As I said in my last post, Rock and Levi were hiking their way home from a backpacking trip in the Sawtooths on our anniversary. They did lots of fishing, cliff jumping, reading and day hiking and then headed home on the 26th. By 6:00 pm when we still hadn’t heard from them, I started to wonder what was going on. I finally got a text informing me that Rock had twisted his ankle very badly one mile into their 8 mile hike down. The man hiked 7 more miles (with his pack) on what we would find out later was a broken ankle. Some very nice hikers gave him hiking poles and an ace bandage to wrap it up, but needless to say they hiked very slowly. Before I tell you how this story ends, here are some pictures they took before the injury.

Half a mile from the end of the hike where they were supposed to catch the 5:00 boat back across Red Fish Lake, they were worried they’d miss the boat so Levi ran the rest of the way, dropped off his pack and then ran back to Rock to carry his pack down the last little bit so he could go a little faster. Unfortunately, the boat was full by the time they got there and they had to wait anyway. A 2.5 hour hike took them 6 hours. Tradition must be kept even with a broken ankle, so they ate hamburgers and ice cream at the Red Fish Lodge before driving home. It took them an extra hour because of a mudslide detour. By the time they got home at 11:30 pm his foot was badly swollen and black and blue. It was so big he looked like a hobbit!

We took him to the doctor the next day and found out that he’d broken the tip of the fibula. They gave him a boot that he was to wear for 6 weeks and crutches and told him to ice it every few hours. Not good under regular circumstances. Really not good when you are leaving for Hawaii in two days. Stay tuned for Handicapped in Hawaii.

For the 4th of July this year we decided to do something big for America’s 250th Birthday Celebration. So we went to Utah to see the Stadium of Fire. It was pretty awesome. Not something I need to do again, but the best fireworks I’ve seen in a long time. My favorite part was watching the kids reactions. They’ve been doing fireworks in our cul de sac only for so many years, they don’t really appreciate how awesome the big shows can be.

Earlier in the day we hiked up Spanish Fork Canyon to see the huge American flag they hang there around the 4th every year. Pictures don’t do it justice, it was really cool!

That evening we headed to Cougar Stadium. Yes, I know it has a different name now, but I like the old one better.

Brad Paisley was the concert artist. Not my favorite singer, but a good one. The firework show came at the very end. It was worth the wait. Drones helped make it an amazing show.

When we got home from Utah we celebrated Liberty’s 16th birthday!

We love this girl!!! She makes us laugh, keeps us humble and helps us chill.

Rock tried out his new pasta making tools for us in July. He made us delicious Fetucini Alfredo.

Cade was home in between school semesters and so we got to celebrate his birthday with him. First time in a while! I am Really proud of the man this boy has become.

July 26th was our 25th Anniversary! My husband was hiking in the mountains, so he sent me the biggest and most beautiful bouquet I’ve ever gotten. And this sweet note. We will celebrate later this year by going to the Del Coronado in San Diego where we stayed on our honeymoon.

This bouquet was so tall. I tried to give you some perspective with this photo:

Rock was supposed to be home by dinnertime on our anniversary, but he was…delayed. Stay tuned to find out why.

Reagan was successful at keeping his mission call a secret from Levi and he was able to surprise him in June when he opened it. What’s even better is that he was also able to surprise me as well! There were many close calls, many times one of us almost slipped and gave it away but finally the day came when we thought he might get his mission call. About mid morning Reagan checked the little loophole you can do to find out if you will be getting your call soon (you’ve been assigned a missionary email account) and told me that he wasn’t going to get it that day. Because of the way it all happened and because I also had checked the loophole and found nothing, I believed him. That evening I was out doing a Relief Society visit with someone I really needed to talk with and the visit lasted a while. I started getting texts from Reagan asking when I was going to be home and then calls, which I ignored, even telling the woman I was with, “He’s 23! What can he possibly need me for so badly?” And I kept talking. Then I got some texts from Libby. And then finally Rock called and said, “You really should come home”. So I finally left thinking the kids must be trying to surprise me with something completely different. I got home and nothing seemed out of the ordinary but Rock came in and said I needed to go in the office. So out I went, humoring them with their crazy plan-still not thinking it was the mission call. Finally I was allowed to go back in the house. At the exact same time Levi, who had been led around town for an extra hour by his friends came in. When I walked into the room, Cade, who was in Rexburg that morning was sitting on the couch! Then it started to click. Levi and I both saw Reagan standing on the fireplace at the same moment and finally knew what was happening!

South Africa!!!! How crazy is that?! He was really hoping to leave before the end of October, but it takes a long time to get a South African Visa. All of that work to keep it a secret was worth it for this moment:

Reagan starts Home MTC on Oct. 28th and heads to the Provo MTC a week later.

Also in June, Libby went to FSY. She had a blast.

Lots and lots and looooots of World cup watching happened in June as well. Based on how much my husband watched it on a side screen during the work day I’m surprised the US economy didn’t take a little dip that month!

In June we had flood number 2. There have been a total of three floods at our house in four months time. The first one, when the water heater sprung a leak, was in April. In June we had the craziest Thunder/Hail storm we’ve ever had here in Boise. It came down so hard and so fast that it brought down tons of leaves and clogged our outdoor basement stairwell drain. The stairwell filled up with water and in came the water under the door. Rock and Allie, who was here visiting, ran out to the stairwell to bail water while I did my best to stop the flow into the house. It only came a couple yards in onto the wood floor, so it could have been much worse. And we found it almost as soon as it started. We managed to get it mopped up ok and ran tons of fans and a dehumidifier we borrowed (again!) from our neighbors for a few weeks and it dried out. After the storm we were literally shoveling hail away from doorways. There was a giant lake in the road out behind our house that went over the curbs on both sides from Bellflower to the school. Levi tried to body board in it. The house was not the only thing damaged. Every plant in my yard was hurt by the hail. :-(. Our biggest maple tree lost several big limbs. My hostas were completely shredded. And the leaves on my newest trees were shot through with hail bullets leaving them looking mangled and brown the rest of the summer. It was so so sad.

Here’s a video that shows what towns near us looked like. It dropped nearly 8 inches of hail in some places. It was not this bad where we were, but it was still bad. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1K5FUSC2Qo/

Crazy times here in Boise, Idaho!

Levi graduated in May. It was, as it always is, a busy and bittersweet time. After his mission, Levi will be going to BYU. 🙂

We’ll start with seminary graduation.

And here’s graduation:

Some of the senior pictures…

The Big Day

Believe it or not, I just recently heard the term Maycember for the first time. It was true for us this year for sure. There’s probably enough here for three blog posts, but we’ll try splitting May into two. Maycember and Graduation.

At the beginning of May Reagan made a huge decision to move home and prepare for a mission. The kicker was, he wanted to keep it a secret from Levi so he could surprise Levi with his call. This of course added to the crazy of May-it was not easy to keep this very big thing a secret from everyone. We did manage to, though, and I will blog about that later.

Prom

Also at the beginning of May was Prom. Levi asked his girlfriend with an epic poem. HIs friends helped him with it. Here’s the poem and the video: Levi is out by the car in the Royal robe and crown.

She answered in much the same way:

Liberty got to help plan prom this year because she’s on Student Council. She got to go and be an MC.

Mother’s Day

This year for Mother’s day Rock made some delicious Bruschetta and pasta for dinner and he and Libby made a fancy mousse.

Reagan won the day with his gift. A few weeks before Mother’s Day Rock made some fun AI mini movie posters of himself. I jokingly said I would love to have a full size one to put up in my office and so that’s what Reagan gave me for Mother’s day! I LOVE my poster.

Rock bought season tickets to the first ever (minor league) professional soccer team, AC Boise. He has loved going to games and takes one of us every time and all of us when he can. In May we took my Dad to a game. When I was little, he would take me to Tacoma Stars soccer games in the Tacoma Dome and I loved them.

Lasts

Levi had several lasts in May. In his last choir concert he got to sing in a small group with Liberty.

He ran his very last track race. I’m so grateful for his coaches and teammates who pushed him and cheered for him and helped him learn so much through running.

Possibly the most impactful was his unofficial private coach. Rock spent hours talking with Levi, rehashing runs, planning strategy, mourning losses and celebrating wins.

Last day of High School

Liberty had a first in May-her first dance solo. She was Miss Marianne Prue, a kangaroo, in her ballet recital. I accidentally stopped the video in the middle of her dance, so it’s in two parts.

It was her last recital with her good friend Susie, who is going to BYUI in the fall.