July Jabs

 We started off the month at Bear Lake with Danica (Jason joined up with us a day later).

After playing some Pickleball in the morning I didn't have to talk to hard to get Dad and Danica to agree to go see The Pickleville Playhouse's Peter Pan. We went to the matinee show and I loved it as much as I did seeing it with my Golden Girls last month. Dad and Danica quite liked it as well. It's been a while since Danica's been to one of their shows, so we figured we'd treat her to a good one.

We met up with Andrew, Lindsay and their kids at the Bridgerland Adventure Park above Garden City. Some of us tubed (Mainly Andrew, the kids and I), some took on the ropes course (All adults but me, Eloise and the little ones), some did the Zip Line (Jason, Danica & I), some did the big swing (Jason, Danica, Dale and I) and some played on the playground toys (the kids), and we all had fun. It was a beautiful day to be out in the sunshine. 

We got a bite to eat and then hit the beach for awhile, but a storm came in and cut our beach time short. Those on the beach hunkered down under canopies and towels and those in the water waited out the storm. It's the first time I've been in the water and been pelleted by rain and hail. It was warmer in the water though than being out in the wind all wet, so we made the most of it. We saw a beautiful rainbow after the storm that looked like it came up out of the water too. Pretty cool.

Andrew's crew left after they got warmed up and we got cleaned up and then headed to Heritage Park where Garden City put on a great patriotic program and fireworks show. It was well worth attending. After we played games and visited with Jason and Danica, and then we hit the sack.

We went to church there in Garden City, and were lucky enough to get there in time to have a seat. The meeting room was packed with people in the foyer and standing along the walls. The brother conducting the meeting said they are the smallest branch in the church with with 9 members, with the largest congregations usually totaling over 600 in the two-three one hour meetings they hold in the summer. 

We had a tasty breakfast after visited and played games until the Mallory's joined us for dinner and games and then Hassell's left to stay at Jason's mom's place and Mallory's moved in the trailer with us.

After a tasty breakfast with the crew we played games and then headed to the beach for some more fun in the sun. Luckily this time we didn't get rained on. 

I was able to serve again in the Youth Center at the Temple. I watched a 13yr., 11yr., 5 yr. and 2yr. old and then took them up to the sealing room to have them sealed to their parents for eternity. Cute kids and a beautiful family. It was SO nice to be serving in the temple again. 

Dale and I also got to go to the temple and do sealings with family names with Matt and Amie. One of the names that I had was Susannah Kenny who was born in 1699. I was able to act as her proxy as she was sealed to her parents John Kenney ll and Elizabeth Nunn Kenney. The spirit touched my heart as I placed my hand on her proxy parents hands during the sealing. I'd like to think she had waited long enough and was thrilled to have this ordinance done for her. It was felt by the proxy couple as well. The veil is thin in the temple of God.

This month we celebrated our 40th anniversary in a way I never would of dreamed of. We went sailing among the San Juan Islands with Nate and his girlfriend, Diana. We flew into Seattle, and they picked us up at the airport were gracious to put us up for the night and their place. Then we packed up the van and headed to Anacortes, WA and loaded the food and necessities to hold us over for three days. Dale and I found a hotel on Friday Harbor and stayed there, while Nate and Diana stayed on the boat. It's Diana's boat and she has been sailing for about two years now. She's taught Nate the ropes how to handle the sails and motoring and they made a good team as Captain and co-captain. We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect.

We'd walk down to the pier and hop on the boat and have breakfast and lunch on the boat and then eat dinner back on land and walk back to our hotel.

We put out crab cages and caught enough crab for two lunches. It was a lot like Christmas morning wondering what would be in the cage. 

We felt like royalty the way we were catered to having fresh caught crab.

We went to Jones Island and put the anchor down. We used the paddleboard to get to shore and Nate and Diana got in a run while Dale and I walked along a trail that went around the island. It was SO pretty! 

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Thanks Nate and Diana for inviting us aboard "Tranquility", the name fit. It was so relaxing and fun. We've always wanted to go sailing and you made our wish come true. Great memories were made. Sadly the trip ended sooner than we wanted to, but I guess it opens the door to another ride another time possibly. It was a great way to celebrate 40 years of marriage together. It couldn't of been better.

                                      

The airports and airplanes are still requiring that you wear a mask when you are in the airport or on the plane, and with that being the only drawback of the trip, we were glad to comply. Happy Anniversary to us--here's to 40 more!!

We weren't home too long before we were packing our bags again. This time we headed south to Hurricane, UT for the Hansen Family Reunion. Andrew and Lindsay planned it, and found a nice house that fit all of us perfectly. It had a fenced pool which was nice too for when it was hot out.

We were able to have ALL the family together for 4 days and 3 nights and came home loving each other even more! I say it was a success. 

Between bike rides, Razor rides in the Sand Hollow area, Pickleball, eating yummy food, swimming, hot tubing, playing games, watching the Olympics (that were suppose to be held last year, but were cancelled due to COVID), playing ping pong, doing facials, and just chilling. We all found our niche and had a great time. 

Thanks all for making up such a fun family and for the memories. We sure love you!

I was also able to usher "Nunsense", put on by Music Theater West, at the Eccles. It was a light-hearted comedy show with a cast of five nuns and a small orchestra, but very well done. 

Dale, Andrew, Garrett, Matt and Jaxson went with Dale to the Wind Rivers to hike and fish for 4 days and 3 nights. It was a "Guys Trip" to prepare Dale for his retirement. They got off course a bit hiking in because the trail got covered with fallen trees and branches, but they ended up making it to where they were to camp eventually. They'd hike to different lakes and fish. All caught fish, but you know who caught the most. It was a good bonding trip for all and created some great memories. I'm sure they'll plan more "Guy Trips" in the future. 

Zandra and the kids came and stayed at the house with me and then we met up with Amie and Lindsay and the kids and went out to eat, went swimming at the Sky View pool because the weather turned on us, played games, and visited. I think we ALL had a good time.

The kids helped us make signs to welcome home the guys!! They did it!! Here's to many more adventures.

Nate's back on in the mountains climbing, hiking, and running more. He climbed the Kautz Glacier on Rainer and  also summitted Rainer with Diana 8 weeks after his avalanche ride (A first big summit like that for Diana). 

                                                         Making the climb up Rainer

Dale joined up with the Mallory's and went to the Granger Smith Concert at Cherry Peak. Then Amie won tickets on Q-92 radio to go to the LeAnn Rimes concert at the fairgrounds in conjunction with The Cruise-In activities. Fun times!

Jaxson, Kennlyn, and Langston played soccer in the CV Cup tournament. Amie coached Kennlyn and Langston's teams. I went to some of the games. Those kids were playing in 95+ degrees! It was HOT!! 

Langston's team ended up taking 2nd place in his age division.  He was pretty excited. All played well, but sometimes you just don't always come out on top. Life isn't measured by how many games you win, it's measured by what you learn and how you grow from the losses.

Matt celebrated his 45th birthday by going to a Ogden Raptors baseball game. The Hassell's, Dale and I joined them. It was a nice evening, but the Raptors didn't pull through for a win. We were sitting on the front row by the bull pen even!! Oh well, it didn't stop the party for too long. He left with a smile on his face.

All but Langston and Mazin attended some sort of camp this month. Jaxson not only did his sports camps, but also went on a Young Men's Camp in the Uintah Mountains, Kennlyn went with the Young Women to Camp Lomondi in Eden, and both Amie and Matt were able to spend some time with her as a leader or as a visitor for a night. Hence, Langston and Mazin stayed a night at Grandma's camp and we made boats out of zuchinni and cucumbers and floated them down the canal to cool off, played games and made cookies. I think we all had a good time in our different camps.

Jaxson is all smiles with the fish he caught in the Uintah's.

Kennlyn is braving the ropes course at Girl's Camp

Andrew and Lindsay's Titan, celebrated his 10th birthday this month. Hard to believe this guy is that old already! I took him to the Willow Park Zoo (Zootah) so he could see the snakes. Well, unlucky for us we didn't get to see the snakes, but he did have ducks and geese follow him all over (maybe because he was feeding them), and he got to pet a flying sugar squirrel, a hedgehog, a rabbit, and a guinea pig. We also got the Macaw to say "Hello" to us, which was pretty cool.

Then he got to pick out a snake slap bracelet and a turtle from the gift shop to cool us off because it was a pretty warm day. We met up with Dale at one of Titan's favorite places to eat, Pizza Pie Cafe, after for lunch to finish off his birthday date. Fun for all! Happy Birthday Titan!!

Garrett and Zandra had visitor's come for awhile. Grandpa and Grandma Dennis and Uncle Johnny visited! They spent some time in Park City, did some hiking, boating and played games. Fun for all.

With the biking Garrett and Zandra have been doing they decided to enter a bike race in our area, The Gran Fondo. They slept over at our house the night before so we could send them off in the morning. Garrett was the only male rider on their team.

The Cache Gran Fondo is an annual Italian-style ride in Cache Valley in Northern Utah. The riders can ride on either a 35 mile, 50 mile, 75 mile or 105 mile route. They did the 50 mile ride.

We had the kids help us make some signs and then we went out to a couple of areas that we knew we'd see them ride by and cheered them on. They did great and all made it to the end of the race. Way to go Team!!

Jason and Danica tried something new and entered a Spartan Race with Jason's brother and his wife. This is what someone said about doing a Spartan Race--

 They call it a "race", but don't treat it as one. Think of it as an obstacle course, and each obstacle is a toy. You don't need to go fast; the power is in finishing and showing that you had the physical and mental toughness to do it. The mental toughness is easy if you're enjoying it.

Dale and I weren't able to go support them in this due to our sailing trip in WA with Nate, but they completed it and no one broke anything! It was hard, but they didn't give up and worked together as a team. Way to go team Hassell!!

I called this month's post July Jabbers because Mother Nature has been throwing us a lot of jabs with hot days. We had temps into the high 90's most of the month, and then would get a few storms roll in that cooled it down a bit. When we got the rain in our area we were quite happy because our lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, etc. REALLY needed it. We were glad to take any amount we could get. 

We'd have a few teasers with dark clouds, but then it would blow over. We did have some pretty sunrises and sunsets though.

The Mallory's got out and tried to float paper boats they'd made and did a happy dance during a short but strong rainstorm they got during the day.

Meanwhile cities in the southwest and south central area of our state got hit pretty hard with much needed rain. The ground was so dry and it came so fast that it caused some pretty bad flooding. My heart goes out to those affected by the storms.

Both Cedar City and Iron County have declared states of emergency due to the flooding. Local officials said at a press conference earlier that day that at least 100 residents, mostly students at Southern Utah University, were displaced due to the storm.

Smoke also filled the skies of Utah as a cold front swept wildfire smoke into the state.

The front moving in from the west picked up smoke from fires in California and Oregon, including the growing Dixie Fire that leveled a small California town. So, so sad.

Our area has had a fewer smaller fires caused by lightning, but they've been able to be put out fairly fast. The air was pretty hazy for four days though because of the fires.

The 2020 Summer Olympics started this month. They were suppose to of happened last year, but due to COVID they were cancelled. Their couldn't be many spectators in the stands for any of the events and the athletes had to wear masks when they weren't competing because of the new strain COVID has brought to the world. The USA has some athletes from Utah competing -- Here is a list of Utah athletes competing in Tokyo: 

Men’s Volleyball

• Taylor Sander, BYU, is a current professional volleyball player.
• Brenden Sander, BYU, is an alternate for Team USA.
• Ben Patch, Layton and Provo, is an alternate for Team USA.

Men’s Basketball

• Joe Ingles, Utah Jazz, will play for his native Australian team.
• Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz, will play in his second Olympics for France.
• Damian Lillard, Weber State alum and current member of the Portland Trail Blazers, will represent Team USA.

Women’s Gymnastics

• MyKayla Skinner, University of Utah; Skinner plans to retire from the sport following the Olympics.
• Grace McCallum, University of Utah; the incoming freshman will provide fans of the Red Rocks a preview of things to come in the future.
• Kara Eaker, University of Utah, will serve as an alternate for Team USA.

Women’s Basketball

• Leilani Mitchell, University of Utah, is a current member of the Washington Mystics and will play for Australia.

Pistol Shooting

• Alexis Lagan, University of Utah, started shooting at age 15, and has participated in other world events, including the 2019 Pan American Games.

Women’s Indoor Volleyball

• Luka Slabe, BYU, joined the U.S Women’s National Team staff following three seasons as an assistant coach for the BYU men’s team.

Women’s Rugby

• Jordan Matyas, BYU, was a collegiate All-American in 2014, and will represent Team USA in Tokyo.

Baseball

• Eddy Alvarez, Salt Lake Community College, Alvarez played for SLCC in 2011, and made his Major League Baseball debut with the Miami Marlins on Aug. 5, 2020.

Softball

• Hannah Flippen, University of Utah; the California native played at Utah from 2014 to 2017.

Beach Volleyball

• Jake Gibb, Bountiful; the Tokyo Games will be Gibb’s fourth Olympics.

Swimming

• Rhyan White, Herriman, will participate in the backstroke. White currently swims at the University of Alabama.

Sport Climbing

• Nathaniel Coleman, Murray; the Tokyo Games will be Coleman’s debut for the sport.

Cycling

• Haley Batten, Park City, will take part in the Mountain Biking event during the Tokyo Games.

GO UTAH!! GO TEAM USA!!

  

A COVID up-date tells us that Utah counted seven more COVID-19 deaths Tuesday from five counties, including a man and a woman in the 25 to 44 age range. None of the seven killed were over 84 years and only two were older than 64. The deaths were counted from Davis, Millard, Salt Lake, Uintah and Washington counties bringing the total number killed in the state by coronavirus to 2,441.

“Right now, we have high volumes of patients in the hospital," Dr. Taki May, the medical director at Logan Regional Hospital said.

It is expected that the CDC will change its masking guidelines and recommend that even people who have been vaccinated wear masks indoor in parts of the U.S. where COVID-19 is surging. Los Angeles and St. Louis have reverted to indoor mask mandates while virus spikes.

Japan's capital, Tokyo, reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, days after the Olympics began.

The United States leads that statistic with 627,048 killed, followed by Brazil's 550,586. It's data shows Peru has the most deaths per 1 million people while the U.S. is 21 in deaths per million.

I felt like this was a good Jab to end on. Hopefully our area will start to be a bit more careful. I sure hope we don't get shut down again.