Gardening and such

 

Quite a haul today. Berries, beans, carrots, lettuce, beets.

Apricots that hang over the wall from Levi's yard to the south.

I'm tired after picking apricots and juicing them today. I picked them from the Rasmussen's backyard. They were overripe,cap I had no choice but to juice them. 

These sunflower weeds are just pretty. They also attract pollinators, so I kept them.

This is Jackie Bulloch's tree. It was SOOOOooo loaded with cherries! I picked lots and gave away lots. We still have lots.

Eric's play opened on Thursday night. He plays Einstein in Steve Martin's "Picasso sat the Lapine Agile" at the Electric Theater in St. George.

How fun. We will go with Gail on Saturday Aug 5 to see it. Eric had some rave reviews on his performance from a couple on Friday night who are friends with Steve Martin (Actor and Playwrite). They told Eric his performance was extraordinarily good. Best they'd ever seen.

One evening before Tandy, Braeden and Ella left to return to Texas, they went to Cedar Breaks to do star photography. Ella took these lovely photos. They also saw , and got pictures of, Elon Musk's Starlink Satellite string sailing across the night  sky! It was pretty cool.

August 2nd, me, Mom and Mike had lunch on the deck because it had FINALLY cooled off a bit. It was lovely out there. A butterfly flitted by, a hummingbird zipped by us, the chef salad was yummy, the wind not too bad....perfection. 

And isn't this a cute little bumblebee critter that was waking up on a leaf in the raspberry patch one morning?

July and AFTER the reunion

 We had a lot of other activities.  Tandy and Ella Returned.  Mike and I visited Katie and family overnight and picked up Gayela in Aurora and brought her to Cedar to spend time with us.

We saw plays and greenshows, ate yummy food, played games.

Gayela and I attended the Chadburn Family Reunion in Pine Valley.

Mike had his right shoulder replaced on July 13.  That's been interesting since he can do not much of anything for 6 weeks or so. But he is doing well overall.

I made copy-cat Utah Shakespeare Festival TARTS for us.  They were good.  But not good enough to go to all that trouble again.  We'll just have to remember the tarts from our past because, I'm sorry, but $5 per tart is too much for me to pay! I remember selling them for 50 cents each.  When they went up to 75 cents, it was too hard for me to do the math. ha. (sad, but true)

Some photos for my memories and your enjoyment and perusal. haha

Aaron and Donna Chadburn . They live in Washington, Utah now and brought two daughters and some grandchildren with them.  

Our garden is faring well. Jackie Bulloch let me pick a LOT of cherries from a tree on some rental property. I picked and gave away quite a few. They were small, but yummy. So much fruit this year in many places, on many trees. But I don't wanna put up any! 

Mike had Braeden and Ella dig out the basketball standard pole. But they couldn't. Too deep. So they labored in the hot, hot sun, dug the hole, rested, then buried it again. Yikes.  all for naught.  Someday we will get rid of that ugly thing.

We finally relented and played "nerts" with everyone. Ella always requests it and she promised that she had improved from her former wild and loud and fearsome player techniques. And she was right!  She HAS improved! Nobody was bleeding or injured in the end.

My silly Mommy is making bunny ears on Eric.

He was home the day of surgery. I've been able to keep my temple appointments, etc.  He has suffered no complications, and as I write this, he's over 10 days post-surgery. Reverse Shoulder replacement. Dr. Lex Allen in Nakken's office.

I also spent some time with Gayela at the Instacare for a possible UTI.  Three days later, she still had pain and wasn't much better, so we went to the ER.  More scans.  Now she's on the mend, hopefully.

She took a terrible fall on her way here from Denver. In Grand Junction we stopped to eat at a fast food place and she fell hard on her back and bottom and head in the parking lot.  Ouch. Nothing appeared to be broken, but she bruised severely as the days wore on.  She spent time up in SLC while we were having our reunion.  I'm guessing her family won't let her come here again, as it looks like we've thoroughly beaten her!  Poor Gayela. Now that she's ready to fly home, her bruising is almost all healed.

Saturday July 8, checkout.

 Our breakfast was a lot of leftover this and that-- breads, fruits and juices. 

And then it was GO time!

Strip all the used sheets, clean out the kitchen cupboards and trash.

Laundry:

Yowza. Glad I'm not doing all that!!

Cleaning out the fridge and dividing up food to go to different homes was challenging. Katie and Gail even managed to get a photo shoot in since Seth wasn't there for our family pictures on Wednesday morning. 

Grandkids, minus Lexi and Ella Liebhardt.

Our kids, minus Damian. (That's Braeden on the top)

[Damian and Lexi left Friday night to catch an early Las Vegas Flight back home to Texas. Tandy and Ella are headed back to Cedar/Kanarraville on Monday/ Tuesday/Wednesday. After the soccer tournament games are done.]

Lots of trash dumping, dish-sorting, box-packing and suitcase hauling and loading vehicles.  But we did it! Mike and Braeden and I were the last ones out of the house and met the cleaner driving up as we left. 

Mike was kind and drove dozens of miles down dirt forest service roads to the back side of Navajo Lake, and Braeden and I got out to hike down to Cascade Falls. 

This is Cascade Falls in 2018. Just a trickle.

THIS is Cascade Falls, 2023.

Definitely more than a trickle.

It was a lovely ride thru the back country, not always knowing if we were on the right road! Ha. Lots of running creeks, which I really think is the North Fork of the Virgin River. And plenty of lovely green meadows from our wet winter.

And we were talking exhausted and took naps after lunch. Gathered up our energy to attend the downtown July Jamboree. A hundred + vintage and show autos. And vendors

 But mostly cars. Many cars. It was very hot, too, between 6 and 8 or so while we were there. We were seeking shade constantly.

Mike enjoyed running into old school chums, or rather visiting with them

 Nobody was hit or run into by vintage or other cars..

I'm adding these photos of the green paper for my memories.

Sure did have a great time with my sweet family these past few days!!

❤️💕❤️💕❤️😄😄💕❤️💕❤️

Friday July 7, 2023, Zion Ponderosa

 We started with yummy raspberry pancakes and bacon made by me and Mike. Some people got up early...

Pancakes. 

And SO many shoes!

Later on in the morning, we all played miniature golf. Kind of together. Some lasted longer than others. Some of Nick's kids were just tired and cross. But leaving the hot golf course and grabbing lunch and heading to the pool made them much happier. Older folks enjoyed golfing-- some of us enough to do the course twice. 

Score sheets were saved. Hayden: You keep SCORE??!!

Hillary Messer stopped in to say hi to Katie and the family. She joined them for a game of golf, too.

In the afternoon, there was quiet time. Some worked on jig saw puzzles (Kaylee and Eric).

Or, we just rocked and talked and looked at pictures.

Or played on tablets. Upstairs, kids were napping or watching a movie, playing video games, pool, football, or making forts.

Jane and Emily love to swing. These photos are of Emily, but I watch Jane enjoying the swings for a long time on her own.

Having rocks and concrete to fall on is hard. Literally and figuratively. Ouchies.

Nick and Kaylee made a yummy dinner of pulled pork burritos... Plus, we still have SO many leftovers...

Seth delighted in running thru my panoramic photo and showing up on both sides. Funny guy. He got in yesterday after lunch, so missed muchbut we're glad he made it for some. 

Here's the poster we made for Ella. Again. 

Emily, age two.

Mike still did his own thing-- reading.

There's folks on the inside sofa, folks outside at the table, and MORE folks out on the pickleball court.

Pickleball and Cornhole were popular.

Jane thought this guy was "Nick's Uncle Derek". So here is his cup. But she really DID want to show of her new jammies to "Your Uncle Derek," Jane told her Dad. "Yes, you can show him your jammies, but his name is Uncle Eric." 

"WHY?" Was her response. 

Lots of time in the evening as it cooled to enjoy the yard. It was so nice. Thursday evening, Nick showed us stars and constellations the night before. His cool laser pen made it nicer.

People tire out quickly. Well, I sure did! In bed before most, and many stayed up visiting and playing games tonight.

I did put out more green paper for folks to write down their favorite thoughts or activities at the 2023 Liebhardt Family Reunion.

Here are some:

*Pickleball, Family who entertained &supervise my children. And Pickleball quotes!  - Kaylee

*Cornhole -- Caroline, Katie and others

*Swimming -- Caroline , Casey and others

Seeing my family-- Jonathan

*Being together with cousins

*Amazing food and winning at mini golf-- Damian

*People to watch and entertain my kids

*Games, visiting

*Hanging outwith family -- Hayden

*Catered dinner with so many yummy leftovers--me

Pickleball and pool party-- Lexi

*Miniature golf -- Quintin 

*Pickleball for the first time, amazing food, losing at Cornhole, losing at mini golf,-- Eric

*Jane drew a giant dinosaur ( that may have been in her dreams, cuz I saw no dinos!)

*Spending time with Family

*Family time together & Playing games I didn't win and eating lots of yummy food I didn't have to cook--Gail

*Sharing family history stories and seeing you all having fun together--Grandpa

Days later,and I'm still sleepy, tired and exhausted.

Some other favorite quotes were:

"No more candy for you, Rachel!" -- Caroline

"But it keeps me hydrated!" -- Rachel.

Gail: "We are not very photographic."

Katie: "So you disappear like vampires?"

Jonathan , age 14, "We are Gamers. We do NOT have girlfriends."