July Monday

The month of July is already half over! I do have to say we have had a lovely summer. The weather has been unusual warm this year with not much rain. My dear hubby is feeling under the weather today. He slept in and has now gone back to bed for a morning nap- it’s only 12:30pm. He doesn’t usually sleep during the day so I know he is not feeling well. He hurt his ribs while we were in Montana and his back flared up again! He has been in a lot of pain the past week. He has been going twice a week to physical therapy. He felt some relief on Sunday but today he is hurting. He took a two mile walk- which he said the 1st mile was really hard- I woke up early and went and played Pickelball by 7am- I like to play in the cooler time of the morning- by 10am I was done I had to return a pan to sister Dahl and drove up Logan canyon to her home. Missed seeing her by left sitting by her front door. She made the best Scolloped Potatoes for our YSA activity a couple weeks ago I’m just getting her pan back- going to have to try making them like she did. When I returned home I have taken the time to tidy things up a bit and fertile all my plants- they are doing so well this year- so pretty! Trisha and Buck were here at the lake hanging out with us for the week. They just left yesterday afternoon to head back to very hot St George. They are planning on coming back up when Stacy comes in town for the week - July 20th-25th- Enjoy the quite before the family storm arrival- it is always chaotic when the younger grandkids are here. Tasha and her kids are coming up too. They all have such a good time together. Shar and Jacob ore coming up for a few days alone with the Burbidge family- Boston, Saydee and Karlee not sure if they can come they are both starting new jobs- Shannon is being a stinker- not responding to my text messages. She got her feathers ruffled over the 4th- she is way over acting! She should not be acting this way. She needs to try to communicate with her sisters and organize time when she can come up with her own family and plan time to spend with her sisters. I was hoping to have them all here this next week. She is pouting and choosing to exclude herself from our family. I told Craig he is going to have to deal with her. I don’t know what else I can do to smooth things over-. She is missing out -it is so lovely here! I enjoy sitting on our under deck in the cool shade. We are planning a surprise birthday party for Craig on Friday the 25th- while the family is in town. I’m really excited for his party. I arranged for the Rich High school band to come plan music for us and play some 70’s song with him turning 70 on August 10th- I have invited about 100 guest this year. Trisha is so good to help me with the food and hosting the party. I couldn’t do it without her. I sent out a fun invitation- I’m also surprising him with a cruise to Alaska in September- this is something he has always wanted to do. We aren’t getting any younger and need to make the time. I was able to book the Cruise and our airfare - so excited to surprise him with our trip leaving Sept 14-21st. We fly into Seattle, Washington to board our cruise ship. He is getting spoiled this year with the fun party, his new car and early birthday present and adding the cruise.🚢!! So fun to have something to look forward too!

Our Saviour’s Love

We had a really good discussion in our YSA Relief Society today- We reviewed the conference talk- The Love Of God By Elder Benjamin M. Z. Tai- Of the Seventy- I joyfully witness that the Savior Jesus Christ is the love of God. His love for us is perfect, personal, and perpetual-President Russell M. Nelson has invited us to “remove, with the Savior’s help, the old debris in our lives” and to “lay aside bitterness.” He has encouraged us to “bolster our spiritual foundations” through “centering our lives on [the Savior] and on the ordinances and covenants of His temple.” He promised that “as we keep our temple covenants, we gain greater access to the Lord’s strengthening power. … We experience the pure love of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father in great abundance!” If despite your best efforts life is overcast, if you feel that your prayers are not heard, or if you can’t feel God’s love, please know that your every effort matters and, as certain as the stars above us, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know, hear, and love you. We talked about challenges in our lives- despite those challenges - Gods love is always there thru our Savior, and others -by serving one another- June I had a couple of emotional weeks- feelings lonely in my challenges and what I’m I to do with myself- feeling like I need to let go of my relationships with our girls and make a road for me to follow in my older years- they are all so busy and don’t have time for me- feeling so sad- Craig and I knelt in our morning prayers - he tenderly prayer that I could be comforted and find joy in this day! It was a very simple thoughtful prayer in my behalf- as the day progressed- I felt a joyful peaceful calm come me- I truly felt a simple joy as I went about my daily task.

Craig’s New Corvette

Craig bought his new Corvette. He has been looking off and on since he sold his Gray one last fall. We found this one a month ago. We stopped by the dealership yesterday and made an offer and they accepted. So he was able to drive his new toy up to the lake while I drove our Denali pulling the waverunners - we hauled them all the way up to White fish, Montana and back- I was able to drive it up and down Bear lake blvd this afternoon. It is a fun car. It rides really comfortable, We will have to take another road trip in our new car !

Heading Home

We woke up to it pouring rain! It is really petty nestled in the mountains. The trees and under brush is so pretty and lush in this area of Montana- we are not far from Canada border. Craig said they were only 5 miles away on their golfing trip. With it raining most of the day- we decided to head for home. We all had to be checked out by 10am tomorrow morning- not much to do with it raining- we had crammed a lot in 5 days- it’s a days drive home. Towner’s were packing up and starting their trek home too today. They have a very long dive back to California- it will take them two days for their road trip- we all said our good byes and a family prayer for safety in our travels. Chad had to stop to empty their potty and ended up getting a flat tire- so they had to stay in town longer to get two new tires- Craig’s back flared up yesterday- he has been in so much pain. He barely got thru his golfing trip- I didn’t know if we were going to go on the rafting trip-with my vertigo and Craig’s back hurting- we did manage to go- which I was so glad! it was a lot of fun- Craig is still hurting really bad. We are heading to our Draper home- it is a 14 hour drive- we are two hours out. I’m so tired it is a long day- We stopped at 3pm at the yummy burger place in Condon where we stopped driving in- Craig wants to go to the doctor on Monday and have an X-ray to try to find out what is going on with his back. He fell surfing on our boating day and then we walked a fairly challenging hike in Glacier National Park the next day- by Thursday his back is killing him again- it has barley been a week of him feeling better from his last back episode. I think he hurt it when he fell surfing. He hit his ribs and they are hurting too! He is not a happy person right now dealing with pain, his ribs and now his lower back- a double whammy- it will be nice to have a few days to rest at our Draper home before we head back to the lake. Buck and Trisha are coming back to the lake for the week. I need to recharge myself before spending more time with family again. It is the summer pace with family in and out. Craig surfing - when he fell he lost his Apple Watch- He needs to replace it! He is missing his watch!

I love seeing the yellow flower fields along the highways- so pretty!

4th of July 2025

It was a cooler day for us which felt nice. The girls and I slept in and rested from our busy schedule for the week. I woke up with vertigo and not feeling the best. We went into town shopping for a few hours while the boys all went golfing for the day. We then all meet up to go river rafting- it was a fun adventure for us all. Have to say was a highlight our trip- we were all dead tired again and could stay awake for fireworks- it started raining hard and not sure they even had fireworks!

Thursday- Mishap Day

Today we call it our Mishap day - love this picture of Coco walking with her Papa Symes- We wanted to stay closer to town. Whitefish has a very large lake. Craig and Bridger went to put his boat in and our wave runners. They called to say there was a long line at the very small boat ramp and that they were making them both go through the mussel check station again-they finally got through and in the water. We all rode down the mountain in Chad’s RV to met them at the floating Marina were we ate dinner out first night. As we were waiting on one of the floating docks- Bridger was distracted as he was looking for our location- the water depth dropped and her hit his prop really hard shutting his boat down. It finally started but had no speed. He had to take it out and go to the boat dealership in town to replace his prop- we had to load up all the kids in the RV and wait for them at the city beach area- it is very small but had a lovely beach area- their boat ramp area was only two lanes and backed up- we had to wait there while they repaired the boat- we had to let our two wave runners float on the beach shore line they only left us two small life jackets- so we had to take turns riding them- Natasha went for a ride and then Stacy and I were able to go for a short ride. Fun to see the lake homes built along the lake shoreline. It is very steep dropping down to the lake so most of the home had to have a long flight of stairs getting down to the lake with their own floating boat dock - fun to see, but lake our lake home better with not so many trees and so steep. After over and hour they were able to put the boat back in with a new prop installed. Well it didn’t fix it! Still going really slow- and shaking as he drove which meant he bent the shaft- So they had to pull the boat out. I was on the shoreline holding the waverunners from floating out- Craig and I had to load them up when Craig noticed one of the fenders was broken- Lincoln and Jude put them in so looks like they broke it somehow or a rock broke it traveling- Our boating day came to an ending with all the mishaps- Bridger was sad and mad at himself for hitting a rock bed- he has to deal with it being fixed by the time they leave for their lake Powell trip on the 13th of this month. We were going to go to the Rodeo that evening- they stood in line for two hours and ended up not getting tickets the lady would not issue tickets to Bridger unless we were all there-which we were on our way. So another disappointment. Bridger was able to get us reservations for dinner in town- we were all hungry - we ended the day with a nice dinner out- when we came home Craig had the 8 grandkids to cheer Bridger on when he came in from his upsetting day- it was so cute- little coco was darling as they chanting our cheer she wanted to do it again and walked her daddy out the door and brought him back in holding his hand and we all chanting again - hip hip hooray - four times- Bridger, Bridger, Bridger! A nice way to end our day of mishaps- we were all dead tired and cashed fairly early.

Glacier National Park

We had an adventurous day hiking in Glacier National Park- it is so beautiful worth the trip! our first stop to swim in the lake with multiple colored rocks along the shoreline - we then stopped to cliff jump into the river- we then drove the Sun mountain drive -is what they call it-up and around the mountains as we climb higher and higher on a very narrow road to the top where the tree line stops- we hiked 2miles up higher to see the most beautiful view- we had to hike over several snow glacier to get to the top view point- it is a total 4 mile walk Craig and I were beat when we got back down- it was challenging getting across the snow in slippery tennis shoes. I couldn’t believe little Coco hiked the entire way! Our Annie -

Natasha and Cora

The family cliff jumping! fun to see the mountian goats with her two babies - the mother was chasing me down the walking ramp and I had to move out of her way-

All Day Boating-

We had a great day boating at a beautiful reservoir called Hungry Horses- it’s about a 40 minute drive up in the mountains over looking National Glazier Park- it is remote and there were very few boats on the lake - it is a huge lake- Craig and I road our wave runner- we ran out both tanks of gas- it was a beautiful location- we put a full day in- Craig surfed and fell hard - hit his ribs and knocked them out- and knocked his Apple Watch off when he fell- he is bummed out that he lost his watch and now has hurt ribs- No