Gunnison Mountain Bike Race and Hiking Mt. Timp ADD TIMP PICS

A rainy forecast had me wondering if the Gunnison race was going to be a bust. The pre ride was overcast and delayed for an hour because of lightning. Mark was able to pre ride when it opened back up. 

Mark said this Gunnison course was so fun! There's a climb right at the beginning and then some fun downhill. Merril, Maxine, Jack, and Juliet hiked Mt. Timpanogos. We met them at the hotel in Ephraim. We drove past the new Ephraim temple. It'll be open in a few weeks. The open house starts on Monday. If it was open, I would've run though. 

Saturday started overcast again and Juliet and I got there early to help at the registration table. Races started. Merril and the littles showed up around 12:00 p.m. but they had just paused for lightning. Juliet and I had been hiding from the lightning in the trailer since we didn't have a car to sit it out. We ate subways with everyone in the car and waited. 

NICA ended up canceling the race and it was a mad dash to clean up before the weather closed in. We got pretty muddy and wet. 

Yankee Doodle Canyon

Jack Back at Work

Before Jack left on his mission, he worked at Laub's Feeding and Cubing. It's a hay store that Grandma Campbell's family owns. It's up in the Industrial Park in St. George. He got Talon a job there too. Talon has worked there continually while Jack was gone. Now that Jack's back from his mission, he's working at the hay store again. He mentioned to me yesterday that there isn't a picture that I've taken of him at work. I have pictures of Maxine at work and of Juliet at work. I was in St. George running errands and decided to stop and take pictures of Jack. 

Looking tuff.

Talon was down for smiling too! Love these guys. They look like farmers. 🤩

Family of Quails

There has been a lot of construction in the desert around our neighborhood. A family of quail moved from the desert into the bushes and trees of the interior streets. It's been a couple of years and the family has grown from a pair of quail and four or five little baby quail to a flock of about 12. They are the cutest things ever running around the neighborhood streets with that goofy little feather on their heads! They make me happy to see them. 

Jack's Finally Home!!!

Boy missions are not for the faint of heart! I swear he's been in the Philippines for a decade. We messaged while he was in the airport in Manila and he was worried his machete was going to get confiscated. I'm so excited for my hug today! Merril woke up at 4 a.m., excited like it was Christmas morning!

I rented a 15 packer van. It was overkill but I wanted to make sure we had enough space for Jack and all his luggage and Talon.

We printed these huge heads. They made me so happy! I don't know if Jack loved them but they were cracking me up!

As we waited, I couldn't stand still I was so excited! Uncle Justin and Aunt Rachel came down to Vegas because they're amazing. And Grandma Campbell flew in from Tennessee to do some stuff in St. George but also to be there when Jack came home.

I got the first hug! YAH!

My favorite people are all together again! I feel so much calm now that Jacky is home! 

As we were leaving, we saw the Hummels coming to pick up Teslyn from her flight from China. It was a total coincidence! More like the Lord put us in the same place at the same time. Tiny miracles fill my life! She's waiting for her call, which should come any day now.

Anniversary Adventure

I got home at 10 p.m. on Wednesday only to turn around and leave Thursday morning with Merril and Mark for Glacier National Park. We're calling it our anniversary trip even though it was a work trip. We've been so busy with YM and YW camps that it made it hard to get away. We dropped Mark off in Idaho with the Phillipps. We kept on driving. We slept in Billings, MT.

Made it to the race and set up the repeater.

We decided to go on a hike in Glacier. Originally, we were just going to hike to a waterfall but Iceberg Lake wasn't too much further. It ended up being 10 miles overall. We were prepared. We brought 1 water bottle a piece and it was very cool weather but we should've at least had some food and more water. 

Oh well, we know better but we still had a great time. 

It's beautiful!

I was beat by the end but a restaurant at the trailhead made it doable.

We went back to the hotel to sleep and then Merril had to get up early to check the radios. After the race, we took down the antenna and saw a band of wild horses. 

We left Glacier at noon and got home at 3 a.m. It was fantastic to be together. I still love to have adventures with him! 

Friend Adventure: Disneyland

I'll be the first to say Disneyland isn't really my jam, but when your friends want to go, it's not about the destination—it's about the people you're with. So, of course, let's do it! We had time blocked out but couldn't come up with a plan. We met at Sara's house at 11:00, decided to go to Disneyland by 11:30, and by 1:00 p.m., I was on my way. We chatted in the car while Laurie booked the tickets. We found matching shirts at Target for our day! We started at the break of dawn!

It was pretty fun to buy and treat and not have to share it with my kids. lol.

This character actor played the piano so well for a small show we watched. He was hilarious too.

We were waiting for the Peter Pan ride. It had broken down and as we waited, more families kept bailing out of the line. We waited about the regular amount of time for the ride and the mechanics got it fixed. 

We did everything except Pirates of the Caribbean, which was closed for extensive repairs. I also say Laurie about get into a fight with a guy because he felt she was blocking his children's view of the parade. She did not back down and I thought be were about to get thrown out of the park. We moved to watch the light parade and all was well. At the end of the day, Laurie's strava said we had walked a half marathon and I believe it. I'm was bushed.

The next day, we woke up and went to the Yorba Linda Temple.

I went into the Celestial Room and started to cry. This will be the temple for Juliet's mission and it's lovely. It is lovely but it's also far away. I miss my kids so much when they're on their missions! I'm looking forward to Jack coming home in about a month! Yay! 

Juliet's Mission Call Opening

Juliet submitted her mission papers and the wait began. There's no way to know when a mission call is going to come. It felt like it was going to come on Monday the 27th. We kept waiting all day in anticipation and it didn't seem like it was going to show up. I was a little bummed for her. Jack's PDay got bumped to Monday because of a temple trip. He called Monday evening instead of Sunday. While we were on the phone with him, Juliet got up a text notification saying that she could now access her mission call in the portal. She wanted to read it first by herself but decided to take Jack on a video call with her. She went into the backyard and read her mission call with her brother. Jack screen recorded the whole thing, which I think was brilliant. It was so awesome to see her reaction. Then she came upstairs and I begged her to tell me. She read it for us. And then we decided to have a mission call opening the next day at our house. She's going to California Anaheim Mission English speaking!! It's the exact same mission that Maxine went to! How crazy is that? Juliet said that was the last place she was expecting!

No one guessed Anaheim in the guessing board. 

All the boys who came to support!

Lauren is going to Tokyo Japan Chinese speaking! She's doing home MTC!

The famous Mr. Vick!

She'll do great! We think she might finish teaching someone that Maxine found.

I love that Jack was able to be a part of it!

Maxine's Lovely Locks

My girls have got magnificent hair! Long, thick and lovely! Maxine's had very long hair for a while and was ready for a change. She decided she wanted to donate it and asked for help cutting it. We've got the before picture.

And after! It's got a lot of layers. She called it a shag cut. I feel like it suits her! It'll be nice for summer. She won't have so much hot hair on her back.

I'm just tacking this on. Look at this cell phone tower they just put up. IT'S HUGE! You can see it from our house and as soon as you turn by Walmart. It's also supposed to look like a pine tree except we don't have those here. Super leggy. Anyway, it's been a topic of conversation around here about the goofy tree cell phone tower. Lol.

Easter General Conference

What a lovely blessing when Easter falls on Conference Sunday! Jared and Emily's family came down for the weekend and most of their kids stayed at our house. I asked if they wanted to hunt eggs and they said yes.

We hunted for eggs! Elizabeth was after them!

Everyone came over for dinner and we took a picture to send to Grandma and Grandpa Campbell.

I need to figure out how to be a less stressed out hostess. I worry about too many things that aren't that important. Something to work on. 

Savannah Bananas Baseball Game

You've never heard of the Savannah Bananas? They're like the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. I've seen their videos on Instagram and they're not playing serious baseball. Merril found tickets for my birthday. The game was at the Angels Stadium in Anaheim, CA. We found a nice beach to go for a walk.

We found a seafood place for lunch and donut place for a sweet treat.

Then we went to the game!

So many people had sweet merch but I just wore a yellow shirt.

We found a seats and settled in.

I turned my hat sideway to keep the sun off my face and Merril thought I looked like the jellyfish launcher video.

There was so much going on that I didn't know where to look! The owner and other entertainers had little bits they were performing all around the stadium. The players did flips as they caught the flyballs, there were dances in between pitches. There was a player on stilts! They also have their own rules like the game is over in 2 hours, no bunts, no walks, no mound visits. The rules keep the game moving and interesting. We got a bucket of cookies from the concessions. It would be fun to take the kids but tickets were hard to come by. Merril paid extra on the secondary market. It was fun!