Monday, June 1

Tuesday, June 2

Wednesday, June 3

Thursday, June 4

Friday, June 5

Saturday, June 6

Sunday, June 7

A few of us ran laps in the dell for our morning exercise and then sent the boys outside for their 3 hours of work. They got 30 minutes added on for slacking, but made great progress on spreading mulch in the yard. That will help keep down dust when riding motorbikes, etc.

I took the four boys home to do some chores while I shopped for groceries. Adam and Andrew mowed and trimmed while Tyler and Mark picked strawberries.

Cindy and Hannah Smith dropped by the cabin to visit Amy, and I also got to chat with them. It was a really nice visit!

Natalie and I went shopping in the morning and were a little too early to the mall. The mall was open at 10 as it said on the website, but the stores didn’t open until 11. That would’ve been nice to know! We had a few successes, which was nice!

Tyler begged Natalie to practice with him in the morning. He laid it on thickly, so she couldn’t say no.

I had another nice run - slowly increasing my distance. Natalie ran laps as well, and Mark rollerbladed. Tyler surprised me when he pulled a Captain America and said, “On your left” as he ran past me. He cut across the dell to join Natalie in running laps.

After reaching a little goal of mine running laps in the dell, I ventured across the highway again to run along the Provo River. There were a ton of people on the trail!

Jon went on a drive with Doug Jackson, his brother Brett and son Matt to get boulders for Doug’s yard. Jon had a great time!

We had a really nice, relaxing day inside on this rainy Sunday. No music in the dell due to the cold and wet weather.

Whitney let me know that Tricia French -- a friend from our first student married ward -- passed away this morning. She was riding her bike with her oldest daughter on 1600 North and Skyline Drive in Orem and was struck by a truck pulling a trailer. This shook me because Trisha is just 42 years old. She has five kids -- the youngest just turned 6. She was a phenomenal mom who did amazing things for her children and she and Rob were such a perfect match and so strong together.

French Family photo source (this photo is a few years old)

I decided with the boys that they probably still needed a work assignment each day even though I don’t want to require 3 hours. Their job today was pulling out the mega thorn bushes next to our backyard fence. They worked together to chop them up so they’d fit in the trash cans.

Tyler and Mark weeded the dirt in our carport and Amy set out to cover it with weed prevention fabric... but we ran out.

I heard power tools in the front yard and found Tyler and Mark “building a house.” It was pretty cute to watch them working together.

Andrew is working on a primary song on the guitar - beginner level.

Tyler is doing the same on the ukulele. Amy helped them both sing on pitch.

These two have so much fun together!

Jon had a root canal, which took 3 hours! We were glad they didn’t have to extract the tooth, though. Phew!

These three biked to Bridal Veil Falls and hiked to the base of the falls.

They braved the freezing water and got soaked!

Tyler wanted to leave for his soccer scrimmage extra early to make sure we didn’t get stuck in traffic and brought a book to pass the time.

They played pretty well for the first part and were even ahead of this higher ranked Rangers team for a while, but without subs and their coach, they tired out and ended up losing badly. I had to watch from my car as no parents were allowed on the field.

While I was gone, the boys helped clean out the pond. You can see Adam and Talon clearing while Cardell cleaned with the fire hose.

Tyler and Mark both asked me to come look at their gardens, so the girls and I walked up while Tyler and Mark buddied up on a motorbike. They are very proud of the plants that are succeeding!

Amy has tended to her garden well and both the girls have been dealing with all sorts of issues including bugs and fungus, etc. but many of their plants are surviving!

Tyler has not been tending to his garden enough, so has lots of weeds, but he finally staked his sign into his garden plot. Yay!

Before bedtime, the kids watched Spider Man Far From Home for the last Marvel movie that has been made.

The girls set up their hammocks in the back yard again and slept in them this time, so all six kids slept outside that night! Adam slept up on the platform with Andrew. Adam was harassed by some big, biting ants.

Adam was supposed to do a service for a member of his priests quorum and chose to make cookies for him. Adam had never baked cookies before and asked Amy for help. He seemed pretty excited about it!

The priest quorum opted for an afternoon activity for their first allowed in-person activity. Jon suggested the pickleball courts at Sharon Park in Orem for their tournament. I had to bring Adam there and brought all the kids except Natalie who had to do schoolwork on campus, and Andrew who got to play with friends for the first time. We warmed up Adam before Jon, Bishop Sandholtz and the priests arrived, and then played the four of us. Mark got frustrated from messing up and despite our encouragement opted out of playing. It was super hot!

Adam was partners with Carter and had a great time! Jon was first paired with Bishop who was injured so was playing left-handed. When Shelton came, Bishop switched with him. Shelton was a crazy player and kept things lively. All the priests had a really fun time! I’m so glad they got to do something awesome.

Spikeball in the dell

Getting to hang out in person prompted Riker to ask Adam to hang out. Adam invited him to Springdell for Spikeball. They had a great match against Jon and Amy! Candee dropped off Riker and we were both so happy to see each other in person. Even before quarantine we hadn’t seen each other in forever. So I invited her to come chat on the porch. We talked for over an hour. She shared her experiences of meeting her birth mom, learning about her biological dad, and special experiences in the temple regarding work for his side of the family. Since it was dinnertime, we stopped visiting and she took Riker home, but we hope to get them together again soon. Both Candee and I feel done with social distancing.

Andrew was in charge of his teachers quorum Zoom activity. He had them play Farkle while he rolled the dice for each person. He said it went well. He used my phone for this, though, so I didn’t get the alarms or the phone call from the stake president for my temple recommend interview! Luckily, President Reeves called me later and I was able to interview over the phone. Now I’m “active in the system.” Phew!

These four are so fun! The boys filled up a bunch of water balloons so they could play water balloon volleyball. It’s time to get out the swim towels!

I stopped at home to grab a few things and thought I should pick any strawberries the boys left behind from our visit on Tuesday. It turns out they missed a ton... and most of them were a little overripe. I spent a long time picking them all, and brought home The Little Red Hen to lecture the boys on working. I told them that they may not get any freezer jam because they weren’t willing to do the work! Andrew had noticed that the littles had left a bunch.... Natalie washed and topped the strawberries for me.

She hasn’t ever made freezer jam before, so I set her up with the supplies and coached her through it. Jon picked us up some pectin on his way home from work since I had run out! It took her several hours, but she made all these strawberries into freezer jam! Go Natalie!

Amy invited a few friends over: Summer Lundberg, Mathilda and Ashley. They had a blast playing badminton and Kubb. It was so fun to hear their laughter and squeals!

Mark added some screws to this step to help stabilize it.

Jon cut out a piece of this wide board to fit around the tree, and Andrew screwed it down. It looks so cool! Jon did more work on the second platform as well.

Andrew caught a mouse day one of charging up the “rat zapper.” I had asked him to fix it the day before, and he set it out with bait. In the morning after my run I noticed the light blinking. It’s so gross, but living in a 114-year old house in the canyon, there is no good way to avoid mice completely, so this is one solution.

Adam and Andrew really liked the tuna quesadillas Amy made the other day and asked for her recipe. It’s fun to see them learning how to prepare new things!

Tyler and Mark donned swimsuits and sunscreen and headed out to the pond. A neighbor boy joined them in a water fight. There were some issues starting to fill it on Thursday, but Friday they had more success and the filling has begun. Yahoo!

Poor Jon has almost empty cupboards at home where he works. He texted me in the morning to ask if Natalie or I took the brown sugar he had taken from Natalie’s college stash. (Neither of us had.) He and the kids have this thing about me “conjuring” items they can’t find, so he joked that maybe I could conjure it for him from afar. I “did my best” and then he found it despite having looked in this cabinet at least five times, ha ha!

The girls and I played badminton, switching off who played solo. Our game ended when Brenton Salvesen rode up on Gary Brinton’s motorcycle looking for Jon who wasn’t here. He insisted on teaching Natalie some Afrikaans, which is similar to Dutch and shared what he knew about her mission.

Jon took Amy on a motorbike ride up Squaw Peak Trail, and he and the kids played night games in the dell.

The boys had a water fight with Cardell! They’d spray him with our water guns and he’d hose them down with the fire hose. I’m so sad I missed it, but I’m grateful to Toni for taking these pictures!

Tyler has been so anxious to fix the tire on the motorbike that fits him best. He and Jon worked on it together.

Tug of war with a tree root. Jon and the boys won!

We did more trimming to make a space for the trampoline.

Jon and kids worked together to put together the trampoline.

In an hour they had it up... just in time for the rain to start pouring!

Amy took a sneaky picture of my massage. Ahhh it’s been a long time! Andrew was trying to stay up later, and succeeded when he offered to give me a massage. But then he needed some tips from Natalie, so she agreed to show him how it was done. This was excellent news for me! Natalie also gave Adam some tips and I reaped the benefits. I’m going to miss Natalie for many bigger reasons, but I will really feel this small one.

Our hummingbird feeders have become quite popular especially in the rain. We had a bunch of hummingbirds drinking the nectar today. They were also fighting each other over it! It was pretty entertaining.

Adam and Jon had presidency meeting as usual. We had our family scripture time and fast Sunday. I made “crunchy French toast” for dinner and I had all these eager helpers to make it and set the table, ha ha! It really was delicious! I didn’t have enough bread, so baked white bread, which came out of the oven just in time for another batch.

Everyone pitched in afterward in cleaning up, which is always nice!

Silly Mark hiding in the broom closet!

Jon and Tyler made an awesome fire that generated a lot of heat! It was so nice!

In the evening, we took a walk up to the garden to get out of the house. Then Jon, Amy and I walked up the trail by the Pattens’ house to the upper dell and then up to the water tanks to check out if water was leaking (preventing the pond from filling faster). It was a really nice and enjoyable walk together.

This was our view. We got to see (but not talk to) Kevin’s family, my parents and grandparents, and Sharon and Laura who were at my parents’.

Jon and I drove home to pick up a few things and then met a guy at Target to buy his trampoline. Most trampolines are on backorder online and very expensive, so this was a good deal for a new trampoline.

We tuned in to my nephew Levi’s baptism in Ogden via Zoom.

We saw them last 3 and a half years ago at a ward reunion/party. Rob and Tricia were married just 6 months before we were. Rob said on Facebook “Tricia passed away this morning in a bike accident. She was the best mom and the love of my life. She leaves behind five children and a husband, and we love and adore her with all of our hearts... I look forward to reuniting with her after I leave this world.” I cannot imagine the reality Rob is facing and that he and their kids are feeling. When I folded the laundry and made dinner today I thought about how these kids’ mom isn’t there anymore to do these basic things for them or to comfort them, cheer them in all their pursuits, celebrate special occasions, and so much more. Tricia’s death hit close to home and my heart goes out to them.

Josh & Jessica Anderson, Mike & Heather Bailey, Rob & Tricia French, Jon & Jen 12/17/16