Maxine and Ellen's little road trip...

Maxine and Ellen went on a day trip to Tropic, UT. Ellen used to live in Tropic and wanted to show Maxine around. They went through Zion and up to Bryce.

They hiked in the rain a little bit.

Maxine ended up driving all day long, since Ellen doesn't have her license yet. She was pretty worn out but had a fun time together with her bestie.

Good old-fashioned summer...

Pioneer Day started the way it always does, with the primary parade. Val and I aren't in the primary presidency anymore but got roped into helping. 

The littles are the only kids still riding the float. I rode on the float with them and my new water bottle got knocked off and ran over by the trailer. :(

Julie and I were goofing off after the parade. 

In the afternoon, we hiked down to the river by Little Babylon and Sky Mountain. We went with the Beattys and Rosenbergs. The Beattys brought a friend, who happened to be Maxine's friend, Jason. They were in the same group for Preference and he's always playing around with Maxine's hair. She's told us stories about how he'll come up behind her and fluff her hair and say things like, "Why do you have so much hair? Where does it all come from? Why is it so fluffy?" Good times. 

We played a fun game throwing water balloons back and forth in a Battleship meets Red Rover game. Mark and I got out after a while because he needed a snack.

The weather was overcast and a little humid but kept the heat off. 

Happy peeps.

After the Beattys left, Merril and Ryan hiked to the arch and the rest of us stayed behind to play in the sand and we found these teensy frogs! They were the cutest! By the time we left, it was about 4:30 p.m. and the sun had come back out. The hike back up the canyon was a little brutal but it was worth it. Here's to enjoying a relaxed, uncomplicated summer!

Growing summer foods!

How fabulous that peaches and tomatoes are ready at the same time? Peach salsa anyone?

Mark wanted to plant corn in the greenhouse this year. It's working!

I haven't grown corn for years because it blows over in the wind. Not so in the greenhouse. I'm super excited for the corn stalks for fall decorations when they're done too!

And I just tossed this on because I thought Jack and Mark were cute! Mark got a ride home from a jog when he tired. He latched onto Jack like a baby monkey! Sweet!

First lake day of the summer! What?!

We have been so busy with Merril's motorcycle rally and both family reunions that we haven't been to the lake at all. We sold our boat and the weather in May was crappy. Like 60 degrees crappy! We drove the truck to the sandy cove and took our snow tubes and some sand toys. Merril even got the jet ski running and we took it as well!

Everyone was there even though I didn't get everyone in the shot. The weather was fantastic! The perfect evening. It ended too soon! As the full moon began to rise, we headed for home with our spirits filled. 

My parents are getting old...

I've been hit with the realization that my parents are getting old. My Dad had to have a toe amputated a few months ago because of an infection and he has poor circulation and type 2 diabetes. Then my Mom fell down the stairs at Gwen's house and broke her tibia/fibula bones and required surgery.

She just retired so I guess she won't have to worry about work while she's recovering for 6 weeks.

She came out of surgery up North and is now on her way back towards St. George to recover.

Little running buddy...

School is approaching and I can feel it. We have 1 month left and are done with all our major plans.  Now it's time to focus on getting the kids ready for school and finishing our summer with some small plans like hiking and shaved ice.

Walking through Walmart yesterday, I spotted tennis shoes on clearance for $3.00 in Mark's size. I bought 2 pairs. Even if they crap out soon, they were only 3 bucks. Since Mark had new shoes, he said he wanted to go for a run like Mommy. So this morning, we went for a little jog.

When we were almost home, Mark said he wanted to make a protein shake all by himself.

Healthy habits start young. It was fun and we jogged .75 miles. Not too shabby for someone with such skinny chicken legs. (If you're reading this later Mark, I love your chicken legs!)

Gordon Palisade Reunion...

The Gordon family reunion was at Palisade State Park by Manti. There is a cute little lake that doesn't allow motor boats just paddle boats or kayaks. We brought something borrowed kayaks and paddleboards and had a great time on the lake with family.

On the other side of the lake there was a cool rope swing and rocks for cliff jumping. Julie wanted to swing but didn't want to get wet.

Grant and Jeannie's boys were doing backflips but my family mostly just jumped off and did cannonballs.

Jack caught this cool water snake.

Playing in the sun and the water tires the children out. Mikayla fell asleep in the super hot tent.

Jack fell asleep in a chair at the campground.

There was lots of good food to be had and we taught Maxine how to play pinochle. Merril and Maxine left Wednesday morning at noon in order to get back so they could go to work. Me and the younger kids stayed one more night. We got up the next morning, Thursday, and packed and headed home. I kept losing stuff along the way and had to stop probably four times at the beginning of the journey to get everything secured properly. After that, we did great and was able to just drive the rest of the way home. 

Campbell Pine Valley Reunion

Okay so I didn't take like any pictures at the reunions except for these three. 

Merril and I snuck away for a little hike one morning. He feels like he hasn't exercised a lot lately because of the Iron Butt Rally. This morning hike was perfect with my favorite person. 

Iron Butt Rally 2019...

"The Iron Butt Rally is a competitive motorcycle road rally held in the United States. The rally lasts 11 days, and riders often travel over 11,000 miles in that time." This is something that Merril has wanted to do for a really long time, over 10 years. It's a serious thing. He rides so many miles and that many miles on a motorcycle has its risks. He's had to get special insurance to life flight him back home if he crashed half way across the U.S. He had to make sure his life insurance and will was in order before he left. 😳 

It's a lot of miles but it doesn't start on the West Coast, it starts clear in Greenville, S.C. So before Merril even starts, he has to drive a truck with his motorcycle on a trailer. His race number is lucky #76! Wahoo! 

This whole process feels like it took forever to get going. He was working on his bike for days before he left and then left 5 days early to have enough time to drive there and have a few rest days. But start he finally did on our anniversary June 17th! His first checkpoint was in Kennewick, WA and he had 3 days to get there. His bike for the adventure is a 2014 KTM Adventure 1190

On the first leg, his bike was running great and he didn't have any mechanical issues. He stopped at our house to sleep for a few hours before he took off to the checkpoint in Kennewick. The next day he was still feeling great and had a good night's sleep. He was ranked #29 out of 100 riders so he was in the top third after leg 1! The only mishap included not buckling his case lid on and it blew away somewhere along the route. I ordered another lid and had it shipped to the checkpoint hotel in time for him to get it! And Jack made a lego Merril on his adventure bike, which I think is adorable!

Merril's motorcycle pants zipper was pulling apart so while he was here for a brief moment, I stitched them back together while he slept. 

This is a screenshot of me video chatting with Merril while he's riding. It's nice to see him riding along.

While in Washington, he called Matt and they had lunch.

Merril made it to the checkpoint #1 in Kennewick safely and slept. He was surprised how much his tires were wearing down. He was thinking he might need to swap them out after leg 2. He decided his route for leg 2 would take him up to Vancouver Island and ferry hop. Also there was a hike that was quite a few points that he didn't think many riders would want to do. Merril had a satellite tracker (Spotwalla) and I noticed it wasn't working. I asked if he'd been in the same place for a while. He said he was moving normally. He stopped to reset it but lost points because his tracker wasn't functional the whole time.

Some pictures of the hotel in Kennewick.

Riding ferry boats with another IBR rider.

Merril got a mention in the daily rally newsletter for riding the first and only KTM ever entered in an Iron Butt Rally! He completed leg 2 feeling awesome! He spent most of his time around Vancouver Island, BC, riding ferry boats and collecting big bonuses. Riding the ferry boats allowed him time to get off his bike, relax and eat.

On leg 2, Merril's fuel pump started giving him some trouble when the bike got low on fuel. He called a KTM dealership in northern Utah and found a fuel pump. He left the Washington state checkpoint for leg 3 and the plan was to pick up the fuel pump and ride home and change out the pump here at the house. That's was a good plan but his bike quit near Bountiful, Utah. After chatting with a KTM mechanic, they decided it needed a fuel filter, not fuel pump. One was available in Payson and Merril left his bike and took a Lyft from Bountiful to Payson. Got the part and some tools from a friend and got back to fix his bike. A couple hours later he was on the road but missed out on the Zion NP bonus. He came home late, slept and had a shower here at the house. 

Ryan Rosenberg came to ride with Merril for a little bit as he runs back to South Carolina for the finish. After going for a while, Merril reported his bike was running perfect! He's a little behind the field of riders but should still be able to pick up plenty of bonuses and make it to the finish with time to spare!

Merril took the Southern route back to the finish to avoid weather and hazards like deer jumping in the road. He made it to the finish on June 28th and I'm relieved! These 2 weeks were very stressful for me. I was watching his Spotwalla tracker like a hawk. I was watching the IBR newsletters for any information about who was still going and who was out. I was able to fly out to South Caroline for the award and finisher banquet.

These are the 3 riders from Utah: Merril Campbell, John Kerr and Michael Best.

Merril received his finisher plaque! He finished 44th, scoring 95,710 points, traveling 9,781.9 miles on his 2014 KTM Adventure 1190. He achieved Bronze Finisher status and was the first and only rider to have ever ridden a KTM motorcycle in an Iron Butt Rally. 108 riders started and 37 didn't finish because of mechanical problems or physical injuries. 

The party and dinner was great! Riders were telling stories and mishaps along the way. I'm so proud of Merril for wanting to do this hard, competitive race and working hard to the finish. This is the website with all the ride reports www.ibr.wvi.com

The IBR was won by the first woman ever. Her name was Wendy Crockett and she not only won, but won by a lot of points! 

And then the next day we left at 6 a.m. to start driving home. We headed for Enterprise, Alabama so that we could visit some friends who moved from our ward, Libbi and Rick Manning. Enterprise has a 'famous' boll weevil statue. Ha ha!

It was fun to see her and her new house but I didn't take a picture. The rest of the trip is just a blur of food, sleeping, and getting gas.

As we started, I felt like the truck was loud, like really loud, like I needed earplugs loud. I started investigating and found two quarter-sized holes in the passenger foot well. I crawled down there while Merril drove and plugged the holes with a bunch of napkins. It quieted down considerably. Merril said he wished I had been there from the beginning because that truck was loud all the way to South Carolina. 

I'm glad I was able to go help him drive, he was beat! He can usually drive for a lot longer but he was worn out. We were pretty evenly matched for the drive home.

While we were in the South, I kept seeing these big pots of boiled peanuts at the gas station. So weird. Why boil them? 

I was worried about driving across the country without stopping. I get stiff after riding in the car for about 4+ hours. I thought I'd be dead from South Carolina to Hurricane. I just got the same amount of stiff from 40+ hours as I do from 4. The trip across the country was actually pretty fun with just me and Merril. I still enjoy spending hours and hours with Merril after 19 years.