Today we took a drive to see the construction of the new Temple. It is going to be pretty cool having 2 Temples in St. George. When we are driving on the Red Hills Parkway, we can see them both at the same time. I wonder what the pioneers would think to know we have 2 Temples here. The St George Temple was built in 1877 and is the oldest Temple still in use. It is being renovated and will be opening soon after a 3 year closure.
Red Cliffs Utah Temple:
I went to Page to watch the kids for 2 weeks. Doug came the second week. We spent most of the day driving the kids to school, and to sports, etc. They are very busy. It was fun getting to see their games. We played games, and watched TV with them. While they were at school, Doug and I helped rip up the sheetrock and baseboards in Brad's flooded basement. It is going to be a lot of work. We celebrated Andy's 13th birthday while we were there. On the way home we stopped at Lone Rock and saw how low the water is. There is none at Lone Rock now. We used to water ski all around it before.
We got tickets to go to a Luau and dinner show out at Sand Hollow Resort. Jessica and Justin were supposed to come with us, but they were sick so we brought MaKayla instead. The food was good. It is a beautiful area. The performers were the Siva Pasifika Dance Co. They did an amazing job.
For Labor day weekend we went to Duck Creek. It was the first time we took Doug's new truck and trailer hitch. It worked great. It is 30 degrees cooler here than in St George. When we left home it was 111 degrees. We fished at Aspen Mirror Lake and caught 13 nice trout.
I had my hiatal hernia surgery today. They repaired the hernia and also did a Toupet Fundoplication. The doctor said 3/4 of my stomach was up in the esophagus. The only symptoms I was having was once in a while food would get stuck going down and I keep getting shortness of breath. They said that might be from everything pushing up on my lungs, so hopefully this takes care of that. It’s been eight hours since the surgery and I’m doing good. Hopefully I can leave the hospital tomorrow. They’re going to let me have a drink in an hour and that will be 13 hrs. since I’ve had anything to drink and right now it’s 24 hours since I ate anything. It’s because of the nausea though. They did give me some more medicine for that. The only thing that hurts right now is the back of my shoulders and they said that’s from the anesthetic. They gave me a pain blocker so I’m not in any pain in my stomach area. They said that will wear off starting tomorrow. I will be on a clear liquid diet tomorrow and then I go on a liquid diet for the next two weeks. They said basically it’ll be like I’m eating baby food for a few weeks after that. I will find out more at my two week post op but they said it will probably take a good 6 to 12 weeks to get back out hiking!
August 17th, 2022 - The Dr. came in and said my incisions looked great, and I could go home as soon as I could keep some food down. I thought I was going to be on a liquid diet for 2 weeks, so this news made me happy. He said I could start eating soft foods for 2 weeks, and then gradually go back to regular food. I can’t have any meat, fresh vegetables or fruit, or bread, or anything sticky like peanut butter.
They brought me some oatmeal and I ate a few bites. I was a little nauseous . I had a slight fever of 99.4, but they still let me go home.
Doug stopped at Walmart for my pain pills. I just came home and layed down and watched TV most of the day. My pain is not too bad. Still just the pain in my shoulders. The incisions still don’t hurt unless I bump them. I used ice packs off and on. I ate some pudding, popsicles, and later had some crackers. I drank a protein shake.
MaKayla brought Doug a pizza and we watched TV all evening. I finally took ½ a pain pill tonight, because it is starting to hurt to get up and down.
Tonya and Kevin sent me some pretty flowers.
Doug and I drove up to Sandy Ut. and stayed at Debbie and Gordons house. We all went to the new Hillcrest High School where our 50th anniversary was held. Graduation was on May 24th, 1971. I can't believe it has been 50 years. It was great seeing so many "old" classmates. Without name tags, most of the people wouldn't know who anyone was. There was a nice dinner and a memorial for the deceased classmates who had died.
On July 29th, Doug was looking online at the auction in Las Vegas, and he saw a 2021 truck for sale. He decided to bid on it even though he was sure they would want a lot more than he wanted to pay. No one out bid him so he had to wait a few hours for them to call. He thought they would say no, but he ended up getting it. He was kind of shocked. He has been saving money in a truck fund for years, so he paid cash for it. We left work that day and drove to pick it up. We were worried it would have something wrong with it, but it is in great shape. It is a Chevrolet Silverado 2500 Z71. He has had it for a week now, and he installed side steps so I could climb up into it, and we also got a new 5th wheel hitch installed today at the U Haul place. If this truck lasts as long as the last one, it is probably the last truck we will buy!!
We had Izzy over for an early birthday dinner. I made chicken enchiladas because she loves them. We had Oreo cupcakes. We gave her a card, and MaKayla gave her some jewelry. Her family came from Page on Saturday, and took her to lunch and then to the Minion movie!
We have had Gwyneth and Andrea visiting for a few days. It was Doug's birthday on Saturday, so we took them to Las Vegas for the weekend. The first day they rode the Roller Coaster outside the New York, New York. Then we went to the Conservatory at the Bellagio. It was a jungle theme this time. Even though we tried to stay inside out of the horrible heat, we still did a lot of walking. That night we went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. They like Merlin, horses, knights, jousting, etc. so they had a good time at the show. We were in the Dragon section which was cheering for the evil Mordred, so we always booing the other knights. It was fun eating the dinner with our fingers.
