Farewell to my sweet friend Cindy Steele - August 12th, 2023

 My dear friend Cindy Steele has had cancer for a few years, and this last few months have been very hard on her. 2 weeks ago on July 15th, MaKayla drove me to Beryl to say goodbye to Cindy. They didn't think she would make it through the night. She was in and out of sleep and we talked a little bit. When I drove away, I knew it was the last time I would see her alive. I cried in the car on the way home. But she lingered on for a couple more weeks. She was getting weaker and weaker. On the morning of August 6th, while Doug and I were in church, I got a call from MaKayla. I didn't want to go out and answer it, because I knew what she was going to say....Cindy had just passed away. I couldn't stop crying. I had to still teach my primary class, but it was very hard to get through it. Cindy and I have been good friends since I met her when Brad married Jennifer. (Cindy is her mom). We have so many things in common. We both lived in the Midvale area and went to the same Arctic Circle (that she actually owned). We are only 2 weeks apart in age. We would go to lunch every few months for years. On her birthday in May, Bill drove her down here to St George, and they invited me to come to lunch. It was the last lunch we would have together. When I was leaving, they called me back in to the restaurant to take a picture. I am so glad they did, because it is the last picture I have of her!! It is very special to me. Today, August 12th, we went to her funeral. It was a great service. She has a lot of family and friends that will miss her. I know it is very hard on MaKayla. MaKayla is the one thing that Cindy and I share together. I bought her some flowers that said "Forever Friends " on it. I know I will see her in heaven some day.

Izzy turns 20!! _ August 5th, 2023

 Today is Izzy's 20th birthday. Stephanie and kids came to St George to spend the day with Izzy, and tonight Stephanie and I made Chicken Enchiladas (Izzy's favorite) and they all came for cake and presents. 

Lilly Camping - July 24-26th, 2023

 We picked up Lilly and took her to the 24th of July parade in Washington City. It was a pretty dumb parade. Mostly people advertising their businesses. Not at all like the parades we used to go to when our kids were little in West Jordan and Draper.... There were no floats or marching bands. It was sad. 

Then we left and went camping to Pine Valley. It is so hot. We fished for a little while. Lilly caught 5. Then we played games in the trailer. When it cooled off we went for a hike next to the river. Lilly had so much fun playing on the rocks and running all over. She said it was the most she had been outside all summer. While we were on our hike we saw a brilliant red coming from one of the trees. When we got closer, we could see it was a piece of bark that had fallen off the tree, and the sunset was casting the light through it. It was so pretty. The next day we fished for an hour or so, and then Lilly and I watched Willie Wonka in the RV with the A/C on. We ended up driving her home because she was homesick. We came back for the night, and then packed up a day early because it was just too hot. Almost 90 in Pine Valley, and when we got home it was 112!!!

Doug is 70!! - July 23rd, 2023

 Today Doug turned 70 years old. Where did the time go? I took him out to Brunch at the Bear Paw Restaurant. It was yummy! I made a cake but it fell apart... We ordered pizza for dinner and Jessicas family and MaKayla came for dinner and presents. I got him a gun holder that he has been wanting.

Cynthia's New Car - July 14th, 2023

 My Mini Van has over 230,000 miles on it, so we decided to look for a car for me. Doug found this Kia Sorento at the auction today and we had to make a decision right then. He won the bid, and so we drove to Las Vegas and picked it up. It is not the car I wanted...(I wanted a Lexus) but it is a nice SUV! It was clean and it is a 2022 with less than 26,000 miles on it. It was kind of sad saying goodbye to my van. I hope I like driving the Kia!!

Sam Camping - July 3-5th, 2023

 We picked up Sam and came to Duck Creek. We fished, and had a fire and hot dogs and S'mores the first night. We played games. I couldn't sleep so at 1 a.m., I found out Sam was still awake so we played Scrabble and the dice game. It was fun. The next day we fished at Duck Creek (it is usually too crowded, but we came during the week) and caught 27 fish in 3 hours. We watched Lord of The Rings. The next day we hiked to Aspen Mirror Lake and caught 10 fish in 4 hours. Then we hiked to Cascade Falls. I don't remember it being so steep. I was worried my knee couldn't make it, but it was fine. I was terrified on the drop offs on the trail, and at the actual falls, I couldn't even look over the edge. They took some pictures of me crying. Other than that, it was a great camping trip. The weather was perfect!

Cascade Falls - July 5th, 2023

 This has been a busy 1st week in July. One of the things we did was hike to Cascade Falls by Navajo lake. I am afraid of heights and drop offs while hiking, so this was very a scary hike. I could hardly breathe and was trying to not cry in fear the whole way. Doug had to hold my sweaty hand, and Sam was behind me encouraging me. When we got to the falls, I was so scared I couldn't even look over the fence at the falls, so Sam took a few pictures for me (and a few of me in fear...) It is a beautiful place , and because of all the rain, the falls were really flowing. I know I have hiked it before when it was dried up, but either my fear is getting worse as I get older, or I don't remember it being this scary.

Front Yard - July 2023

 I took a couple pictures of the front yard. It looks so different at different times of the year. I want to do something different with the flower bed out in the circle. 

Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum - July 1st, 2023

Lilly had a sleepover and today we took her to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum. She had never been there. She was fascinated by all the animals, and the insect collections. It was a fun inside thing to do on a hot sunny day! The Giraffe was her favorite animal. Doug found a little live bat on one of the animals.