25th Anniversary - Flight to Milan

Chris and I set off on our 25th anniversary adventure with a flight to Milan. 

Our flight didn’t leave until 4:00 pm on Monday afternoon, so we had the morning to finish up packing, do laundry, and work. 

We said goodbye to Kristen as she set off for school. Updates on our phone announced thunder storms in Chicago, so we were hoping that we weren’t delayed for our flight to Milan. 

The lounge at DIA was packed when we arrive. Chris was lucky to find two chairs for us together. Since the other lounge at the airport is under construction, it really causes a lot of congestion in the one that is open. 

 Chris received an upgrade for the flight from Denver to Chicago and was served a meal during that flight, so when we arrived in Chicago with a little extra time, we stopped at the lounge so I could find something to eat. They had some delicious meatballs and salad. 

We were excited to find that we received an upgrade from economy to premium economy for our flight from Chicago to Milan. The seats were a little wider—instead of three in a row, premium economy had two seats in a row. Before we boarded, the captain made an announcement. I think this is the first time I’ve seen this happen with the captain making an announcement from the gate. 

Captain Beau Ellis said that with the storm in the area, there would be turbulence for the first 45 minutes to one hour of the flight. That's it.

With our upgrades, Chris had a middle seat and I lucked out with a window seat across the aisle. I was so tired that I mostly slept through the dinner service. I woke up a bit with the commotion of it, but since I had eaten in Chicago, I wasn’t hungry at all.

On to Milan, Italy.

A Day at the Beach

We invited friends over for an afternoon at the beach. I wasn't able to join them right away as I was waiting for the dishwasher install (and there was no way I wanted to miss that!).

Adamsons had fun being pulled on the jet ski, playing with the neighbor kids, and having a picnic lunch.

It was a nice way to relax for the afternoon.

And since we didn't think we would be using the jet ski again this season, Chris had David help him pull the jet ski out of the water when we were finished.

New Dishwasher Day

So, our dishwasher died about three weeks ago. We had a problem with it about six months ago where Chris was able to successfully change out a circuit board.

Since then, it wasn't drying or draining quiet as well.

We had a big power surge a couple of weeks ago when Chris and I were in Utah. We think that fried whatever juice was left in our functioning dishwasher.

So, we had to buy a new dishwasher. We finally found one and it was delivered and installed today.

Yay for new dishwasher day. I was getting tired of washing dishes by hand. And yes, we are so spoiled to even have a dishwasher and clean running water.

Leak in Misha's Apartment

So, at the beginning of last year, Misha and her roommate had a leak in their apartment from the apartment above.

Misha arrived home this evening to find another leak coming from the apartment above them. Different apartment and building.

Her words, "I am tired of my apartment raining on me."

She was able to contact the handyman who came and fixed the leak.  

At least the leak was someone else's problem and someone else's cost.

Crazy People at VASA

Work has been crazy for Amy this past week. They had to call an ambulance for a guy who was bench pressing a lot of weight and dropped the bar on his chest.

They called the cops on a lady who was trespassing and harassing the patrons at the health club.

She had to call the cops again at the end of the week. At least it makes her days go by faster!

Linda Passing Thru & Laying Larry to Rest

Chris' Mom had a trip planned back to the Pacific North West. She got Covid a few days before she was supposed to leave and had to postpone her trip.

She was able to finally be on her way. We didn't see the results of the negative Covid test, but were hoping we would all avoid germs. Misha hasn't tested positive for Covid yet, and even though Chris, Kristen and I have, we have learned that there are no guarantees when it comes to staying healthy.

Since Chris and I were off on an anniversary trip at the end of the month and Kristen was starting back to school, our fingers were crossed.

The main goal of Linda's trip was to take Larry's ashes to be buried on Anderson Island. Linda purchased two plots there and has been waiting to complete the burial. She had a headstone made and delivered.

Her friends on the island were so supportive of her coming and helped in so many ways. They even had a BBQ on Friday August 26th in honor of Larry. It was his birthday and he LOVED cheeseburgers.

Being back with so many friends is making Linda rethink living in Texas now. We'll see what that brings.

Kristen Loves Her Dad

Chris and I went through the drive thru at Chick fil A while Kristen was working. We noticed that she was working at the window and handing out people's orders as they came to the window.

We both ordered food. I suggested that for the "Name on the Order" Chris should have something like, "Kristen loves her dad." The employee who took our order was happy to add it on for us. We waited through the line until it was our turn to receive our order.

Kristen got a laugh out of it (as well as her coworkers). But... it was her pleasure.

A Great Smile

Kristen had discoloring on her front tooth that appeared when her adult teeth came in. Our dentist said it probably happened while I was pregnant with her.

Before - You will have to click on the picture and maybe zoom in to see.

After

We waited until after braces to have it fixed, along with a chip on her tooth that somehow happened in the past year or two.

Kristen is pretty happy with the new look.

Project Manager for Facilities

Misha just got promoted at work to Project Manager for Facilities. It doesn't come with a pay raise because she is already making more than her peers, but she says she shouldn't have to be the one cleaning so many toilets every day!

She will spend some of her day managing and some of her day cleaning and doing custodial work still.

Kristen ID for School

So apparently it was a thing for the seniors to wear all kinds of crazy stuff for their senior pics. Some were wearing wigs and crazy clothes. Kristen opted for her favorite Grandma sweatshirt. Seriously, she wears it all of the time.

Anyway, she is now immortalized in it.

Apparently after the photographer finished taking pics of Kristen's group of students, they wouldn't let the seniors do any more crazy pics.

Gas War

A new gas station opened recently by the freeway exit. It is one of four gas stations there now and its presence has been a blessing. It started offering gas at lower than average prices and the other three stations there felt obligated to join in to benefit as well. 

The drawback? Traffic backs up! There's a lot of people trying to take advantage of the low gas prices and even drive from some distance in order t fill their tanks.

They stations lower their prices and then decide to raise them back up again. Here's hoping the gas war continues on for awhile!

Mission Friends

When we were in Utah earlier this month, we tried to touch base with one of Chris' old mission buddies, Corby Baldwin, and his wife Caroline.

They were out of town that weekend.

However, we did get to see them a couple of weeks later as they were in Denver to cheer on their college-age daughter in a soccer game. Corby and Caroline came for Sunday dinner. We didn't have a lot of time to spend together as Chris had a meeting at 5 pm, but it was nice to be reacquainted with Corby and to meet his wife for the first time after so many years.

Chris actually helped Corby get a job at LM and that has been a great way for them to reconnect as well.

Hike with Checketts

Chris and Misha went on a hike with our bishop and three of his kids. Since none of them had been to Lake Haiyaha and it happens to be one of our favorite hikes, Chris took them there.

Because of recent rock slides, the color of the lake which is usually a brilliant turquoise blue, was now a milky looking turquoise. Still beautiful.

Misha has been working out lately and liked the fact that she was able to handle the hike quite well and enjoyed some time with her dad.

Senior Year for Kristen

Kristen has had a few pre-start of school activities as she is one of the students who helps introduce Freshman to the school and get them acclimated to being in high school. That involved a number of days of training before school started.

On the first day of school, all of the seniors gathered for Senior Sunrise. It was early. Especially early for Kristen since she has been sleeping in most days for the past couple of months. But she was up and off to the school around 5:45 for the sunrise and a pancake breakfast with friends.

I caught a quick pictures of her a little later in the morning as she went back to the school for her first class. 

You know she was back home and in bed for a couple more hours of sleep when the breakfast was done.

At the end of the school year, they will have a Senior Sunset to close out the year.

Happy 25th to Us

Chris and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. Seriously, I can't believe time has zoomed by so quickly for us. It just seems like yesterday...

We have a lot more gray hair now, but life is so good together.

Since we are off to Italy and Switzerland at the end of the month, we didn't too much to celebrate.

Kristen was thoughtful and brought us both flowers.

Cucumbers

My cucumbers have been going crazy this summer. They grow to a pretty good size every other day. When we were gone last weekend and I wasn't able to pick them, the stalks were full and some of the cucumbers were rather large.

I tried putting some of the small cucumbers in pickle juice. They need a week or so before they are good to eat (and taste like a pickle).

I have been giving them away to neighbors and eating a lot of them. Good thing they are low in calories. Unfortunately, no one in my family "loves" them all that much.

Hmmmm, do you think Chris would have noticed?

Another Hike to East Inlet

Chris and I hiked in East Inlet again. Where we thought the temps would be in the 60s and 70s, they were toasty warm in the 80s. The hike switches off from open trails to covered trails, so it was mighty warm to be hiking.

There were a lot of people on the trail too. If you only plan to walk in the meadow, it is a pretty family-friendly hike. That lasts for about 2 1/4 miles before the trail begins to climb. 

There is a bit of elevation at the beginning of the hike as you come to Adams Falls, but since it is only 1/3 of mile, lots of kids have the energy to run and jump and climb with ease.

If you continue going once you get to 2 1/4 miles, the climbing and the stairs are pretty consistent.

We stopped around 3.8 miles. It was just too hot for me to want to continue. Plus, we needed to head back home so we could help Misha move.

Saw these cool mushrooms. I thought they looked burgundy, Chris said red. What do you think?

And here was a deer friend right next to the trail as we were almost finished the hike.

Our drive to East Inlet was probably one of the slowest we have encountered in awhile as we had to follow a bunch of large trucks and slow drivers. We had the same luck on the return trip with slow drivers. Some people are great at pulling over into the "slow driver pull outs", but some people have no clue that they are causing traffic to back up. 

So, we didn't get home until 5:30 (we had hoped for 4 pm) and got on the road pretty quickly after that to help Misha move to her new apartment.

Moving Misha

After a long day of hiking and driving, Chris and I arrived home to help Misha move to a new apartment in Denver. She had her car and my car packed and ready to go.

Chris, Misha, and I had worked on loading the trailer the night before with her stuff, bedroom furniture, and a mattress.

The traffic into Denver was bad, and the App Waze rerouted us in some directions. 

We finally arrived at Misha' apartment and were able to start unloading things to her apartment on the second floor. I am not a big fan of moving (at least she doesn't have too much stuff...yet).

Weekend in Utah - Day 4

It was an early morning for 9 am church. Amy and Derek planned to meet us at Brad’s

church. Since they got in so late last night (or this morning) from the concert, they were

both pretty tired.

 

They also had a full schedule for the day, so they left after Sacrament Meeting to spend

time visiting Derek’s family.

Chris and I and Brad spent Sunday afternoon eating breakfast for lunch and then chatting.

Chris and I planned to leave around 2:30 pm to visit some friends who used to live in Colorado—Scott and Nancy Simmons. Scott had been having a lot of health problems lately and was paralyzed after a surgery a couple of months ago.

Scott is up and walking with a walker now but says he spends about 6 hours on physical

therapy every day. 

 

We enjoyed an early dinner with them and then headed to the airport for our 8 pm flight.

Our flight was delayed for half an hour due to weather in Colorado and then we waited for another hour at baggage claim as Southwest couldn't figure out how to get us our bags! That made for a much later night than we had planned!

Weekend in Utah - Day 3

We planned to meet Amy for breakfast in Provo around 10 am on Saturday morning.

After a quick moment saying hi to one of her roommates, we found a place in Orem

called Corner Bakery Cafe. It was okay. Nothing special

 

We sat and talked with Amy for awhile and then decided to drive up past Bridal Veil Falls

in the canyon before meeting up with Derek at an escape room at 12:30.

 

We did a Zombie Apocalypse escape room where a zombie would come in and scare us

every so often. It didn’t help that Christopher joined in yelling at her. He got a

“Christopher!!” out of that.

 

We did have to ask for a few clues along the way and finally made it out of the room with

3 to 4 minutes to spare. Whew.

We had lunch at Zumba with Amy and Derek, stopped for a few groceries for Amy and

then picked up a few specialty cookies at Twisted Sugar. Much cheaper than Crumbl and

just as tasty.

 

After dropping the groceries off at Amy’s apartment, Chris and I said goodbye. They were

off to a concert that evening.

Chris and I drove the Alpine Loop and ended up in Lehi. We planned to meet up for dinner with Shane, Brad and Mitch ordering from R & R BBQ and then adding in a few sides. After dinner we sat and talked for a couple of hours. It was nice just to enjoy some time with my brothers.

Weekend in Utah - Angie's Wedding

Since the wedding at the Bountiful temple wasn’t until 1 pm, Chris and I had a quiet morning. We had breakfast at the hotel and then worked on finalizing some plans for our anniversary trip at the end of the month.

We made a quick stop at a Kohls in Bountiful and then arrived at the temple around 12:45 for the sealing. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait too long. All of my siblings were at the sealing; it was great to see everybody.

 

After the ceremony, we hung out at the temple for a couple of hours for pictures. It was pretty hot so we were happy to hang out in the shade.

There was a luncheon at a church building about 15 minutes from the temple where we met for a family luncheon at 3:30. Amy and her new guy, Derek, arrived a little late due to traffic but were able to join us for the lunch.

 

This was our first time meeting Derek and both he and Amy were nervous. Apparently meeting the parents is scary. Chris and I were on our best behavior…

 

Seriously though, we both thought Derek was a great guy.

 

Amy and Derek had plans for the evening and Chris and I headed back to the hotel. We found an early showing of the movie “Where the Crawdads Sing”. It was a great movie. I hadn’t read the book or knew anything of the plot of the story. Chris and I both enjoyed it.

 

Just as the movie started a neighbor texted asking if our power was out as well. I replied that I was in Utah and would ask Misha. Yes, ours was out as well.

 

The power finally came back on as the movie ended, unfortunately it set off all of the fire alarms in the house. Chris was on the phone with Misha trying to help her figure out how to turn the alarms off, but had little luck.

 

Misha finally had to start unplugging and removing the batteries in the alarms until she finally found the alarm that was causing the problem. Whew. After an hour, silence.

 

Apparently a huge bull snake got into the transformer across the street from our neighborhood and shorted the transformer. It affected about 900 homes. Bad snake!

Weekend in Utah

Chris and I left for Salt Lake City on Thursday evening for a quick weekend. Dallin’s oldest daughter, Angela, was getting married on Friday and we wanted to share the event with family.

 

Our flight was delayed a bit on arrival so our plan to meet up with Julie and Patrick Ransom had to be improvised. Instead of a sit down restaurant, we chose Cubby’s for a quicker experience. It was pretty tasty but spendy as well.

 

We stayed in a hotel in downtown SLC since it would be close to Bountiful and the temple and all of the festivities for the wedding.

Another Fridge

As we were moving Misha out of her apartment, another student’s dad was helping his son

move out of his apartment. The dad asked if we wanted a small mini-fridge. The

apartments where Misha stayed only had a small fridge in the kitchen. We said sure since

we had the trailer and figured we could take it home, dump it, or sell it.

 

The dad and his son were an odd couple. They asked Chris if they could borrow the hand

truck we brought to bring down some of the kid’s boxes. They did that but left the fridge

sitting upstairs outside his apartment door for Chris and I to retrieve. Some people... Sheesh

After cleaning out the fridge, Chris took it down to his office and now keeps drinks and a few snacks in it.

Misha Moving Out

Misha’s apartment contract expired on July 31st. Chris and I drove down to Denver with our neighbor’s trailer and helped to load Misha’s stuff up. She was mostly packed, but there was still a lot that we had to do to get her stuff loaded onto the trailer.

 

She and her roommate, Sarah, had been looking for a new place to live. It is sooooo expensive. I hope that rent prices start to go down. I’m not sure that Misha can maintain that amount a rent for very long if she isn’t working full-time during the school year.

 

Most of Misha’s stuff is on the trailer still in the garage as well as in my dining room. She signed a contract that allows her to begin moving in on the 13th of August.

While at home, she has been driving back and forth to Denver every day for work and not only is it a lot with traffic and the accidents on the freeway, but she uses up a tank of gas far too quickly for her liking.

She does, incidentally, enjoy coming home to a home-cooked meal each night!

Kristen Working Lots

Once Kristen finished girls’ camp and then FSY (For the Strength of Youth), she has been working pretty consistently at Chick-fil-A. The previous scheduling person was relieved of their duties as they weren’t following people’s requests very closely. 

 

Now that a new person is doing the scheduling, Kristen has been working almost full-time. I think going back to school will be a welcome relief from a 35+ hour work week. 

 

Kristen will continue to work during the Fall and hopes to maintain about 15 hours. We will see how that goes!