August 2022 Randoms

My Boys All Left

Jonah left home on July 27 to go to the Provo MTC. Micah left home to fly to the Mexico MTC on August 2. Kanyon left Salmon on August 1 to spend the week at Rexburg for youth conference at FSY (For the Strength of Youth). It was the first time he'd been gone from home for a week. He had a good time, and met lots of kids from southeast Idaho in his group. It was so strange having the house to just Josh and I for the week: it was SO eerily quiet!

Micah's empty bedroom

Jonah's empty bedroom

River Shuttle Adventures

These are some of the unique sites I saw in August during my summer job of driving for River Shuttles

Check out that driver!

This was my largest truck to date that I've driven. It had
air brakes, which was my first time using them. 

The smoke was SO thick driving down river
from the nearby Moose Fire.  

There were a few days we had to drive the long way to get to 
Corn Creek due to the unstable fire by the river, so we had to drive 
around through the mountains via Panther Creek Rd. On one such
day, at the top of the ridge, we saw the smoke settled into the valley. 

One day on our way back from Boundary Creek, we encountered
a massive rainstorm. There was a mudslide with a car stuck
that me and some of the other fellow drivers helped push out.

After that, there were rocks and other mud slides all over the road.
It was a pretty major storm that blew through!

On the same day as the storm, we also passed this turned-over
truck. The EMT's and ambulance were already on their way.

One day I got stuck following behind this large convoy of 
motorcyclists and trike riders. They were impossible to pass!

One day, a new fire had broken out in the
mountains north of Stanley. Thankfully,
it didn't last long. 

On a drive to Riggins, I saw the hills west of Cascade on fire, too. 

After the River Road opened back up, we had to follow a pilot car,
One day, the fire was burning on the hillside right next to the road.

Josh drove a bus for WRO down river to pick up a group at Carey
Creek. He stayed overnight and took some great shots of the area.

Soaking Solo

After going to Kylee's funeral, I drove to a nearby hot springs for a soak. I was alone, and I was grateful for that. Warm Springs Creek was 12 miles off the main road between Dubois and the Salmon Highway. There was a pretty large soaking pool in the creek at the base of a steep hill. The pool wasn't hot, it was just warm. There were little fish swimming in the water, and I found a water snake, too. I soaked for about 20-30 minutes and nobody else was there. 

Goodbye Golf Cart

Josh sold our golf cart in August, the one that he and Ammon re-built for Ammon's senior project. Since Josh doesn't work at the golf course anymore, we didn't have a place to store it, and now that the boys are gone, we don't golf much anymore. A nice family from Blackfoot bought it to use at the state fair to take food products from their truck to their booth. They seemed nice and were so happy to have it!

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday came and went while I was on the Middle Fork trip, so I celebrated it after I got home. My mom sent me some gifts that I opened, and Kanyon had bought me a strawberry rhubarb pie (my favorite) and surprised me with it when I got home. 

My mom bought me this turquoise jewelry set.

Kanyon surprised me a few days later with
this gift of chocolate!

Friends & Family

We got to spend time together with some of our friends and family in August.  

I went out to dinner and dessert with my Mud Lake friends.

Yummy food at Longhorn Steakhouse! 

After dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse, we went out
for dessert at The Sandpiper.

We went out to dinner with John Anderson, the Berube's, & the
Judy's for my birthday after we got back from the Middle Fork.

We ate at Bertram's.

I met up with Amanda & Jen one day for lunch at the Savage Grill.

I spent some time with Grandma Parsons, 
visiting her at her home and taking her to do
errands in town. On this day, she looked so
cute with her new hairdo and her cute mumu!

Back to School

I worked a couple of days in Leadore at the end of the month to get my classroom ready for the new year, which was better than the full week I spent in the room preparing it last summer. School started in both Salmon and Leadore on Tuesday, August 30. Kanyon is a sophomore this year. I went to orientation with him the week before school started, and thankfully his schedule was actually all correct (it's NEVER been right for any of my boys before!). He has Seminary, English, Honors Algebra, Biology, and his other electives are Band and Strength & Conditioning. He was glad to finally have Strength class--last year it was full, so he took Lifetime Sports instead. 

We both unknowingly wore pink on the
first day of school!

Lovely Landscapes

The sky was very smokey for most of August due to the increase in the amount of acres burning in the Moose Fire, but there were days with beautiful skies that were noteworthy to capture! 

I love the sight of fields full of bundled hay.

The view from our home of the Moose Fire smoke one evening.

A beautiful sunrise at the cemetery.