Salmon Tolman Fam: Week 30

{July 25-31}

On Monday evening, when the boys went to summer running, Josh took me on a motorcycle ride again. We went to 4th of July Creek. I'd never been up that road, and it was on my list of roads to go see this summer even before the fire broke out a few days prior. We saw the fire burning down the mountain next to the highway and close to the river. By the point that we saw it, though, it was well under control (thankfully). Fourth of July Creek road was longer than I'd anticipated, and the valley was wider than I thought it would be too. It was very pretty and we enjoyed the ride. We stopped at Kerry & Zak's new place at Tower Creek on the way back, and talked to them as they were working on improvements to the house. It was a good break for my sore butt (the backseat on Josh's motorcycle isn't very comfortable). After the ride and the boys' running, we had Family Home Evening. We read out of Matthew again, and then played Rook as a family (we taught Ammon how to play since he hadn't been at camping when the other boys learned it) and ate ice cream popsicles for dessert.

On Tuesday evening, Ammon and Josh went to Men's League Golf. They both are really enjoying playing this season. After they got home, I went to Jen's to watch another movie. We watched "Eddie the Eagle", which was very inspirational. It's the story of a man from Great Britain who was a ski jumper in the 1988 Olympic games in Calgary. I love the Olympics, and can't wait for them to start in a couple of weeks, and this movie made me even more excited for them to come!

Wednesday was the last day of Summer Reading Program at the Library. I've been their guest reader for 4 years now, and I really enjoy it! The theme this year was Get Ready, Get Set...Read! So I read a book each week about a race (some true stories, and some fantasies) and I also read books to go along with the special guest's fitness activity each week (zumba dance, yoga, crossfit, and aerobics). It was fun! For their last week's activities, they made paper harmonica crafts and an aerobics instructor came. After I read, I went to lunch at Junkyard Bistro with Pam Mark, and when I came back to pick up Kanyon, he was playing on the computer instead of attending the kids program! He said he already knew how to make harmonicas (he'd done it at school last year), and he didn't feel like doing aerobics. So when he saw me leave the building, he chose to leave the activities room and get on the computer instead! Little stinker... I took him to go get a free ice cream he'd earned for reading every day in July. Thanks to the help of my mom, we finished ahead of schedule this time (it took us a week into July to finish June's reading log). Then I took him to do his job at the golf course of picking the golf balls off the driving range. We got it done in exactly two hours--our fastest time yet, and Josh met us at the golf course and he drove me around in a utility cart to pick up the balls that Kanyon's picker had missed. I enjoyed being with Josh during the mundane activity! Usually I walk the whole time picking up the extra balls because it's good exercise, but the week before when it was SUPER hot, I'd had the bright idea of taking the golf cart we own to do it instead and had the twins help me. But this was an even better option! ;) Josh and I took Micah on his monthly date that evening to the Pork Peddler. We'd never gone there before. It was pretty quiet, and the food was alright. Josh and Micah both had shredded BBQ sandwiches, I got a fish taco, and we shared the fried mac & cheese bites. Afterwards, we dropped off Micah at Young Men's. Ammon had been at Hannah's house all afternoon, but he came home to get Jonah and Kanyon and bring them to town to meet us. He dropped Jonah off at YM, too for their kickball activity. We picked up Kanyon and took him with us to the Jackson's house, and Ammon went to the summer running program. We played Sequence and Settlers of Catan with the Jackson's. Kanyon watched and played XBox with Eli for a bit, but he really wanted to play Settlers so bad because he'd watched us last time, so halfway through the game, Josh was getting frustrated so he said Kanyon could play for him. Josh was amazed that Kanyon remembered the rules of the game from watching us a few months ago (he's got an excellent memory like that). It was the longest game EVER!!! It took hours to finish! But, they worked together and won, which totally excited Kanyon! After YM and running, Ammon brought the twins to the Jackson's house too and they played on the XBox and ate snacks until we left after 10 to come home.

He had 9 hours of reading in about 2 week's time!

He likes to get the Birthday Cake Ice Cream

Micah on our date to the Pork Peddler
He really liked the cornbread! I never make it
because I had it SO much when I was a kid.

I was blue, Phil was orange, Darcy was white, and Josh/Kanyon were red

Kanyon was victorious!!!

On Thursday afternoon, Josh finally had the desire to trim the hedge! Yay! It had been bugging me for weeks, but after the whole "trimming the bush" incident a couple weeks ago and the ensuing disagreement afterwards, I decided I wasn't going to touch the hedge--no matter how tall it got! Josh trimmed away, and I raked and cleaned up all the branches. It looks so much better now! It's amazing the difference it makes in our yard! Ammon, Jonah, and Micah had a pool work-out/practice on Thursday night instead of running. That was a fun change for them!

Look how neat it is to the right of Josh versus to the left of him!

There's something to be desired about a man who takes pride in trimming the bush!

On Friday, Kanyon and I weeded the pumpkins in the morning, I taught a piano lesson, the twins moved irrigation pipe and mowed Grandma's lawn, and Kanyon mowed our lawn. Then I finally took a shower, and I made lists of what we needed and a menu schedule for our upcoming camping trip. It was 3:00 by the time I was ready to go to town to purchase the groceries for camping. Kanyon wanted to go back to play at the library again, so I took him with me and dropped him off. Then I spent an hour and a half in the grocery store. It was infuriating how much time and money I spent in there! Josh wanted me to get him some stamps at the post office while I was in town, but it closes at 4:30, and I just barely finished all my shopping at 4:25 (because I couldn't find one of the stupid items on sale even though I walked around the whole store twice and asked three people where it was!). Since it was Friday, I knew I HAD to get the stamps that day. I took my cart up to the front of the store and told a nearby bagger that I would be back shortly. I drove quickly down to the post office, got stamps, drove back to the store, and got in line. Of course, by this time ALL the lines were long to check-out, so I waited another 15 minutes to get checked out. I needed to go back to the library to get Kanyon, go home and unload groceries, and be back to town by 5:30 for Couple's Golf. Around this same time, Ammon texted saying that he was going to pick up Hannah to take to Couple's Golf too, and he'd like to bring in the twins to play at their house while we were golfing. Since Hannah and her siblings/neices/nephews were at the library, he said he would take the twins there, and then Hannah's mom could pick the twins up as well as Kanyon to take to their house out at the Big Flat. Well...since Kanyon doesn't do well when he doesn't have food in his stomach, I didn't feel comfortable about him going to a friend's house before having dinner because he would most likely be Hangry, so I knew I needed to make a quick run to Burger King as soon as I was done getting checked out from the grocery store to go get him some chicken nuggets. That just added time to my already-tight schedule. But I got checked out, got him the chicken nuggets, drove to the library, and he said he'd rather just come home than go to the Simmons house. So I picked him up, we drove home and hastily unloaded all the groceries, and then I turned around and went right back into town with Josh to go golfing with Hannah and Ammon. I was sweating buckets due to the stress and I looked horrible because I didn't have any time to change my clothes before going out, but I actually had a really great time despite feeling yucky! It was the first time Hannah had ever golfed, and the first time that Ammon had ever come to Couple's League. We had a fun night! Afterwards, Ammon went with Hannah to her house, and they did a bonfire, and he brought the twins home late that night when it was done. The boys got home after bedtime, after I'd read the very last chapter in The BFG to Kanyon. We've been reading it for about a month, in anticipation of the newly released movie coming out. It was a great book, and we both enjoyed reading it at bed time together every night!

Ammon golfs left-handed, and Josh golfs right-handed

I couldn't resist taking this picture of two nice things to look at: the golf course
is so beautiful and I like watching Josh drive his golf ball a long distance!

Ammon giving 'helpful' tips to Hannah

Saturday morning, Josh and Ammon went to work, and I worked on making food for camping. When they got home, we packed up our stuff and loaded up the trailer and headed out (with our dog Tiki) about 1:00 to go to Stanley Lake to meet up with Ryan and Heidi who arrived there the day before. We stopped at Forsgren's in Lower Stanley on the way to borrow their long paddle board and a few life jackets since we'd forgotten ours. When we arrived at the camp site (the Stephenson's picked one on a dirt road about a mile before the lake), Ryan and Josh discussed where to park our trailer so that it would face their trailer, but also avoid the nearby trees. When we finally got it all parked, we couldn't get Josh's truck back out of the area where he'd pulled in due to all the surrounding trees. Ultimately, we took down a dead tree in between the two trailers that was blocking the path for him to get the truck back out so that we could use it to drive to the lake every day while we were there. He hooked it to a chain and pulled it away with his truck, and then he was able to drive back through. After we got everything all set up, Ryan cooked us dinner of ribs and cheesy potatoes. It was super delicious! Then the boys and I played Rook, and the 'no-see-em' bugs ate us alive despite using spray and insect wipes! We sat around the fire (the smoke from the fire kept the bugs at bay) until it was time to go to bed.

Ryan using a chainsaw to cut down the tree that was blocking Josh's truck

On Sunday morning, we slept in. Ammon had spent the night in the Stephenson's hammock because he didn't feel like sleeping in the trailer. He said it was comfortable except his feet got cold (since there's a hole there in his sleeping bag). Josh cooked us a yummy breakfast of pancakes and sausage over the camp chef stove. Ryan and Heidi went to Stanley church that morning, and when they got back, all the guys (except Kanyon) went on a ten mile hike together. They hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls, which was beautiful, and then decided to go further on to Hanson Lakes, which they'd originally not planned on doing. That hike was a bit steeper and harder, and they didn't take enough water to account for the added length on the hot day. They ended up filling their water bottles at the lake to stay hydrated. Jonah accidentally fell in the lake with his clothes on while they were there! On the way back down, they stopped to take a break, and the boys stripped their clothes and took turns jumping into the creek to cool down. They got back around 4:00. In their absence, Heidi, Ayla, Kanyon, and I took it easy. Heidi and I read (I took a pile of magazines and got through a lot of them). Kanyon and Ayla and I played different games. We ate lunch. Kanyon rode his bike around a lot. Ayla & Heidi went for a walk. It got rather smoky in the afternoon from the fire down by Lowman when the wind started blowing. We were beginning to wonder what happened to the guys when they finally showed back up! Josh and I were in charge of dinner on Sunday night. We had quesadillas, chips, fresh salsa (my first time ever making it!), raspberry salad, and we cooked raspberry dump cake on the dutch oven for dessert. We played the card game Village Idiot after dinner, and then the boys rode bikes and played frisbee for a while until we made a fire again and sat around it looking at the stars until it was time for bed.