Cute Trailer

I saw this cute trailer the same day I dropped Kristen and her friends off at Girls’ Camp. I just had to stop and take a few pictures.

Girls' Camp 2021

Since Girls’ Camp was cancelled last year due to Covid, Kristen was excited that it would be held this year. 

She was a little disappointed that there was no camping involved, especially since the young men got to go on high adventure and camp.

Regardless, three days of activities, service, classes and a 5k were planned for the girls in our stake and held in Lyons (about 30 minutes from our house).  Some of the classes were great and Kristen really enjoyed them.

She may have fallen asleep for a power nap with a bunch of the other girls after the 5k!

Kristen was a YCL this year—Youth Camp Leader—meaning she got to help with activities each day.

Kristen Camping

Since there was no camping involved in Girls’ Camp, Kristen and two of her friends decided to camp out anyway. They set up a tent at Lydia Lyons’ house, and spent the first two nights of the week “camping out”. 

The third night was a bit of a bust as Lydia had had enough of camping and booted Kristen and Sophie out at 11:45. Misha had to go and pick them up. Good thing Misha was still up. 

I didn’t even know it happened until the next morning as I was driving a bunch of girls to their last day of camp.

Photography Challenge June

 Photography Challenge

Week 23 Rule of Thirds

Week 24 Still Life

 

Week 25 Dark

Week 26 Light

Canceled Frederick in Flight

Every year I see the balloons dotting the sky with Frederick in Flight Days. I told Chris we should go check them out this year.

Apparently, the balloon people have to race a course and complete tasks while in the air.

I got up early to go this morning and when I arrived, there was a sign on the corner of the field that said, "Frederick in Flight Cancelled Today". I imagine it was due to weather conditions, but man! The first time I try to go and it is cancelled.

I did take pictures of the lone balloon that floated our direction and then touched down in the field across the way a couple of days ago.

I saw all of the balloons on my early morning walk. See all of those little dots in the sky?

It seemed like a fun idea to see them up close and personal.

Amy as Liz's Maid of Honor

Amy was thrilled to be her best friend Liz's maid of honor. Amy and Liz met the very first day at BYU-Idaho and have been great friends since.

Amy flew to Utah on Wednesday morning on a 6 am flight. I don't think she'll choose one of those flights again. She had to leave the house 3:45 am in order to get to her gate on time.

She was so busy with wedding stuff we received a brief check-in on Wednesday evening and then Thursday evening.

The wedding party played golf at Top Golf on Thursday evening.

On Friday, Amy had some time to work on BYU things for the fall in Provo. The good news? She is finally excited to be heading back to school. Chris and I are excited that she is excited.

She extended her flight home to Saturday afternoon so that she could hang out with friends a little longer.

Ice Plant

My landscaper neighbor suggested planting Ice Plants as ground cover. 

They are pretty cool as they open in the morning with the sunshine and close back up when the sun goes down.

Early Morning Pictures

I slowed my morning walk to snap a few pictures along the way.

Father's Day 2021

I have watched Chris over the years be a dad to infants, babies, toddlers, young girls, pre-teens, teens, and now adults. He is amazing and knows how to bring out the best in each of the women in his life. And he balances out the hormones so when we are all feeling and acting a little crazy, he is able to bring a calm to our family.

Happy Father's Day to the best man in our house!

He really is amazing as a dad, husband, and man.

Misha's Housing for Fall

Chris and I drove with Misha to downtown Denver to help her scope out a place to live this Fall. She had two options that she was looking at, but only one with an opportunity to tour it.

We checked out the Assembly. We have driven by this unique building for the past twenty years and never thought we would have a daughter living there.

The Assembly is still a bit of a drive to CU Denver, but apparently they run buses from the apartments to the university during the school year. Misha has a bike as well.

We took a quick drive around campus. The Tivoli Station is the student union building.

The closest grocery store is King Soopers that is in downtown Denver in one of the high rise buildings. I think it is on two floors. That’s kind of cool. 

Kristen Beach Birthday Party

Kristen wanted to have a birthday party at the beach this year. Since April isn’t the warmest month for water activities, she waited until June and invited a bunch of her friends to come hang out at the beach.

The bad news? Our jet ski wasn’t working. (Chris had just taken in it for a tune up and it was still having problems. He had to take it back again and found that there was water in a spark plug. Not sure how that got in there.)

Still, the kids had fun swimming, jumping off the dock, eating pizza, and sitting around a fire to get warm and roast marshmallows for s’mores.

They were pretty chilled around 10 pm and came up to the house to play games and hang out.

I think 16 is turning out to be a pretty good year for her.

Kristen's Hair

Kristen has been excited to cut her hair with "curtain" bangs. 

The look and style is perfect for her. She is as lovely as ever.

Lemon Tree Update

I hope that this little tree continues to grow and bear fruit. It is fun to see the baby lemons growing each week.

Swallows

The swallow have been a big pain in the butt this summer. They haven't been too bad the last couple of years, but this year they have been plaguing our house and trying to create nests under our eaves. 

We thought we had them beat at the first of the month, but they have come back and are finding new spots all of the time to build new nests. They are annoying little pests.

Pride Month

Two years ago, I never would have imagined that I would be driving in a Pride Motorcade to celebrate Gay Pride Month.

Chris, Kristen, and I drove to Lafayette where they were having a Pride Parade and joined in behind Misha and Sam in Sam's car. We drove through the town of Lafayette where people stood along the sidewalk waving and holding signs.

While we were probably the only undecorated car, it was fun just to support Misha and to see the amount of community support the LGBTQ community receives.

Chris purchase a Pride Flag and we have hung it outside throughout the month.

Camping in the Backyard

Kristen and some of her friends created a bucket list for activities they wanted to do this summer. One of the first was to camp outside.

She set up our small tent in the backyard and glammed it up with twinkle lights even.

The girls sat around the fire pit in the back yard making s'mores and having fun. Two other friends joined them until about 11 pm or so and then had parents pick them up.

She and her friends, Marina and Kate, slept fairly well. The fly cover was not put on so after 8 or so they had direct sunlight streaming on them as they slept. Of course, the birds serenaded them most of the morning as well.

One of their other bucket list items was to go swimming at 2 am. I actually heard some of them (we slept with our bedroom sliding door open) trying to wake Kate up. She was a sound sleeper so they had to pass on the swimming at 2 am.

I wasn't too sad, I told Kristen it wasn't all that safe to swim when no one else would be awake

East Portal Hike

In an attempt to go on 21 hikes in 2021, Chris and I try to go hiking fairly regularly. Our girls are pretty consistent in declining our invitations to join us.

We hiked the East Portal Hike outside of Estes Park. With the new reservation system, you have to have a timed slot in order to get into the national park. We missed out on getting reservations when we were out of range in Yosemite.

Chris, however, found this cool hike where we actually didn't have to go into the park to reach the trail head and we were able to skirt around the edge of the park.

The first part of the hike was pretty strenuous and uphill. 

After that, it evened out a bit with smaller ups and downs along the 5 miles that we hiked.

I think this is hike #16 for the year.

Chris' Arm Update

Chris burned his arm a week ago on June 5th. He didn't think it was too bad or something to worry about, but when the skin started to peel, he decided it was time to get it checked just to avoid infection and any further damage.

The upper part of his arm got the worst of the burn, so he keeps ointments and vaseline on that part.

One day later

Four days later at the doctor's office

This Saturday, he was out doing yard work and didn't cover the lower part of his arm. One week later and it suddenly got blisters. Probably a sunburn on top of his burn.

Just What She Wanted

Chris installed a new plug with our bug zapper. He noted in our family chat:

"I'm sure you're all happy to know that our bug zapper can now be turned on with Alexa."

Misha joked, "Oh good, I've been wanting that forever."

Kristen Applying for Jobs

Kristen spent some time on Wednesday afternoon applying for jobs at Home Depot, Chick-Fil-A, Zoup and the Rec Center. Fingers crossed.

Englunds

Chris' good friends from his youth in Vancouver were driving through Colorado home from a trip to Texas.

They stopped about 3 pm in the afternoon and we chatted. They got the extra bonus of a tornado!

They had planned to go visit more family in Greeley, but with the tornado and then family not feeling up to a visit, they stayed for dinner and then the night in their RV.

Tornado

When you are sitting in the living room talking with friends, and suddenly everyone's phone goes off with a weather alert.

I jumped up and looked out the window and saw the beginnings of a funnel cloud, "That's a tornado."

Chris, myself, and our friend, Gary Englund, went on the deck to get a better look. Gary moved down to the grass and said something to the effect, "Holy crap! You've got to see this."

As Chris and I moved off the deck, we noticed that not only was there a small white funnel cloud in the sky, but there was also a dark tornado that had already touched down.

Crazy, but I didn't even take any pictures. Chris and Gary were so I figured we were covered. I just stood in the back yard watching the tornado move and praying, praying, praying that it wasn't coming in our direction.

Misha's view from her work at the middle school

We watched as it moved from a couple of miles east of our house northward. News reports suggested that it was on the ground for an entire hour!

Gary's wife, Jeanne, was too nervous and stayed in the house. We all would have made a run for the the storage in the basement if it had shown any signs of coming our way.