End of July, 2026

 That's a little more like it-- garden is doing a bit better. The raspberries are struggling with disease, the lettuce is being protected, the peas are blooming again, despite our heat. 

This morning, below. 

Last week. Above. 

And our corn is looking really good. 

I even saw a baby pumpkin on a vine this morning. I've been so pleased with the squash out front. I think I beat the bugs for the most part. I have plenty of yellow and zucchini squash in my crisper. I just need to stay home long enough to cook them!

Mom has the most beautiful African violets! They bloom frequently. So pretty.

Here is the Gardiner Grandma Lego figurine, riding atop a bee. 

I went to a fun baby shower/ open house this week. It was for Emilee Reeder. Hosted by Lynette Harris at her old house ( where Emily is her tenant). The backyard was lovely, and so was the rain that fell most of that morning. Until it stopped an hour before the shower...just in time for me to help Lynette get the yard set up. 

LAST week on Saturday Mike and I went to Beaver, Utah with about 1100 other people to help clean up flooded property. It was hard work, but very rewarding.

Mike and I also attended the Pioneer Legacy Celebration at the SUU football stadium the evening of July 23rd. It was long and kind of hot and the seats were hard, but it was a really great production. About Utah Pioneers, of course. Great fireworks! And the set was really nice. Talented kids singing and dancing,etc. 

Merrill Osmond is the creator/producer. He lives in St. George, and two years ago they brought it to Cedar City for the first time. This year was not nearly so well-attended as in 2024. 

We wondered if we might get rained on. We brought umbrellas so we wouldn't. 

I just love our Red Hill.

They did a really nice America 250 tribute and had all of the official US flags over the past 250 years on the stage at once.  They had some football dude play the national anthem on his electric guitar, ala Jimmie Hendrix. I didn't really like it then, and 50 years later I still didn't enjoy it. Oh well. I think some did. 

It's been a GREAT July! We've enjoyed our family immensely, and had a great trip to CA. Mike has been helping out Jack Reardon in his cabinet shop or at installation sites. Mike doesn't want to get paid, so Jack has paid him with gift cards to The Pub, Jaden (Jack's son) Reardon's restaurant here in town. We've eaten there three times. And once at Pizza cart.  Mike usually just lends a hand 1 day a week, but he did about one solid week in the middle of the month. 4 hours a day. It made Mike very tired, but he enjoyed it a lot. 

Oh, and we have had some of the most gorgeous clouds!

These are unique flowers they have on our Temple grounds. You can see the names, Latin and common. But I never see them in nurseries. Maybe they are too expensive for us common folk.

The are so pretty. Pinky/coral, purple and white. They might have yellow, too. Straight stalk, smallish leaves, big blooms on top. Almost rose-like.  The first time I saw them, I wondered if they were fake because it looked like they had justed been poked straight into the flower beds like a wire stem from a store floral selection .

Now, on to August! This is when I start my regular ushering at the Utah Shakespeare festival on Friday and Saturday nights. Lots of plays coming up. I've only seen three of the 8 or so productions being offered this year. And I haven't used a single voucher yet.

I'm also still muddling through the tangled red tape of the Medicaid New Choices Waiver application for Mom. It should be interesting to see if it ever will come to an end. We have been at this for over 4 months now. It's hurry up and wait. But we have made a little progress.

All the Grands!!

 All 13. Gail shared this to my Skylight Frame. This is a snapshot I took of it while it was passing by. 

July 2026.

The last of our Family visitors

 After a fun-filled couple of weeks, it's finally down to just the two of us old folks here at home. 

I went to the temple with Mom and her "Our House" group on Tuesday morning. I Drove her. It was "Taco Tuesday" at Our House Assisted Living, so I just dropped her off afterwards for lunch there, and so she could change and rest.  

Tandy's family was at the temple, too. She and Pam and Lexi went to the 11 am session with Kanarraville ladies. Mom and I were in the 10 am session, so we didn't cross paths. 

When Braeden and Ella were done with Baptisms, they came to wait and play games at my house. Eventually, we all met up for lunch at Chili's. Funny, because that's where Mom, Donna and I all ended up on Tuesday night for Donna's going-away dinner. Mom didn't join us for this outing. 

Mike has been doing some jobs with his cabinet-maker friend, Jack Rearden. Mike has been a big help for Jack, is doing it "just for fun", but Jack has paid him with gift cards for Jack's son's restaurant, " The Pub". I think it's a good deal, for only one day a week, sometimes bit more. But still-- just for fun. 

Mike and I have eaten at The Pub twice now. Tonight  ( 7/15/2026) we did NOT split a meal. We both had a full sandwich and spiral fries. Ugh. Big mistake. Too much food.

I saw a chipmunk outside on our wall this afternoon!! I've never seen one here before. I did not get a picture of him, but it looked just like the little guy, Pip, in Disney's "Enchanted."

 It was cute, but I told Mike it has to go. Perhaps  THAT'S who chomped down my lettuce the other day! It WAS looking really good, and then -- poof!! All chewed up. Grr.. Not a single leaf left whole. 

But, we might just be enjoying some corn later this summer🤤 Unless bugs and chipmunks eat that, too!

There's a lot of silk!

Tandy and kids stopped by Wednesday afternoon. They were heading to Colorado to spend the night in Vail, then hike around Thursday before moving in to San Antonio.

And that's all! 

I'm still doing the phone calls, waiting and applying for Mom's Medicaid. Now we are on to the New Choices Waiver. Again. Medicaid did approve Mom for Medicaid with a hefty spend down. I only found out on Saturday when we got back from California. Donna and I only just found out Monday that MORE money has to be spent by paying a portion of what's left  to Our House. We never heard that before. So that has to be figured out. It's a long process, too. I'm kind of floored that it been taking so long. And I only know a little bitty bit more than I did before.

One day at a time. 

But it HAS been a really fun couple of weeks. And tomorrow we will be getting serious rain. Kind of scared about that, frankly. 

We had a new couple from Church over for dinner on Wednesday night. The Morrow's. . It was a full day. Temple Office 6 am to 10 a.m., initiatory, then an endowment session. Home by 12:45. Attempted a nap. Failed. ( Phone call interruption) Then grandkids stopped by to say bye. Then I tried again, but Failed. So I straightened up the kitchen and prepped for dinner.  We ate at 5, visited, THEN I had a late shift, ushering at Shakespeare. I almost nodded off a few times during the play. 🥱🥱..  "She Loves Me." Such a cute musical.

This is what REALLY saw on the wall. 

Aaaannnd, a funny.

7/11/2026 Saturday

 We had breakfast at our Best Western Hotel in The Mission Bay area on Clairmont drive. We packed up and went to Old Town, which was very close.

We didn't make it into a 10 am tour, but we DID find free parking in their lot at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center and got a 10:20 a.m. appointment for the guided interactive tour.

Here we are, ust waiting around on the front porch. We read and sat in comfy rocking chairs in the nice cool breeze. And posed in a small covered wagon.

Then our tour started. It was really cute and Disney-esque, I thought. There were talking pictures in frames, we moved room to room, experience to experience "with" the Battalion. It was well done. I learned at lot! It was about 40 minutes long.

Window frames in this room held the screens where the characters spoke to us or our guide. 

We learned about their conscription, the families, their route, their pay, their uniforms, , their trials and their faith and perseverance.

Then we saw some exhibits and artifacts, then moved outside to pan for gold!

Fun! It's fools gold, but still fun to do😄.

Information about brick-making, digging wells, and general info. 

Here's the old- time photo they took for us ( and emailed it, the new-timey way!).

Then it was time to go home to Utah.

Goodbye California Freeways and Traffic!!

Hello red hills of Southern Utah!

We told Rachel that she needed to practice smiling when her picture was being taken because it made her look like she was having a miserable time with Grandma and Grandpa Liebhardt on our Grandparent trip with her. I gave her lots of practice on our little trip. So much driving! 

But she was a really good sport and hung out in the back seat of Grandpa's big red truck all by herself and never complained about how long the drive was. 

And I finally captured a smile over the back of my seat! 

Thanks for being a good sport, Rachel! ❤️

She also put up with hanging out with the older grannies and played some games. Donna said she caught on right away.

The Sunday after our return from California, Robert and Janet were heading back to Provo, so they drove Rachel up north so Nick could pick her up there. 

And on Monday, we hung out with Mom and Donna.

Tuesday morning Donna went back to Georgia.

Friday July 10 Dan Diego with Rachel, Con'T

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, according to Mike.

Oops. We saw this flag on our way in, but missed the sign below. . .

And we waded. 

Later on, we washed up and watched the wildlife at La Jolla cove. Crazy busy there!! 

So many kayaks! Two groups here and three more groups in the distance , coming!!

Pelicans.

Ground squirrel.

Two baby seagull chicks with their Mommy. So cute.

One cove with sea lions AND swimmers! They are so close!! It's crazy. And there were pups❤️

Mike didn't get to enjoy this place with us. There was no parking anywhere near, so he dropped off me and Rachel, who quickly acclimated to the horrible smell, and he drove around in ever wider circles, looking for parking and Rachel and I walked up to Dukes to meet him there for lunch. I'd made a reservation for us for one p.m. and we got there right on time.

Rachel posing with bird of paradise flowers on our walk to Dukes.

And yes, we ate the hula pie. It was yummy, but very over-priced. It was fun to listen to people comment on it on their was past our table, however. 

Next stop: our hotel for a nap and a rest. This traffic is EXHAUSTING. And we're old. Poor Rachel. 

Then to Belmont Park. One roller coaster ride that somehow turned into two. It must have been somebody's birthday or something. It's a rough one. And Rachel spent time in the Ropes course area. We didn't end up eating there at Belmont Park as I'd planned, because we ( Rachel and I) went swimming in some very rough ocean. We each took a tumble or two and decided that was enough. And it was crowded. So we got out. After we were on the shore, we twice heard loudspeaker warnings from lifeguards to be aware of rough surf and currents and to only swim by the lifeguard station. Which made it even more crowded. 

In this humidity, nothing ever dries out. It's crazy. We missed Mike at the showers, could not see him, walked to the far away truck. Not there. Walked BACK to the showers by the beach. Found him. Walked BACK to the truck and my wrap-around sarong and swim suit was STILL dripping wet. 

To the hotel. Snacks for dinner and some good hot, cleansing showers for us all. So much sand in my suit, even after rinsing at the beach showers twice. Haha.

There are no good beach photos because I was busy jumping into waves with Rachel! 

Belmont Park roller coaster.

Ropes course.

The biggest challenge for Rachel-- a turning cylinder. She shied away from it twice before finally doing it.

Looking north. Lotsa people.

Looking South. Lots more people.

This seagull ( one one that looked just like it) strolled up to our bag and started trying to take things out of it! 

I had hoped to stay for sunset at the beach, but it wasn't really hot and we were really wet. And sandy. It was best to just get cleaned up back at the hotel.  So we did!