July 4th – 10th

4th of July

On Monday was the Fourth of July. Siara and Nate were having a party in the evening. I helped them clean the patio and other stuff to help them get ready. We had to move the boxes to the fishery that were stacked on the patio and move patio furniture from the front to the back. I moved a bunch of other stuff off the patio as well. I also blew off the patio and then power washed it. It was nice to have the patio clean again. Nate and Siara had hamburgers and hotdogs to grill. I had some stuff I had gotten at Costco to share as well. She made a mist system for the patio and to water her plants and refresh guests. She had moved a bunch of her stuff that was in the greenhouse to the patio and put them on shelves and then set up the mist system. I had hoped to get the playhouse setup as well so the kids would have something to do, but I didn’t realize how many parts there were. It was going to take weeks to set up.

In the evening mom came over and then some couples that were their friends. I tried to set up an outdoor movie for the kids but was missing a part. Everyone went to the top of the hill to watch the fireworks around the valley. One of the couples had a cute little baby girl and Remi was loving playing with her. She loves babies. She pretends to take care of babies all the time. She even carries one in her shirt like a carrier.

It’s fly season so that was the only bad part. Nate and Siara showed their friends the animals and gardens.

John and Ali 4th of July at Property

John and Ali went to their property for the 4th. They went kayaking in the lake. The boat dock is across the street from their property. Their dogs Loki and Bob sat on the boards while they kayaked. They also went to Roaring River which is a fish hatchery. It has trout fishing, swimming, and good showers . They sat in hammocks there and in the river. At their property they have an instant-up blackout tent and a big lockable storage box with their camping equipment. They also put up bug zappers and snake deterrents around the campsite. They are very excited to build and live there. It feels like home to them.

Drought

We’ve had such a bad drought that I was surprised that fireworks were allowed anywhere. Everything was so dry. Lake Powell water was so low that all the boat ramps were closed except an extending one that they built. They were worried that they wouldn’t have enough water to create power for the states, not to mention drinking water. They had to cut back on the water send to Lake Mead and that lake was so low they were also having problems supplying power and water. Bodies in barrels were being found in dried up parts. The mob from Las Vegas dumped bodies in that lake.

Visiting Nathan and Josie after His Surgery

On Tuesday Mom and I went over to visit Nathan. He had been released on Monday but insisted I didn’t need to come pick them up and take them home. He said he would take an Uber. Josie was upset at me because I hadn’t been to support them with his surgery. She was right. I should have come over on the day of the surgery. I had found out about when the surgery was going to be that week and hadn’t put it on my calendar. They had put off the surgery because they found a speck on his bone and needed to make sure the cancer wasn’t in his bone. Thankfully, it wasn’t. He would have had a 50/50 chance of survival if it had been.

I should have been there to support Josie. She needed the support but I had so many things to catch up on after a very busy week with the kids. We didn’t have any groceries and the laundry needed done and the house was a mess, etc. I had hoped she would do some work on her computer while waiting. But she was so worried about missing the doctor when he came out she wouldn’t even go get a drink or eat. It took me a couple of days to not feel so bad after she was upset with me.

Nathan looked great though. He had good coloring in his face. He was up and walking around and doing stuff. He looked like his normal healthy self. He had recovered really fast. He showed us his scars. They had done both the liver and the colon at the same time. There were two holes on the top of his belly. They had taken out the gallbladder to get to the liver. They also cut off the diseased part of the colon and then reconnected the colon. They had disconnected the small intestine from the large and routed the small intestine opening to the outside of his body into a bag so that waste could go in there while his colon healed. He had to empty the bag as needed. There was a large cut across the bottom of his belly where they had cut out the large intestine piece.

Snowbird

On Wednesday Siara tried to cheer me up and we went out together to the mountains. She wanted some tree cuttings for propagation and I just wanted to be in the mountains. They are my happy place. We went to Snowbird. I had tickets for the tram and was excited to show them the tunnel and stuff, but once again the enclosed tram was not open that day. They were replacing it and doing some tests on it. We went up the mountain anyway on the ski lift chairs. But the tunnel was also closed because of they were storing wedding supplies in it. It was still a fun time because there were great views and there was snow on the ground still in places. The kids slid down a long hill of snow on their butts.

The pictures below are at the top of the mountain. You can see the tunnel entrance and ski lift behind Locke. The boys and I went up the trail to the top of the mountain and looked over to the other side. We could see the lodge above us but it was closed so we didn’t go there. Siara didn’t have the right shoes on for the walk up the dirt road.

Top of the mountain looking over the other side.

The boys sliding down the hill of unmelted snow.

On Friday Nate and Siara went to Provo for a little get away. They had a free hotel to stay at. They went swimming in the hotel pool, to BYU, out to eat, and shopping.

While they were gone I worked on the playhouse. It has so many little parts that have to go on exactly in the correct way. It can be difficult to find the parts and find where they go, but I like the orderliness of it and seeing the progress as it goes up.