July 2026

What a blessing July has been.

After an emotional May and June, July has been a great break for Mom. Being away from School and work freed her mind up to allow so many wonderful things back into her life. She cleaned out closets, got back on Facebook. played games, made treats with her kids at home...

She has been feeling so excited to think that next summer, she will be: applying for teaching jobs, house hunting, and hopefully moving home so that she can have all this plus more time with extended family in her summer. 

It feels as though the lifestyle she has been waiting for and working towards for years is just around the corner.

To celebrate Mom's birthday, we took a trip into the mountains to enjoy something she was introduced to at Girls Camp.

Alder Creek Natural Water Slides in the Sequoia National Forrest

(Directions to watersides at the end of this post)

 

Then we had a visit from Heath's family

We had a family game night with sweets

Introduced the girl's to one of our favorite quick snacks when no snacks are around, the whipped cream flower.  Ruby was a fan

We let them play around in Uncle Sam's Corvette's

Took them to the aviator memorial to watch the jets practice touch-downs

Had a spa day

We put Ruby to work ;)

LOL, and Maggie trapped Ivy's toot in a jar so we could remember Ivy even after she left town.




The visit was much too short, but we were so glad they came. It would have been a very long July and August with no cousin time.

Food Pantry Service Project

Mom and the Boys discovered an opportunity to help out a local food pantry on justserve.org. It did not have to do with church or any sort of obligation. We just wanted to do some good.

Just driving up was exciting because cars were backed up for a very long way. (So often volunteer opportunities feel like work that does not need to be done and a waste of time. But this was clearly a needed and valued event to many people in our community.)

The boys spent about an hour unboxing pallets of food items and bagging produce that was delivered in giant bins.

Once everything was bagged and boxed, we set up the stations for the drive through event.

Finally the big moment came and we were ready to receive "customers". Each car had been marked to show us how many households the vehicle was picking food up for. As they drove up to our station, we put the proper amount of food in before sending them on to the next station.

Mom and the boys had so much fun. It felt good to work hard, to help people, and to get out of the house. When the last car drove through there was still a lot of extra food. So the organizers told us we could take food home. Knowing she would not be working/getting any more paychecks until after Christmas, and her Tuition bill was due, Mom had been watching the budget so carefully this month. So to bring home ground beef, sausage, cereal, and produce was a huge blessing that we didn't expect. 

What a wonderful experience. It made Mom so happy to have a career where she can take a few months out of the year to pretend that she is still a stay-at-home mom and that her kids are old enough to participate in service opportunities with her.

Pismo Beach

We were sad things did not work out to go on our annual Bryant/Elton Beach Trip with Gwendolyn and extended family. But Dad said we should still go to the beach. So we took a trip to Pismo Beach

Kings Canyon National Park

As the month came to a close, Dad got the itch to go out exploring together as a family again. So we went to Kings Canyon National Park. On the General Grant Tree trail, we found some cool tunnel logs we had fun exploring in. One was on the trial and was very crowded. But dad found this one off to the side and up a hill from the General Grant tree and it was WAY cooler. 

You could go inside it and climb up a hill through the inside of the tree's bark that made a shell.

Then we went on a trail for a panorama outlook view. On the way we found a bench that Mom and Dad were happy to lay down on for a bit and rest.

We hope that you have found joy with those you love this summer. No matter how long or short life is, it is beautiful when you get out and share it with those you love. 

Directions to Alder Creek Natural Water Slides in the Sequoia National Forrest:

in case we want to go back some day

Trailhead address:

Forest Route 22S82, Sequoia National Forest, Springville, CA 93208

Trailhead coordinates:

36.02745, -118.5153 (36° 01′ 38.8″N 118° 30′ 55.1″W)

Parking: 

There is a parking lot to the right off of the Forest Service Road and across the service road is a red swinging arm barricade for cars to prevent them from driving on the trail. Park in the parking lot and cross the street to go under/around the barricade.

Follow the trail.

The trail is about a mile to the waterslides. 

At one point the trail will be washed out near a giant pipe/culvert. Just walk down into the dry creek and back up to where the trail resumes again on the other side.

Keep walking until you hear water. Then start looking to your right. You will see some areas the water travels through, but keep going until you find this break in the trail to teh right (pictured below) with tall trees on either side. This is the fastest portion of the water slides. 

If this is too fast for you, you can still take this trail, go to the right once you get through the bushes, go past the trees and climb down the rock to where there are water slides that are more shallow and lass swift. 

Safety:

Watch out for rattle snakes. They are not uncommon in the sierra's We did not see any while we were there, but never put you hand or foot where you can not see as you climb on the rocks. 

Don't go headfirst. There is a rock ledge in the pool below the slides and you could hit your head if the water level is low.

waterslides are smooth and slippery, but they can rough up the bum of your swimsuit. girls or boys in speedos will probably want to wear a pair of shorts pants to protect their bum. 

 Watlk carefully. Teh slide is slippery because of Alge. People slip very easily.

Bring a pool noodle or life jacket for your first run. The water is icy-cold and can shock you so much that you might be too overwhelmed to get your self afloat the first time. After your first run, you are probably good to go without it if you are confident.

Other:

There are no restrooms and there is no drinking water available. Plan acordingly

Hazel Memories

My almost 8-year-old niece recently passed away. A car hit her as it was backing out of the driveway next door. The neighborhood was noisy so she did not hear the car coming. The car was older and did not have a back-up camera. Her family is advocating for older cars to have backup cameras installed in them.

In a lot of ways, I’m not sure what to say or what to do. It's felt more like we were all existing as we went through the motions. Trying to find the right balance of being helpful and of service, while allowing space for people to be alone and grieve as needed. Our family, the school, and the community have all been great about both. 

Even though I’m feeling unsure of how to process, I know I want to document this. I will want to come back and find these important memories as we become more capable of processing everything.

We arrived in town on Wednesday

On Thursday my oldest daughter and I had the honor of going to the funeral home to make molds of Hazel’s hand. I was able to hold her little hand in mine as I rubbed the oil on her skin to ensure it did not stick to the mold. Since we live out of state, I had not been there with her in the hospital. So this was a very special moment for me to have with her. While we waited for the mold to set; we spoke to her, my daughter read the first few chapters of a book she thought Hazel would have liked (Keeper of the Lost Cities), and I played a song for Hazel that I wished I had sung for her before she passed away in the hospital (Each life that Touches ours for Good).

Her parents put together a beautiful celebration of life funeral service on Friday. Everyone was invited to bring a bunny stuffed animal and wear Hazel’s favorite color, light purple. There were so many people who came, the line wrapped around the building. 

The ward went above and beyond to serve our family in preparing decorations the day before, serving food for a family luncheon after the internment, and hosting another family luncheon the following day for Hazel’s twin sister’s baptism.

Over the next week, my daughter and I continued work on the molds of Hazel's hand and created a cast for Hazel’s parents from the molds we made. I ordered a special box to put the hand cast in, so they can open it up on their time and have a special place to keep it if they are not ready to put it on display.

Here are some of the photos and memories I have of Hazel from the family fun we’ve had together over the years.

Beach trips to Pacific Beach

(including her special stuffed animal Hop Hop)

I remember this moment. Hazel's parents were celebrating their anniversary during the beach trip one year. So I stayed in the house watching the girls for their nap while their parents tried to get lunch and enjoy a date outside. Hazel woke up and was so happy to play with me. I think her sister was not thrilled to have her parents out of the house. ha ha ha.

another year Sam drove her bumper car so she could get a ride.

and she rode the slick track with Gwendolyn.

Watching Football games together, even through Covid

Playing around at Grandma & Grandpa’s House. 

Here she is in her Moana outfit. She LOVED to wear her character nightgowns as everyday clothes. Her favorite character was always Rapunzle.

Celebrating special events together

On the day she was born my sister and I drove out to the hospital to meet her and her sister.

Congratulating Sam at his Husky Stadium promotion ceremony to be a Commander.

Danny meeting Hazel at the hospital for the first time. He shares a birthday with the twins.

I am not sure if this picture is from the last time we went to the playground with Hazel, because she and Tobias look a bit younger than I remember. However, it reminds me of the last time we went to the playground together.

It was a Sunday afternoon, my family was visiting Washington and staying at Grandma and Grandpa Bryant's house. We saw Hazel and her family at church, but decided we needed more time together, so after lunch, we met up at a playground. The twins wanted me to play on a 4 person teeter-totter with them. Instead of having 2 seats on each end, it was more square shaped, with a seat on each corner. I was too big and weighed it down when I sat on just 1 of the seats. So they convinced me to put one foot on each seat, my hands on the cross bars, and wiggle in a way that felt like a booty dance so they could bounce up and down on the teeter-totter. I felt so silly, but they were having a great time, so I began to sing a bouncing song I remembered from when my girls were younger. it was called "boingy, boingy, boingy, bing" from Dora the explorer. After one or two verses of the song I was exhausted form trying to keep up with the rhythm as I did the booty dance. We all had a good laugh and eventually listened to some of their new favorite songs from the K-Pop Demon Hunters movie they loved so much.

This was a 4th of July party at Hazel's home. Stacy's family and my Family were both invited as guests. Hazel, Ivy, and Emma were building a house of wooden blocks right at the top of the stairs into the house. They had such a great time, and were building for quite a while. When I showed this picture to her parents they smiled and said that she always loved to build houses and play house.

This one is one of my favorite memories of her. Especially because I remember it so clearly. 

We decided that to honor our grandfather who had died a year before, my siblings and I were going to take our kids out to play mini golf (Grandpa Larry was an avid golfer)

It was August or September, and WAY too hot to be out in the sun. everyone was trying to find ways to escape the heat. The little girls all hid in this caboose for shade, but once Hazel realized I was snapping pictures, she was thrilled to perk up and smile for the camera. She loved being a star and was charismatic. 

In fact, after her passing, I heard more than once that she was so charismatic that she was the most popular girl in 2nd grade at her school. Ivy said there were lots of boys who liked Hazel, but Hazel was not interested in any of them. Ha, ha, ha.

We love you Hazel