Temples & Fishing

Even before the last fishing trip ended, Tyson said he wanted to "come again next year" and go fishing with Grandpa Burrell for another week, so we made a big thing out of it.  I worked it out with Ashlee to have Shelby visit for a week.  After church, Randy, the boys, and I headed to Boise, where we stayed overnight before driving Randy to the airport for a business trip to Michigan.

We ended up being able to get a two-room suite.  So, Brennon and Tyson got their own beds and their own bedroom.  It was a lot of fun.

*As a side note-- after 23 years and hundreds of flights, Randy missed a flight for the very first time.  He didn't realize that he'd set his alarm for 3:00 pm instead of am.  It all turned out ok in the end, but it was stressful for him trying to rebook a flight while on his cell phone in the hotel bathroom while I slept.

While Tyson fished...

Brennon hung out with Grandma Burrell, as well as any and all family that came.  He went to doctor's appointments, a Transformer movie in the theater, as well as Grandma's Pickleball club with friends.

Drew.

I love it when I capture moments when my Dad is teaching Tyson.

I was lucky enough to be in Utah for Drew's last baseball game of the season!

Drew reminds me a lot of Tyson-- a natural at everything he puts his mind to.  It was so much fun watching him.  And that one second where I happened to look away, "Aunt Steph!" and my eyes were back on Drew.  I love my nieces and nephews so, so much!

Payton made Royalairres this year!  She was at practice, so I quickly stopped to see her.  She is nearly as tall as me, even though it looks like she is taller here.  I slouch when I take pictures.  I'm just not good at selfies.

Since I was going to be in Utah for a few days, I took full advantage of 1) the Temples in Utah, but most especially, 2) my FAMILY in Utah!

June 27, 2023

11:00am Session

Ogden Temple with Kimberly

*We both did Alice Gowland, ancestors from the same family line, decades apart.

4:00pm Session

Brigham City Temple with Mom and Brooke

*We did three real-life sisters

June 28, 2023

8:00am Session

Ogden Temple alone

*I did a Session on my ancestor's actual birthday

11:30am Session

Brigham City Temple with Natalie

*Side note: It was a small shock to hear "Welcome to the temple, Sister Dirks" before I'd scanned my own recommend.

6:30pm Session

Logan Temple alone

My parents' house is literally 46 minutes between both Bountiful (where I got my own Endowment out) and Logan (which was Caden's favorite temple when we lived here).  Wanting to feel closer to Caden, I chose Logan.  Plus, I wanted to drive past our old house and see how much it's changed and just sit with my memories.

I love the access to so many temples within a short drive.  Until Moses Lake opens (1.5 hours), the closest temples are Spokane (2.5 hours), Seattle (3 hours), and Portland (3 hours 20 minutes).  How wonderful to have so many options so close.  I'm glad I had the time to take advantage of so many!  8 Female Endowment cards completed in just two days.  That feels amazing!

23 years

June 23, 2000

Salt Lake City Temple

Sealed for Time & All Eternity

June 23, 2023

Columbia River Temple

Temple Ordinance Workers, Friday PM shift

I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

Lasagna Lessons

 "Mom, will you teach me how to make Lasagna?"

Gladly, Brennon.  Gladly.

Braids

 Shelby left this morning, bound for Girls Camp.  We made sure she was packed with all she needed, but most importantly, that she had the Girls Camp Hair-- braids.

I'm always struck by how much hair Shelby has.  I do not know anyone who has hair as thick as her.  Just one of her braids is more than all of my hair in one braid.  My goodness, I love this Camp Cutie!

Unexpected Blessings

When I went to grab something from the deep freeze, my peripheral vision caught sight of blood dripping down the inside of the door.  It was then that I noticed evidence that our freeze her defrosted and refroze.  Since this is the second year in a row that has happened, and remembering that we'd purchased the freeze refurbished 10 years ago, we decided to splurge on a larger, brand-new one.

 Showing the height of the old one (above) vs. the new one (below).

This was packed in our old freezer.  Look at all of those empty shelves and drawers!!

Two days later, a friend asked if I'd go to her house each day while she was out of town to press her Quick Freeze button; her freezer was going out, but she didn't want to lose all of her food before the repairman was coming in two days' time.  When I went the first time, just hours after she'd left, I was SHOCKED to feel that her frozen foods were basically in a fridge, defrosted and completely gushy.  Randy and I jumped into action and brought all of her frozen food to our house-- we had the space now!

It was a good thing, too, because her freezer ended up needing to go to an actual shop.  Because we hadn't had time to fully stock ours, we had plenty of space for her food for a few weeks!  I love it when Heavenly Father uses us as blessings for others.  I loved the new freezer for the opportunities it would give us but loved it even more when it allowed us to serve a friend without her needing to worry one more second about losing hundreds of dollars while she was away.   I love serving others in such a simple way!

BYU Boys

The boys decided to do a BYU Independent Studies class together this summer-- Foods & Nutrition.  First order of business: Banana Bread, with Instagram-worthy pictures and recipes posted.

I'm going to like this.

Mustache you...

 "Dad, will you teach me how to shave my mustache off?"

Party Punks

"What happened to our hammock carabiner? Why is it all stretched out and busted?"

 Brennon hosted a party with his friend group.  They had a great time.

Pratt Paddles

 Keilie and Dallin met us at the river after work.  It was a blast having everyone together, enjoying the river, and getting to know Dallin more and more.

Brennon and Tyson

Brennon and Tyson

Randy towing Brennon in a tube

Keilie kicking as the rudder while Dallin steered the Paddle Board with his arms

I just thought Dallin was trying to be funny using his arms as the paddles.  Nope.  During the transfer from kayak to paddle board with Tyson, the oar was misplaced and Dallin didn't see it.  He is so funny!

I love us

Paracord Practice

I love it when I happen upon my boys mid-project, especially when it is Arts & Crafts related.  Randy found some paracord and decided it was time to sit down and make a bunch of keychains as a family.  So that's exactly what we did after these two watched YouTube for ideas.
 

Richland

I happened upon an article about an upcoming movie called, "Richland."  Of course, this piqued my interest.  When I watched the preview, the opening scene was actually a scene of Caden's cemetery, so I immediately knew it was about our town.

But then my eye caught sight of something that made me gasp and immediately go to the beginning of the Preview just to make sure.  Sure enough, I was right...

I KNOW HIM!!!  He is in our Ward and was one of Caden's friends.  Spencer Hammond!  

I asked Bishop and Kristin if they knew, or if they thought Spencer knew, as he was currently serving his Mission in Boston.  Nope, no one knew!  How neat to have not only a movie about your town (even though I suspect it won't shed happy light on the fact that it was here where the final stages of the Atomic Bomb were perfected) but also featuring some of our friends!  Just neat!
 

Independence Day

 Upon opening our freezer out in the garage today, my peripheral vision caught sight of something that actually startled me: dark red blood dripping from the top shelf of the door, down to the bottom of the freezer.  After the initial shock, I found myself frantically grabbing everything in the freezer to check that it was frozen.  The crazy thing-- everything was rock-hard!  Our freezer had defrosted while we were in Utah and then refroze, as evidenced in the thick ice layer at the bottom of the fridge, as well as the chicken juices that had formed and frozen in all of our 10-pound bags.  Blah.  Since this is the second year in a row that we have had something similar (although last year's debacle didn't include Forensic Files dripping blood), we decided it was time for a new freezer.

Because we'd purchased the freezer second-hand/refurbished and kept it for nearly 10 years, we felt justified to buy a brand new one this time.  While at Lowe's, Randy asked the salesman if he knew of any sales coming up for "Independence Day."  The guy thought for a second before replying, "I don't think we'll have any sales until the 4th of July."

... "Independence Day IS the 4th of July."

"OH! Then, no," and he proceeded to tell us that they price match themselves for 30 days as if he hadn't just made a hilarious blunder.  I'm proud of Randy.  He didn't giggle, smirk, or make him feel ignorant in any way; he just gave the fact as it was without judgment.  I, on the other hand, had to turn away and act as if I was interested in another freezer to hide my smile.  It comes as no surprise to anyone that I married WAY UP!  I'm the luckiest girl in the world