Corona, Summer Adventures, School Starting

So May came. We got Jessie's Senior pictures done. They really showcased who she is.Horse lover, Soccer player and all around beautiful!

Man do I have some Beautiful girls!

early summer we had started doing some bike riding and rode our bikes down to El toro Viejo for Dinner. With Covid we just ordered it to go then took it to the park to eat it. At this time the parks were still closed at least the play ground but I think we were safe to eat at the tables.

Since the seniors didn't get a traditional Graduation this year they tried hard to do some nice things for them and recognize them.  The school gave all the Seniors some signs for their yards.

We also took an early first boat fishing trip out to the bay.

So pretty!

I'v been still keeping a puzzle up and going all year long. I really enjoy doing them now when I have time.

Austin and Dallin decided to do an early morning fishing trip up at mantua and invited me to come along. It was fun. I like spending some mother son time doing something we both love!

 

Also with the warmer weather we got to get the wheelers out and take some cool rides up behind our house on the mountain. This particular one was up Box Elder canyon by dock flats. There was still some snow down across the roads preventing us from going up to far. It was fun to take a ride with our friends and neighbors. We had the Labrums, and The Dewberries with us.

 

Our silly poochie Ozzie. He was still a little cold in May with his hair short.

 

It finally came Graduation day for Jessie. Spending the last 3 1/2 months in quarantine in our houses and doing school online was a challenge. But luckily Jessie's schedule her last trimester was pretty lax and she didn't have to do much so it was like vacation for her. Logan on the other hand had lots to do and struggled, but still managed to pull off all A's which alot of kids didn't due to everything transitioning to online all of a sudden and it was chaos for a while and some kids just used it as party time and didnt put effort into school.

So for Graduation Box Elder finally decided to hold virtual sorta graduation. Since we were not allowed to have any group gatherings with more then 10 people they had small groups of like 10 students with 1 parent able to go into the school where they presented them with their Chords they earned, gave them a little medal. She also earned her little sash thing around her neck for free because she had completed 2 pathways so they put the groups and things they did throughout the year on them.

Then they stopped at a few places along the way to the stage for picture taking and then finally was presented at the stage where she walked across as they filmed it and received her diploma and then walked off. They made a video of this for all the students to have and also played it on youtube and walker cinemas for people to see.

These were all the groups the seniors got to be a part of. Jessie was in several. Choir, FFA, Track, and Soccer.

This was Tori, a good friend of hers.

 

Yay She did it!! So proud of her. She worked really hard over these past few years and pulled most of her highschool years off with 4.0's They also gave them a shirt and a few cute little gifts and icecream and cookie.

Had to get some picts with her Best Friend!

This picture here pretty much said it all and described the last of her senior year!

More puzzle fun!

 

On Memorial day I took a ride with Jessie and we went up to the Wellsville Cemetary where my Dad's side of the family is buried and went and visited the graves. It was the first time I'v been back there since dad died.

Grandma and Grandpa Hill

Baby Archie my dad's brother that died from pneumonia when he was 5 months old.

My great Grandparents.

Dad's headstone. Although he's not really there. When he died grandma did not want his ashes spread somewhere else so we didn't tell her and had some of his personal belongings burned and we put those ashes here in this burial place to give her piece of mind, then later drove up to the mountains where he loved to go hunting and spread his ashes up there and had a big rock engraved that we put up there back in the trees where we hoped nobody would disturb it.

I miss him so much. What I wouldn't give to have one of his big bear hugs again and to have him tell me he loved me. Wasn't something he did while I was growing up and he didn't really start doing that until I was married.

This is my Aunt Rosie's resting place. Some say I look alot like her or at least id did growing up and had my blonde hair.

Our neighbor Brooke Dewberry had a final little senior party for a few friends. It was mostly for the senior class presidency, but they invited Jessie which was surprising, and very nice of them.

we also did a few hikes this Summer. This one was up Perry canyon to an old mine.

Maya loves going on hikes with us. She gets so excited and loves to play in the water and she always wants to be right by Steve up in the front.

Darn cats are just so curious. at least Rosie is and she has to get into everything.

 

This was a ride up the mountains behind our house where we went on this steep road where we got to overlook mantua resevoir and box elder campgrounds.

It's super pretty because you can see over all of Brigham, and Perry, and Mantua!

We can never go without taking Ozzie. He loves to go in the side by side despite his traumatic accident last year. But we now strap him in to the machine so he cant fall out.

 

So on the actual graduation night that it was supposed to be held, Brigham City decided to have a drive by parade honoring all the senior graduates, and have them spread out all the way down main street so people could drive by and honk and congradulate them. It was strange for sure having graduation this way, but kind of fun too, and not having to sit for 3 hours in a big stadium watching the whole graduation program was very nice. I would much rather do it this way. Plus the seniors were really spoiled for not getting a traditional graduation. So we decorated our car up like alot of senior parents did and went and made a few laps down main to yell at her.

More puzzles. Sorry its upside down.

So Walker Cinemas decided to do this contest for anyone who wanted to create a short film and submit it they would judge them and people would have to go in and vote for what movie they liked the best, and whoever won got the VIP royal treatment with their family to go in and see the film on the big screen. And of course Alex with his funny and witty love for theater made one with his friends and Dallin and Malorie. I cant remember if they won 1st place or 2nd, but it was kind of unfair voting because the other film in the running for the top place did some things that was against the rules and came in late to the voting and technically shouldn't have been in the running but they got their VIP entrance to the show and won a gift card so that was pretty cool and the movie was pretty awesome. Alex is so good at that kind of stuff. He's a natural at acting.

I was so mad because all my family was getting to wakeskate this summer and I couldn't do anything because of my back fusion. They told me I had to wait t year to do any kind of water sports. But at least I got to ride in the boat!!

another quick trip out to the bay.

One thing that was really cool that the State of Utah did on Social media due to the Covid and seniors not getting their graduation was developed a adopt a senior group where you could go to the group page on facebook and if you had a senior you would make a post of them with a little info about them and then anyone could go in and adopt them so to speak. they would send the Senior a nice little gift or card to brighten their day. So we put Jessie on there and she was adopted by a family. And we also adopted a Senior for PleasantView. It was really fun to see our whole State come together and do something nice for our Seniors and post about it.

 

This was a hike up ogden to a waterfall. It's a pretty steep hike all uphill. it was a bugger. We were so hot, but it was awesome to get to the top and feel the temp drop as we got near the fall. It was so big and pretty. And the best part it was all down hill on the way back.

 

The Young Womens and Young Men Leaders did a little drive by honk night for the Seniors of our ward since we had so many of them.

Just a shot of an amazing sunset here in Perry. We have such great sunsets here.

Austin's best friend and one of my adopted kids got married this summer and this was taken at their wedding. Such a good picture of Kenna and Austin.

We also got a camping trip up to the Uinta's. We went up to Whitney lake and it's one of my favorite places to go. Lot's of area to ride the wheelers. Cooler temps. Decent fishing, and so beautiful!

As we were hiking up a little ways on a hill where we can usually get some cell service we saw this cute little guy, but made us a bit nervous about maya being out running around. Thats all we needed was a face full of quills to pull out.

 

So logan and Mal Mal turned the Big 16 this summer. They wanted to go do a photo shoot together up in Box Elder camp ground while the poppy flowers were in bloom.

Such pretty girls!! They are goofy when they get together and have always been best buds and partners in crime since the day they were born. Being only 5 days apart they have been really close. It was hard living away from malmal and Rich and Kim while they were little, but we are so glad to be back here living in utah and better yet in the same neighborhood as them so these 2 crazies can hang out all the time together.

For Logan's birthday dinner since all the restaurants were closed down for dining and only did take out we went over to Logan and got Olive Garden and took it to a park to eat.

And man was she ever excited to get all her driving lessons done just in time to get her license for her birthday. Luckily she was able to do 1 of the lessons right before covid hit and then just literally a few weeks before her birthday the instructor started back up with their driving sessions. She was sweating bullets thinking she might not get her license in time for her birthday. That was the one thing she was looking forward to the most.

She was kind of bummed though not being able to have a party with her friends, but she handled it ok.. This Covid sure put a damper on things this summer.. We were supposed to go to Belize with Hessie for her senior trip, but it kept being cancelled so we had to put it off to hopefully next summer!

 

We got in our annual flaming Gorge trip. The first trip up was pretty crappy the first couple days. It was super windy. Austin and Dallin went up Sunday night to secure a spot. The winds were so bad it broke Austins tent and they spent the night in their cars. He was not happy. The rest of us got up there Tues morning and it still was pretty windy and we couldn't do much boating because of the winds so Austin got mad and decided to go home which made us sad. Because after he went home the next day ended up being nice and we were able to get some boating times in.. He just needs to learn to have patience and roll with the flow. even if we couldn't do much boating it's still fun to just be up there and play games and be with family.We got to do a 2nd trip up there this Summer which went alot better. The weather was good and we got some good boating in.

Austin and his Horse head.. Hes such a nut!!

Getting some pretty good air.

But took a edge and smacked his noggin pretty good. Those hurt like crap.

We also got to go run the Green river this year. It was alot of fun.

Love God's canvas. So beautiful!

These 2 crazies thought they would give wakeskating side by side a try. Got up for a few mins but it was alot harder then they thought it would be.

Alex and Trennan finally pulled it off though for a couple mins anyways.

 

We even got Kenna up on something this year.. Yay!! We were all so excited for her. She tried and tried last year and we couldn't get her up, but this year with the wake skate being a little easier and her having a little more confidence she finally did it, and now I think it will be much easier next time for her now that she knows what it feels like.

We finally got Jessies nose fixed. ever since she broke it when she was little she has had a hard time breathing out of it and when she would sleep at night she would usually have 1 side collapse so it was hard for her to breathe.  Our insurance kept denying the surgery so we had to keep fighting it, and it took Steve talking to the big head hancho of the insurance company and yelling at him to finally get it approved. It was ridiculous all the loops you have to jump through to get anything done.

It was not a fun surgery, but she did really well. We kept the bruising to a minimum and she did great.

We were supposed to get 1 more trip up to the Gorge with grandma and grandpa (my parents), but Steve ended up getting Shingles and was in alot of pain and couldn't stand to wear anything against his skin and couldn't go outside in the heat, so we had to stay home. We were bummed because Clair Jessie's best friend from Washington came down to stay with us, and visit, but it ended up being kind of crappy with jessie's nose surgery and Steve's shingles we couldn't go do to much.

Steve had to wear my mumu cuz it was the only thing that was loose enough to hang on him and keep him covered up while he was completely naked underneath. He refused to let me get a good picture,

Because Logan couldn't go to any Dances last year, because she wasn't 16 and then the last dance we were going to let her go to got cancelled due to covid, her boyfriend decided to do a mock date dance with some friends. They dressed up and went to dinner, and ended up not having a dance, but just had a fun date anyways. Pretty cute couple!

While clare was visiting we decided to take her and go float down the Ogden River. Jessie couldn't go because of her nose, but we wanted clare to be able to do something fun while she was here. Rich was able to take her and Allie and Logan out on the boat for us so she could do some wake boarding and at the end of the week her and Jessie were able to take an easy trail ride on the horses.

We also went up to Causy Resevoir for a little paddeling around on the kayaks.

 

School started back up. I think logan was kind of excited to get back to the high school and see friends again and have the social part of it back even though they all have to wear masks now and try to social distance. Ya right!

This is what it looks like for Jessie. All her college classes are online so kinda nice for her to stay home, but she learns better being in person and more hands on stuff, but until this covid crap is over I think most of the year is going to be like this. She is struggling a bit with the transition of going from highschool to college. She has a pretty full load and is now doubting her career path and if thats what she really wants to do and it's causing a bit of anxiety for her and is feeling overwhelmed, but we have been trying to teah her to take it one day at a time and that its ok to change her mind on her life career and take fewer classes is she needs to. Its hard that first year at college.

I didn't get a picture of Allie but this too is her college life. On line learning and classes. A couple days a week she runs up to davis county to do her Labs and simulations for Nursing. That too has been kind of crazy because of the Covid virus the nursing students are not allowed in the hospitals to do their clinicals with people so it's been hard for them to learn and have to practice on dummies and their family members. Quite a different change and pretty challenging, but she is rocking it and doing well of course. They are hoping to be allowed into the hospitals by next semester, but right now it's not looking good. Our numbers here in utah for covid are increasing and we are having more deaths and hospitalizations due to it so I am not sure what is going to happen because we are getting ready to head into flu season soon too! We have already had several cases in the schools and lots out for quarantine. The high school is talking about making some changes like having early outs because most of the students who are out in quarantine are getting failing grades and not doing good with their school work so they are trying to come up with a solution to help those in quarantine to keep up. It's crazy!

We got one last camping trip up to the Uintas over labor day.We went to a new spot Rich wanted to try out and deer hunt while we were there. It was a little far to go. Nice camp spot but think i would rather go back to whitney.

We took 1 last trip out to the bay and I got the ok to wake skate and ski. I was so excited because I didnt think I was going to be able to get any skiing or wake skating in this year. It was the first time for me learning to wake skate. It took me about 8 times to finally get up and stay up but once I did then I finally got the feel for it. It was fun.

 

I

 decided to go back dark for the season. I felt the blonde was bleaching me out a bit and drying my hair out. Something is going on with my hair. It's really thinning and feeling different. Not sure if it's just dry or what. My stylist said sometimes anesthesia causes havoc on hair and can cause it to fall out and thin. Also it could be the crazy maroon color I put in my hair over the summer that would not come out despite my stylist putting color remover in my hair and trying to re color it. It has taken forever to get out. And not sure if all that did something to it too! Hoping it will get better.

 

Logan was excited to go to Sadies this year and she of course took Reed. Her boyfriend. I took their photos up at Box Elder Canyon. I think everybody else from the High School was up there too. The Fall colors are beautiful up there right now.

    

My beautiful Niece Malorie and her date.

They are pretty cute together, and he is a super awesome guy. He treats her good and he is very polite and nice and can put up with her crazy personalities so that's a plus. LOL..

It was a really cute group. I think they had alot of fun.

I am a terrible mom for agreeing to take a picture of her grabbing his butt! She is such a dork.

I don't even know what these signs mean, but whatever. I'm old. I dont know the high school lingo anymore.

 

And that finally brings us to the present. October 15th 2020. Its starting to get cooler. in the 50's and 60's now. The fall colors are gorgeous, but I think they will be gone quick. They say we are supposed to get a wet winter. We will see.  Steve has been working from home since March and is now getting the ok to start traveling again which makes me a little nervous with the cases of covid increasing again, but hopefully we will remain healthy. We will see what happens over the next couple months. The media has really put fear into people with this virus and its so stupid. More people die from the flu then this virus but yet we are having to wear masks out in public and in our schools and everyone is in fear. It's all really crazy right now. Even our President of the United States got the covid virus but is doing well now. Crazy times!