July 2020

Here is a look at our July:

We went up into the mountains near our home to do new family pictures for the first time in 4 years since that's how long it's been since we have all been together. We sure live in a beautiful place!

My sister Kim and her husband Tim came to visit for the 4th of July. She and I took at 8 mile hike to Lake Blanche in Big Cottonwood canyon.  It was a stunning hike!

My brother Bill and his wife Mia and their daughter Logan also made the trek from California to join us for the 4th of July holiday.  We had lots of fun together, including hanging out on the patio and hiking to Stuart falls in Provo Canyon in the days leading up to the holiday.

Then on the 4th of July we started the day with a Wizard Run 5k virtual run for me, Devin, Beth and Bryce:

And then a huge BBQ and games and fireworks for about 30 of our extended family.  It was a really fun day!! Happy birthday America!

Our big adventure for the month happened when Seth, Autumn, Bryce and I drove to Oregon to visit Grandma Ririe and the Bakes.  What a fun week we had!  We started our fun with a trip to the Rose garden and the Japanese gardens:

We spent the rest of the week at the coast, where we enjoyed beautifully sunny, but super windy and cool weather.  Pretty typical.  But that didn't stop us from heading to the beach for some skim boarding, walking along the beach, and for Autumn and Seth, a quick dip in the freezing cold Pacific ocean.

We never had a good low tide, but we went to the tide pools anyway and explored a bit.  We also discovered this really cool tree swing overlooking the ocean and each took a few turns enjoying the excitement and the amazing view.

We discovered a new 6 mile hike through the forests along the coastline that led us to this beautiful and nearly empty beach.

We visited the newly reopened Tillamook Cheese factory.  We had to have a timed reservation to enter the building, but that was actually awesome because hardly anyone was in there and we got to enjoy our cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and tillamook ice cream virtually alone. 

We visited Mo's for some clam chowder and Read's for some yummy taffy.  All in all, a perfect Oregon coast vacation. :)

We also visited the grounds of the Portland, Oregon temple while we were in town.  We are all looking forward to the day when we can be in the temple again.

And in other July news, Megan received her diploma for her Master's degree in communicative disorders - we are so proud!! And Devin celebrated his 23rd birthday!! He has been busy teaching at the MTC via zoom and also working at a microbiology lab in Lehi.  He will graduate from BYU with his bachelor's degree in microbiology in December and then hopes to work for a few months before starting a masters program.  He loves being in the lab. He's a nerd and we love him for it. :)  And Seth did his mission report for our ward and for friends and family who wanted to join via zoom.  He did an awesome job! He is keeping busy working at BYU for the summer.

Oh yeah, and we also wore masks a lot and prayed for the day when we won't have to.

See you all next month!

June 2020

Here is a look at our June:

Devin, Autumn, Bryce and I took a weekend trip to Bryce Canyon where we enjoyed much smaller crowds than normal for summertime. We did a lot of hiking and sightseeing and Bryce took about one million pictures of what Devin and Autumn have dubbed his "favorite child" (the canyon that shares his name).  We also enjoyed playing games, eating out in restaurants and relaxing in our own private hot tub on the deck of the place we rented. It was a super fun weekend and so good to get away from our house for a few days.




















(How Autumn really feels about hiking)

We also spent time hanging out with a few of our favorite little people. Our good friends and neighbors, the Baileys, moved to another house in Highland and we miss having their kids in our backyard, but are glad they still come over to play once a week:


The newest addition to the Bailey family, Demi


How Frankie really feels about Demi...

We visited another of our favorite little people when we went to my nephew Brandon and Nicole's new house in Bluffdale for dinner one evening. Raeleigh is the sweetest and pretty much thinks that Autumn is her BFF, a role Autumn is happy to play.



We have been spending a lot of time in the evenings on our back patio visiting and roasting s'mores. Yum!!



The BIGGEST and BEST part of the month came on June 24 when we not only got to celebrate Megan's birthday with her in person for the first time in 3 years, but we also very happily welcomed Elder Seth Ririe home from his mission!! With current Covid restrictions, only Bryce and I went to the airport to pick him up where we waited for him in the parking garage, and after we very happily greeted him, we drove back home where the rest of the family and a couple of friends were waiting to welcome our missionary home. For the first time in 3 years and 7 months, our family was all together again! :):):) Seth definitely served with honor and we are so proud of him and happy to have him home!













Also, our outdoor grill gave up the ghost  at the end of June and since we had a BBQ planned with people from my family (more on that in the July blog), Bryce HAD to get a new one. He loves his new Weber grill and I'm having fun turning most of dinner over to him each night. ;)