July 2022 Randoms

River Shuttling

I drove for River Shuttles for the 4th summer in a row. There's always pretty scenery, wild animals, and changes on the daily drives to/from Corn Creek (past North Fork), Boundary Creek (past Stanley), and McCall/Riggins that make the drive interesting. 

One day on the way back from Riggins, we were delayed
in the mountains near Stanley, waiting for a helicopter
to land to pick up a driver from a single-car crash. 

July 18--approaching Salmon, with the visible smoke from the
forest fire burning down river past North Fork. 

July 20--the first time we drove down river after the forest
fire started, we had to follow a pilot car. It was very eerie.

July 22--It was the very first time we could drive
down river after the fire suppressant helicopter
crashed into the Salmon River, killing both pilots

Driving through the thick smoke was terribly depressing.

Passing the crashed helicopter was horribly sad. 

One day, every one in our party were driving white trucks!

There are often bighorn sheep on the river road.
This was the first time I'd seen a tagged one.

One morning after going over the pass past Stanley, we came
upon these mountain goats licking salt off the road. There were two
babies with their moms, and they were SOOOO cute! I came to a 
complete stop and watched them for a minute because it was
such a rare sight!

Getting Ready to Go

The end of June and the beginning of July were focused on getting the twins ready for their mission. In addition to the shopping, they had a multitude of appointments: Micah had his wisdom teeth removed, the twins both had eye dr. appointments, the twins got their COVID booster shots and immunization requirements for the countries they were going to, and Micah had more doctor appointments in Idaho Falls. I took him after his last appointment to eat afterwards at a nice Mexican restaurant.

I hung Micah's sign on the garage over the 
carport--he got it for Josh for Father's Day.

Joe and Hallie Proksch invited us over for dinner one night so they could talk to Jonah about their mission to Toronto, Canada before he left. They pulled out their mission scrapbooks, and talked about the different areas they served. They fed us a beautiful dinner on their patio with items from their garden; we ate cream peas and potatoes, which was my first time ever, and I absolutely LOVED them! 

Gabbie's Birthday Weekend

Ammon's high school friends Ethan and Paige got married at the end of July, so he and Gabbie came to town for the weekend, which happened to also be the same weekend as her birthday. It was the weekend after Jonah and Micah began their mission training at home, so it was nice to have everyone all together before the twins left. Ammon and Gabbie went to the outdoor wedding and had a great time! While they were here, we also played several games together, Josh & I took them bowling and out to eat, and we had a family meal for Gabbie's special day. It was fun to spend time with Ammon and Gabbie in Salmon, and have the family all together for the last time in a long while!

Randoms

I weeded the corn in July. There's two rows. The row on the left is the weeded one, the row on the right is un-weeded. I like the visual difference; it's satisfactory to see an immediate result from the labors of my work. 

Josh and I went to the Shakespeare in the Park performance at the Sacajawea Center. We sat by my friend Sharon. It was a great show, and we had a good time! I'm always impressed at their ability to set up their portable stage, and put on a quality production in whatever environment they're at. 

Temple Serving and Mission Training

I had the awesome opportunity to go to the temple 4x just in July! I hadn't been since before COVID, and it was so wonderful to be able to go again without restrictions. I loved feeling the peaceful spirit in the temple. Josh and I went to the Meridian temple mid-July, then we took the twins to the Idaho Falls temple for their first time, and a week later we went to the Logan temple with my parents, and at the end of the month, Micah and I went back to Idaho Falls when his friends Boaz and Erik went through for their first time.

Idaho Falls with Jonah & Micah for their first time.

Logan temple with my parents.

Idaho Falls temple trip to support Boaz & Erik.

It was a beautiful day spent with friends
in the Lord's house.

We ate at Olive Garden after the temple with the Oliverson family.

Jonah and Micah's LDS missions began with mission training. Jonah had one week at home doing online training before going to the Provo, Utah MTC for 2 more weeks. Micah had 2 weeks at home doing online training before going to the Mexico City MTC for 4 more weeks. I purchased StarLink internet in June, in order to have high-speed internet at our home for their online training. I moved the dining room around, so they could both use it as their desks. But because they had different lessons, and different trainers, they preferred to do their online training in their bedrooms. They were busy for about 8 hours a day, and often had online group devotionals every evening, too. When they had extra time, they spent it packing up their room and getting ready for their departure. When they got to the actual MTC, they were in the same groups as their online training, so they had the same companion assignments and district members, which was nice. In fact, when we were taking Jonah to the Provo MTC, and we stopped for lunch, we met one of his district sister missionaries! 

Micah doing online MTC in his room.

We took Jonah out to In N Out Burger before
dropping him off at the Provo MTC.

We said goodbye to him in the underground 
parking garage at the MTC. I hated that
it was such an impersonal place to leave him!

Wed., July 27--Jonah started the MTC in Provo.

Aunt Linette made the boys missionary pillow
covers. They had to take their own bedding,
so it was a perfect, personalized gift!

We joined Micah on a pre-MTC group webinar, where we could
meet the Mexico MTC President & his wife. It was a neat
experience. We were out of town the night Jonah unfortunately
had his and were unable to meet his Provo MTC President. 

Micah was very ready to go! Especially being home an extra week
after Jonah had left. On his last day home, he finished packing up
his room and all his bags, and we listened to a podcast until Josh was
done with work to drive together to Idaho Falls. We spent the night
at an air bnb & drove Micah super early in the morning to the IF airport.

We woke up at 4:30, checked in his luggage, and
said goodbye about 5:00am for his 6am flight. None
of us had slept well at the air bnb, so it wasn't the most
pleasant of goodbyes. There was a bunch of other 
missionaries on the same flight. That first flight was
to SLC, where he got on a connecting flight to Mexico. 

Micah left for the Mexico MTC on Tues., Aug. 2. 

Our Missionaries' Farewell

It was a whirlwind spring getting ready for high school graduation and doing all the preparations to submit their mission papers, and a crazy June and July completing all the shopping, doctor appointments, and necessary mission paperwork requirements before their missions started on Monday, July 18. The weekend before their short-term home MTC started, we celebrated them and their willingness to serve the Lord. It was a glorious weekend with so many good moments, which I was so grateful for, especially after all the stress of the previous months leading up to it!

Jonah and Micah both went through the temple on Friday afternoon the 15th for their first time. It was such a neat experience to do an endowment session with my children! Josh was their escort, which was an honor for him. We were able to reserve 20 spots for our group, and Jonah and Micah gave me a list of who they wanted to invite. Several family members and ward family come to support the boys that day, and several members of our ward were also serving in the temple that day too, which made it even more special for us! Family that came were: Grandma & Grandpa Tolman, Aunt Tiffany & Uncle Scott, cousins Joel & Aysha, Aunt Linette & Uncle John, and Aunt Janet & Uncle Ben. Members of our ward who joined us were: Ted & BJ Shinderling, Jordan & Cheyenne Hansen, and Bishop & Cindy Clark. Amanda and Ryan Berube drove up from Ogden to support the boys as well. I loved being able to see Shirley Anderson and LaRae Birch who were serving in the temple at that time, and was tickled that they got to be mine and Amanda's helpers. It was such a neat experience and I really treasure my memories of it! 

After we got out of the temple on Friday, we went to Reed's Dairy to have a quick meal and some shakes, since it was such a hot day and the cool ice cream sounded good. Amanda and Ryan were the only ones who joined us from our temple group; everyone else left after the ceremony. After we ate and were walking back to our car, Hyrum Spencer and his parents showed up! They were just heading to the temple, too! Hyrum got set apart as a missionary at the beginning of July, and Jonah and Micah drove down to Monteview to his farewell, but they hadn't seen him since. It was such a fun surprise to run into him! We invited them to join us at the twins' farewell on Sunday, too. 

Their mission farewell program at church was on Sunday, July 17th. They each got to speak, and Amanda and I sang the song "Go in Peace" between their talks. The program was broadcasted on Zoom, so family and friends who couldn't join us in person could still hear them speak, which was great. It was the largest attendance on Zoom that our ward has had since COVID! There were a lot of visitors to our ward that day, too, which I was so grateful for! Jonah and Micah both did a fantastic job speaking: they gave spiritual insight, made the audience laugh, spoke of our Savior Jesus Christ, and were honest about their feelings. It was an absolutely wonderful program! My only complaint is that there was a family whose kids were screaming throughout the talk, and they happened to sit right behind me, which was very distracting! Thankfully, I was still able to feel the spirit and my heart was bursting with pride to see and hear my sons. 

We held a gathering at the city park afterwards for family and friends to come join us for a meal. It was a great decision to hold the meal at the park, which has a covered pavilion, rather than at our house because: 1. we were able to host more people, 2. we didn't have to clean our house, 3. we didn't have to set out picnic tables, and 4. we didn't have to worry about the weather (when we hosted the Linger family farewell party outside our home in May, it rained, and we had to move everything!). However, what I didn't anticipate was the wind. It was SO windy that afternoon! Everyone who came was a good sport about it, but I felt like we were 0-2 for hosting summer BBQ's (I felt like the weather got the best of us both times!). To prepare for the feast, Josh rearranged the picnic tables and took in a few banquet tables to set the food on. The day before, I'd made 2 giant crockpots of homemade sloppy joe meat and shredded BBQ chicken meat. We served both choices with buns, and I also made 2 large bowls of salad and 2 pans of O'Henry bars, and brought chips and drinks to share. Some of our friends and family also brought salads, sides, and desserts, which made for a great feast. We had a pretty good turnout, and it was so fun to hang out with our loved ones to celebrate the special occasion. 

The Boyz piled into Tyler's truck to come to the get-together
after they were done with their mission prep class after church.
It was so funny to see them all squished in together!

Towards the end of the party, after most everyone had left but a few of our closest friends, a family celebrating their child's birthday started encroaching into our space, which was a little annoying since we had paid for the space, but people from the other pavilion sent them our way because they had more people and a smaller outdoor building, and our party was dying down. As their family celebration grew, our group gathered around just 2 tables and we were still having a good time talking and laughing, and then we noticed a giant smoke pillar in the distance to the northwest. We all knew what it meant: a wildfire had begun. At that time, we had no idea the extent of the damage or the exact location, but due to the strong winds, we knew the outlook wasn't good. The party dissipated after that...a fun party where lots of laughs were had and good food was eaten!

The fire grew so much in such a short time: this picture was taken on
our drive home, just 45 minutes after spotting the initial smoke clouds. 

On Sunday evening, we drove back into town and met with President Stokes to set apart the twins as missionaries. Their 6-pack of friends came, too (minus Nathan who was on vacation). Grandpa Tolman and Uncle Tim joined in the circle along with Josh and President Stokes to set them apart, which was neat. It was another wonderful experience, listening to President Stokes as he gave them individual advice and spiritual enlightenment to help them in the next 2 years as they embark on their missions to serve the Lord. 

Erik, Elder Jonah Tolman, Boaz, Elder Micah Tolman, Tyler

It was a great farewell weekend for our boys, whose missions started the next morning. There were so many moments during that weekend when I overwhelmingly felt God's love, through the people who surrounded us at the temple, during the church farewell program, and at the feast in the park. We are so grateful to have raised our children alongside such good people, and we recognize that it truly does take a village to raise a child. We are blessed for our "village" who have helped these boys become the wonderful men that they are!