Together Again!

Together Again!  

 

June 30 – July 10, 2021

 

Wow!  I’ve fallen terribly behind in keeping this journal.  Things suddenly got a little crazy and I got a bit distracted!

 

Crazy #1 was the heat wave that hit Idaho.  The heat hit while we were in Mountain Home; however, we were in the mountains and the higher elevation offered some natural relief.  Our next reservation was for Bruneau Dunes State Park, which we had really been looking forward to.  The problem was it is located in the desert and only offers 30 amp service.  30 amps are more than enough normally, but with the extreme heat, we really wanted either some shade or 50 amps to help with air conditioning.  Changing campgrounds got a bit complicated due to the fact that our dates centered around a national holiday!  The Fourth of July is a big time for families to gather and campgrounds are a common place where that happens!  Dick was tenacious in his search and eventually found a spot for us to call home for a couple of nights in American Falls.  It was a nice spot located with the American Falls Reservoir out our back window.  We enjoyed the afternoon heat with a Salty Dog (thanks again for introducing us to this, Doug!) under a shade tree beside the reservoir.  Evening strolls along the reservoir made for beautiful sunset views!  

Our next couple of days took us to Tremonton, Utah.  Dick managed to find Aspen Grove RV Park in Tremonton.  Typically, we prefer state parks or county parks over RV parks; however this place is an exception!  It’s a new park, created by a couple who had spent the last 10 years full time RV living.  They built this park to include all of their favorite features from parks they had stayed in over the years.  It was amazing!  They had all kinds of recreation available (Corn Hole, Ladders, and most importantly – PICKLEBALL!).  Everything about the park was well thought out and very well put together!  Since we were staying there over the 4th, we considered driving to a fireworks display that we saw advertised about 30 minutes away.  In the end, we decided to stay “home” and sat outside thoroughly enjoying a panoramic view of fireworks put on by who knows who! 

Not far from Tremonton is Promontory Summit, where the Golden Spike completed the first transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.  At the park, they have replica locomotives and offer reenactments regularly.  It was fun to see Central Pacific’s Juniper (wood burning) and Union Pacific’s No. 119 (coal burning) parked nose to nose.  It was even more amazing to see the engineers fire up the two locomotives and drive them down the tracks!  

Crazy #2 was the last-minute Peterson gathering that happened at Brandon and Anne’s home!  Despite expecting their baby in a couple of weeks, they graciously agreed to host Maggie, Luke, Norah (traveling from Iowa), Lauren, Adam, Emma, Eli (traveling from Minnesota), and Dick and me for a week!  Covid had kept us apart since December of 2019 and that was about to be corrected!  Last minute flights were booked and we all descended upon Brandon, Anne, Josh and Eva!  What a tremendous time we had!  Many trails were hiked, much food was eaten, and Norah finally was able to meet her Utah uncle, aunt and cousins!  

"I like this guy!"

Picking currents on Desolation Trail

Luke and Norah

Desolation Trail

Eva celebrated her 9th birthday a couple of weeks before we gathered together.  Dick and I sent her a fairy garden kit as part of her gift and Eva was sweet enough to wait to set it up until after we arrived. Emma and Eli joined Eva and me in finding the perfect spot for the garden and carefully arranging each of the pieces.  I can't tell you the hours we spent over the course of our time together rearranging and playing with the fairy and various animals!  Somehow the fairy and animals seemed to magically move overnight!  So strange!

One of the trails we hiked was to Donut Falls.  It was an out and back hike that followed the mountain stream leading to the waterfall.  It was gorgeous and had all of the makings for a perfect day -- until Eva stumbled into a stinging nettle plant.  You can be sure Eva was acutely aware on all future hikes of what nettles looks like and on the watch for any signs of the torturous weed.  It's a hard lesson to learn.  

Nettle stings are NO fun!

Another great hike we took was in the Uintas.  It was about an hour drive into the mountains, which took us to stunning views and cooler weather!  

Brandon and Anne have a neighborhood pool just down the street which we gave plenty of our time to!  The “cousin crew” (thank you Maggie for making the shirts!) had a blast splashing around, going off the diving boards, playing water volleyball, and chasing each other.  What a perfect way to spend time with family and stay cool on a hot summer afternoon!

Brandon lives in about the perfect neighborhood!  Not only is there a swimming pool only yards from their front door, but just down the street is the trailhead to the Bonneville Shoreline trail!  To be sure, this is a regular trail for hikers and mountain bikers.  

The trails are well marked "Heels, not wheels" and "Wheels, not heels" so it is a great experience no matter what mode of transportation you are choosing!

When the day was wrapping up, the kids got on their PJ’s and Brandon broke out his guitar for some family sing-along time before prayers.  Justin Roberts wrote some fantastic children’s music that we all really enjoyed.  Burning Bush, On the First Day and Zacchaeus were favorites and will be stuck in my brain forever!  Before leaving, Emma requested Brandon to lead us in song one more time! 

After the kids were all tucked into bed for the night, we put the guitar away and broke out the whiskey and the game, Monikers!  If you haven't tried Monikers, I highly recommend it.  I got the best abs workout I've had in a long while, laughing along with everyone else!

Saying goodbye to everyone was tough; however, we can’t thank Brandon and Anne enough for making room for all of us in their home and hosting us!  It was amazing to be gathered together again IN PERSON!!  

Crazy #3 was two days after Lauren and Maggie’s families left, Anne gave birth to Zoe!  Now that everyone has finally met Norah, we have the challenge of finding a way for everyone to meet Zoe!  I’m thinking that will be down the road a bit and we will have to be satisfied with pictures and video chats for now.  As far as Dick and me meeting Zoe, we had not left yet and had the blessing of spending time with Josh and Eva while their parents went to the hospital and being at their home when they brought Zoe home from the hospital.  It brought tears to my eyes to witness Brandon and Anne introducing Josh and Eva to Zoe.  Somehow it seems like only yesterday it was us introducing Brandon and Lauren to Maggie.  Time goes by so quickly!

Up next:  Meeting Zoe!