In the Good Old Summertime!

I love summer!  The longer days open up so many options of things to do, places to go and people to see.  After we recovered enough from the ache in our hearts of having Line go back to Norway, the demands of activities, travel and family set in. 

The week Line left for Norway, Rebecca was at Young Women’s Camp or more commonly called by most Mormon “Girls’ Camp” (there’s a humorous story in there for the making).  It was her last year, unless she decides to go again after graduating from high school. 

Katie came in town to see Line off, so afterward diverted herself by cliff jumping with friends at Lake Mohave before heading back to Rexburg.

Laurie and I got in an evening trip to St. George to see my mom, who was visiting my sister.  We were able to go to dinner with mom, Becki, Paul, Tami and her children, Caleb and Cambri.

One evening we took our friends, Gill and Julie to Spring Mountain Ranch in Red Rock Canyon National Recreation Area to see the musical “Crazy For You” – lots of fun Gershwin songs.  It was a cute play and always so nice in Red Rock Canyon during the summer evenings when the sun sets behind the beautiful red cliffs and the temps drop to the point of needing a jacket!

 

Gill, Julie, Laurie and Kevin in Red Rock Canyon

During part of this time, Atkin came home after spring term to prepare for his summer of camping trips!  He bought his first vehicle (a 2002? Subaru Forester) and put lots of miles on it driving home then to back to Utah and on to Rexburg, where he celebrated Katie’s birthday with her and then back to northern Utah to hike and camp at Mt. Nebo with friends.

For Rebecca’s birthday, on July 1st – a Sunday, she told us during church that she would like to invite some friends and their families over for dinner that evening.  So we had an impromptu BBQ with the Tadds, Sanders and Shelby and Jennifer Taber – sixteen of us in all!  It was fun times and was cool enough to sit on the patio to eat and visit.

Rebecca's birthday BBQ

We had Troy Larsgaard stay the night with us.  He lives in the area Sam was serving (Lakeville, MN) and was in town for a work conference, so it was fun to visit with him about Sam.

Before we knew it, Independence Day approached.  Rebecca had to sell fireworks as part of being in the Senior class student government.  That also meant that I had to be there with the students some of the time to meet the “over 18 years old age” requirement for the permit to sell.  Luckily, on the afternoon of the 4^th, the temperature dropped to about 80 degrees because it had rained earlier that day and was still overcast, so we had a pleasant afternoon one of the days we sold.

On July 4^th, Samuel transferred back to St. Paul to resume working with the Karen speaking people.  He was relieved to go back as a senior companion after having been a zone leader for about 6 months.

Each year our stake performs a Patriotic Concert on (or near) July 3^rd.  It is a great celebration of our country and the freedoms we have.  Laurie sang in the choir. Choir and orchestra were very good and lots of people from the community attend.  I always get emotional in these concerts.

The following week, Rebecca and Laurie drove to Rigby, Idaho to drop Rebecca off at the Browning, visit Katie and attend Brooks Browning’s home coming talk (he was Sam first companion in the mission field and they share the Browning cousins).  On the way to Rigby, they camped overnight with Atkin along the Alpine Loop in Utah and spent some time with Grandma Smedley and a few other friends.

Laurie got in an overnight solo camping trip near Rigby before leaving Rebecca there and coming home.  Katie wrapped up her first school year, packed up the van and drove home, bringing Rebecca and her roommate, Emily, with her.  They arrived the evening that Pioneer Days started.

Each year our stake hosts a Pioneer Days celebration at the 10 acre ball field park that is next to one of the meeting houses.  Friday evening there is a big BBQ, with lots and lots of beef that has been cooked overnight in a pit – Laurie and I were on the last shift to help serve dinner, so had a pretty easy go of it (most people are lined up right at the start.  Saturday late afternoon and evening there are all kinds of games, jumpy toys and food booths.  It is a fun time and the evening culminates with a very cool fireworks show.  We had a fun time.

During this same time, Atkin was on his first solo backpacking trip.  He decided to take do someplace really quiet and easy – NOT.  He went to Glacier National Park, on the border of Canada and did a 4 day, 3 night trip – and at least part of it bare foot.  Did I mention that this is Grizzly bear country and he had to sit through a 20 minute film about how to behave and where to put food overnight, etc. in order to get a permit?  Did I mention that most people go with at least one other person?  The second night of his trip he was at a camp area that had two camp sites and a common food prep/eating area.  As he arrived in camp, the people at the other site asked him if he had seen the Grizzly about ¼ mile back?  NO.  So he was careful to get his food hung up right after eating.  Then he decided to go to his tent to change his clothes and put the smelly ones with the food.  Being Atkin, he got lost in thought and when he finally stepped out of his tent to go put the clothes with the food, he was zipping his tent and heard a very loud, CRACK of something heavy breaking a limb that was on the ground.  He shoved his clothes into his backpack, which was outside his tent, grabbed his pepper spray and climbed right back in the tent.  Needless to say, he was very unnerved and was praying and praying.  He could hear the bear moving around, but is sounded like it was at some distance.  At one point, he could hear sniffing, but again it sounded somewhat distant.  After an hour of praying and worry, he finally felt okay about falling asleep.  In the morning as he emerged from his tent, there was a matted path through the chest high grass leading to his tent, bear paw prints by his backpack and tent and a matted path leading away from his tent.  Yikes! 

The week after surviving that close encounter, Atkin backpacked with a group of friends into the western portion of Yellowstone National Park and had a great time.

Towards the end of July, Laurie, Katie and I drove Rebecca and Haylee Turner to Murrieta, California to spend a week with Aubrey and Rachel Waite!  After we dropped them off, we headed to the beach.  We spent that afternoon and evening on the sand near Laguna Beach and the next day we spent 3 or 4 hours at Huntington Beach.  On the way to Huntington, we stopped by the Newport Beach Temple and walked the grounds – gorgeous temple and a nice serendipity.



At the beach!

Newport Beach Temple

On August 6th, my brother and his wife, Dennis and Cindy, came by on their way to Utah and a few days later we followed them there.  Atkin joined us, so we had all our little family (except for Sam in St. Paul) to celebrate my mom’s 92^nd birthday.  All her children and their spouses were in town and we had dinner the Sunday before her birthday and many of the grandchildren came by for dessert.  It was a lot of fun.

That Monday we flew from Salt Lake to Portland to attend the Snow family reunion in Lincoln City, Oregon.  On the way there, we missed a turn but ended up seeing and stopping by the Portland Temple!!!  It is gorgeous – more serendipity!  We had a great week at a beach house with about 23 of the Snow family.  We made a big sand castle complex one day and went out after sunset to watch the tide come in and destroy it (there was singing and hanging out, while we waited).  A bunch of us also rented wetsuits and boogie boards and had a great afternoon playing in the waves.  Our last day there, we walked about a mile up the beach to a rock outcropping at low tide and found lots of sea stars, a few tiny crabs and even a jelly fish trapped in a pool of water until the tide came in.  It was fun to be in very cool temperatures along the coast and enjoy each other.

 

Portland Temple

Just arrived - Lincoln City, Oregon

Sunset



Sand castles!

Arriving at sunset to watch the tide destroy the sand castles

Katie, Rebecca, Lauren, Megan, Katherine, Noelle, Aubrey

Rebecca and jelly fish!

On our way home with Grandma

 

Laurie flew straight home to attend some training.  The rest of us flew back to Salt Lake, and then drove home the next day. 

After three days at home we drove back to northern Utah.  We met up with Karen and Andrew in Park City.  They came in town a few days early for Jeren and Lauren’s wedding.  We rode the Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster and took the chair lift to its highest point to look around and hike back down.  It was a fun day, in the beautiful Wasatch Mountains.

Top of the lift - Park City Ski Resort

We drove to Rigby and the day after we arrived, August 25th, Jeren Browning and Lauren Hobbs were sealed for time and eternity in the Idaho Falls Temple!  It was a wonderful day.  The next day we attended church with Grandma Smedley as we passed through on our way home.  We dropped Atkin off in Provo – it was hard to leave him, we had lots of fun together when he was home and traveling with us.  We got home in time to get a good night sleep before Rebecca and Laurie started a new school year. 

 

Lauren and Jeren - just married!

Megan, Blake, Elder Browning, Rebecca - Nelson serving in the CA Riverside Mission



Fun times!

Dropping off Atkin in Provo!

Double rainbow on our way home - south of Nephi, Utah

Rainbow!

In between it all we had work, school, a hail storm with 3/4 inch hail, time at home and more.  It is never fun to have summer end, but we had a wonderful summer.

 

Boogey boards and the beach!

On Huntington Beach with our sand castle!

With temperatures getting cooler, we decided to go to the beach before it gets too cold.  Friday afternoon we headed southwest and went to the beach on Saturday!  We went to Huntington Beach – where we went with the Tadds in 2009.  We had lots of fun playing in the waves, boogey boarding and sunning.  It was in the mid-70s, but warm enough and though the water felt cold at first, it was easy to get used to.  I was taking pictures, when Katie and Line were out playing in the waves and I decided to take about a minute of video to hear the sound of the waves, etc.  When we were looking at it later, we could see dolphins breaching in the background!!!  Later, when Katie and I were boogey boarding, we saw them in the crests of the waves, out about 40-50 yards beyond us – the late afternoon sun was shining through the backs of the waves and we could see them.  At first we thought they were maybe seals, but then we could see the dolphin shape and motion – and then the video confirmed it was dolphins.   I’ve added a link to the video - the dolphins are at about 27 seconds and 42 seconds. It was a fun little trip!

Mid-Summer's Dreamy . . .

Aw!  Summertime!  And the living is busy!  Yes, busy.  We’ve had a month full of lots of activity.   

Independence Day was low key, since Katie had to work – we went to lunch together and then just had a quiet afternoon and evening until the thousands of illegal fireworks started going off in our neighborhood and all across the valley! 

A few days later, Katie and Rebecca left for the Moab area on the Stake Young Women’s High Adventure.  It has been fun to listen to them talk about their trip, especially climbing up to and rappelling off of Corona Arch.  They had to climb up the massive cliff that the arch comes out from and it was a very steep and narrow path, of sorts.  They said lots of girls were crying and hyperventilating.  Katie was the first of our girls to go up and she looked down at one point, while climbing up and was like, “Whoa, can’t do that!!!”  She said she was singing Primary songs and just staring at the cliff.  When Rebecca went a little while later, Katie was yelling to her, “Don’t look down, Becca!!”  Rebecca said she isn’t usually scared of heights but got really scared as soon as they saw the cliff and wasn’t going to go, and was with a girl who was so afraid of height that she said she wasn’t going to do it because she thought she would pass out.  So when Rebecca decided to go, the other girl went too – Rebecca thinks that Heavenly Father let her feel scared so that the other girl would see that there was someone just as scared as she was and go when Rebecca went.  Rebecca said she was singing a hymn she wasn’t even that familiar with about courage and faith while she was climbing. 

At the top, they walk out on the arch and there are several steps down to the part where you walk backwards over the side as you begin to rappel.  That was quite scary and they both really concentrated and did it.  Once they were clear of the arch, it was not scary they said, just an incredible view.  (The picture below is a generic one, I will replace it with pictures of Katie and Rebecca when they become available the end of September).

Corona Arch

Near Moab

I thought it was neat that they both were singing church music as they were climbing to give them faith and courage.  They also went river rafting on the Colorado River, played in a waterfall, swam, attended church at a little branch (6 members in attendance and they brought 110+) and camped at Bishop Nordfelt’s cabin up in the LaSalle Mountains above Moab.  They had a great time and want us all to go and do what they did.   

The weekend after they returned, Laurie and I drove Rebecca to Murrieta, California to spend a week with her friends, Aubrey and Rachel Waite!  Laurie and I stayed two nights with them and visited the San Diego Temple, Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center and went hiking and played on the beach at Torrey Pines Nature Preserve – we had a blast.

Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center

Beach at Torrey Pines State Preserve

Beach at Torrey Pines State Preserve

Beach at Torrey Pines State Preserve

Katie and Laurie went to Murrieta to pick up Rebecca the following weekend and spent a day at the beach and saw a pod of dolphins jumping and playing.  And, of course, got sunburns which are still itching.

Beach at Oceanside

Beach at Oceanside

Beach at Oceanside

Our stake put on Pioneer Days July 22 and 23 – so we had a deep pit BBQ on Friday evening (they cooked 1,100 pounds of beef) and fed a lot of people.  Late Saturday afternoon and evening was a carnival with food and game booths and entertainment, culminating in a great fireworks show.

Atkin has been working quite a bit at Circus Circus and still teaching private swim lessons.  Katie is working a little at the Aria pools and at Flip-N-Out trampolines.

The last Friday of July we went on a  hike at Mt. Charleston, just 40 minutes from our home.  We had a wonderful time, even Penny!

Mt. Charleston

The month ended with us deciding that we are going to host a foreign exchange student – Line (pronounced Lena) Ødegaard – from Norway!  She will be a senior in high school.  We are excited to have her come and are making all the preparations!

In the mean time, Samuel continues his service with the Karen people from Burma.  A senior couple, the Evertsens, started serving there, so we are finally getting a few pictures from them.

Elder Smedley and Elder Evertsen with ???

District at the temple

Elder Smedley and Elder Barnes out working!