Two Very Cute Tree Huggers
Abby and Gwen sampled several different trees to climb during the week. From our back yard to various trees in local parks, they sure had some fun.
Abby's enthusiasm reminded me of the times I climbed some trees myself, as a child. If left to my own choice, I probably wouldn't have climbed as many on my own, but I often followed my sister, Charmaine's lead. She has always been an avid tree climber, up until recently when she fell out of a tree at 52 years old, breaking her wrist and bruising her body pretty badly. All that aside (and she has since healed up nicely), as a young girl, I just wanted to do what my older sister did, and to be wherever she was. If she wanted to scale a tree, that meant I would do my best to climb as high as I could, too . . . until I got scared or stuck. Thankfully, she was kind enough to help me down at that point. If she had already climbed all the way down, I remember many times when she would hoist herself back up in order to work her way to wherever I was stuck. Sometimes I would be crying, but she would always calmly and methodically coach me on the best footing and branches to use in order to get down, one step at a time. What a wonderful big sister!
Last Sunday, June 25th: After church, Benson, Amber, the girls and I all drove up to Rigby to have a late lunch with Grandpa Harmon and Bev. Bev was a professional chef for several years, so when she invites you to a meal, you come running!! She made a delicious chicken pot pie, with rolls and vegetables, and I brought a Caesar salad with homemade Caesar dressing and croutons (Amber gets the credit for the croutons). Bev also made the BEST banana cream pie that I've ever had in my entire life.
After lunch, we went downstairs to sort through the rest of the children's books that Coy had kept all these years. Several family members had already snagged a few books when they came for the funeral, but there were still so many on those bookshelves in the basement . . . Grandpa (Phil) has been anxious about so much stuff still sitting around the house, so Bev has been boxing up things every day to be hauled off to charity (such as Coy's clothes, old DVD's, several even older VHS movies, etc).
Bev offered to read one of Coy's favorite stories to Abby and Gwen. It was so sweet of her to do that.
Monday, June 26th: The day began with trees to climb in the back yard. From top to bottom: Benson, Abby, and Gwen (on the ground).
Video of Abby's descent Part 1: (1 minute, 15 seconds)
Video of Abby's descent Part 2: (33 seconds)
Note that she ran screaming toward the house, yelling something like, "I'll never climb a tree ever again!" But that wasn't true, as you will soon see.
We had a picnic in the park for lunch. We chose McCowin Park in Ammon because it was close. We picked up some food at Wendy's and spread out my beach blanket and had a lovely time.
This is where the idea of Tree Huggers came from (for this post) . . . ha ha
This was the elk area . . .
We got a closeup view of Bambi . . .
Video as we drove right next to the white elk: (15 seconds)
The bears were mostly just sleeping or lazily lying around as we drove through . . .
Video as we passed a bear munching on something right next to the road: (13 seconds)
Video #2 of the baby bears eating: (16 seconds)
It appears that just the Papa Bear was missing in this photo . . . (Abby, Amber and Gwen)
Abby and Gwen rode on this gentle uppy-downy ride multiple times. We had to convince them to get off finally, ha ha.
Gwen also talked me into riding the roller coaster one more time, too.
Abby riding a dinosaur . . .
Video of the Triceratops next to the Brachiosaurus: (14 seconds)
L to R: Gwen, Amber, and Abby
Near the end of the day, my mom shared the sweetest picture of her mom, my Grandma Doris, who turned 102 that same day!!
L to R: Grandma Doris (the birthday girl), my Mom, and my cousin Lynnette (Uncle Wayne's granddaughter)
I can't believe the long life she's lived. I've tried to piece together all the things that have been invented or that have happened in the past 102 years . . . it's a lot. But here are a handful:
- Women were finally allowed to vote
- Prohibition
- The Spirit of St. Louis successfully flew across the Atlantic Ocean
- Amelia Earhardt flew across the Atlantic Ocean
- The Great Depression
- WWII and the Holocaust
- McDonald's is founded
- Baby Boom after the war
- Korean War
- DNA discoveries and new understanding of how it works
- Berlin Wall built
- JFK assassinated
- Vietnam War
- Civil unrest and Civil Rights movement
- First man in space (the year Scott was born)
- Roe vs Wade
- Personal Computers are invented
- The internet is born (1983)
- Berlin Wall comes down
- Amazon.com is born (1994)
- Cloning is discovered
- Google begins
- 9/11 in 2001
- Iraq War
- Facebook begins (2004)
- The Great Recession
- First African American President is elected
- Epic tsunamis, earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters
- Covid-19 pandemic
- And a "few" other newsy things
Tuesday, June 27th: We got to see Avery again, hooray!! Kylie brought her over to see us, which allowed Amber, Abby and Gwen to meet her in person for the first time. Avery was MOST excited to see her daddy, Benson, though. She ran over to him time and time again, with joy on her face. That made me so happy.
After Kylie and Avery left, Jasmine came over to visit for a while. Dang it, I didn't get any photos, but we had a wonderful time. She stayed for a couple hours, which allowed us to get all kinds of caught up on life's happenings. They just recently bought a couple of acres down in St. Johns, Arizona and are getting situated there. I am so happy for her little family and how they are being blessed. They are only about 45 minutes east of Show Low, where our niece Vanessa and her family live. So next time we go down to see them, it will be a "two-fer"!! How fun.
Amber took Abby up to Rigby during our visit with Jasmine, because Abby was finally old enough to participate in her first ever Cousin Camp. Each summer, Weston's parents invite all the grandchildren ages 8 and up to come stay with them and have some really amazing experiences together. This year, because there were eight children in all that were old enough, Kathy sat down to make a very organized schedule of events. On Day One, they divided up into 4 teams of 2, chose a team name, and then had some team-building activities and games. They intended to have a cookout in the back yard with s'mores, but a storm rolled in so they ordered pizza instead and watched a movie indoors.
Other activities included a KID WASH, ha ha. I saw a picture of it on Instagram . . . Kathy posted these next photos on her account.
Here are the 2023 Cousin Camp attendees, including Natalie and Abby in the front row as the newest members.
Meanwhile, Gwen was rather cold in our odd month of June weather lately . . . so she bundled up and hung out with us on the pack patio.
Wednesday, June 28th: I finally had a good chat with this handsome guy.
He also had a scope sent down his throat to look at the trouble in his esophagus again. So far we don't have any devastating news, so that's good. I hope that all will be well for him.
Benson worked hard to cook us up some amazing ribs all afternoon. He used a rub on one rack of ribs and a sauce/rub combo on the other rack. They were both equally delicious!!
The rink had a shortage of "helpers" to rent when we got there, so Gwen had to resort to holding my hand or using the railing for support. She was much more nervous than the last time we went skating, which was down in Dallas over Christmas break.
Video of Gwen using the railing, saying, "Mimi, I really need you!!" (11 seconds)
We didn't have to wait very long, though, until someone donated their "helper" to us. Gwen was so happy!!
It's amazing what a little independence can do for you.
Video of her taking off on her own: (23 seconds)
And just a few minutes later, she was ready for some tricks!! She'd skate one-handed for a bit, and then twirl the helper around behind her, etc.
Video of Gwen's tricks: (23 seconds)
We skated for about 90 minutes before Amber was scheduled to come pick us up. After we took off our skates, I asked Gwen to take her "helper" over to a tiny little girl in the middle of the rink and offer it to her for the last 30 minutes of the session. I had been watching her dad all stooped over trying to help her skate for several minutes already. Gwen confidently marched out onto the floor to give it to the little girl, while I took a picture.
And wouldn't you know it, the moment that the little girl grabbed ahold of the "helper", she took off confidently and began skating 10x faster than what she did before with her dad's help. Amazing. :)
When we got home, the ribs were almost done. Yummm!!
Amber munched as she relaxed on the swing . . .
We handed her one of the open bags of giant marshmallows and that made her very happy. :)
Kim (left) and Mady (right)
Video of Benson and Gwen: (31 seconds)
Thursday, June 29th: I had a doctor check-up in the morning (all is well) and Amber went to pick Abby up from Cousin Camp around 11:30 a.m. She had been busy packing up the car all morning and was in the final stages.
She arranged with Weston to meet him down in Salt Lake City shortly after he flew in so that they could have a Date Night and Date Morning by themselves. They would be heading south the next day anyway for a family campout with Weston's whole family down in Manti, Utah. The plan included me taking care of the girls for that same night, and then Benson and I would drive them down to Utah and meet up for lunch the following day.
I got a surprise video call from Jack in their new apartment in Minneapolis. He showed me all the cars that were clutched in his arms. What a cutie! They are very happy so far and have already been to a couple of parks and a nearby swimming pool.
They are still without a car in Minneapolis, but the public transportation is great. Here they are, waiting for a bus to get home after a trip to the store for some supplies.
But first they had to make a wish and blow some dandelion seeds all over everywhere . . . LOL
The girls had so much fun cooling off in the water, exploring around, and finding rocks to kersplash.
Video of Gwen's sound effects: (11 seconds)
The girls found tree after tree to climb as we circled back to the car.
They even found a set of drums out in nature!!
Video of their bongo drums: (14 seconds)
For the ride home, I made Gwen's booster seat waterproof by emptying out the last few water bottles in the trunk and laying down the plastic wrapping for her to sit on.
Friday, June 30th: Everyone woke up a little early so we could get out the door and head down to Utah. While the girls were getting dressed and eating breakfast, the pest control technician arrived to inspect the mice bait stations for me. (The stations are locked and require a special key to open them up and look inside.)
The previous week when he came, we had a shocking discovery downstairs. I thought we were winding down with the mice infestation, but when he opened the bait stations up we noticed quite a bit of activity in several of them. I was DEVASTATED. It was like we were starting all over again with a whole new batch of mice, but where and how were they getting in??
Mike, the technician, volunteered to take a lap around the exterior to see if he saw anything unusual or telling. He found something right away on the south side of my house. There is a metal door at the base of the double chimneys and it wasn't fully closed.
It took me a whole day to get brave enough to seal off the entrance/exit. Kim, my neighbor and friend, is who ultimately convinced me to just do it.
That's when I noticed a new problem. The water heater was leaking ever so slightly . . . not only did I see a rusty, wet dribble at the base, but the blue band around the bottom had a glisten to it as well. I let Scott know the next morning and we are getting things set up to replace the water heater later next week. He said it will only get worse from here, not better, and we don't want a disaster to happen when I go back to Italy. The unit is 17 years old, so I guess it's just the right time to replace it.
Two pieces of good news: I never saw any mice the whole week, including no new mice poops anywhere. And then, when the tech came back on Friday (the day we were getting ready to drive down to Utah), he saw very minimal nibbling in one of the bait stations. We believe that this may have occurred in the 36 hours from when he last came and when I got brave enough to seal off the chimney flap door. So I THINK (crossing fingers) that our mice problem is officially over. THANK GOODNESS. What an ordeal this has been . . .
The girls did great on our drive down south, and Benson offered to drive, so that freed me up to be more available to interact with the girls during that time. We ended up meeting Amber and Weston in Farmington, slightly north of SLC. We met at a meat-lover's restaurant called Tucano's.
Their date went splendidly, and their time alone allowed them to visit the Salt Lake City Library (with a giant Chess game board), eat at an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner, rent a couple of scooters and ride to a fun restaurant for breakfast, and then do a little shopping before joining us for lunch.
Once we were all sufficiently stuffed, we walked back to our car while Weston retrieved their car and drove over to where we were waiting.
L to R: Abby, Amber, Benson, and Gwen
It was toasty and hot outside, which made it slightly easier to say goodbye and not drag it out. Poor girls in the back seat, though. Adding Weston and his luggage (minimal but it still took up space), plus all the extra items Amber was hauling home from Grandma and Grandpa's house, made for a VERY packed area surrounding Abby and Gwen. There was even a giant brown grocery bag full of supplies for s'mores in between them, blocking their view of each other. On the bright side, maybe that would act as a boundary to cut down on any potential bickering . . .?
As far as we know, they made it to the campground down in Manti and have been having lots of fun so far. We did hear from them Saturday briefly, as they had access to Wi-Fi when the whole crew went into town to do a service project for Grandma Bone, Kathy's mom. There are approximately 25-30 family members at the campout.
Benson and I drove over to Wellsville, Utah, just outside of Logan, so he could see if the car that he really wanted online was actually what he wanted. It was parked out in the weeds next to the owner's house, and morning glories had intertwined their vines with the tire rims and into the front grill, ha ha.
Benson knew ahead of time that it had a misfire, but he is also very comfortable fixing a problem such as that. He borrowed some tools from Ben (Kim's husband) and was prepared for a variety of issues to get it up to par for the drive home.
Problem #1 was that it wouldn't drive, ha ha. The battery was mostly dead and this was as far as he got on the test drive.
We drove about 30 minutes into our 2 1/4 hour drive home, when Benson called me (from his new car in front of me) to tell me he wanted to pull over at the next exit to get under the hood. It was nothing urgent or dangerous, but he wanted to replace one of the coils (#2) to see if it would improve the accelaration, which was a bit sluggish.
We made it the rest of the way home without any further incident. He spent the evening washing and detailing the outside from the top to bottom, something he LOVES to do. This 2007 Audi A4 Quattro is his new little baby and he plans to take very good care of it.
Saturday, July 1st: Benson and I spent a good portion of the day clearing out the Grandchildren Guest Room in preparation for new carpet that will be installed on Wednesday this coming week.
Another problem that needed attention is this ugly scar on the wall downstairs. As we emptied out the bedroom, I had a light bulb idea to paint the room BEFORE the carpet arrives on Wednesday. There would be no better time than now and we've never painted it the whole time we've lived here (17 years). But how to go about fixing this hole in the wall? Jacob kicked a hole in it several years ago as a young teenager, patched it up himself, and then put a trash can in front of it to hide it, ha ha. We didn't know it existed for quite a while.
Scott told me a couple of ways to fix it, but also suggested that I have Ben come take a look. He came over Saturday night and made a plan to fix it with Benson's help, which they already did while I was at church Sunday morning. It looks so much better already!!
Benson went the extra mile and patched up all the other holes around the room (from hanging things over the years), using the sheetrock mud that Ben had prepared for the bigger patch-up job. I am so grateful to have Benson here with me, for so many reasons. Not only has he helped me with so many projects already, but he is just so pleasant and polite and nice to hang out with. We have really enjoyed being roommates and buddies these past few weeks. :)
A point that I have made recently, I would like to reiterate again: It is imperative to find joy even while you are experiencing stress. I have had quite a bit of stress this week, especially with things breaking and not working. But I choose to still see the glass as half FULL and find things to smile and laugh about each day. Granted, it's already in my nature to do so, but anyone can do the same thing, too. It's hard to keep things in perspective some days, and it may seem like the majority of the day is breaking down or failing miserably. It is ALWAYS worth it to look hard for something good, a golden nugget of joy, a blessing or a tender mercy, to balance out the stress and frustrations. Put in the effort and then reap the rewards.
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