September Sensations

Having both of my parents on the other side of the veil, gives me reason to make this month one that truly reminds me of how grateful I am to call them my dad and mom. Happy heavenly Birthday to both of you! You both still hold a special place in my heart.

Dale and I loaded up the trailer and kayaks and stayed at Blue Water at Bear Lake over the Labor Day weekend with the Mallory Clan. We got in a lot of games, and fun. The weather was pretty good to us, with just one day being a bit windy, and that day we made the most of it.

Our time on the beach created a few water fights, but we all got some sun and we all got wet, so mission accomplished. Langston and Mazin have a pretty good aim!

We went and got a light lunch at Zip's after and then cooled off and packed up some food for a BBQ before going to a concert that was at the Heritage Park. There's a small fishing pond nearby so we took our fishing gear and Dale and Matt fished with the kids while Amie and I set up and did a tailgate type meal during the concert.

Mazin was the only one to catch a fish....and boy was he all smiles too! 

The fireworks were awesome!! We were right on the beach and they were shot out towards the water. Some of the fireworks were made so that when they fell and hit the water a few seconds later they shot up out of the water. We'd never seen those kind before. It was pretty cool (The second set of firework pictures aren't our pictures, because ours didn't work out as well, but this is what we saw).

While the group was on Sunday bike ride, Amie and I worked with Mazin around the campground to help him build up his confidence in riding a bigger big. He'd crashed and cut his eyebrow pretty good awhile back and has been reluctant to get back on his bike. I think we accomplished the task because he was buzzing around again making long skid marks in the dirt and on the grass.

We did a little Come Follow Me lesson and then played more games and ate good food. Then we went on a little hike along the Limber Pine trail. It was a nice day.

Dale, Matt, and Jaxson played a round of golf, and the rest of us went and hit a bucket of balls and practiced our putting. This is a picture of everyone's first shot. They all got about the same distance away from the flag. Not bad! 

 

After lunch we hooked up with Andrew and Lindsay and their kids and had some fun at the new Adventure Park that opened last summer in Garden City. We all had a good time. It was quite warm, but racing each other down the hill on tubes made it worth it. 

Dale and Kennlyn did the ropes course and Dale and Jaxson also tried out the Big Swing. Fun times for all.

After we'd all had our fill we went to Cody's Restaurant and got a bite to eat.

While we were waiting for our food, Jaxson challenged me to an arm wrestle. Guess who won?

Then we headed back over the mountain and got things put away. We'd heard that there was suppose to be some high winds so we put the trailer closer to the house and we were glad we did because that night the wind picked up and created a bit of havoc. We woke up and learned that 97 mph winds had been clocked on Mt. Logan Peak, and that some of the areas in the valley were without power. A lot of trees and big limbs had been blown all over, and we ended up having our Little Leaf Lindon tree blow over. Luckily it didn't fall so that the smaller tree by it got smashed, that we'd planted last fall!! I'll call that a tender mercy.

We found out that the Mallory's lost a pine tree and some big branches from some of their trees, and Andrew and Lindsay had a part of their fence get blown out. 

Some of the schools were closed due to power outages and areas throughout the valley had no power throughout the day and into the next day in some areas. It was quite the storm all over the state.

A BIG thanks goes to Andrew for being willing to come over and spend half the day helping us clean up from our tree coming down. We have quite a bit of firewood now. 

The Mallory's also live in a great area and had help with their downed tree and branches. We're glad it wasn't worse, after seeing some of the damage the storm had done to a lot of the homes and yards in the area. We felt very blessed.

This is a sample of some of the damage that happened in the valley that was in the paper--

Utah’s largest Eastern Cottonwood tree on record fell during the storm in Providence. Property owner Dee Chugg said about a third of the tree came down at about 3:15 a.m., followed by another half of the tree about an hour later. Luckily no homes were hit, but the tree smashed into a barn and a neighbor’s basketball area, Chugg said.

“We not only heard it, but you could feel it when it hit the ground,” Chugg said. “It fell away from every building except the barn, which it crushed.”

The tree measured about 110 feet high with a spread of 109 feet and a circumference of 33 feet, according to Utah’s Big Tree Directory. Chugg estimates the tree was about 140 years old. He said he’s still working out how to tackle cleanup and had his hands full Tuesday morning keeping his and other neighborhood kids away from areas that may be dangerous before he can cut branches down and clear pathways through the debris. It may be weeks or even months before cleanup is complete, he said.

“The professional guys are going to have to bring a saw in here and a crane in here to lift chunks out,” Chugg said. “I’m not in a real hurry to take care of it. It’s too daunting. I could have 50 truckloads of branches hauled out of here and it wouldn’t put a dent in it.”

Chugg has lived on the property for about six years but grew up next door and later helped his parents build the home. Aside from the out-of-school kids attempting to play on the tree, it’s been “pretty somber and sad” in the neighborhood, he said.

“I’m not liking 2020 anymore,” Chugg said, referencing the ongoing COVID-19 viral pandemic and other disasters. “Not that we all have, anyway.”

This is a map of all the places in Utah that were without power the day after the storm. Some were out for 3-4 days. The site is from Rocky Mountain Power, and they said that there were 2,104 outages in Utah affecting 170,346 customers. Pretty crazy, huh?

 

We took our boat out for a boating activity for the MS 17th Ward. Andrew and Garrett were gracious enough to bring their boats to help out so that everyone that wanted could have a ride. It was a nice day, and with their help everyone got a chance to either, ride in a boat, ski, wakeboard, or tube. 

I donned a black mask along with my black blouse, and pants to usher at the Eccles Theater for "Forever Plaid" and "Taffetas" put on by Music Theatre West. Both were wonderful shows. It was nice to see some things start to return to somewhat normal (even though all attending had to wear masks and social distance in their seats). 

I finished up with the Districts Acadience testing. We wore masks the whole time, and staggered our breaks, but we all got through it. I got hugs from Langston, Titan and Eloise when I was testing at their school, which made my day. 

The kids were for the most part great with the way school was going where they too had to wear masks for the day, as well as on the bus.

The states of California, Oregon, Washington, and even Utah have had their fair share of fires this summer. All of these pictures are from fires in Utah. Some states are worse off than others. California is still burning. Sad deal.

To get out of the smoke, Nate heads to the hills as much as he can. He climbed the South Buttress of Cutthroat Peak in as well as Vesper Peak and Ragged Edge in Washington. Great views and a great workout each weekend.

He also met up with this Utah friend, Spencer, and they ran and the Timberline Trail, a 40 mile run, circumnavigating Mt. Hood one weekend.

To shake things up a bit he and his girlfriend, Diana, went to Las Vegas to celebrate Diana's birthday and climbed in the Red Rock area. 

His biggest accomplishment to top off the month,however, was when Nate and his friend Brody Hatch ran the Bear 100 Trail Race in our area. It starts in Logan, goes over to Providence Canyon and Mt. Logan, Millville, and Blacksmith Fork Canyon in Hyrum. Then they went back around to Logan Canyon and crossed the highway in Logan Canyon by Temple Fork. At Tony Grove they picked up some pacers/friends, Jon Bennion, and Cam Lee, that ran 25 miles with them in the dark. This was after they had run 50 miles, the half-way mark.

Another pacer/friend, Darin Christensen, met Nate at Beaver Mountain and ran 19 miles, and Danica met up with him at Swan Flats to run the last 8-9 miles with him until he crossed the finish line in Fish Haven, ID by Bear Lake. He took 121st place out of 350 runners, with the 100 miles taking him 31:53:21. Around mile 80 he was pretty tired and struggled a bit, but he showed where there's a will there's a way and finished it. Way to go Nate!!

Dale and I had the trailer over at Blue Water, at Bear Lake, and Jason and Danica stayed at Jason's mom's cabin. We tried to go cheer them on at Tony Grove, but found out later that we didn't wait long enough and missed him by 20 min. Bummer!!

It was pretty neat seeing both he and Danica come around the bend. Dale even ran up the road a bit and caught up with them and ran down the last couple of miles with them. Good times! To see these guys come in you could feel their excitement, relief, pain, and fatigue. Each one gave it their all, and it showed. 100 miles, WOW!! Crazy?

Nate came back to the trailer with us and took a 2 1/2-3 hour nap and then we got some dinner, visited and then we all hit the sack. I'm sure Nate had no problem falling asleep again.He left in the morning to go pick up Brody at his parents, and then head to Washington, the place he calls home. He had to be back to work the next day. Yes, he does work.

Amie and Matt's youngest, Mazin, started pre-school. He has been counting down the days to be in school like his big brothers and sister. He loves it too!!

All of the kids are involved in softball or soccer, and Jaxson and Kennlyn are earning some extra cash by refereeing recreational soccer. Amie's helping to coach Jaxson and Langston's teams and Matt's good to help get the kids to where they need to be a support for them.

Matt is only working at Heritage Elementary as a school counselor now instead of sharing his time with two schools. I think he's liking not having to run across the valley as much, but does miss the kids and faculty that he got to know so well while working at Cedar Ridge.

They put papers in for adoption again. They just feel like there's one more out there for them. We wish them the best.

They've also been fixing up things around their house and yard. It's looking real nice. 

When Andrew headed back to work for his tour. He got to fly out of the newly remodeled Salt Lake City Airport. It looks pretty fancy, eh? Andrew doesn't look so bad either. I'd say he rocks the mask look pretty well.

Garrett celebrated his 31st birthday by getting in a bike ride, his boat out on the lake, and time well spent with friends. He also added a little bang to the celebrating by buying himself a gun. Dale was pretty excited about that because now he may be able to spend some time in the mountains with his boys more. He's making 31 look good on him. Happy Birthday Garrett!!

                                      

Speaking of boating...these guys are probably on the water or on their bikes about as much as Nate's in the mountains. They sure are making the most of the warm weather when we have it, and when they can. 

They took the boat out and went fishing and guess who caught the biggest fish? Luke!! He was pretty excited, and so was Garrett thinking he may have a fishing buddy. The DWR even took a picture of the trio for their Facebook page. So fun to see them having fun in the sun. 

                                                 

Zandra's gotten hooked on biking. She has a group of ladies that bikes with. She also got a new bike and as you can see is all smiles. I'm sure she'll put many miles on this one. Happy trails!

Garrett's expanding his work team and hiring an assistant to help him get things done faster. He's been crazy busy doing refinances and new loans. The building, buying, and selling of homes has been in demand even with the pandemic. I'm sure adding someone to his team will help immensely!! We wish them the best.

Danica and Jason stay busy and to wind down they've spent their weekends with friends at Bear Lake or with Jason's family in Orlando, FL at Sea World and Disneyworld. 

        

        

They tied their trip in with their 3rd wedding anniversary as well. Hard to believe it's been three years already, but when you're keeping busy and having fun time does fly. Here's to many more years of happily ever after ahead!!

                                                

Their love of mountain biking is growing and they're making the most of getting out among the beautiful fall leaves and cooler temps. I don't blame them. It's a two for one deal -- exercise and a great view.

The world is still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, but most places are starting to open up more. We're wearing masks in public places and trying to social distance when we can. The schools have been faring pretty well so far as well. 

With Utah State University starting last month it has brought some of the valley's numbers up in our area, and in other college towns like Provo, Orem, and Utah County, but USU hasn't gotten out of control, they nipped it in the bud, early.

We've had some COVID-19 cases in our all of our School Districts high schools (except Cache High) and one case in each of these Elementary schools: Millville, Mountainside (Mendon), Summit (Smithfield), and Sunrise (Smithfield). We hope that it improves and doesn't grow. 

We've had a lot of smoky days because of the fires in our state as well as those around us. It's pretty bad when you can't see the mountains across the valley or even in your backyard very well some days. One tender mercy however, is that we have had some pretty awesome sunsets. The moon is a dark orange and the sky has pink, orange and red hues, just beautiful.

Hence the name, September Sensations, because it fits.