Connie is alone out in the country most of the week now that Josh has moved and Dennis is on the road. Winter winds and cold are so hard for her. When the wind blows, and in southern Idaho it always blows, she is snowed in time and time again. The 3 acres have just gotten to be too much. They hope to be moved by fall. Poor Mom just dropped her head and all of us had to shed a few tears with the thought of the move, then she raised her head and said, "It will be OK." She wanted to know about her "stuff". I have been helping Connie box up Mom's treasures, anything that one of her children or grandchildren might like to have, and bringing them into our bunk house.
When our time was up, we all shed tears again as we could not give Mom the hugs that we all needed and longed for as she was wheeled back into her care center. It was a hard day.
Sunday we had a virtual Sunday School lesson with our ward. We had about 25 families join in. It was so fun to see some of our ward family.
We were so thrilled to have Shayla and Justin come to visit on Mother's Day. With the travel restrictions we have not been able to visit with our family since our return. We have so many people to visit and give hugs to when this virus is contained. They brought us a strawberry plant that we put into the wishing well in our front yard.
Got the new letters up on the sign out front
Lon and George Orr have been fishing a few times but the fishing has not been "catching" I told them that the fish were in quarantine too. Ha! These were nice sized and very tasty! (but they only caught these three)
Lon decided to try and get some extra exercise in each day after golfing each morning
He bought a bike from Tracy, with a lifetime warranty. The second day Tracy had to come over and fix a flat tire but Lon is up to 16 miles a day and seems to be enjoying his rides around the country side.
On the 14th, George called and asked if we wanted to go on a drive with he and Kim. We headed north to check out Fish Creek Reservoir. I had never been there and Lon and George had not been there for a long time. It is north east of Carey. George wanted to check and see if this was somewhere we would want to go camping and fishing. Kim and I decided that the 2 men could just drive up and fish and come home the same day. There were no trees around, just sagebrush, not a decent place to camp at all. We headed home through Picabo to check out the fishing at Hayspur and then on to Fairfield for dinner at the Wrangler. We ordered hamburgers and fish burgers and ate in the car, still no eating inside restaurants due to the virus. We came home through Gooding and Wendell. We saw 2 moose just outside of Picabo!
On the 22nd George again called and said he was bored so we all headed out on another adventure. This time we headed west through Hagerman valley, then south and ended up at Balanced Rock in Buhl.
The rock formations were impressive at the campground
It was a cold rainy day. I don't remember ever being in the campground before
I'm not sure that I have ever been here before so I thanked George for getting something checked off of my bucket list - and I didn't know that it was even on my bucket list.
We drove through Castleford and headed south to Roseworth, We ended up on a wrong road and drove for at least 15 miles on a muddy road through sheep country.
The foothills have snow on them and you can see some of the water on the road. George was certain we would end up at Roseworth, eventually!
The sheep almost blend in with the sagebrush. We felt bad for them as it was a very cold day and they have been sheered so they had no wool to keep them warm.
We did eventually end up at Roseworth and then on to Rogerson where we stopped for supper.
Kim's poor car really got filthy on the dirt road.
We had a wonderful supper, George enjoying the prime rib that is served here each Friday, and the rest of us with different dishes. We had about a four hour "little drive" with dear friends.
Lon and I went with Connie to decorate graves for Memorial Day. I have helped Mom do this once but didn't remember where anyone was buried. We have 17 different graves that Mom insists that we decorate each year. I tried to make a map so that we could remember where to pick up the flowers after Memorial Day.
Grandpa and Grandma Frank and Idella Walker
Grandpa Walker's parents, John and Martha Walker
Grandpa and Grandma Willis and Esther Thompson
Grandma Thompson's Dad and step mom, Roy and Martha Shillington
Grandpa Reid's parents, Hugh and Ada Reid
Dad's grave, Connie getting a photo
Grandma Walker's parents, Norman and Katie Stratton
Just a few of the graves. We printed off a couple of the photos to give to Mom so she could see that we are trying to continue to do this act of service for her. Lon and I were able to return to the cemetery a few days later and pick up all of the flowers, we had trouble with a couple of them but finally found them. Mom uses plastic flowers and reuses them each year. It was fun to visit each grave and reflect about the lives of our ancestors. We are so thankful for their examples. We come from "good" stock!
On the 29th of May George AGAIN called and asked if we would take a "little" drive with them.
We drove to Shoshone for lunch and then headed north and west over Galena Summit. We went through Stanley, Lohman, Idaho City and Boise as we did a complete loop and got home about 9:30pm.
At the Ranger Station just out of Ketchum
Everything was green and smelled so clean and fresh!
We were excited to get out of the heat, we thought. It was in the upper 80's in Jerome but also in the upper 80's and even hit 100 around Glenns Ferry before we got home. But the car has excellent air conditioning!
A selfie on top of Galena Summit. There was snow on top of all the mountains and over the summit the snow was all along the road.
Just before we reached Lohman. The water was not crystal clear due to the run-off. Kind of reminded us of Santiago, only not quite as brown.
A natural hot springs discoloring the rocks
Our "little" ride ended up being over 400 miles and an 8 hour day! But we saw some great scenery. We were able to see the rock slides that the latest earth quake caused. We even saw water coming right out of the concrete in the road in two places. That will cause trouble if it isn't fixed before long. The road is a windy, hilly two lane road so we didn't have a chance to pull over and take pictures. We saw a lot of antelopes and two deer. Another fun adventure with George and Kim.
We were thrilled to celebrate Tracy's birthday on Saturday with a BBQ at his house. Everyone was home so we had a wonderful visit with all.
Another month has come and gone. We are still not able to hold church meetings and the temples are only open for endowed members to be sealed together. We have virtural Sunday School on the computer with our ward every other Sunday. We visit Mom through the window. We are praying that June will bring an end to this virus and we will be able to resume our favorite activities, attending church, attending the temple, and visiting with our family. We long for this part of our lives to continue. But we are healthy and being blessed as a family and are so thankful for the many miracles and tender mercies that we have received from our Heavenly Father. We send our love to all.
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