Rock made the most exciting parts of our 4th of July meal this year.
He made Delicious Smash Burgers on his new griddle which were heavenly.

AND he made the most beautiful Pavlova I’ve ever seen!

My mother’s day present this year was a Pergola/Canopy for the patio and if it hadn’t been for the cross country trip one of the boxes took on accident, we would have had it put together on the 4th of July, but it didn’t get finished until a few weeks later. It was a big job!

Liberty had her birthday in July which turned out to be spread throughout the month and into the next! We had a family party on her birthday for which I spent an entire day making the most complicated cake I’ve ever made and Rock made Mongolian BBQ.

Later on in the month she and some of her friends had a pizza night and went to see Twisters for the 2nd or 3rd time, because who doesn’t want to watch Glen Powell, AGAIN? Then another group of her friends threw her a surprise Princess Tea party. They dressed up in prom dresses, and dipped food in a chocolate fountain. I listened on our doorstep when she went next door and heard them all yell surprise!!

Cade also had a birthday in July, though not quite as exciting as a princess tea party. He is now two decades old. Just after his birthday he got transferred back to Colorado, this time to Longmont. He loves it there and was happy for the change. He is really enjoying his new companion and he can see these beautiful mountains from his area.

Next up, our trips to Coeur d’Alene and Sun Valley.

Our sweet bunny Amber passed away in June. She was getting old and Liberty knew it would probably happen this year, but it was still a sad day.

These girls have been friends as long as we’ve had Amber. So they came over for the funeral. We buried Amber next to the cherry tree we lost earlier this year. Someday she’ll be under the new one we planted. Head stone coming soon.

Rest in Peace, sweet bunny!

After the reunion, Reagan had to head back to Orem for work, and we drove to Grand Junction to spend some time with Rock’s parents before they go on their grand adventure to Mexico to serve in a temple there. On the other side of Capital Reef is this awesome gas station in a cave!

On our way to GJ we stopped in Goblin Valley. For those of you who are old enough, this is one of the places they filmed the movie Galaxy Quest-a great 90’s spoof on Star Trek. The movie is a classic and the valley was amazing.

Rock’s parents are currently living in a 5th wheel trailer while they build their new “barndominium” on their beautiful property and get things ready to go live in Mexico to hopefully serve as temple workers in the Merida Temple. Here’s a picture of their new “home” and one of the awesome view from their property.

Because they are living in a tiny trailer, the tables were a little flipped this time and we had them over to our airbnb for dinner. The next day we hoped to play around and explore on their property, but we got rained out! Grand Junction had rain like crazy while we were there. We did manage to help Grandpa with his truck bed lid before it started raining though.

After it stopped raining we weren’t able to play on the property because of the mud but we were able to visit the Grand Junction Temple currently being built. Nancy took this picture maybe a month before we were there, but it’s too good not to share.

The next day for Grandpa’s birthday we decided to brave the rain, hope for the best and head to the Mesa. After eating at our new favorite restaurant in GJ, Starvin Arvin’s for breakfast, we drove through rain, sleet, hail, and fog to get to the top of the Mesa. When we finally made it, we got a little reprieve. The sun came out for about 30 minutes so we could eat some lunch at the beautiful Mesa Lakes picnic area. After the rain, the fish were jumping so much you could almost catch them with your hands. Levi and Grandpa were sad they hadn’t brought their fishing poles.

Us girls did not get our fill of action that day so Nancy, Libby and I drove through the Colorado National Monument later that day! This place never disappoints!

That night we had Dave and Jeannie and Grandma and Grandpa over to our place and Grandpa made steaks for his birthday dinner. It was great to see them before they head off on their amazing adventure!

The next day we headed home, stopping in Orem to take Reagan to lunch at our favorite Brazilian place!

Trek 2024

The Wednesday after we got back from Utah, the kids went on Trek. It was shorter than in past years, only 3.5 days, 2.5 days of actual trekking. The rules have gotten “shockingly” lax over the years and kids are now allowed to bring deodorant and bug spray and the girls are not required to wear bloomers and bonnets. Their first night they were supposed to sleep in tents but the property double booked them and had to put them in a big huge barn for the night instead. This turned out to be a little miracle when an afternoon thunderstorm dropped massive hail that would have destroyed their tents and gear had they not been in the barn. The next two days they pushed and pulled their handcarts up huge hills working hard together. They even had a few real service opportunities as they worked to carry a young man who had broken his leg in several places earlier in the summer and a young woman who had a rare case of eczema on her hands that gave her blisters that required constant bandage replacement. Both kids toughed it out and taught all the others some awesome lessons in perseverance. Levi and Libby had a great experience and can’t wait to do another trek. I am so grateful for all the ward members who volunteered their time to go along and help my kids do something hard and learn about the pioneers.

That was all the traveling we did in June. We had one more happening to blog but it deserves it’s own post, so stay tuned.

My family has been saving for several years to have a real family reunion and this year we finally made it happen. We all drove down to Capital Reef National Park in Utah, a park my whole family loves. We stayed in a beautiful Airbnb and played (sort of) in the park for a few days. It was really fun! Get ready for a Red Rock Overload.

Our first night there we enjoyed the view, the pickle ball court and the 9 Square game and the trampoline. The dog came with the neighbor’s house. lol.

The next morning Dad made Swedish pancakes for everyone-a family favorite. It was too windy to play on the property so we drove into the park only to find out that most of the park and the scenic drive were closed for construction ALL SUMMER. We were able to see quite a bit of beautiful but we were all bummed about the road closures.

Even though we didn’t get to see Capital Gorge, we did get to hike along Grand Wash which is pretty cool.

On the second day Levi came back from his morning run telling us that he’d found an amazing rock formation for us to hike to AND he found some abandoned puppies! First, the puppies:

He gave them some water but they were pretty worn out. Possibly traumatized by the huge wind storm the night before. Rock called animal control to report it and they said they had already gotten some calls on the puppies and that they would take care of it. We wrangled everybody up and headed to Levi’s rock formation which was actually called Lion’s Head. Only the knee and hip handicapped-Mom and Rock-couldn’t join us. 😦 But this area was SO cool! And it was even cool temperature-wise. We had beautiful weather our whole stay; in the high 70’s. We climbed around on these rocks for hours.

When we finished climbing the rocks and everyone else headed home, Levi insisted on making sure the puppies had been picked up. We checked and sure enough, they were still there! So we called animal control again and this time they actually got them. From animal control:

Levi was the hero of the day-he found the coolest place to hike AND he saved some puppies.

That afternoon we played more pickle ball, more 9 square, and this Hedbanz game which was super popular. Rosie was amazing at it!

We ordered some food in and finished off our leftovers before heading into the park one last time. We ended the night with smores.

I think we did pretty good for our first official reunion. We have a little left over in our $ pot so let’s keep saving and do it again!!

Stay tuned for Jam Packed June part III-Grand Junction and Trek!

June was by far our busiest month this summer. We had something almost every week! The first week of June Levi and Liberty were gone at FSY. We were empty nesters for a week. It was weird! While Rock worked during the day I worked on a project in the yard and at night we ate yummy food outside on our patio. Steak or salmon almost every night.

Stay tuned for the first ever Don Wesel family reunion and our trip to Grand Junction in Jam Packed June Part II

We finished up the school year in May. Our last kid is done with middle school. So weird.

Both Libby and Levi had their end of year choir concerts.

Levi continued the tradition that Cade started of not telling us when he sings a solo or duet in a choir concert. :-(.

Levi finished up his track season as one of two sophomores who qualified for state-as an alternate-in the 800 relays. Technically his time was 1/100th of a second faster than the other sophomore for which it is possible he celebrated just a little too much about. But we are proud of his constant pushing himself this season.

Cade got transferred to not only a new area but a whole different state! This is how he told us where he was going:

Yes, he is now in Casper Wyoming and thrilled to be near some mountains and more civilization. Right after he arrived, however, he broke his hand playing basketball and has had to wear a splint.

We missed the biggest showing of the Northern Lights but were able to just barely catch a glimpse of some the next night. It was fun chasing them down as we drove further north.

Reagan did fabulous at car sales in May. He “Hat tricked” which means he sold 3 cars in one day on Memorial Day and then sold 2.5 cars the first day of June. Way to go, Reagan Dean!!!

We looked out our front door a few weeks ago on a warm afternoon and found this cute little family taking a break on our warm cement porch.

Libby finished up another season of dance. It is so fun to watch how much she has grown into a beautiful dancer. She loves pointe and can’t wait to actually dance en pointe in a recital next year.

It’s not Father’s day yet, but I just wanted to point out what an awesome Father and husband Rock is. From the beginning of this month when he held down the fort so I could go to Women’s Conference for 5 days, to being Levi’s personal trainer/coach/running therapist, to writing Cade every single week, to making our favorite sourdough pizzas or baking adventurous things with Liberty (including a strawberry rhubarb pie for my dad’s birthday) AND chaperoning a field trip- he cheers us on, challenges us, listens to us and supports all we do month in and month out. I love him and am so grateful for all he does for our family.

We had our usual April visitors last week. I love that I live where they come through my yard every year.

Reagan was also an April visitor. He came up for conference weekend. He had his biggest sale ever this month!

Levi got picked to run in the Oregon Relays last weekend. It’s a HUGE meet at the University of Oregon in Eugene. They ran in a massive stadium. The morning of his race when he first saw the stadium he sent us this video:

He was the 800 anchor in the 1 mile sprint medley relay. We got to watch at home because it was live streamed. It was super exciting! It was like watching your kid run in the Olympics!! Levi was in the second slowest heat out of 5 heats-just to give you some perspective. He could see himself on the jumbotron so he was smiling the whole time. You’ll have to watch the video to see if he won or not. This is just his part of the relay.

Here are some snapshots of the race.

Another highlight for him was watching a world record breaking race in the Distance Medley Relay live.

This week (in ONE week!) he qualified for Districts in both the 2 mile and the 800!

My wins this month were not quite as exciting, but it is very gratifying to look out my window and see some of the plants I planted last year doing so well!

Last Thursday, we woke up to find this boy in our guestroom! Surprise!

He and a friend drove all night to surprise their families. Liberty got the biggest surprise when she went into that room at about 3:00 AM because she couldn’t sleep. She was going to try sleeping in a different bed. But there was a body in the bed and it told her “Don’t tell mom!” over and over. She went back to her room and went to sleep. When she got up that morning for school she thought maybe it had been a dream and did not tell me anything. I went about my day and was gone for much of it, having no clue that he was even home. When I got home that afternoon I heard Reagan’s voice upstairs and assumed Levi was playing computer games with him over the phone. When I walked into the room, there was Reagan! He got to have a home cooked meal, watch Levi’s 2 mile race and I sent him home with some of my homemade oreos when he left the next morning. What I didn’t know until I opened my blinds later that morning was that Reagan had spent all night digging a hole in the backyard to plant the replacement cherry tree that I bought for the backyard. I looked out the window just as I had the day I found the old cherry tree tipped on it’s side, totally confused as to what I was seeing. I couldn’t find the tree in a bucket that had been there the day before. It took me a minute to realize it was in the ground!! I don’t know how he did it in the dark, but he managed to dig a perfect hole, plant that cherry tree, and surprise me yet again! Thanks, Reagan Dean for keeping me on my toes. And for giving me such a nice gift. My back, especially thanks you!

Not the basketball kind. Though Levi really got into the basketball kind this year with friends. The madness we had here was with the weather. We bounced from 70 degree days to snow to massive wind, hail storms and floods in the street behind our house in March. I put the following quote on our porch chalkboard at the beginning of March not knowing how prescient it would be! “Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one hour.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since our Spring Break is always so early and this year was even earlier, we planned to go skiing up at Brundage. Ironically enough, it was gorgeous and sunny in the high 60’s down in Boise that week which meant that we had Brundage to ourselves but it also meant that it was too warm to keep skiing by 1:00! It was a fun day, though. Beautiful, warm and great snow…till it wasn’t. We ended the day eating at our favorite Mexican restaurant in McCall.

Track started and Levi is in Varsity and getting PR’s with almost every race. He’s never happy with his times, but he’s having a solid season.

This year some moms got together and decided it would be a good idea to shower Levi’s group of friends with a fancy lunch twice a week. They call it lunch bunch and the moms rotate feeding about 15 kids. Don’t get me wrong, they are a great bunch of kids, I’m just not as into spoiling my kids as some moms are. Nevertheless I am in the rotation. Anyway, there had been a lunch bunch on the day of this meet, and Levi ate too much. Running the mile was a little rough and this brand new track, never before used, was christened by Levi because there were NO garbage cans anywhere on the track! Warning: graphic photo to follow. 😉

Reagan did something totally cool this month! In addition to making his biggest sale ever, he also took not one, but two introductory flights in an airplane. The kind where the pilot lets you fly the plane! He’s been thinking about going to flight school and did this as a way to test it out. He had a blast but hasn’t decided on flight school yet.

Cade is now on his 3rd transfer and is still in Sterling, CO but is now done with training. He’s learning the typical lessons of a new missionary; how to love your companion when you disagree and how to love the people you teach. I love seeing his spiritual development. Here’s a fun picture taken while we were talking on the phone one day.

For Easter we had everyone over for dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt. Liberty, Levi and Lincoln hid them for the littler kids and it was a little weird having those three be the oldest now of the bunch. Old enough to be hiding the eggs instead of finding them. Liberty (and Rock) made this awesome carrot cake for us all to enjoy for dessert:

And that was March!!

We had a windy, rainy few days early in March and woke up to find this tragedy in our backyard:

Our big old Cherry tree had finally gotten so lopsided (despite pruning over the years) that it just tipped over! I was so shocked and sad that I was speechless. I just stared out my window trying to understand what I was seeing! Amazingly enough, there was virtually no damage to the fence or yard, But it was indeed a very sad day. The kids had a similar response and went outside to pay tribute to it. Before it was cut down and hauled away we saved some wood to make each of the kids a Christmas tree ornament out of it that they can keep forever.

Here’s our beloved tree through the years….

We have so many memories on, under, and around this tree. It will leave a hole in our yard, but it will leave a bigger hole in our hearts.

Shopping

Liberty and I took a quick trip to Utah the first weekend in February to shop for some shelving at IKEA to go over her desk. She recently moved into Cade’s old room and needs more desk space. We drove down on Friday and picked up some yummy Brazilian fast food that we love and took some to Reagan at work. We surprised him cause he thought we would arrive later. Liberty has changed enough over the last year that when she walked into the dealership he didn’t immediately recognize her. lol. We hung out the rest of the night with my sisters, Cam and Reagan. Libby was looking for a fancy dress to wear to our youth Etiquette dinner and Alli loaned her the perfect dress! She was sooo excited it to wear it. And in my unbiased opinion she had the prettiest dress at the dinner. Thank you, Allie!

The next morning we played some pickleball with Cam and Allie. I love that game and need to play it more! Next, we went to BYU to do some returns and of course, eat at the Creamery. Libby loves going to BYU and dreaming of her chance to go there someday. We also stopped at the Richards Building so she could find a ballet studio. We never found a ballet studio, but we did find these:

She’s now even more excited to go to the Y and wants to major in Elementary Ed and minor in dance.

Next was IKEA. I thought she’d enjoy it, but it was a little too much for her. LOL! She was wiped out by the end. But we found her some shelves she was excited about. My sisters came along and were very patient with us.

That night Cam and Allie made us some yummy tacos and we hung out with Sarin and Reagan some more. The next day after church we had some lunch, played some games with everyone and then headed home. I wish we could have spent more time with Reagan, but he was busy making money! Which is a good thing.

The Symphony

For our Valentine’s date this year, Rock and I went to the Symphony. The Boise Philharmonic performed a Night of the Cinematic Music of John Williams. I absolutely loved this concert. The conductor gave a little background before each song and not only did I learn a lot about John William’s amazing talent, but I realized that the movies and music of Steven Spielberg and John Williams have shaped my life in a HUGE way. It was basically the soundtrack to my life in movies. It was such a treat! They opened with the Star Wars theme which needed no introduction. They played the theme from Jaws and the conductor told us that when John Williams first played it for Spielberg he couldn’t believe how much fear two little notes played over and over again could instill and- how much that fear still haunts all of us in this generation when we swim in the ocean. lol.

They played music from Hook and Harry Potter (the conductor switched out his baton for a wand when they played Hedwig’s theme). They played the theme from E.T. and he told us that the music was so moving and so perfect that Steven Spielberg actually did something very rarely done-he edited his movie to match the music instead of the other way around as is usually done. I love that! They played the NBC music theme which I’ve heard my whole life but never all the way through. The conductor told us that Williams tried to incorporate the telegraph or ticker tape sound into it and I’d never noticed it before.

When they played the Olympic Fanfare and theme I was transported back to 1984 when Mary Lou Retton and Whitney Houston were my heroes. Before they played the theme to Schindler’s List the conductor told us that when Spielberg showed Williams the first rough cuts of the movie, he said, “You need someone better than me to write music for this.” To which Spielberg replied, “I know, but everyone better than you is dead.” Best compliment EVER.

Before they ended the concert with the theme from Superman, the conductor told us what Steven Spielberg said last year when he presented John Williams with a special award. This really summed up the beauty, magic and talent of this amazing composer: “Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly. Nor do brooms and Quidditch matches. Nor do men in red capes. There is no force.” The amazing stories of my-our life time told through movies etc would not have the power to move us without the work of these two men. What a wonderful night! Thank you, Rock! And just in case you are wondering as I was that whole night, “When are they going to play Indiana Jones?!”, they played it as their encore. lol.

At church last week Libby was inspired to create something amazing so she came home and designed and baked this very cool cake! She named it the Fire Lemon cake.

Sweethearts

Levi went to his first formal dance this last weekend-the Sweethearts Dance. He had a great time and looked so handsome!