HOCO 2023

Salmon High School's Homecoming week was early this year: the 3rd week of September. Kanyon is a junior now, and he decided to ask a date to go to the dance with him for the first time ever! I was so happy! He came up with the idea all by himself for the proposal, he bought the poster, and I helped him write it and he delivered it to Eilah at school. She said yes!

For the 3rd year in a row, he participated in the Buff Puff competition between the boys in each of the high school grades on Monday night. The Junior boys dressed in hot pink--Kanyon's favorite color! He looked great all decked out for the occasion! He had some great plays during their matches, but their team got 3rd place in the end. 

"W" for the Win!

On Tuesday night, he helped in the concessions booth at the home volleyball game and watched the game after his concessions shift ended.

He participated in the band float in the parade on Friday. The band sounded awesome! The theme this year was Pirates, and the Juniors did a fantastic job creating and decorating their float! They all looked so festive on it, too! Ammon was home for the weekend to go to his friends' wedding, so he came and watched the parade with us. We ate the hamburger fundraiser lunch together at Camille's store on Main Street after the parade. Sadly, Kanyon had to go back to work, so he missed it. 

He played with the pep band at the football game on Friday night. The band sounded awesome, of course! But the team didn't do as well playing the game. We did, however, score one touchdown during the game, which was encouraging. 

Kanyon sits to play his tuba, but it's hard to see him behind all
the rest of the band members that stand when they play!

Saturday was the group date and the dance. Their group went to Sharkey Hot Springs during the day, then went home to get changed and ready for the evening portion of the date. They met back up again that afternoon to take photos at the Sac Center. Then they ate dinner together at Bertram's and went to the dance for a little while. His date Eilah ended up leaving him at that point. She left with her friend to go to someone's house after the dance. Kanyon went to the after-party at Emmy's Coffee Shop, and hung out with his friends, too. He was disappointed that she left the date without him, but he had fun the rest of the time. 

L-R: Roland & Megan, Tane, Kanyon & Eilah,
Chancey & her date (he's from out of town),
Austin & Ruby, and Wyatt & Abby 

August 2023 Randoms

MY BIRTHDAY: 

I had to work all day on my birthday this year...which may be a first for me. I honestly don't remember the last time I worked on my birthday. I was NOT looking forward to spending the whole day at Saveway pharmacy, but thankfully there were some fun surprises that made my day more joyful. My friend Whitney texted me from Florida that morning saying that she had a gift waiting for me at the Coffee Shop. I stopped by before work, and picked up a drink, a gift card, and a sticker that she'd gotten for me. It was so thoughtful! I went out to lunch with Gina and had a great time, and she gifted me a jar of chocolates that I love, too. Josh brought me some flowers, which were beautiful and brightened my day! And Camille had a flower bouquet and a restaurant gift card delivered, which was a fun surprise. When I got home from work, Josh had my favorite dinner ready of roast, funeral potatoes, and strawberry rhubarb pie--complete with a singing candle in it! My mom sent me a birthday package of some fun little gifts and homemade treasures and a little painted stone with the word "HOPE" which I adored! And the day ended in a happy way, with a joint phone call with Elder Tolman of the North and Elder Tolman of the South. 

HURTING and HEALING:

Apparently, Josh and I are now to the age when we have ailing bodies and multiple doctor appointments. In August, Josh and I both had several appointments. He went to a pain doctor and had to schedule an MRI for his neck, to see what the exact cause of the shooting pains down his arms were from. I had my throat scoped at the beginning of August to see if there had been any change to my vocal cord nodules and scarred larynx in the past 3 months, which there wasn't--so the doctor confirmed the damage to both was permanent. I had a scare in mid-August that appeared to be a stroke, with slurred speech, and my vision and head were affected. I went to the hospital, and they ran some tests and did an EKG, but everything came back normal thankfully. I also had numerous appointments with a dermatologist for some pre-cancerous spots on my scalp in August. He froze a few spots, but the rest were pretty deep, so I had to have a different appointment where they applied a laser light therapy to my scalp that burned the layers of irregular cells. That appointment was a few days after my birthday. In order to make it a more fun day, I met up with my friend Val for lunch in Idaho Falls at the Snake Bite restaurant. She had also just been to the dermatologist, to have a suspicious spot removed from her leg. As we ate, we were commiserating about the procedures we'd just had done to our skin! The food was great, and we had a fun time together. We decided to do some shopping and walk around to some of the nearby stores afterwards. I bought a few things in one of the shops to include in my boys' birthday packages that I was mailing that day to their missions. Then we walked back to our cars and said goodbye. It was a lovely addition to my day of doctors--(I had one more doctor appointment that afternoon at EIRMC). 

When I got home to Salmon that evening, there was a rectangular-shaped puncture in the front side of my house, one of the glass bottle trees was laying on the ground, and there were bits of glass all over the driveway and in the landscaped rock beds in front of our home. I couldn't figure out what had happened. It looked like maybe someone had backed into the bottle tree, which fell into the house. There was a bag full of broken glass inside our garbage can, so clearly somebody had done something and tried to clean it up. There were only 2 options: Kanyon or Josh. When Kanyon got home from work, I questioned him about it, but he knew nothing. Josh had a meeting that night, so he didn't get home until late. When I asked him what happened, he said his dad had been driving by our house on a 4-wheeler with a trailer that he hadn't attached properly, and after he went over a bump, the trailer came loose, rolled backwards, hit the glass bottle tree, and it impaled our house, breaking all the glass bottles on the tree in the process. His dad had informed Josh about the incident, but nobody had told me. So when Josh got home from work that afternoon, he cleaned up as much glass as he could, before having to leave to go back into the meeting that evening. I couldn't believe his dad wouldn't try to clean up the mess he made himself! When I confronted him about the incident, inquiring about why he left a mess for his son to clean up, he blew up at me and didn't speak to me for several months afterward! Josh fixed the hole in the house to the best he could the next week, and he also fixed the bent glass bottle tree. We also added more bottles to the tree to replace all the ones that had broken, and it's almost like the incident never happened. Except, Josh's dad ended up building a new roadway that circumvents our driveway in order to avoid driving by our house anymore, because apparently that's easier than cleaning up after making a mess in one's driveway!

This cute sign was in one of the shops Val and I 
went in. It's exactly how I feel about Val!
We're both a little weird, but because of that,
we understand each other! 

The glass bottle tree is the black, limbed rebar
laying on its side in the rocks.

COLORFUL SKIES:

JOSH'S MOTORBIKE RIDE:

Josh went on another dirt bike ride and saw some new trails. He drove down river past North Fork, then unloaded the dirt bike at the Indian Creek turnoff. From there, he rode along Indian Creek to the Divide Trail and then to Spring Creek. It was a big loop, and once he made it back to the River Road, he drove back to his truck, loaded up his bike, and headed home. 

BACK TO SCHOOL:

Kanyon started his Junior Year at Salmon High School at the end of August. He took his obligatory "back to school" photo next to his daily ride--he started off the year by driving Great Grandpa's old Chevy truck to school. Midway through September, he learned how to drive stick-shift and started taking our Scion to school and work instead. Micah used to drive this truck and Jonah used to drive the Scion, but after the boys went on their missions, Kanyon initially felt more comfortable driving the truck. However, once he learned how to drive stick-shift, he actually preferred driving the Scion because it's more gas efficient (the boys are responsible for paying for their own gas since we cover the cost of car insurance).  After a couple of weeks, Kanyon shared his opinion about his new class schedule. He really likes strength and conditioning. He has friends in many of his classes: seminary, English, and band. He thinks Mr. Born is funny, and he hates chemistry with Ms. Lewis.

We also sold Ammon's college car in August to another local young man who would be driving it to college over in Dillon, Montana. 

May 2023 Randoms

BLOSSOMS

Like the Primary song Popcorn Popping says, "Spring has brought me such a nice surprise, blossoms popping right before my eyes!"

Happy May Day!

This was the first spring without our dog Tiki. 
We had resident birds in our yard we've never 
seen before, including a turkey, a pheasant, and 2 quails!

WATER PROBLEMS

Our hot tub stopped working in May. We bought it in Spring of 2020, and it was the first time we've had major problems with it. Josh worked on it several nights and weekends, and ordered a new control panel and electrical plug for it, but it still didn't work. We contacted the local company we bought it from, and the salesman came out and looked at it, but couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, either. We weren't able to soak in it all month, which was frustrating, because we use it so often as a source of relaxation.

One of Josh's responsibilities with the City is maintaining the outdoor pool. Every May, he has to clean it (which is a week-long process) and fix it to get it ready for swimming season. It's his least favorite part of his job duties, and is always a big stressor for him in May to get it up and running.

MOTHER'S DAY

For my class's Mother's Day gift this year, we made something that I'd been creating in my mind for weeks. It didn't turn out quite as I'd expected, but the kids did a great job and they were a cute gift. We made origami flowers and attached them to pencils that we wrapped in green plant tape. I saved large vials from the pharmacy to reuse as vases. The kids decorated the plastic vials in craft flowers, and we attached a small Mother's Day card they'd made, and then put the origami flowers inside. The only things I had to buy for this project was the green tape and glue dots, so that was a win for me, too!

Mother's Day weekend was wonderful. I worked all day on Saturday, which wasn't great, but while I was gone, Josh did a bunch of nice things for me: he washed and dried my laundry, weed-eated the terrace and bought me more metal flowers to put there which was a fun surprise, and he also surprised me by picking me up from work and taking me out to dinner at the 28 Club. When we got home that evening, I found a bag of chocolates that Kanyon had left for me on my pillow with a nice little note, which was so thoughtful! On Sunday, Josh spoke in church along with missionary moms Tiana Hilton, Stacie Oliverson, and Leslie Deschaine. Their topic was about our missionary sons an d how our lives have been blessed by having missionaries. I was asked to talk along with the other moms, but I didn't feel comfortable with speaking, so Josh did that for me, too. He did a great job, and I was so grateful that he spoke, and I enjoyed listening to him speak. He was very open about all the struggles we've had since the twins left, including how I have permanent damage to my vocal cords now from the chemical exposure I had. He then talked about how Jonah and Micah have been blessed on their missions, and how we've been blessed because our children are blessed. There were a lot of speakers, and not a lot of time, so they each talked between 7-9 minutes. After Sacrament Meeting, Josh and I left to go to Rigby. Kayon's golf team had left that morning to go to Idaho Falls to State Golf in order to play the practice round on the state course. We had both taken off work on Monday in order to watch him compete, so we decided to make a weekend trip of it. We stayed at a little cabin at Heise Hot Springs, ate dinner at their onsite pizza restaurant, and soaked in the warm pool and hot tub that night. We hadn't been there since 2018 when we went as a family to go on their ziplines, golf, and swim after Ammon graduated high school. It was a lovely way to end the Mother's Day weekend!   

Dinner at 28 Club

The freshly weed-eated terrace with new metal flowers that
Josh purchased for me, and new spinning pinwheel flowers
that I'd purchased, too.

Kanyon's Mother's Day gift for me

All ready for State Golf!

The Mother's Day dessert special at the Heise Pizza place.

The cabin we stayed in at Heise Hot Springs.

Sunday Siesta time!

Our soak was interrupted by a thunderstorm, but thankfully,
our cabin wasn't too far from the pool, so we went back
again an hour later and soaked much longer with less people.

CONCERTS

Kanyon's spring band concert was the 3rd week in May. He played the tuba, and although their band is small in number, they sounded so good! The final song of the concert was a joint number with the high school Legacy Choir and the junior high choir. It was based on a scripture, but I don't remember what the name of the song is anymore. Right before the song, Mr. Anderson talked about losing another group of seniors as well as losing a few families who would be moving, and the song would be a tribute to them. It was SO good! It brought tears to my eyes!

Josh and I went to a Jeff Crosby concert in Stanley on Saturday night May 20th at the Velvet Falls Dance Hall. It was a fundraiser for the local river guides. I 'd worked at the pharmacy until 4 that day, then Josh and I drove down in the converted camper van that we bought last fall. It was our first trip in the van, since it'd had some problems that Josh and a mechanic tried to fix over the winter months, but it continued to have problems, so Josh took it in to Quality Motors and they barely finished fixing it the previous week. The concert was absolutely amazing! We had SO much fun! The audience was lively and upbeat, and most of the crowd danced the night away just like us! We spent the night in the van at a campground just north of Stanley, and since it was the offseason, the campground was really quiet. It was an awesome way to break in the van! We drove home the next morning. It was a nice mini getaway for both of us, since we'd both been stressed and working extra hours in May.

END OF SCHOOL

My class hosted our Historical Heroes museum on the first day of the last week of school in Leadore. It wasn't originally going to be done so late in the school year, but several things happened that were out of my control, and as a result, our class museum got delayed as a result. It turned out really well, though. It's similar to a wax museum: each student was in charge of reading a biography about one historical figure, and then they wrote a report about them, made a display board, brought an item from home to represent that person, and they could dress up like that person for the museum day, too. On museum day, other students and families could come through, and the students did a 2-minute presentation about their historical figure, and they recited it from memory. 

Kanyon wrote letters and gave his own money to some of his favorite graduating senior friends. He put a lot of thought into it, and came up with some punny phrases for each one. He really impressed me--I've never seen him independently devote this much money and time into gift-giving before!

SKIES

Do you see the heart in the clouds?

See it now?! A lit-up heart shining through the dark clouds!

FRIENDS

At the beginning of May, I spent the night at Amanda's house after my dad's scout recognition dinner in SLC. She fed me dinner when I arrived so late, we watched a movie until we fell asleep, and the next morning, we hung out for a bit before I left to go back to Salmon. 

We both love McDonald's hashbrowns!

At the end of the month, I hosted a farewell dinner for my friend Whitney who was moving to Georgia. We became really close after our trip to New York chaperoning the high school musical group last year. We met up for coffee monthly after NY, and we also started walking together weekly in the fall and spring. I loved our time together! Amanda and Ryan had just arrived for a weeklong visit to Salmon, and Whitney brought her friend Nan to our house, too. I made roast, mashed potatoes, and creamy corn, and we just talked and laughed and laughed over dinner and after dinner. We had SO much fun together!

MOTORCYCLING in the MOUNTAINS

I had to work at the pharmacy on Memorial Day, but Josh had the day off, so since the weather was ideal, he took to the mountains on his motorbike. He rode up Little Hat Creek to above Morgan Creek, and then went back down Big Hat Creek.