Red Rock Canyon

Tuesday June 28, 2022

Today was hiking up Red Rock Canyon. That is so much fun but a bit dangerous. Not life threating dangerous but you are at high risk of coming home with good sized bruises. At one point mom slipped and whole side of her right thigh. Brandon was going to jump off a cliff into the river and slipped at we were all afraid he was going to smack his head on the side of the canyon.

Going down the largest slide we all formed a train with me, Alex, Justin, Brandon and Ben. When I jumped on Alex’s back I think I about killed him.

We all had a ton of fun.

After Red Rock Justin, Ben, Alex and Brandon took Landon into Calgary so he could play in his last Lacross tournament. They all cheered so loudly that they could hardly talk the next morning but I guess they were quite a hit at the game. 

 

Fred & Lisa 1st Triennial Family Reunion

Recorded August 16, 2022

The first week in Canada we decided to make it a formal family reunion. I’ve talked about our first few days already and will carry on now.

Monday June 27, 2022

The original plan for today was to take the summit hike from Cameron Lake to the Waterton townsite. Those who didn’t want to make the hike (or those who couldn’t, like Evan) went to the Prince of Wales for “high tea”. We piled into our cars and headed up the Akamina Highway. Unfortunately, a few miles short of Cameron Lake the highway was blocked to keep cars away from the lake while they were installing the docks. We then decided to hike to Wall Lake which was also a wonderful hike.

Several years ago a forest fire moved through Waterton burning out most of the trees in the park. It was very strange hiking among all those dead trees. I’m used to a lush pine forest.

We enjoyed a relaxing lunch on the west side of the lake and of course, the boys couldn’t stay out of the lake.

Later, as we were drying out we were all surprised by a loud roaring sound. At first I thought it must be an airplane flying low overhead but quickly realized in was an avalanche on the far side of the lake. We all sat and watched in amazement as this huge sheet of snow slid down the cliff into the lake. It was definitley a first for me.

On the way down the mountain we all spread out and Justin, Ben, Piper and myself were last.

As we passed the side trail into Forum Falls. It was only a couple of hundred yards so we decided to go and take a look. What a wonderful surprise to find a very cool waterfall where we could actually go in behind the falls. We went in behind the falls, it was pretty cool.

Summer

Recorded August 7, 2022

This summer has been crazy but so wonderful. I want to talk about all of it but just to make sure I get it all recorded let me summarize what we have done right now.

May 20 we went to St George to attend Brett Havertz wedding. Of course had a wonderful time with Alycia and her kids.

The next weekend, May 27 we went to Utah to see Alex, Lisa & James for the first time in a couple of years. Lisa and James just arrived back from Germany.

June 13 Alycia and her family came down for Legoland. It was a quick weekend but it was great to see them again.

June 21 we headed to Canada. The main purpose of the trip was to celebrate Donna Shaw but since most of our kids were going to be there and because Kira’s family is moving to the States we also made it the Fred & Lisa Leavitt first triannual Family Reunion. The first week was spent in Waterton and then we came back to Calgary for the celebration and then the second week was spent mostly in Calgary.

July 16 Lisa and I attended a band concert. Three big groups from our day were playing. REO Speedwagon, Styx & Loverboy. It was good but Lisa enjoyed it a lot more than I did; but I enjoyed being with Lisa.

July 18 Lisa headed off to girls camp. On that first day I went out in the evening and did a presentation on stars. I was quite nervous talking to 150 girls ranging from 11 to 18. I think it went well.

The next day on July 19 I drove Kira and Justins truck pulling a severly overloaded trailer to Chandler for them. I drove their old handicap van back.

On July 22 Brandon drove his kids out to San Diego while Serene was on vacation to Sri Lanka. They overnighted at Kira’s house in Chandler.

On August 1 my nephew Peter was in town because his girlfriend Angie was presenting a paper at some conference in town. We met him downtown and had dinner.

On August 2 Lisa’s good friend Dan Poffenberger and his family arrived.

On August 4 Sarah, Sam & Ezzie arrived. Sarah is a brides maid next week at her friend Simar's wedding. It is an Indian wedding and will take all next week. We will be going to three days of it.

Next week on Sunday we get two more Chinese exchange students who will be spending the year with us.

So that is our summer. Very exciting and full of fun but quite exausting.

So now let me give more details about some of the more exciting parts of the summer.

Wednesday June 22, 2022
Mom and I drove Kira & Justins old handicap van to Mesa and parked it at Bens. This way when Justin arrived with the kids by plane they would have a vehicle for Evan. We spent the night at Brians (Justins dad) place.

Thursday June 23, 2022
We drove the van to Bens who then took us to the airport. We arrived in Calgary in the late afternoon. We had a bit of fiasco at the airport but we made it through OK. Here is the lineup we were in.

Friday June 24, 2022
Alex, Lisa and James arrived in the morning. We played around in the lake and prepared to head to Waterton.

Saturday June 25, 2022
Ben arrived in the morning and then we headed off to Waterton. I was going to hang back and wait for Brandon to land in the evening but he arranged for some girl he met on Facebook to pick him up and take him back to Lethbridge. We settled into Justin’s cabin and explored around the townsite.

That is Vimy Mountain, my all time favorite mountain.

How cute is this picture of James holding Evans hand?

Sunday June 26, 2022
Sunday we went to church in the morning and then headed to Lethbridge to show the kids where Donna was buried, have a picnic lunch at the cemetary and then check out a few landmark area’s in Lethbridge on our way back to Waterton.

We saw the church where they were married, the house she grew up in, the house her dad built, the school she taught at and some of the city parks she worked at. It was at one of those parks where she met Lisa’s dad.

Yes, we are toasting Donna with Pepsi. She was very addicted to Pepsi and it will always make me think of her.

It was quite a summer and it has not slowed down a whole lot. We are exhausted but we feel very blessed. 

Mesa

Recorded April 28, 2022

We’ve been trying to get to Mesa to visit Ben and Sharley since last November but between one thing or another the trip keeps getting postponed. On the weekend of March 19 we finally made it. Mark was very excited because it is one more state that he has now visited.

It was a total coincidence but that same weekend Justin and his kids came for a week long visit as well. Kira stayed home for the weekend so she could play in a concert and arrived on Monday. I think this might be the first time Justin has travelled alone with his kids. Kira has done it many times. We had planned to go on a few hikes but we didn’t have time for all of that so Saturday we visited the newly renovated Mesa temple. We were going to come for the last day of the open house but instead we ended up making a trip to Utah so we could attend Aunt Nola’s funeral.

It was sad we missed the open house but I’m glad we were able to make the funeral.

The temple grounds are lovely and they had many interactive things for the kids to do and the visitor’s center but perhaps the best part was the BYU Creamery. They didn’t have BYU chocolate milk but we all enjoyed the ice cream.

For dinner we tried to go to this very cool looking barbecue place but the wait was way too long so we ended up going to a Farm place that we have been to many times. You can't go wrong there. 

It also had a pretty long line so I watched the kids while the parents bought the food. 

They weren't very impressed with my babysitting skills but the kids had a lot of fun in the dirt. 

Mormon Battalion

Recorded April 24, 2022

On January 29 it was 175 years to the day that the Mormon Battalion reached San Diego. To celebrate the occasion the Mormon Battalion visitor’s center had a big celebration in Old Town.

Our good friends Randy and Kathy Madsen used to live here and they came for the occasion. They always get into these fairs. They had a big parade and Randy was one of the color guard.

They also had a show with a special choir. If you look at the picture Craig McPhie is in the choir on the front row farthest to the right.

They even sent an apostle to represent the church.

They finished up with some cultural dancing which was pretty cool.

The Crowleys

Recorded April 27, 2022

On Sunday, February 13^th Alycia and her family came to visit for their spring break. We had a good visit. On that first day we all went for a short walk through my favorite running trails. The tunnels.

Mom did have a tough time walking however with two children clinging to her the entire way.

Sawyer helping me make lemonade from our delicious lemon tree.

Grandma reading stories and singing songs with the grandkids.

You can just see how much they love her.

On Monday Alycia and Trevor treated us to free tickets so we could go to Sea World with them. It was a lot of fun.

Of course we had to sit in the splash zone but we stayed in the safer part and we only got a little bit wet.  

On Wednesday Alycia and Trevor left us and departed for Disneyland. I went for a run and met this guy on the trail.

I was running up a hill and not paying attention and landed my foot within two inches of him. It startled both us and I jumped two feet to the left and he jumped two feet to the right and went rolling down the hill. He rattled like crazy which startled me even more. I’ve seen a few rattle snakes over the thirty years I’ve lived here but I’ve never heard one rattle before. This guy was probably the biggest one I’ve seen as well.

He looked angry and I was grateful that I didn’t get bit. It is hard to tell from the picture how big he was but I’m guessing that he was about five feet long and maybe 2 inches in diameter.

Dixie & Mark

Recorded April 14, 2022

On January 24th Dixie and Mark arrived. They used to always work a visit in with us when they had to attend a concrete conference in Las Vegas during January but this year they didn’t have a conference and it was just a visit to see her brother and to enjoy a subtropical environment. We decided that this time we wouldn’t just stay in the house and visit but we’d get outside and see some things.

The first day we went to Torrey Pines beach but Dixie had recently had surgery so we kept the hiking to a minimum and just enjoyed a beautiful view and the sunset.

Tuesday we went to LaJolla Cove and saw the Sea Lions and everything else there is to do in that beautiful area. 

We then decided to go visit the Midway Museum. We could have spent a lot more time at the Midway but as we were leaving someone told us that since we were later in the day we could come back the next morning for free. Lisa had school but that worked great for Dixie, Mark and I.

We then decided to check out the Hotel Del and once were there we were googling a good place to have a nice dinner with a beautiful atmosphere. 

We decided on a place and then googled where it was. It said it was 500 feet away. I looked up and there it was right across the street from where we were parked. We had a lovely dinner at the Blue Water Boat House.

The next morning Lisa went back to work and Dixie, Mark and I headed back to the Midway. Finally it was time to say goodbye to them and I headed back to the real world.

Before I go though I have to share this picture of Lisa getting ready to take off from the Midway aircraft carrier.