St. Geezy Girls' Trip

We finally resurrected the St. George girls' trip! We used to go every summer, but it's been years since we've been down to see the plays at Tuacahn. 

Connie ended up being unable to come, so Cole's sisters and Kenzie were trying to figure out who could handle all of us when we get together. They decided there was only one person who was up for the challenge: Yaya. I was super excited she was coming!

The trip started off with The Shirts Heard Round the World. 

Kenzie and Audrey bought us all t-shirts to wear to breakfast, and Uncle Andrew and Grandpa Farney were not amused when they saw the pictures. The ladies, however, laughed our guts out. The men are still giving us crap about it, though. 

We saw all three Tuacahn plays: Finding Nemo, Grease, and Les Miserables. 

We ate lots of yummy food, stayed up late talking, used our battery-operated fans while we sweated our butts off at the plays, went shopping, laid out by the pool, played mermaids with Eleina, and spent the entire trip laughing.

We also got proof of life (well, proof of feeding the bro), from Caulder, who was in charge while I was partying and Cole was at work. 

I'm so glad we brought this tradition back. 

Tukk Turns 18

I can hardly believe I'm writing this, but Tukker turned 18!

He's such a good sport. It feels like every year we have some family thing on his birthday (usually the Bog weekend), and he's good to just roll with whatever. This year his birthday fell the Saturday before Winnie's mission farewell, but he said he didn't mind celebrating in Pocatello.

We drove up Friday night, then partied hard all day Saturday.

We made this balloon arch especially for him (not for Winnie's farewell, I swear!). 

And the Johnsons went with us to Extreme Rush, a new fun center in Pokie, for some go cart racing. I tried not to steal the show on Tukk's big day, but I'm basically a go cart supermodel so it's hard to help myself.

The racing was a blast. Cole was the fastest, of course, but Tukk and I were right on his tail. June ended up taking 3rd because she had the third fastest lap, but Tukk did two more laps than her, so he was faster overall.

Caulder and Rand played a mean game of Halo, then we headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with everyone.

Ry's family and the Babe came up Saturday (Yaya was in New York with Darby), so we had quite a group for dinner.

Tukk was a good sport and even rode the birthday saddle. We almost died when we had to come home from dinner and eat birthday cake, but we powered through for Tukker.

Then Sunday we went to Winnie's farewell. Her talk was amazing, and she and June performed a really beautiful musical number.

I'm not quite sure how the last 18 years went so fast, but we are so lucky to have Tukk. He is funny and smart and helpful and always up for an adventure, and he's about the most chill person you'll ever meet.

He loves to be on the go—he's always out with friends, fishing, hiking, visiting his grandparents, stopping by to help them with projects, and heading to McDonald's because he is always hungry. And he freaking rocks the sleeveless shirt look.

We love him so, so much. I know I say this every year, but what a gift his life is. We are grateful for that miracle every single day. 

God Bless the U.S.A.

We couldn't have fireworks for the 4th of July, on account of us being in the middle of the fire apocalypse.

 We didn't get invited to any barbecues. 

We didn't get tickets to the Stadium of Fire.

But we did get to eat smash burgers. 

And we celebrated with these all American men. Suns out guns out babay! Happy birthday Merica!

 

Spring Running 2026

Now that it is hotter than the fires of hell, I am really missing spring running temps. Here were some of my adventures.

A snail on the Spanish Fork River trail when it was too muddy to go anywhere else. 

Soos, finding mud even in the desert. It's his gift.

I don't remember where this is. It might've been a Narrows hike?

Above the house.

All the rest of these are Blackhawk. Wowza.

Million Dollar Cheetoh

Rand pulled this Cheetoh out of the bag and got the giggles. Nobody was willing to eat it. It was on our Evanston trip, and I think Karah was tempted, but we saved it and brought it all the way back home with us. 

Probably gonna make millions on it when we sell it on e-Bay. 

June 2026

We took Rand for a ride up Jonesie. It made my heart very happy. But he got stung by a bee so that was a bummer. 

Caulder made fancy Mexican food with homemade tortilla chips.

Tukk helped the Babe build a new playground in their backyard.

I'm not sure what was happening here, but I feel like I need to hang onto this pic to show his therapist at some point in the future. 🤣

We harvested our first crops.

And Cole did a Moab trip with his buddies.

Horse Rustling

Cole's siblings all pitched in to buy Kathy and Farrel a trip to Evanston for the horse races. We headed up at the end of June. We drove up Mirror Lake Highway and stopped at Provo Falls. It is gorgeous.

Cole and Rand braved the freezing cold water. Cole was also barefoot. That's some A+ dad business since those are two of his least favorite things. But if you heard Rand giggling as they stuck their heads in the waterfall, you'd know it was all worth it. 

Evanston was FREEZING. We had to huddle together to stay warm. Farrel wasn't feeling well and couldn't stop shivering, so all the guys donated coats and hoodies to try to warm him back up. But the races were so much fun! 

At first Cole was using ChatGPT to help him place bets, but when that wasn't working out very well he and Tukk started examining each horse before the race and picking their winner based on that. After that, we started winning some money.

Cole went all in for the last race and ended up winning around $120 bucks. Tukk and Rand also came away with some money. But Cole and I paid for their bets and then let them keep all their winnings, so I feel like maybe we're not the best at horse rustling. 🤣

It was super fun, though. Definitely worth losing a little money to let them have so much fun placing bets on every race.