JUNE 2022

The beginning of June marked the end of another school year. Hallee's class decided to dress up one day to celebrate:

June also marks another year for Casey Bert who turned a remarkable 51!!

For his birthday this year, Casey requested a special-auspices trip to Paonia, Colorado to see a piece of mountain property that he'd been eyeing. It was a long drive, but we all agreed that Casey should have whatever he wanted to celebrate the big day. We invited Doug and Ilean to join us.

We stayed at an Airbnb in Delta, Colorado, met up with the realtor and her husband and drove up to Hubbard Canyon through some remote and picturesque high elevation forested West Elk Mountains, ran through an irrigation flow and got super muddy on Casey's dream property, located Hubbard Creek with the realtor's husband (Doug), enjoyed a picnic, visited a river hippie fest in Paonia, took a dip in the North Fork of the Gunnison River, went for a morning run through Delta, went to the local ward worship services on Sunday and did a load of driving.

Sean, ready for a long drive to Colorado.

Little Sean after a bath in the irrigation water after an accident.

Sean, naked in Colorado at Casey's dream property.

Brothers sleep out in the living room at the airbnb in Delta, Colorado.

Zeke and Jaiden at the Fairmont skate park.

Bear and Casey passed out in the living room. The past couple of months have been extra hard on Casey. He's working (in person) on some of his job sites--Gilgal Gardens, the Salt Lake temple and the Cathedral of the Madeline. Summer is their busiest time and it's been near impossible to hire more help. They are under-staffed, over-worked, and with all of his other church, business owner and family responsibilities he's been utterly spent.

Sean and our neighbor, Oskar, on a trip to the Museum of Natural History.

Lindy, exploring the museum.

Lucas.

Oz.

Zeke in the colors exhibit.

I think "The Nature of  Color" exhibit was their favorite part of the museum.

Hallee spent the first week out of school at Oakcrest Girls Camp. She was the only girl from our ward (or stake) up at the camp the week she went. Casey and I got to go up on Thursday night to visit her (since Casey is still the bishop). Hallee was beaming. She had a fabulous time but was excited to come home to see Bear (and the rest of the family) and get some sleep after a busy, sleep-deprived week.

Hallee with her friends.

Sean. Zeke, and Lindy at a sleepover at Uncle Noodles and Aunt Karen's house.

Zeke with his friend, Aaron Gray, at the Bountiful Temple.

On June 14th, Casey and I celebrated 17 years of marriage with a trip up to Log Haven--the place where we had our wedding luncheon after we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. I am blessed to be married to such a kind and amazing human!

We all set personal goals at the beginning of the summer. Casey is writing in his journal and reading scriptures every day. I am training for a half marathon and writing every day in my journal about the ways that I see evidence of God in my life. Sophie is running all of her cross-country workouts--six days a week of training--and writing in her journal weekly. Hallee is running six days a week to prep for the upcoming XC season (and training with the high school team) and performing one service a week, anonymously, for someone our street. Zeke is working up to pitching a baseball 65 miles per hour and reading scriptures daily. Lindy is reading 2 to 3 books a day. Sean is working on writing his name and learning how to ride a big-boy bike. My mom made a goal to get in better shape this summer--to become a "specimen." We are also working on supporting each other in our goals so we decided as a family to take Grandma on a hike each week. This was a hike that we took to Timpanogas Cave. I think this was my favorite visit to the cave. The morning temperature hiking to the cave was ideal. The man who gave us a tour--Ranger Reed--was phenomenal (and extremely personable), giving the perfect mix of geology and history as we walked through the caves.

On the trail.

The team inside the cave.

Ranger Reed, instructing us on mineral deposits in the formations.

Zeke, holding the flashlight up to the formation to show what kinds of trace minerals are present, giving the formations a green glow.

This year Zeke planned a "Sports Boy" friend party to celebrate his 12th birthday. Zeke's class teacher this year, Mr. Burke, dubbed Zeke and his friends the "sports boys." They can't wait to get outside for recess (or games class or any other opportunity) to play any kind of sport. They don't care. They just want to move around with a ball at top speed. We started the fun out in the church gym for some basketball where we also ran a full service snack bar during the game--dispensing corn dogs, fries, drinks, brownies, and popsicles.

Then we headed back to the house where the boys watched what ended up being the NBA final game between the Golden State warriors and the Boston Celtics. There was an incredible amount of "sports boy" energy in the room and they had a blast.

Some of the sports boys: Aaron, Cohen, Luke, Kris, Zeke and Carter. (Zach and Dominic were out of town.)

Millstream ward youth at the Jordan River Temple

Zeke's actual birthday. He is 12!!

Zeke shared his Sunday birthday with Casey since it was also Father's Day. Sophie and Hallee whipped up 6 strawberry rhubarb pies for the occasion--making a few extra, as per tradition, so that Casey could give some away.

Two banners--one for Zeke's birthday and the other for Casey (Father's Day)

Another hike in the support-Grandma-in-her-summer-goals session. A hike to Stewart Falls from Aspen Grove near Mount Timpanogas with Zeke, Lindy, Sean, Karen, Arden and Maya. (Sophie and Hallee were both up at Heber Valley Girls Camp that week.)

Lindy and Sean playing below Stewart Falls. 

Grandma and Karen at Stewart Falls.

Lindy offered to give Sean several piggy-bak rides on the way back down the trail when he got tired.

Lindy and friends in what they call "The Bat Cave"--a nest of hammocks on the Nelson's back porch--where the kids have spent countless hours this summer.

As part of Zeke's birthday gift this year, we bought him tickets (for the whole family) to a Bee's baseball game.

Casey and I got to go up and visit our stake's girls camp at the end of June. This year they were at the Heber Valley Girl's Camp. We enjoyed dinner with them, a tour of their cabin, the skits from each ward in our stake and a short testimony meeting with our ward afterward.

Hallee, Madeline, Emma and Sophie

Sophie, up in the aspens.

The girls from our ward took us down to see the ropes course after our meeting and told us all about it.

Casey's suit and white shirts got stuck at the cleaners this weekend (due to staffing issues they closed early on Saturday so I couldn't pick them up before church on Sunday). Casey had to borrow one of Ted Nelson's white shirts for church the next day. Zeke put on a shirt that Ted had given him a couple of months back too (since it shrunk in the wash and didn't fit him anymore). We thought that it was funny that Ted had outfitted both of them that day. We have the best neighbors!

More hammocking.

Lindy and Sean with Hazel's bunnies. We've been taking care of them while she and her family are visiting family in New Hampshire this past week.

Sophie hosted a "baby baking session" with Sean and Lina last week. They made some delicious M&M cookies together. 

Casey wanted to go backpacking in the Uintas over the long 4th of July weekend. I'm pretty sure that I've retained some PTSD from our last backpacking trip. The trip was awesome but the memories of extreme lack of sleep and the poison ivy situation is what I'm thinking triggered it. I decided to stay at home to get some projects done (that I never have time for in the chaos of regular mom life) as well as do some resting, contemplating, reading, thinking, etc.  It's been amazing. I painted my room, put in a new garden in an area of our yard that's been ghetto for years, added some drip line irrigation, read some books, took a daily nap. Yep. I want one of these moratoriums every year. All moms everywhere could use one of these multi-day breaks. So Casey took all five of our kids (ages 15 down to 5) and the dog (Bear) plus one of their cousins--Finn--to the high Uintas, a remote area where they started at the Middle Beaver trailhead (a couple of drainages east of Henry's Fork). They left last Friday morning. It's now Sunday and they are supposed to come back tomorrow--on the 4th of July proper. I can't wait to hear all of their stories. I can only imagine that it has been epic. And Casey is a hero!

The trailhead--Middle Beaver.

This is the area that Casey wanted to end up in--full of lakes so that they could do lots of fishing. I took these pictures in case I needed to call search and rescue at some point. :)

I took this picture right before they loaded up the truck. All of the backpacking crew (plus our little neighbor, Lina). This hammock has an incredible weight capacity. The manufacturer deserves some kind of award for durability.