees. I really couldn't imagine how the car had managed to land in exactly that spot--it looked kind of impossible, especially because there was a telephone pole in the way. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. After I got home, I talked to Jared for a while and did some meal planning for camp--I was in charge of dinner the first night and I wanted to go over everything to make sure I was prepared. 

Monday July 13th: I was up around 6:00 am, and had time to exercise, shower, and eat breakfast before meeting the rest of the camp cooking crew at Sam's Club to help pick up food for camp. After loading up, I drove up to camp, unloaded all the food from my car, and settled my belongings in the leader cabin. Then I went back to the kitchen, where we did some more organizing, cut up some watermelon, and then ate lunch. (Everyone brought bag lunches that day, so we only had to cook dinner).

The theme of camp this year was "Once Upon a Walk With Jesus", which combined a Disney princess theme with the youth theme for this year ("Walk With Me"). Some of the decor was pretty cute:

When I saw this poster, I said "every one of us on the kitchen crew is always going to look just as nice as the girl in that picture!" 😂

We all had aprons that said "Queen of the Kitchen" on them. We had tiaras to wear too. The cooking crew shown clockwise, left to right: Becca, Me, Michelle, Bonnie and Sarah:

We started water boiling for the pasta for that night's dinner around 2:00 pm, and it's a good thing, because it took those large pots of water a long time to boil! Dinner was pasta with three sauces to choose from (pesto, alfredo, marinara), chicken, meatballs, salad, and rolls. As I mentioned before, I was leading the dinner preparation that night and everything went great--we worked as a team! We made way too much food, though. (Half the pasta was leftover and lots of sauce too; we offered pasta and sauce as extras for the rest of the week!)

Dinner the first night, ready to go:

Girls loading up on pasta:

Me serving meatballs and chicken:

Lillian made all of that pasta!:

After dinner, we cleaned up and then prepared veggie bags (carrots & cucumbers) for Tuesday's lunch. While we were doing that, at one point a mouse ran through the kitchen! I didn't actually see it, but one of the other cooking crew members did. After we finished the veggie bags, we all went back to the cabin. I showered and visited a bit with Tammy (she was one of the assistant camp directors) and with one of the other cooking crew members, Bonnie, who is also a Seminary teacher. I read some Book of Mormon and got to bed around 10:30. After I lay down, Tammy came over laughing and told me that her husband, Alvin, had just texted her and told her that if she saw me to tell me that Frank said "good night and I love you." Apparently, Frank had been texting Alvin about something else and then got mixed up and accidentally texted that message to Alvin instead of to me. We all had a good laugh over that!

Tuesday July 14th: Unfortunately, I had a hard time going to sleep on Monday night (probably didn't sleep until midnight) and then I woke up at 3:00 am and never went back to sleep. When I talked to the other members of the cooking crew, I discovered that none of them had slept well either! In spite of the fact that all of us were tired, breakfast went well. We made pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon.

We didn't have to make lunch, because the girls spent the day at a lake and they prepared their own sack lunches right after breakfast. We were still pretty busy that day, chopping up a lot of vegetables for the Asian bowls that we were having for dinner that night (rice, meat, veggies--yummy!) and also preparing french toast casseroles for the next morning (they had to sit overnight in the refrigerator). We didn't have to cook the meat for dinner because all the meat was precooked before camp (not by me--the two co-chairs, Sarah and Michelle, did that). Everyone seemed to like dinner, but they didn't eat enough! We had more leftover food. 

I went home that evening to shower in my own bathroom and to sleep in my own bed; that was awesome! Frank did his usual temple shift so he didn't get home until late and I stayed up to talk to him when he got home (I didn't have cell service for most of camp, so I didn't get to communicate with him very much). I slept well that night, but since I stayed up late and needed to get up pretty early, I didn't get many hours of sleep. 

Wednesday July 15th: This was a long, HOT day. The air conditioning in the kitchen didn't seem to work as well this year as it did last year, but mostly it was nowhere near as bad as two years ago (when the air conditioning was not working at all). 

I was up at 4:00 am to shower and head back to camp. Breakfast was pretty easy since we prepared the french toast casseroles the night before; we just had to bake them. I burned my right arm on one of the ovens, though, so I had to keep it covered and had another bandaid to deal with.😒For lunch we had Cafe Rio style rice, chicken, and taco toppings. It was great and everybody loved it but once again...they didn't eat enough! 

Becca and I warming up leftover pancakes to add to the breakfast offerings for Wednesday morning:

Cafe Rio Lunch:

Becca chopping up peppers

A lime that exploced in the microwave, next to an undamaged lime

The menu board; we took turns writing this.

Our attempt to keep food from ending up the floor! For some reason, the girls seemed to miss their plates a lot when dishing up food. 😂

Girls dishing up Cafe Rio "walking tacos"

Serving lunch

For dinner we had ordered Costco pizza, so we just had to pick it up (we also made salad). I went with Michelle and her daughter Lillian (who was also on the cooking crew) to pick up all the pizza. We went early to make sure that the order got done in time, and we also had some other shopping to do (picked up some more watermelons etc.) It occurred to me that Frank loves an excuse to get pizza at Costco, so I texted him to let him know I was there and he did come over to see me and to get some pizza. It was nice to see him for a little while. 😃 When we got back to camp, the kitchen was SO HOT because there had been a cinnamon roll class that afternoon and the ovens were left on for several hours to bake all those cinnamon rolls. I'm glad we didn't have to cook, but just serving all that pizza in that hot kitchen was pretty miserable. 

I was in charge of creating the menu board for dinner

The themostat in the kitchen while we were serving dinner, registering 88 degrees

Serving pizza

The stake camp director and her two assistants. My Seminary team teacher, Tammy, is in the center

Me with my cinnamon roll

That night I took a brief shower. The girls were up really late so all the leaders were up late too (until about midnight). I woke up again around 1:00 and couldn't go back to sleep until about 2:30. I noticed when I woke up that Tammy and Jen (the stake camp director) were both gone from their beds--I found out later that there was a problem with two of the girls and they were handling that. I went back to sleep after they came back to bed around 2:30, but I woke up again later with a bad headache. I took some Tylenol, but I'm not sure I went back to sleep and I got up at 5:30.

Thursday July 16th: This was the last day at camp. For breakfast we had yogurt, fruit, and granola (plus lots of leftover food from other meals). Somehow, I cut the middle finger on my left hand while opening containers of yogurt--I think I "paper cut" it on one of the foil coverings they put on the containers to help keep the yogurt fresh until you open it. I didn't even notice when I cut it, but looked down and saw that my finger was bleeding! I was annoyed because my left thumb had just got to the point where I didn't need a bandaid on it anymore! 

After breakfast we did a massive clean up / packed up all the extra food. We got everything done and I was able to leave for home about 11:30.

More camp photos:

We had an "extra options" table at every meal (things like PB&J)

One of the members of the cooking crew, Becca, is also an artist and she helped the girls do an art project. She gave each of them a 4x4 inch paint-by-number square, which they painted. On the last evening of camp, they put them altogether and discovered that their squares made this beautiful painting.

Sarah's daughter, Kate, hid a little Barbie figure somewhere in the kitchen each day for us to find. I found this one on the last day. All four figures are in the photo below.

The walk-in refrigerator--one of our favorite places when we got too hot!

Enjoying beignets from Costco and cinnamon rolls that the girls made (plus drinking milk out of a bowl because we ran out of cups the last night). 

All of the crew, plus one of our helpers (we had an extra helper or two each day)

All of the crew with one of our other helpers

Post camp battle scars: the burn on my arm:

And the cut on my finger:

When I got home, I sort of unpacked (we were leaving on Saturday for Utah, so I didn't bother to unpack toiletries and stuff like that). I also showered and took a nap. After napping, I talked to Tanner, dusted, and did some more work on the reunion food.

Friday July 17th: I slept like a log all night and didn't wake up until 7:00; it was heavenly! 😇It was a busy day getting ready for our trip, cleaning the house, doing laundry, and packing. I was up until about 11:00 pm finishing it all. Outside, the sky was really hazy because of smoke from Canadian wildfires.

Saturday July 18th: I woke up earlier than I needed to (2:00 am). We left the house at 4:00 am to head to the airport. There was lightning and thunder when we were loading up the car and we were in a pretty good rain / thunderstorm for part of the drive but it cleared up before we got to the airport. Our flight was at 7:00 am and they got ambitious and started loading at 6:15. I slept a little bit for the first hour of the flight. Then I watched several episodes of Little House on the Prairie (the new Netflix version; it's pretty good). The flight felt like it went by pretty fast and apparently it did go fast because we arrived at 9:00 am instead of at our scheduled arrival time of 9:40. Unfortunately, the employee at the Hertz car rental was really rude to us and he refused to give us our car until the original reservation time of 10:30, even though our flight info was tied to our reservation and as Hertz gold members, our car was supposed to be ready when we arrived, even if we were early. Frank called the national line to complain and they apologized and told us that shouldn't have happened, and they also changed our reservation time to 10:00, so we were able to get our car shortly after 10:00 am. (Meanwhile, several people on our flight who didn't had reservations were able to rent a car and leave before we got our car--so annoying!!) 

A screen at Dulles airport

Coming in over the mountains:

I went straight from the airport to a bridal shower for Jeremy's fiance, Kayla. Amy, Janna, and Rachelle were at the shower so I got to see them too and Amy gave me a ride back to Mom's house after the shower. (Frank and Seth dropped me off and then went to get some lunch). At Mom's house, I got to visit with Mom, Hans, Scott, Ammon, David, and Amy. Frank, Amy and I went with Scott to Costco to buy pork for Monday night dinner. I was very tired from lack of sleep (and a long week at camp). I helped Hans make dinner, which was Korean beef--pretty yummy.

Sunday July 19th: I slept great that night, thankfully! I was up about 7:00 am and got ready for church. We went to church with Mom and Hans; I saw my cousin Mark and his wife and son at church too. After church, there was visiting and dinner. Tanner's girlfriend, Linsey, came to dinner too so we got to know her a little bit better.

Monday July 20th: This was the first "official" day of the Pew family reunion. I didn't sleep very well the night before, unfortunately. In the morning, some of the family participated in a space camp mission--Seth was one of the ones who did that. Then several more family members participated in a Pinewood Derby. I didn't do that either, although I did go over at the end and was able to visit briefly with a number of family members who were there. Amy, Frank, and I spent a lot of the morning doing more meal planning and shopping at Costco and Wal-Mart. That evening, the whole family got together at a pavilion next to Mom's church to have dinner and a talent show. Unfortunately, it was quite hot and also humid (unusual for Utah!), so it was pretty uncomfortable. Everyone still seemed to have a good time, though, and the food was good and plentiful (pulled pork sandwiches, watermelon, salads, chips, and desserts). There was a lot of food leftover. (Just like at camp!) Tim and Scott prepared the pork in their smokers; we had created a sign up for all of the sides and desserts.

Tuesday July 21st: Second day of the reunion. I didn't sleep well again and my stomach was upset that morning. The day started with several of us going to the Saratoga Springs temple to do sealings. I wasn't able to participate much because of my stomach; I spent most of the time in the restroom. That was kind of a bummer, but I was glad to be in the temple, even for a little while. A lot of the family went to Deer Creek reservoir that day to swim / kayak / jet ski. Frank and Scott didn't want to go and I wasn't feeling up to it, but Tanner took Seth to the lake with him and they had a great time. I did enjoy visiting with Mom and Scott, and Ben & Dee came over to visit too, so that was nice. We did some more meal planning for Wednesday too. It wasn't my best day; besides not feeling well and being sleep deprived, the reunion meal planning also caused me quite a bit of stress. But I survived, and by evening I was feeling better. We all met at a marina next to Utah Lake that evening for dinner, which was pizza. Erin ordered all the pizzas and Frank & I picked them up. (Originally, the water sports were going to be held at Utah Lake, but there was an algae bloom that was dangerous to humans, so the lake activities got moved to Deer Creek resevoir). We weren't at the marina too long when a wind storm blew in, so we all moved to Anna's house which was nearby and thankfully large enough for all of us to hang out and play games. I played a game called Poetry for Neanderthals with a big group and that was a lot of fun. Frank did some corn hole in the backyard. On the way home from Anna's that evening, we realized that the headlights on the rental car were messed up--they were directed at the ground immediately in front of the car, so that they really weren't very helpful at all. 

Deer Creek Resevoir:

Hard to tell, but Seth is on the paddle board on the left in the photo (Ammon is on the right)

Tanner taking a turn on a paddle board

Tanner and David on a jet ski

Utah Lake:

Anna's house:

Wednesday July 22nd: Day three (and final day) of the reunion. Once again, I didn't sleep very well, but that meant I was up early enough to put meat in the crock pot for dinner before leaving to participate in a hike to the Mt. Timpanogos lower falls. Frank came too although he wasn't able to do the entire hike because of his knees. It was a pretty steep hike, and he made it far enough to see part of the falls but had to turn back at that point. There was a small group of us who went on the hike--Julia, Erick, Dan, Anna, Tim & Rachelle, and Ben & Dee, besides Frank and I. It was a beautiful hike with tons of wildflowers and beautiful panoramic views and I enjoyed it a lot although my lungs weren't used to the higher elevation and I also got pretty hot and sweaty. (I needed a second shower after I got back). It was fun to visit with everyone while hiking too. 

 

Anna offered to take couples photos but Frank didn't make it this far, so I asked her to take this silly photo.

That afternoon we all gathered at Tim & Rachelle's church to play games, have a taco salad dinner, and to listen to Mom tell stories from her life. I played a couple of rounds of a game called Rummikub, which was really fun. My Uncle Lee and Aunt Dianne came for part of the dinner too (along with my cousin Lane) and it was great to see all of them too! Linsey also came with Tanner, but I didn't get a chance to talk to her much. 

Thursday July 23rd: Finally had a good night's sleep! I went to lunch at Kneaders with Amy and my high school friend Paula. Hans helped Frank fix the headlights on the rental car. Later that afternoon, Frank, Seth, and I drove up to Salt Lake City. We visited Tanner at work (Seth bought a shirt and tie) and had dinner at the food court. Seth decided to stay with Tanner at work until Tanner was done and ride home with him. Frank and I walked over to Temple Square. We were planning to go to the Tabernacle Choir rehearsal, but we had some extra time so we stopped by one of the new Visitor's Centers and were able to join one of the "Inside a Temple" tours. It was really sweet--even though I've been in actual temples numerous times, it was still really meaningful for me and I felt the spirit very strongly. After that, we went to the choir rehearsal, and it was incredible! So powerful to hear the choir in person, even though it was just a rehearsal. They sounded amazing! Afterwards, we got some ice cream cones on our way back to the car.

Friday July 24th: In the morning, we visited with Curtis & Julia, who were flying home that afternoon. We got a few necessary things done like laundry, figuring out what we'd spent on the reunion food (so we could be reimbursed later), and dividing up a bunch of ground beef left over from the taco salad meal. (We never cooked it, so we divided it up into small amounts to freeze for Mom & Hans to use later). We also decided to go to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons for our road trip the following week, and booked a place to stay. Scott was back at work (working from home, though). Tanner had the day off, but he spent most of it with Linsey, so we didn't really see him much. That evening, Tim & Rachelle, Ben & Dee, Amy, and Shellie all came over for more visiting. 

Saturday July 25th: Seth's flight back to Maryland was at 8:00 am, so we got up early to take him to the airport but then went back to sleep for a while. We had a relaxed morning; Frank and Scott watched the new Avatar movie and we were also able to visit briefly with Amy and Ammon before they left for the airport. If only they'd known they could have stayed longer--their flight ended up getting delayed a lot! They finally made it home, though. Tanner went into work although he wasn't feeling very well.

That afternoon, Frank and I went to BYU to visit the bookstore (I got a sweatshirt and a sticker for my water bottle; I was also able to get some garments at the distribution center downstairs). We also went to the Creamery on Ninth and discovered that it had been renovated a lot since the last time we visited (last year?) It's much bigger and has a nice outdoor patio and a much bigger parking lot. Nice! We got ice cream, of course, and we also got some mint brownies to bring home. On our way back to Mom's house, we drove by the Provo temple (still under construction) and the Lindon Temple (recently dedicated). That evening, I watched a few episodes of Little House on the Prairie.

Sunday July 26th: We went to church with Mom. Hans didn't go because he wasn't feeling well. We went to dinner at Tim & Rachelle's house that night. Mom & Hans didn't go, but Scott, Tanner, and Linsey did; Taran and his kids as well as Izak, Micah & Cherish were there too. We played a game called First to Worst, which was a fun way to get to know everybody better. When we got home, we repacked for our Yellowstone trip--took two smaller suitcases instead of our big ones.

Monday July 27th: We left that morning fairly early and drove up to Yellowstone National Park. The skies in Idaho were super hazy because of wildfires in Oregon / Washington. The skies were clearer by the time we got to Yellowstone, though. Since we drove around the lower loop on our trip to Yellowstone last year, we wanted to focus on the upper loop for this trip. Shortly after we drove into the park, I saw a deer in a ravine right next to the road (but I didn't get a photo). We made several stops on our way up to Mammoth Hot Springs, including the Norris Geyser Basin overlook, a few lakes, Roaring Mountain, and a moose exhibit. Then we toured the Upper Terrace Area of Mammoth Hot Springs. We stopped at the post office in Mammoth to buy some stamps for postcards (I wanted to send a few to a friend), and briefly visited the Visitor's Center where we purchased some postcards. After that, we had dinner at the Mammoth Hot Spring Hotel dining room. It was a bit of a splurge, but the food was so good and it was great to eat vegetables and meat instead of fast food! 

The second Rexburg Temple under construction

Roaring Mountain

Upper Terrace Area of Mammoth Hot Springs

At the hotel dining room:

After dinner, we drove up to our air B&B, which was in Gardiner, Montana--just outside the north entrance of the park. This was a nice little place to stay. We were in a large loft studio apartment that included a microwave, small refrigerator, sitting area, desk, and nice large bathroom. There were even complimentary snacks and bottled water. After getting settled in, we went to a nearby supermarket to get a few groceries. We got fruit and granola bars for breakfasts and a few snack items. We went to bed early because we wanted to get an early start on Tuesday.

The drive from Mammoth Hot Springs to Gardiner, Montana is incredibly beautiful:

Roosevelt Arch used to be the entrance to the park. The entrance has been moved slightly, but the arch is still there:

Our Air B&B:

We could see Roosevelt Arch from our window:

Tuesday July 28th: We got up early because we wanted to see some wildlife, and they are more active in the early morning hours. When we left our air B&B, we were immediately rewarded with a view of an elk which was eating leaves off a tree next to the parking lot. We drove to Lamar Valley, where we saw one coyote and a whole bunch of bison. Some of the bison were grazing in the fields, but many of them were also walking on the road or crossing the road. We had to stop many times to let bison cross in front of us and it was fun to see them up close. We didn't drive all the way to the Northeast entrance, but instead turned around to drive back towards Tower - Roosevelt. Driving back through Lamar Valley, we saw more bison and at one stop to get photos of the beautiful scenery we also saw some pronghorns. We were the only ones at that particular pull off, but since we stayed a while to take photos of the pronghorn and point at them, other passing cars started to stop, as the occupants realized we must be seeing some animals out there. So we started our own little animal traffic jam! 😂 (Note: the photos in this post are only a fraction of the photos we took. Everywhere we went, there was so much beauty!!)

Pronghorn:

We dove back to Tower - Roosevelt and saw Tower Fall, then continued to Canyon Village, where we had lunch and did some shopping. We then drove on to Norris Geyser Basin, which is always very crowded, but we were able to get a parking space so we did some exploring there. We would have stayed longer but it was very hot and we were tired and getting sunburned! We drove back to the air B&B to rest for a while and then went to Mammoth to eat dinner--ate fast food at the Mammoth Terrace Grill. After dinner, we explored the Lower Terrace Area of Mammoth. It was still really hot and we had to do a lot of climbing, so that wore us out. We talked about driving back out to Lamar Valley to see the stars, but it was still a few hours until sundown and we were just too tired. Plus, it was getting cloudy so we weren't sure there would be a lot of stars visible anyway. We went back to our air B&B and got some much needed rest. 

Tower Fall:

At Canyon Village, where we stopped for lunch:

Norris Geyser Basin (Porcelain Basin)

Norris Geyser Basin (Back Basin):

Emerald Pool

Steamboat Geyser (which was shooting out little spouts of water, but when it really erupts, it is the largest erupting geyser in the park):

Back to Mammoth Hot Springs

Elk enjoying the shade of the trees:

Roosevelt Arch (in Gardiner, Montana) again:

Liberty Cap (part of the Lower Terrace area of Mammoth Hot Springs):

It was quite a climb around the Lower Terrace Area, but the views were spectacular:

Driving back to Gardiner, Montana:

Wednesday July 29th: We left around 8:00 am and drove toward the park's south entrance. We made a few photo stops along the way. When we got to the Old Faithful area, we wanted to make a restroom stop so we decided to see if Old Faithful was going to erupt anytime soon, as long as we were there. We were in luck...as we walked towards Old Faithful, we could see large crowds gathered and we learned that the geyser was predicted to erupt in less than 10 minutes. While we were waiting for Old Faithful, another geyser nearby started to erupt and continuted to erupt until after Old Faithful started erupting, which was a pretty cool sight. 

A geyser near Old Faithful erupting:

Then Old Faithful joins in:

We continuted driving to the south entrance of the park and after leaving Yellowstone, we were soon driving into Grand Teton National Park. Neither of us had ever been to Grand Teton and I've been wanting to visit there since I was a young girl, so it was exciting to be there at last. The mountains did not disappoint--they were absolutely breathtaking! 

We stopped at a marina to eat lunch (pizza) and then continued to drive through the park stopping numerous times to take photos. We also stopped at a visitor's center that had a gift shop where we got a few souvenirs. After we left the park, we continued our drive back to Mom's house in Lehi. Even after we left the national parks, we were still driving through a lot of beautiful scenery. We also drove through a small landslide that had just occurred--a few inches of gravel and mud on the road. When we got to the Bountiful Utah area, we got caught in a really heavy rain / wind / lighting storm that lasted until very shortly before we got to Lehi. It was raining so hard that when we drove through Salt Lake City, we could only see outlines of buildings (I recognized the Capitol building). We had planned to stop for dinner somewhere in the Salt Lake City area, but since it was raining so hard, we just kept going. We arrived at Mom's house around 8:00 pm, which meant we had put in a long 12 hour day of traveling. After unloading the car, we went to Cafe Rio to get a very late dinner.

At the Marina for lunch:

Funny place for a birds' nest:

Wyoming / Idaho farmland:

While we were on our trip, we made a list of all the state license plates that we saw. (We do this on most trips). On this trip, we saw all of the "lower 48"states, we just didn't see Alaska or Hawaii. We also saw Washington, DC, 7 of the Canadian provinces (Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Saskatchawan), and one Canadian territory (Yukon). 

Thursday July 30th: We did laundry and got some shopping done. We went to lunch at Zupas together and then Frank dropped me off at Down East to do some clothes shopping while he went to the distribution center to get some garments. When I was done at Down East, we went to Walmart to get some groceries for dinner and also picked up a few items to give to Zane & Elissa for their Dominican Republic trip. We also stopped at "Nothing Bundt Cakes" to get some dessert to go with dinner. Frank had offered to make dinner for everyone at Mom's house. I helped him a little bit, but he made most of it.

Friday July 31st: This was our last day in Utah. In the morning we visited with Emily and got to meet her baby, Mark, for the first time. We enjoyed visiting with Emily, and Mark is adorable! He is such a good baby--didn't fuss or cry the whole time we were there. (Emily had to work during the reunion, so we hadn't been able to see her until then.)

In the afternoon we went to visit with Erika. She wasn't able to attend most of the reunion events because she was on bed rest. We enjoyed getting caught up on how she is doing. In between those two visits, we had lunch and I helped Mom with a small mending project.That evening, Tim & Rachelle came by for one last visit. 

Saturday August 1st: We had an early flight out of Provo. Our flight left nearly an hour late because our plane had too much fuel so we had to stay on the ground and burn off excess fuel. They re-routed our flight a bit to cut off some of the time, so we weren't terribly late arriving, but we were still late and it took a long time to get our luggage. I did enjoy the flight--I watched a movie called "Remarkably Bright Creatures" which was based on a book I read a few years ago. It was a good representation of the book and was heart warming and sometimes humorous. Watching a good movie definitely helps a flight go by faster! Seth picked us up at the airport. Because of the delays, he barely had time to get to work on time when we got back to Frederick. Frank and I were super hungry by then (we hadn't had lunch and it was after 5:00 pm) so after unloading the car we decided to unpack later and instead went to Cracker Barrel to get some dinner and then bought a few groceries to last us for the next couple of days. Then we went home and unpacked. After nearly a month of travel, I was very, very glad to be home and to sleep in my own bed!

America 250 is everywhere:

Cracker Barrel always has cute S&P sets. I have too many, though, so instead of buying them, I take photos of them:

Sunday August 2nd: Before church, I had my interview for my service mission with my stake president. He started out asking me why I had decided to serve a service mission, and since my answer involved telling him some things about Seth, we ended up talking about Seth for a good 20 minutes before he got to the interview! But I appreciated that he took that much time to talk to me, and for his interest in Seth.

I attended most of my ward's church meetings, but left Sunday School early to attend the YSA Branch meetings. (Frank left our sacrament meeting early to attend branch council before the regular YSA Branch meetings.) After the branch meetings, we stayed to attend the Break the Fast dinner. After we got home, we talked to Jared for a while. We hadn't had a chance to talk to him for three weeks, so it was great to get caught up. While we were in Utah, they texted us to let us know that Jessie had accepted a job offer in Aurora, Colorado so they are pretty busy getting ready to move. (Jessie graduates on August 15th). I read scriptures and listened to one of the Follow Him podcasts and uploaded all of our July photos to my Shutterfly account. There were a LOT of photos, but the website also seemed to be having issues so it took a really long time to get that done. For some reason, I had a really hard time falling asleep so I was up really late.

Monday August 3rd: Even though I was up late, I woke up when Frank left for work around 4:00 am. I did go back to sleep, but for less than an hour, so I was tired and intended to take a nap but never got a chance to do that. I had a busy day trying to get caught up on a lot of things after being gone for most of July. I exercised, but only for 10 minutes. I decided since I hadn't exercised for most of July that I should start out slow and work my way back up to my 30 minute exercise time. So I added 5 minutes each day this week and this morning (Friday) I was back to 30 minutes. 

I spent some time looking at all the reunion photos that my siblings shared--there's some good ones, and lots of happy memories! I did laundry, planned meals, went grocery shopping, vacuumed & swept, and started updating the finances. I read scriptures at intervals throughout the day too. Frank and I were asked to organize our ward's Labor Day Picnic, so after Frank got home from work we started planning that. We went on a walk as well. We had FHE with Seth before he went to YSA FHE. Seth didn't have to work, but he mowed the lawn. It hadn't been mowed since before we went to Utah, so it was VERY long and even after he mowed it, it still looked too long so I had him mow it again the next day (after he got home from work), which helped.

Tuesday August 4th: I didn't wake up until nearly 8:00 am, which was awesome! This was another busy day (every day this week was like that--I'm not on vacation anymore!). I went to a local park to check out their pavilions (for the ward Labor Day picnic) and then called to find out if any were available for that day (fortunately, all of them were). I talked to my bishop about getting a check so I could reserve one of the pavilions, which he was happy to do, but then they had an issue getting the check to print, so I wrote a check myself and we'll get reimbursed later. 

I did chores: cleaned bathrooms, planned meals for next week (which was complicated because I'm going to try a new diet which is pretty restrictive), and filled out paperwork for an eye doctor appointment that I had on Wednesday. 

I also set up a meeting for the RS activities committee, went on a short walk, listened to several Follow Him podcast episodes (I didn't get to listen to any in July, so I'm getting caught up), and read some of John Adams. Book chat is next week, and I still have a LOT to read if I'm going to finish it before then, so I'm trying to read 50-60 pages per day. I'm still enjoying it, just don't have a lot of time to read.

Seth worked for several hours and Frank did his usual temple shift after work, so he didn't get home until late. 

Wednesday August 5th: I woke up at 5:00 am for some reason. 😒 It rained in the morning. (We've had quite a bit of rain, on and off this week which is good.) I had an appointment with an eye doctor that morning. I was referred to him by another eye doctor because I have some eyelashes on my bottom left eye that keep growing the wrong way so that they rub against my eye and irritate it. This doctor can perform a procedure where the folicles are cauterized so that those eyelashes will stop growing in. I was also referred to this doctor to have him look at my droopy eyelids to see if they can be repaired because they are affecting my peripheral vision a bit. Well, this doctor looked at my eyes and he said that I have a lot of scar banding on the inside of both my upper and lower lids in both eyes and that the scar banding is what is causing those eyelashes to be pulled the wrong way. He's not sure what has been causing all the scarring but thinks it's possible that I have an autoimmune disease. He wants me to get a biopsy done to see if I have an autoimmune disease. This was quite surprising to me, but if I do have an autoimmune disease that is affecting my eyes, that could explain why I've had so many issues with them. He wants to figure out what's going on with my eyes before he addresses my droopy eyelids, which is fine with me because I'm not 100% sure I want to go to the trouble and expense to have them fixed. He did explain the surgery to me and he said that the insurance companies are getting pretty picky about what they will cover and he gave me a ballpark estimate of what the surgery would cost if my insurance company won't cover it. It's pretty expensive, so if I can't get a lot of it covered, I probably won't do the surgery. Anyway, I'm going back in a few weeks to get either the biopsy done or to get some photos taken etc. to submit to my insurance to see what they are willing to cover for the surgery. I'm not sure which of those things (or maybe it's both) I'll be getting done at the next appointment because he wasn't super clear about that. I guess I'll find out when I get there. The doctor also prescribed some eye drops for me, which I picked up the next day.

After the eye doctor appointment, I went to the Walkersville Town Hall to turn in the pavilion reservation application and the check, so we now have a place to have our ward's picnic. Frank and I just need to plan the rest of it! (We actually do have a list of things to be done and a plan for assignments, so we're part way there.) 

The rest of the day I was busy preparing for the RS Activities Committee meeting (planned for Thursday evening), dusting, working on this blog post (I got started on it), and reading John Adams. Seth worked and Frank was working from home. Frank started complaining that his right foot was hurting, so we didn't go on a walk. 

My left eye felt kind of irritated most of the day--not sure if that was because of the doctor looking at it (he put some kind of dye in both my eyes) or what. By the next day, my left eye felt fine but my right eye started bothering me. Today (Friday) it is worse and the area all around my right eye is red and a little swollen. So fun!

Thursday August 6th: Frank's foot was hurting a lot more when he got up (he can barely walk on it), so he didn't go into work (worked from home) and he called and got a doctor appointment set up for 11:45. Since it's his right foot that is hurting, he really can't drive, so I took him to his appointment. I bought groceries and got the laundry going before leaving for his appointment which was good because the appointment took several hours. The doctor thought he was probably suffering from gout, but since he had an infection in his foot 3 years ago that was misdiagnosed as gout, she wanted to make sure she wasn't missing anything so she sent him to get x-rays and bloodwork done. She also prescribed an antibiotic in case he had an infection which she wanted him to take for a few days and then switch to prednisone (which is for gout) if the antibiotic didn't help at all. It obviously took a while to get all those tests done, and then we also had to stop at the pharmacy to pick up the antibiotic. We got back home about 2:30, but Frank had previously scheduled a PT appointment for 3:45 that day, so I needed to take him to that too. We were home long enough for me to move the wash and fold the clothes that were done, but that was about it. 

After his PT appointment, we stopped to pick up some dinner because I didn't have time to cook and get everything else done before I needed to go to the RS committee meeting. I did manage to get all the laundry done and also vacuumed the whole house. And while we were waiting at appointments, I got some reading done in John Adams. Before I left for my meeting, the doctor called to say that the bloodwork showed a high level of Uric acid in Frank's blood, which is a high indicator of gout, so she called in a prescription for prednisone for him. The pharmacy was nearing closing time, though, so his prescription wasn't ready for pickup until this morning.

My committee meeting went pretty well. I only have three committee members right now and one of them didn't make it to the meeting, but we made some progress planning an activity for this month (a trip to the family history center) and also started planning for next month (group dinners). 

Friday August 7th: Can you believe it--I've finally made it to the present day! I didn't sleep well at all last night so I didn't go to the temple today as I had planned and hoped to do. I wasn't sure I should go anyway since I knew Frank's medicine would need to be picked up this morning and in general I thought he might need my help. I did pick up the prescription for him and he started taking the medicine this morning. He says he feels some improvement, but his foot is still very painful. Hopefully he will improve a lot more over the next couple of days. It's good that he normally works from home on Fridays--he was able to do that. 

I talked to Amy for quite a while today (always so nice to talk to her!) and I finished getting the finances updated. The rest of the day I've been finishing up this blog post. The writing part, anyway. I haven't added any of the photos yet, so I probably won't be posting until tomorrow.

When Seth got home from work tonight, he told us he got pulled over on the way home because the lights on the rear license plate of my car aren't working. He was just given a warning. We'll have to look into that tomorrow. 

Well, that covers most of July and the first week of August. I'm so grateful we were able to spend time with our families this last month--it was wonderful! I am also grateful to be home.