The summer time is coming to an end. It has been a different summer, yet not that different. We were able to do some fun things together as a family. Andrew and Spencer spent some time at Mr. Hovey’s home working on train things too. (He is the adult leader of their train club.) One evening Neal had a fun idea of doing log throwing. We went out into the open space and into the area where water flows after a rain and is full of sand. Neal and Andrew carried down some of the logs from our wood pile. The kids had fun trying to throw the logs and see how far they could get them. I tried, it was hard. Neal was the winner for throwing the farthest.
That is our house in the back ground. It was a pretty evening.
Andrew, Spencer and Neal did some hikes this summer. They first hiked Sandia Peak, the one we see outside at home. It was Spencer’s first time. Things went well, so when we went to Utah at the end of July the three of them hiked Mount Timpanogos, the mountain we see from my mom’s house. They joined with some of Neal’s friends and they had a great time hiking the mountain, looking at the wild flowers and seeing lots of goats.
Me with two of my sisters. We celebrated Andrew's birthday early.
One day in Utah we drove up Provo Canyon and visited Bridal Veil Falls. It was pretty and Andrew, Neal and Spencer hiked up to the falls. It was too steep for me. Ruth, Caleb and I walked on the paved trail for a bit and enjoyed that. We also drove up to Vivian Park and the boys enjoyed looking at some old train cars that were parked on the rails there.
Another day we visited Grandma Hubbard and had a nice afternoon at her home. We also stopped at the cemetery and visited Grandpa’s grave and saw the nice marker on it. We enjoyed looking at some of Grandpa Hancock’s things. Andrew looked through his tools and organized the tool box. It is good to remember their grandfathers.
Caleb wearing Grandpa Hancock's hat, he loved BYU.
Visiting with Rachel at her home. She fed us lunch one day.
On Andrew’s birthday, August 5th, we drove to my sister’s home in Hyrum Utah. Jeanie had a nice lunch for us and we enjoyed visiting with her. We went to a park close to her home and her two children came over as well. It was fun visiting with them. Caleb had a good learning experience. Andrew saw some cattails growing and carefully pulled one out and was having fun swinging it around. Caleb wanted to follow along and went over to the cattails and reached out to pull one out and stepped onto what he thought was green moss or funny grass. Well, it wasn’t, it was green algae on the surface of water. Thankfully the water was only about a foot deep. I was worried because if the water had been deeper there could have been serious problems, but, the biggest harm was that he was covered in stinky, slimy mud, algae and water. He was upset, but learned what that green stuff was. Andrew was kind enough to get him a cattail and we continued walking to the park. At the park there was a little creek flowing through the grass, the same one that continued into the brush where he fell in, but at the park the water was clean. Caleb got in the water and played around a bit and was able to clean off. He was fine after awhile, when his clothes dried.
Playing with dogs at Jeanie's house
After lunch we drove over to Young Ward, just across Cache Valley, to where Neal’s sister and her family live. Andrea wasn’t home because she had her own adventure that day with Joseph breaking his arm. But, Grandma Hubbard was there and the other kids. We had fun visiting with cousins. When Andrea returned most of the group went in kayaks down a creek. They had lots of fun with it. Caleb didn’t want to go, so he stayed home with Joseph and they talked and watched a movie together. That evening we celebrated Andrew’s birthday with some cake and ice cream. He said it was a great birthday to be able to play with cousins. We stayed over night with them and enjoyed playing at their home and visiting with their horse the next morning.
Ruth, Me and Mom
On August 7th we drove to Manitou Spring, CO. We stayed in a motel that night. On Saturday morning Neal met with some friends to ride their bikes up to the summit of Pike’s Peak. I was with the kids and we took our time leaving the motel and then we drove the road up. It is unique to have a paved road up to the summit of a 14,000 foot peak. We met Neal and Jim part way up and refilled their water. Then we drove to the parking lot where we needed to get onto a shuttle to go to the summit. On the summit there is a new visitor’s center being constructed, so parking was limited. They had people using the shuttles to go all the way up. I didn’t mind riding and letting someone else drive that last stretch, it was steep, with hairpin curves and not many railings at the side of the road. The kids and I made it to the top and we walked around and saw what we could see with the construction. We were thankful we had jackets on as while we were waiting for the shuttle it started to snow. It was cold and windy. The views were amazing and it was neat to be up on a mountain like that. I bought the kids a treat and we took our time looking around. Then we went on the shuttle back to the car. While in the shuttle we saw Neal and Jim almost to the summit. When we were at the car we ate lunch, looked around and rested a bit. Then we started down. It was slow driving and I had to be careful on the narrow road. We caught up with Neal and Jim and actually arrived back at the motel at the same time. They were happy they did the ride and said it was good to do. After the ride we drove into The Garden of the God’s that was near by. It was a Saturday afternoon and the place was too crowded. There was no parking so we just drove through a loop and then got on I-25 and headed home.
Neal has been doing a lot of bike riding. He is doing road biking and can go 50-70 miles at a time. Pike’s Peak was a 50 mile ride. He has gone on the road to the top of Sandia Peak multiple times now. He likes to go on long rides and push himself with it. Many times he rides his bike to work (when he does go into the office, he is still mostly working from home.) On our Utah trip he took some early morning rides to Utah Lake and around the valley.
We got home from our vacation in time to start school. It is a different school year. The school district is doing it all virtual right now. The kids received chrome book computers to use. They have a schedule and “go” to class by logging into google meets with their classes. The school district uses the google educational platform, they have for a few years now, but now they are utilizing it fully. We have just finished the second full week of school and it is going well. The kids are getting into the schedule and working on their classes. It has been a bit of a slow start with content, but most of the teachers are getting into their subjects now and really teaching things. Everything is graded and will count on transcripts so Ruth and Andrew are motivated to do well with their high school classes. Ruth is in 12th grade, Andrew in 10th, Spencer in 8th and Caleb in 5th. This is our last year of elementary school!
In our area the church leaders have given the youth opportunities to meet in person once a month with just their class. Andrew’s group has had some fun with activities once racing their R/C cars in the church parking lot and then playing a frisbee game another time. Spencer’s group met at a leaders home and had fun playing outdoor ball games and eating pizza. I am glad that they can meet in person. It has been hard for them not to be around friends. Spencer has gotten together with Jonathan to bike ride or visit. Andrew was doing bike rides with friends during the summer time. Ruth visits with her friends and goes out with them for simple things, like meeting at a park to eat lunch. Caleb had a friend over this week. He was so happy to see Seth and play with him. It was good for them both. They need more interactions with other kids. That is one thing I don’t like about school being virtual, there is very limited interaction with other kids.
Ruth is still working at Kumon. This week she was promoted to work more in the office. She also still helps the kids and grades some of the papers. I think this is good to have the office experience. She enjoys working there and being with friends there. This week the BYU application opened for seniors. Ruth was excited to get on and start filling it out. She is working on it and wants to get things turned in quickly. She really wants to go to BYU and has good chances at being accepted. Tomorrow she will take the SAT. I am sure she will do fine.
Andrew has been working for three people doing yard work. He does a good job for them and they always compliment his work to me when I talk to them. He has enjoyed earning some money this summer.
I decided to cut my hair. I have been thinking about it a long time but finally did it. And, because I waited so long to do it my hair was long enough to donate. I had a nice 13 inch ponytail that I sent into Wigs for Kids. I hope that it can be helpful to someone. I have enjoyed having my hair shorter. On August 18th I flew to Utah for a visit with my mom and to attend my nephew’s wedding. Tyler and Tasha were married on the 19th at their home. It was nice to be there with the family. It was neat that I was there with my mom and all of my siblings. It was a good time to come together to celebrate. I enjoyed my visit with mom. We had some quiet time and enjoyed visiting. Doug was also staying at mom’s house for a couple of days. I enjoyed visiting with him too. Doug and I went for a walk together one morning and that was nice. I did some yard work for mom and just enjoyed a quieter week that normal. I returned home on the 22nd to a family who were happy to have me come back. Caleb had made a fun “welcome home” sign and I enjoyed feeling loved.
Sunday was Spencer’s birthday. He was happy to have a day to feel special and loved. I made his favorite peanut butter pie. We gave him some LEGO parts and he was excited to make new things with them. Spencer is in the middle of a growing time and is just barely shorter than me. Give him another month or so and he will pass me up. I am slowly being coming the shortest member of my family.
I have enjoyed our garden this year. It started slow but it has grown well. We have a zucchini plant that actually grew and survived to produce! I had a friend give us the clue to not plant squash until June. Then it would be late enough to miss the influx of squash bugs that usually hit hard the first of June. Well, something worked well and we have a beautiful plant that keeps producing delicious squash. The tomatoes have gone crazy and are taller than me now. I dug around the vines today and picked 26 tomatoes. That was after I bottled some yesterday. We are picking apples now too and they taste as good as ever. I am thankful we like the apples that grow in our yard. I made a batch of apple sauce yesterday too. I also made bread and butter pickles this week. I don’t think we will get many more cucumbers, but I am glad I had enough for a batch of pickles. Fall harvest always keeps me busy.
