JULY 2020

JULY 2020 was a busy and fun month for our family.
We celebrated the JULY 4th Holiday in our own personal ways coast to coast.

Scott and I did an early morning hike on the 4th.  We hiked Rock Canyon before it got too hot!!
Watched great fireworks in our backyard with Braden and McKenna that night!

A couple days later, Scott and I headed for
DINOSAURLAND in Vernal, Utah

We actually did not do any real "Dinosaur Activities" other than the ones just out and about in the city of Vernal.  Saving the museums for when grandkids come to visit.

We got out and walked a lot and ate lots of good food!

The beautiful Vernal Temple was on Scott's bucket list to see and it was especially pretty at dusk.

We drove out to the Ouray Wildlife Refuge out in the middle of nowhere...


And this NIGHT HERON obliged us with an up close shot...see his red eyes??

I don't even know what kind of bird this is, but look how it is singing!

Next we went out to FANTASY CANYON, another very remote and windy location that was very small, but very fun to explore.

Here again, we kept wishing we had other family members to share this with .

The next day we explored McConkie Ranch near Vernal.
This was a little private place that the family let's people explore.
See how close we got to these amazing petroglyphs??

We did 2 hikes out there that took most of the morning.

The area surrounding Vernal is full of these oil drilling stations and...WILD HORSES were everywhere!

Another weekend we took off for Almo, Idaho to the family home there.
The first morning we went on a walk and this CEDAR WAXWING posed for us.

    At night, we hiked up into CITY OF ROCKS with Aaron.

And he was just as much a "BIRD NERD" as we are!!

Meadowlark posing.

Saturday morning we hiked up into CASTLE PARK near Almo.  Aaron took us up over the summit out there and that was some real scrambling!

The happy hikers!!

Coming down, we were entertained by this yellow bellied marmot up in a tree eating berries...why let the birds get them all!!

We just loved how many MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS we saw out there!

And this RED SHAFTED FLICKER also posed for us right by the road.
















Scott did not believe me that I thought I saw a GREAT BLUE HERON...but he flew up and won me the $5 bet!!
Almo has it's own pond heron!!

We went back to Church in June and I got this pic to document these strange times.  We all mask and it just works!

Some of the wildfires made for some AMAZING SUNSETS which this photo does not even come close to reproducing!  We walk about every evening somewhere as cool as we can find.

JULY 24 our family re-created the infamous DESERET NEWS 10K RUN that we had participated in since 2001.


This was Austin's wonderful brainchild complete with race packets for all of us including tee shirt, race bib, logos and stickers!

This was a wonderful way for our family to connect across the country in a united activity!


Of course Ty and Jenna were the super speedy runners, but the rest of us did our best and either walked or ran our own 10K.

Austin trained for months, losing like 25 pounds and building up to running that 6.2 miles!  He involved his kids in running parts with him as Laura drove the support vehicle for water stops!

HUGE THANKS to Austin for getting us all out and moving together!!  We are now planning a Fall event TBD.

A change for us was finding a new home for our stray parakeet.  A YSA friend said she knew someone who might like him.  So, he went home with a young man in this great big cage and we felt like he would get great love and care!

We are really enjoying our FAMILY MOVIE NIGHTS either up at Lori's backyard or in our own backyard.

This is a way we can socially distance yet be together!
I have taken on the treat tray responsibility and enjoy finding just the right treat to go with the movie.
For example, the peanuts were for "GREATEST SHOWMAN" and the Reece's Pieces were for "E.T. the EXTRATERRESTRIAL"
I have my shark gummies all ready for JAWS next month!

SEW   SEW  SEW

This is what I have done all summer!
I made a BUNCH more masks for Breanna and Elliot for school, for students and even tried out these clear front masks for myself to use for teaching so the kids can see how I form words and letters.  It is a deaf mask, but adapted for teacher use.








Went hiking with a friend from our Ward, Debbie, up to Battle Creek last week...we went for over 2 hours but it was beautiful up there.  Here again, another place I want to take grandkids!

Scott sporting his NEWSPAPER MASK!

 He had to take the train one day this summer when I needed his car to drive up to Breanna's school and then pick him up in SLC. 
So glad he only goes to the office one day a week.

Our Cassidy turned 2 this month!  Donuts for Birthday Breakfast!
She is talking up a storm and constantly entertaining us with her antics!













We finished up the month supporting Amanda and Jimmy in their online adoption of the kids!
We were honored that Alex's middle name was chosen to be Scott after our very own Scotters!!

We love being able to join family in Zoom calls and in texts or however we are communicating during this pandemic.