SWISS DAYS 2025

Last Friday was our annual Swiss days excursion.  We left home around noon to drive up to Midway.  Kendra drove her car in solitude while Rick and I had the kids with us.  We wanted to try out the tv monitors in our new car.  Well, with two less than average tech savvy people we had a hard time trying to figure out how to start a movie.  The kids knew more than us so they were able to figure out how to get on youtube.  I was a little disappointed because I prefer not to have kids on screens when we're together.  They get enough of that each day.  Anyhoo...

We got to Midway and parked in our usual spot (it seems like the price keeps going up each year:(

and headed to our first stop...the port a potties.  Haha!  They get us started on our Swiss Days Adventure.  After a bathroom stop we headed over to the food area.  Everyone, except me, wanted to have Swiss Tacos, which actually are navajo tacos, scones with chili and toppings.  I ventured out this year leaving my Swiss Sandwich behind and got a nice salad with chicken.  It was good and left room for the star of the show.  Pie and ice cream!  Rick wanted berry pie and I got pecan.  Good stuff!

While I stood int he long line for the pie, grandpa took the girls over to get their faces painted.

This year it went really fast.  They were pretty much done by the time I got back to the table with our desserts!

One of this year's booths had wooden charcuterie boards.  I already have a couple of boards but I did love perusing this book that the vendor had on display.  It has a lot of fun ideas for serving boards.

I got this picture to remind me the name of it and got it ordered on our way home.  It actually has arrived already and I am half way through it.  I'm excited to try out some new food boards!

We had a lot of fun looking through the booths.  Of course, we stopped at the wrapping paper booth to get some paper for Christmas and the tie booth for some new ties which is a yearly must do!  I picked up a few things this year but mostly just enjoyed looking at stuff and getting excited to set up Fall/Halloween decor.  We got a downpour of rain halfway through our experience so we tucked into some booths to wait out the storm.  The problem was the ground became saturated and was super squishy and even muddy in places, which RUINED MY WHITE SHOES!😢

Brady spent his money on a new bow and arrow. Rafe got a new hat with some cute patches.  Chloe and Scout got some mini dollhouse items so I think we all left happy.

These moose palms were cool.

Preggo Kendra! 

 She did great the whole time.  Her feet were pretty swollen at the end but she's a trooper!

Our group!  Fun times!  See you next year!

 

SIBLING GETAWAY TO BEAR LAKE

This past week we spent some time with Rick's siblings at Bear Lake.  We rented a home in Garden City that fir us all really well.  The first day we all met up at the house and picked a room to stay in.  Brad and Ruth, Dennis and Karen, and Larry were all on the main level while Rick and I, Hal and Janis, DeeAnn and Kathy, and Darla were all on the lower level.  There was a big pool table on the lower level and a few of us enjoyed playing against each other.  That first night we met up at Bear Trapper Restaurant.  We had a reservation for all of us but unfortunately they refused to seat us until everyone was there.  We were waiting for about fifteen minutes in the lobby for Hal and Janis to roll into town.  It was a little ridiculous that they would not seat us...especially when we have a few senior citizens in our group.  There was no place to sit so we all just stood there taking up space in that little lobby. Anyway.....

Once we got seated the food was good and we enjoyed visiting around the table.

That night we watched a movie set in the 1950's about a group of Latino boys trying to break into the exclusive sport of golf.  It was good but made me feel mad/bad/sad of the racial exclusiveness that has taken place through the years.  I know even still it lingers in today's world.

 Rick and I brought our bikes because Bear Lake has a fun bike trail leading throughout the town.  We rode fifteen to twenty miles each morning.

As we were finishing our ride that first day we were coming up to the house and Rick pointed out two moose, a mother and her calf, right across the street from our rental.  I did not see them at first but they were in the neighborhood eating trees in someone's yard.  They were really cool to see.  It's been a few years since we've seen a moose and NEVER have we seen one in Bear Lake.  

Rick called Hal (he and Janis were up making breakfast) and had everyone that was awake to come out onto there deck to see them.  We tried calling Kathy but she was not answering so I ran inside to knock on her door because I knew she would NOT want to miss seeing a moose.  She loves spotting wildlife and had seen a bunch of deer on our way home from the dinner the previous night.

By the time she got out the moose had moved on so we hopped in the car and went to find them.  We followed them for a bit and then picked up Darla who had been on a walk and took her to see them, as well.  It was fun to see such majestic animals.  At one point they crossed the road directly in front of us...

Our rental had a hot tub which some enjoyed.

Here are DeeAnn and Darla enjoying the warm waters.

Honestly we really did not do a whole lot on this trip.

I don't know if it's because we are all getting older....wait, I'm sure that's the reason, but we just mostly sat around talking and hanging out.  Ruth did a few puzzles, some of us played some games, but it felt like we ate a lot and just sat around talking.  By 3:00 the first day I asked Rick if we could take a drive.  We went out to a couple of stores and window shopped mostly.  I picked up a set of bracelets that I thought were cute.  When we got back to the house everyone else had left, as well.

We met up for dinner at a place called Coopers.  It was in a clubhouse overlooking a golf course.  We were there for AN HOUR AND A HALF before our main courses were served.  Crazy, but we did have a nice server who tried her best to appease us all.

We celebrated Brad's birthday this night, a week early.  After dinner they brought him a piece of cake with a candle and we sang happy birthday to him.

The next day was more of the same.  We started off with a bike ride...no moose this time.

I could tell I was coming down with a UTI so I had a teleconference doctor's visit and was able to get on some medicine right away.  I didn't feel great but the medicine helped to keep me out of pain.  We had hoped to rent some wave runners while we were there but the weather was a little cold and I did not feel well enough so we didn't.  It was more of the same as the day before.  In the afternoon, we invited Kathy and DeeAnn to come get a shake with us.  They had heard that the car wash ice cream parlor had the best shakes.  DeeAnn stayed back but Kathy came along.  I got two scoops of ice cream and when I saw her pile on the first HUGE scoop I was like, "Whoa! hang on there!  Rick said he'd help eat it up but he only took a couple of bites.  The ice cream was really good and I DID eat the whole cup full.  I don't know if that was a good thing our not...  Rick and Kathy loved their raspberry shakes!

Next we drove over to the store that we had gone to the previous day and I bought a couple more bracelets for Kendra and the girls.  

Since we had plenty of food at the house we decided not to eat out that night but we did get to all go to the Pickleville Playhouse to see a show called Trouble in Hunky Dory.  It was a musical and was entertaining.

Here we all are.  I'm glad we got a group picture.

 The next morning was checkout and the group had planned to attend the Logan Temple and then have lunch afterward.  I was not feeling well so I slept in and after most everyone had left Rick and I packed up and left.  We went home through Evanston instead of Logan.  I started feeling better on the way home and decided that I would have been fine to go to the temple but I did not know that earlier in the morning.  Anyway, we had a nice drive home stopping at a Wendy's at the Kimball Junction.  

Our Bear Lake excursion was a nice time to spend a few days with Rick's family!

A Baby Shower For Kendra Dee

Kendra Dee is getting close to having her last baby!

We are all excited for him to make his entrance into the world.

I talked with Sarah about a month ago about planning a shower for Kendra.

Sarah was on board but Kendra wasn't sure about it.  I asked her if we keep it small and intimate with family, would she be ok with it and she said she would.  So we moved forward with plans.  

We had it planned for August fifteenth (yesterday) and I sent out invitations three weeks in advance.  I felt like I needed to send a reminder text to everyone after calling Kathy to borrow her water dispenser.  She asked me what I was doing with it and I told her, "Kendra's shower."  She exclaimed, "Oh my goodness!  I forgot that it was tonight!"  I got to thinking I hope everyone else remembers so just to make sure I reminded everyone!  It turned out well.  We had just about everyone come that was invited and really had a nice time.  Sarah and I had made dinner, knockoff Cafe Rio salads, with fruit and plenty of desserts.

Kendra had fun opening up her gifts.  She got a lot of baby outfits.

Now it's a waiting time for Baby Boman to get here.

Cute Kendra...

Me, Kenni, and Sarah

The Bomans + Daisy

Kathy and Jenni

Samantha, Destinee, and Julie

Just a few weeks to go!!!

 

Skylar's turns THIRTY FIVE

Skylar turned thirty five, yesterday.  His birthday was on a Sunday.  After lunch his family went for a hike and really enjoyed being together as a family.  Sarah made him a meatloaf dinner.  It's one of his favorites!

 

Here he is doing one of the things he loves the most....fishing!

Rick and I purchased this Seattle Sounders jersey.  Seattle is his favorite team and follows them religiously!

The night after his birthday we took hime and Sarah out to dinner.  He wanted to eat at a Detroit Style pizza place called, Brick's Corner.  It was really good pizza and we enjoyed visiting with them over good food ...and dessert!  Love this guy and hope he has a wonderful coming year!

 

NIGHT OUT

Rick and I got to spend a night out at the new Asher Adams Hotel downtown.  It is located int he old Union Pacific Railroad building.  The Marriott Corporation has made it really nice.

Our room was decent and had a lookout over the Delta Center.

After a absolutely delicious dinner at The Red Thai Basil restaurant we came back to the hotel to relax.

About two in the morning the hotel's fire alarm went off.  We along with a bunch of others, sleepily walked down the stairs to the main level and out onto the street where we waited for the ok to go back in...about ten minutes.  Rick was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly but I laid awake for TWO HOURS!  What a pain...

We enjoyed sleeping in and then got ready and walked the three blocks over to the downtown farmers market.  It was our first time to go this summer.  We enjoyed testing all kinds of foods and bought way too much stuff for way too much money but boy was it fun!

Here's Rick sampling all the salsas at this booth.

We bought lunch at a wood fired pizza truck and also got some SUPER delicious fresh squeezed lemonade!

Good times!

 

Henry turns Eleven

Our Henry turned eleven years old!!  

He had a fun day in the morning with his family and got lots of fun presents.

Rick and I bought him a light up double light saber.  He was pretty excited!

After having lunch with his dad he got to go to a Lego store and buy a HUGE lego set.

It was a Marvel set that had over FIVE THOUSAND pieces.  He was so excited to get started with it!

We love our Henry boy!  He is so lovable and compassionate and is super intelligent!

Hope you have the BEST year yet, Henry!!

 

CHERRY HILL

Rick and I were able to take the grandkids to Cherry Hill this week.  The first night we had the younger kids who came and slept in the trailer with us.  We went out to dinner at Cracker Barrel and the kids had fun choosing yummy food from the menu.  When we got back to the trailer we got ready for bed and put in a fun movie to fall asleep to.

The next day we met up with the Kendra, Skylar and Sarah, as well as the older kids minus Haivyn.

We enjoyed the water park for lots of hours!  This is a fun tradition that we do every year.  The kids love going down slides and playing in the pools.

 That evening the parents took the younger kids home while the older ones stayed to party with us!  After getting back to the trailer and changing into our clothes we headed over to have some dinner at.

After that we went back to the trailer and watched a movie.  Big surprise there;)  We watched Pure Luck and Rick and I laughed at all the funny parts.   I'm not sure if the kids understood the humor but we all had a good time!  The next morning we packed up and headed home.  What a fun tradition!

Lake Lavinia

Rick, Skylar, Henry and Charles took a backpacking trip up to Lake Lavinia recently.  The hike was a few miles and the boys were expected to carry their own packs.  Charles struggled a little bit but his dad helped out.  They had a great time fishing and being in the outdoors for a couple of days.