July 9: We had a family goal of hosting 3 family get-togethers this summer. The first one was in June after Ammon's high school graduation, and he got to invite whoever he wanted to come. In July, the younger 3 boys decided what families to invite. The Hobbs, Deschaine, and Oliverson families came over. We ate homemade ice cream and brownies. The kids played outside together, and the adults played "Cover Your Assets" before hanging around the fire pit. It was such an enjoyable evening with our friends!
July 11: I went to Bingo Night at the Eagle's with Darcy. I hadn't played Bingo there in over 10 years, but now that Darcy is part of the Eagles group and helps with it every week, I've been wanting to join her for a night. This ended up being the only Wednesday night I could make it all summer. I only won one bingo, and unfortunately at the exact same time as two others, so my winnings were only $3 for the night, but I had so much fun!
 |
| Look--my bingo card revealed a smiley face! |
July 15: So last fall, my friend Camille let me know about this Mexican Train Dominoes game app. I was in a phase where I loved that game above all other, and immediately downloaded it. I added it to my daily regime of playing solitaire (which I play once a day in the morning to help my brain wake up) and soon had a goal of getting a perfect score on it--I got close several times, and it gave me the desire to keep going. Finally, on this particular morning when I played it, I actually did it and got a total ZERO!! And I haven't had a desire to play it since--in fact, I deleted it from my phone a while back! But since it was a quest that I succeeded at, even though it seems pretty lame, I decided to document the experience ;).
July 15: One Sunday afternoon, we decided it was such nice weather, that we should go golfing. Surprisingly, the twins decided to join us!! They haven't been very interested in golfing until this summer, but when we went to TopGolf in June, the twins had a lot of fun, and it piqued their interest in the sport. Josh gave them several pointers throughout the afternoon, and they actually liked it! We had such a fun afternoon together, and we ended up going a few more times after that during the summer.
July 16: I love that Josh has begun capturing images of the beauty outdoors in recent years. I enjoy seeing the world through his eyes and his perspective!! He took this sunset picture by our house on the 15th, and the sunrise picture at the golf course the very next morning.
July 17: The cherry tree was abundant with fruit this year!
July 18: Kanyon and I went to the movie in town together after Josh and the twins left for scout camp.
July 20: Our rain gutter along the backside of the house was damaged in the winter of 2017 when we had so many below zero temps, and the ice from the roof was so heavy that it broke over half of the rain gutter. As a result of the missing rain gutter, sections of paint along the base of the house peeled off because of water damage. The water dribbled down the side of the roof, bounced off the deck, and puddled up affecting the paint. When I added the protective covering to the deck at the beginning of July, I repainted the sections of the house with water damage. We knew it would happen again if we didn't re-do the raingutter, so Josh decided to have someone come and do the job for us this summer. Alan Aldous came out and gave us a bid, and came back the next week and put it on. He also added a drain pipe next to the deck, which we didn't have before, and he also added a small section of raingutter above the laundry room exterior door, too. Josh was gone to scout camp when he installed it, and I was gone to Utah, but we were so happy to come home and see the job completed and that the job was well done.
 |
| I don't have a "Before" shot of the raingutter damage because I didn't know the contractor was coming so quickly to replace it and I was out of town when it happened, but I found a photo from over a year ago where you can see that there was only one section of raingutter remaining along the exterior of the house after the rest had too much ice build-up during the winter, and the weight broke it off. |
 |
| It's not the best "After" shot, but you can see that the new rain gutter lines the backside of the house, spanning the length of the deck. At the very end, the drain pipe leads to the area with bushes to the north of the deck. |
July 23: Kanyon's 5th grade teacher Mrs. Tuckett sent him a $25 visa card for being the top reader with the most A.R. points in her class. It was a fun surprise to get in the mail!!
July 27: Salmon Stake Youth Conference. Josh and I were both the only chaperones from our ward. It was up at Williams Lake Campground on Friday. The youth did a service project, hung out at the lake, had a campfire devotional, spent the night, and had activities all day Saturday ending in a youth dance. We had just gotten home from Bear Lake the previous day, and I was rather stressed out and didn't feel good: I had just started my period and my leg was burnt from a run-in with a motorcycle exhaust a few days earlier. When the kids were at the lake the first time, they were wild! The stake leaders were still at the campground, and the ward leaders were all hanging out on the deck of the home owners, so all the kids were being crazy on the dock. Josh and I helped pump up some inflatables for the kids, and then pumped up our personal paddle boards, including the brand new one we had just purchased for the Bear Lake trip that we'd only had for a week. Unfortunately, a group of teenage boys wrestled with some girls that were on the new paddle board, and the paddle broke. When I talked to the boys about diving down to retrieve the broken part, they came up with excuses why they shouldn't, then the rest of the paddle got lost in the water, too. I went off the deep end and yelled at all the kids about being respectful and showing manners. I was quite disgusted that at one point, the homeowner that was allowing us to use her dock almost got pushed into the water herself after some youth pushed into her as she was walking across the dock. Josh got both of our paddle boards out of the water, deflated and packed them back up, and then he drove me home and dropped me off. I wasn't going to be able to spend the night anyway due to going to a quincinerea in Idaho Falls the next day, but I had planned on staying until dark that night. Josh knew that I didn't feel good, and didn't think it was in my best interest to stay any longer. He's a smart man. I needed the time to myself after being on vacation all week! I hated that I blew a gasket in front of everyone, but I'm not sorry that I told the kids that their behavior wasn't acceptable. The twins had a good time at youth conference, but it overall wasn't Josh's favorite youth conference experience ever.
July 29: We went golfing another Sunday evening with Ammon and his friend Kennady, and loafed around on the deck afterwards. I love being lazy in the summer! Hanging out in the hammock is a favorite pastime, but I found myself sitting on the this end of the deck quite frequently this summer with Josh! It's right next to some tall bushes, so we feel like it's a more private spot to be free to relax unseen.
No comments:
Post a Comment