Killing time

Holly and Cody sold their house.  The day they had to be out of it I drove up to help them.  Holly said it would help the most to take the kids somewhere so she could finish cleaning.  She gave me three free passes to the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden.  So that is where we headed to kill a few hours.  It ended up being so much fun.

 

 

 

Afterwards, as we were walking through "Fat Cats" arcade to go back to our car I noticed that they had a 99 cent special that day for the bumper cars.  So what the hey, I let the kids have a go at it.  Olivia even got to drive her own.  Haha, her eyes kind of make her look like an alien in a spaceship.

 

They were the only three kids riding the bumper cars, which was nice.

We stayed away long enough for Holls to get her old house cleaned up.  And we had a great time!

The Rio Grande Branch Presidency

A week or two after moving to Salt Lake City we were called by our Stake President to serve in the Rio Grande Branch, which serves the people who live in The Road Home homeless shelter.  The people we serve with in this calling are amazing.

 

 

 President John and Shelley Garrett, Elder Van and Sister Betsy Peterson, Dave and I, Scott and Becca Stowers, and Phil and Carlisle Carroll.

 Shelley is the Relief Society President, I am RS secretary and ward organist, Betsy is a service missionary, Carlisle is RS 2nd Counselor, and Becca is RS 1st Counselor.

 Dave is Branch Clerk and Executive Secretary, Scott is 1st Counselor, Van is a service missionary, John (Pres. Garrett) is the Branch President, and Phil is 2nd Counselor.

We met at the Garrretts home for a cookout.  There is one other missionary couple, the Stewarts, who serve with us. But they were not there that night.  There are only the six couples who are not homeless.  Everyone else in the branch lives at the homeless shelter.  So far, since we only meet for Sacrament Meeting at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, we don't have any others who serve in callings in the branch.  We are hoping to be able to get our own building to meet in this coming October.  When we do that we will be able to hold other meetings as well.  Even though we are moving back to Pleasant View soon, Dave and I have decided to continue to serve in this branch where we are so very needed.

A birthday and a bike race.

 

For my 53rd Birthday I celebrated by eating dinner that night with my sweetheart at The Cheesecake Factory.  We shared Avocado Egg Rolls, Pasta DaVinci, and Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake.  Earlier that day Holly, Ashley, and Alex took me to lunch at Zupa's.  I am spoiled, I know.

The Tour of Utah, a pro bike race, was held that same week in downtown Salt Lake City.  Our friends, Phil and Carlisle Carroll, who have lived in the Avenues for 30 years, took us to the prime viewing spots.  There were five laps through the city.  As soon as the cyclists would pass, we would hop in the Carroll's car and drive to another viewing spot.  It was so fun.  It was amazing to me to see how fast they pedal those bicycles.  Wow.

 Four of the teams who were there had just competed in the the Tour De France. Some of the top cyclists in the world competed in this race and it was just so fun to watch.

Fun days

We met Andrew and Megan, the newly engaged couple, at the airport as they arrived home from Peru.  Megan's parents were there, too.  We all ate lunch together at Cafe Rio because Megan had been craving "American food"? after two months in Peru.

 

 

 

 Later that evening Holly and Cody brought their three kids down to Salt Lake for a sleepover because Holly had to work the next day and couldn't find anyone to watch them.  I was more than happy to have them.  Olivia fell asleep that night as she was reading. 

 

 

The next day we headed out into the city.  I showed the kids my "Church".  Our branch meets in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Lils said it was the prettiest Church she had ever seen.  Yeah, it's not too shabby.  :)

 

We wandered around Temple Square and they all wanted to go see the Christus again even though they had just seen it a few months ago.  Lily loves to ask the Sister Missionaries in the visitor center for pamphlets in Chinese since she is learning to speak it in school.  She told them she wants to go on a mission to Taiwan someday.

 

We spent a lot of time in the children's section of the Church History Museum.  Jack and Liv were fishing in Nephi's ship. 

 

 They all "made dinner" for the missionaries.  Jack wanted to feed them a whole chicken, haha.

 Driving a jeep in "Mexico".

 All of these pictures were taken with my phone and they are quite blurry.

 Lily and Olivia really got their Mexican skirts twirling as they danced to the music.

 

 

These guys deserved a nice cold treat after walking all over in the hot sun without complaining.

 

  This one was worn completely out. 

It's difficult to top this proposal.

Andrew's girlfriend, Megan McKnight, has been in Peru this summer volunteering at an orphanage.  Andrew decided to join her at the end of her stay.  They went to Machu Pichu where Andrew pulled out a ring and proposed to her.

And, of course, she said "yes"! 

I couldn't have picked out a better daughter-in-law myself.  We all love "Megs".

Birthdays

 

 We had a birthday dinner for Cody and me at Holly and Cody's house after getting back from our camping trip earlier that day.  Holly and Ashley were sweet to cook up most of the food for it.

I think Holly and Cody are really going to miss their beautiful backyard with all of it's wonderful shade.  They have sold their home and are going to be moving into a new one when it is finished in Septmeber.

The kids loved playing outside last night until it was almost dark outside.

 

 

Even little Brigham stayed up past his bed time to have some cousin-fun.

Lost Lake

We took a chance on driving up to Washington Lake without having made reservations.  We thought if we got there on a Thursday we could get one of the first-come first-serve sites they have.  But when we got there Thursday afternoon everything at Washington Lake was taken.  Trial Lake and Mirror Lake were full, too.  So we found two spots, since Scott and Carter had come with their trailer too, at Lost Creek Campground, which is right next to Lost Lake.

 

I really liked this campground even though we had never stayed there before.  The pine trees were dense and it smelled just like Christmas the entire time. Alex came with us, which was so fun.

We were anxious to try canoeing in the lake that afternoon.

  It was a little bit choppy, but very pretty.

 The fishing was great.

That night Scott had made a nice campfire at his site where we all yakked and made S'mores.

 The next morning we were back on the lake, slaying the fish.

 Then we all took a hike up to Wall Lake after lunch.  Scott was the first to dive in.

 Scott, Carter and Carter's friend, Logan all got in the freezing water.

Scott was daring and jumped off  the 20 foot cliff.

 Carter.

 Logan.

We hiked up a bit further to get a view of Wall Lake from up above.

Breathtaking.

Then it was back to Lost Lake. 

 That night Scott and the boys came over to our trailer where Alex made us all Ho Duk, a Korean street food.  Yum yum give me some.

The next day we played out on the lake for awhile and then packed up and headed home.  It was so nice that we were able to serendipitiously come across this new place to camp.  We all said we would go there again.