Ryan, Megan, Caz, and Ashley Go Golfing

Tyler's Last Day Working for B.Y.U.

Lava Hot Springs

    Jeffrey invited his friends to celebrate his 16th birthday with a day at Lava Hot Springs.  We rented a minivan and took Jeffrey, Brendan, and Peyton.  We rented a four-person tube and the kids spent two hours on the river.  Wendy and I waited at the end of the run to shuttle the tube back to the beginning of the run while the kids walked back.  They were able to go down six times.  After that we spent a couple of hours at the pool.  We finished the trip with some ice cream from Tastee Treat.

 

Baylor's 1st Birthday Party

    Baylor celebrated her 1st birthday.  Jaylen and Tyler organized a party at a park near their home in Vineyard.  Kevin had met up with them on Friday, and they went out to eat dinner.  We drove up on Saturday, and my mom and her husband, David, met up with us at the park.  It was nice to see them.  We joined Jaylen's family, and we had a meal and birthday cupcakes.  We spent the night at a hotel, and then we met up with them for a Father's Day Sunday breakfast at a restaurant called Tru Religion in Orem.  

 

Wendy Went In for an MRI

Jeffrey Celebrates 16 Years

Youth Fireside with Alex Boyé

    Jeffrey and I attended a church fireside held at the Institute building at ISU.  It featured Alex Boyé as the guest speaker.  He is definitely a force of nature.  He spoke about his early years in London and then being left by his mother who had returned to Nigeria.  He spoke about his conversion to the church and making the move to Utah.  He spoke about his efforts to perform at Broadway and his most recent work using Hip Hop music to convey the gospel.  The best part of the fireside for me was when he sang, "How Great Thou Art", and as he sang he walked through this enormous crowd that was gathered.  It was compelling to see this African American singing with such emotion among a sea of white faces.  The fireside was supposed to be about an hour.  It lasted for almost two and a half hours, and it was just him.  He has an enthusiasm and energy that just doesn't want to stop when he gets going.  Pretty impressive.

 

Ashley Gets a New Car

    Ashley purchased a new car.  It is a Toyota Prius with excellent gas mileage.  She got a great deal on it.  The previous owner didn't use it very much so it came with low mileage.

 

Covid 19 Vaccine

    So I had my second dose of Covid 19 vaccine on Thursday.  It was a strange experience.  I hardly felt my first shot, but this one hurt.  I didn't have any immediate side effects until later that evening.  The Young Men had planned an overnight on Thursday night at Elba, Idaho so that they could hike through the City of Rocks on Friday.  We had a scheduling conflict because Jeffrey had to attend driving school from 6:00pm to 9:00pm.  We were able to get packed up during the day, and we left shortly after his class was done.  We arrived at Elba Park about 11:00pm and met up with the other Young Men and leaders who had a campfire going.  We stayed up until about midnight, and we had planned to sleep on cots under the stars.  It was a warm night and the sky was crystal clear.  We could see the Milky Way clearly and saw several falling stars and satellites.  That's about the time I started feeling really bad and by 1:00am I knew it was going to be a rough night.  I had severe pain on my left side shooting up my arm, hip, and leg.  I got the chills and started shivering uncontrollably.  My head started pounding and my stomach became upset.  I got into the car and surrounded myself with blankets, but I wasn't able to relax for several hours.  I was tempted to drive home immediately but thought better of it.  Everyone was up early and by 6:00am we started breakfast.  After packing up I told Jeffrey to continue the day without me and I drove home.  By 8:30am I was in my own bed, and I slept almost all day.  I kept getting the chills, and my skin was sensitive to touch.  I finally started feeling a little better by Friday evening.  Jeffrey had a great time hiking at City of Rocks.  They made some steep climbs and had wonderful views of the area.