Summer Week 9

I took Tessa and Damon with me to Rockwell's soccer practice Monday night since Paul was working. We hung out at Al's house during practice, and Tessa and Hallee had a blast playing "teenager and mom." They certainly looked the part. :)

On Wednesday I hiked Mount Timpanogos with my parents. It was great to spend eight hours on the trail with them. I loved hearing nearly everyone we passed say something about wanting to be just like my parents when they grow up. :) A steep, challenging, 12-mile hike is definitely a place you can wear your age of 70 as a badge of honor!

We saw a moose toward the beginning of the hike. We stopped to watch him eat for a while.

There are a few little waterfalls that we cross over.

And beautiful views all over the place.

But my favorite part of the hike this time was the wildflowers. In all the times I have done this hike, I have never seen so many flowers out!! They were everywhere, and they were gorgeous!!

I love that you just hike right through all the flowers.

We were excited to make it to the saddle and rest for a bit. We all had things we needed to get home for, and so we decided not to go to the top this time.


There was a group of guys who hiked the whole thing carrying our flag with them. Not sure why they did that, but I appreciate any act of patriotism right now. :)

On the way down we passed the biggest mountain goat I have ever seen. He was enormous! I'm sure grateful to Paul for staying home with the kids so I could do this hike. It was a great day!


While I was hiking, our tree guy came and cut down one of our trees and did a major trimming on another. Paul and the kids enjoyed watching the process.





Tessa and Damon wanted to play in the pool and sprinkler a couple days this week.

Rockwell didn't want to swim, and so he and I played Phase 10 on the porch. When we finished, he was hot enough that he decided to jump in the pool too. It is definitely too small of a pool for all three of them to play in, but they had so much fun! I loved listening to them all laughing together!


Rockwell gave Tessa a ride on the swingroller one day. :)


Thursday evening Mel, Al, and Caitlyn came over for dinner. Caitlyn babysat the kids while us adults went to the Rise Up event for Operation Underground Railroad. There were over 1,000 people at the march in Orem, and about 150 different marches across the United States and Canada. 

July 30th is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, and so OUR organized a campaign to raise awareness of how prevalent human trafficking is all around the world, including in the U.S.

We marched down University Parkway and State Street with the other 1,000 people, and got tons of support from people driving on the streets. People were honking, cheering, and filming the march. We loved being a part of this awareness campaign. We have wanted to do something to help for a long time now. We are monthly donors, which is wonderful as the rescue missions and aftercare for the survivors are very costly, but it felt amazing to actually be physically marching to help free the victims of modern day slavery.

It was a hot night, so we cooled off with some Leatherby's ice cream after the march was over. It was a really great night!

Hallee was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Saturday. They were only allowed to perform the ordinances of baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost at the church. They had the songs, prayers, and talks at their house before going over to the church. Damon had a runny nose and Paul was starting to feel like he was coming down with it as well, and so we just watched the talks over Zoom. Tessa and I went over to the church, but kept our masks on and made sure not to touch anyone. It was so sad to miss out on being with Hallee and the family for all of the day. I'm so glad Tessa and I could at least join in at the church though. But I am so very ready for this whole Covid-19 pandemic to be a thing of the past!