Hart Happenings

It's good times in Idaho Falls these days. Summer is here in fine form and we have been enjoying the longer days, warmer weather, reunions with family, and projects that happen only in the summertime. 

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks and I'm that time a lot has happened. We enjoyed a couple of trips to Logan where we got to meet baby Wesley and hang out at the Summerfest with the Mannings. People are so talented and it is so fun to see all their creativity. We went down to take Emma home after she helped us spruce up our new vacation rental. She was an indespensible trooper! She and mom surprised us and came up to help clean and freshen things. Ruth also brought her troops over and with their help we were able to whip the Walnut Cottage into shape. We would have been lost without them. THANK YOU!  

We returned Emma in time for her parade which was fun to watch with Thomas and the boys. Dad looked great driving the beastly truck the pulled the princess's float. 

The boys are loving their gardening class, playing with friends and cousins, and yard sale-ing with mom. 

They worked really hard to complete their school by the first official day of summer and as a reward we enjoyed a trip down to the aquarium in Draper. It was soooo fun! At the end we tacked on a visit to Becca who was staying at Grandma's house. We met Donald, the little duck that Emma rescued out of a window well. It was a great little getaway. 

We had to dash home to work on our little vacation rental we just acquired. We had a lovely Italian family staying there for the past week and when they left we had some other projects we needed to finalize. It's turning out so cute!

We are gearing up for the humongous 4th of July celebration in a week. That is always fun. We're excited to initiate the Nilsson family into this great, local tradition. 

Glad Jenn and Scott made it home safe and sound. The kids loved the postcards they got and can't wait to hear more about the adventures!

Happy in Hyde Park

So glad to see Ruth and family back on the blog! Lots of good changes happening there! And in Snowflake!  And in Hyde Park...

Our driveway is completely gone. It's a mess. But it's going to be very nice when it's done! It will take a few weeks still before they finish it and we can drive on it.

We enjoyed having Becca here this week. She's always a delight to have around. We went to Manila one day and spent several hours visiting with Uncle Burl. He is very thin and weak, but it was good to see him and spend time reminiscing. He was very good to me and my sisters while we were growing up. He treated us like his own daughters and even drove to Salt Lake to go with my sisters to daddy-daughter parties. He taught me to dance and to play the guitar. It will be sad to have him gone. While we were there, his daughter Nella Rae, was diagnosed with lymphoma. Turns out the doctors were wrong. They can't find any cancer cells now that they've done more biopsies. They think it is an auto immune disease that they can treat with steroids.  Quite a wake up call, and a great relief!

We drove the float for the Clarkston parade yesterday, which was quite fun. We then spent the whole afternoon and evening weeding and cleaning out the shed.  If you stand in the right place, it looks great! There are still lots of weeds, but Emma is teaching me to look at the flowers and overlook the weeds. I'm working on it...

We are now anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Belliston clan from Springville! We can't wait to see them!

Nilsson News

We are here and alive and well!!!!  I don't know why the blog has been giving me so much grief.  I have tried to post many times but with no success until today!  I don't even know where to start.  The weather has been beautiful, especially the evenings.  We kind of sound like the Flakes, in that we are also in the ripping things out phase and I don't know when we will get it all put back together.  Garrett got a chainsaw for Father's Day and was able to use it for 10 minutes and then it bit the dust.  They are really high maintenance machines we are discovering.  Our neighbor took out three huge and hideous elm trees on the side of our yard so now we have two more left, six more lilacs, two pine trees, and three stumps.  Not to mention the three burning bush shrubs and bed of junipers in the front.  We're getting there.  Demo work on our unique sunroom is to begin this coming Friday so that will be exciting.
It has been such a neat change for us coming up here.  The kids rarely ask to watch movies or play on the computer.  Instead they are out exploring in our pasture, bringing home all sorts of interesting objects, playing with the goats, climbing trees, swinging on the tire swing, picking weeds and calling them flowers and putting them in a cup of water for me.  It is how life should be!  We have enjoyed going to the farmer's market and library and playing with the Hart cousins.
Today was our Stake Conference which was most inspiring.  The theme that seemed to be throughout the entire meeting was developing a personal relationship with Heavenly Father.  We do this through our prayers, temple attendance, scripture reading, Sabbath observance, the Sunday school answers.  What struck me was what our Stake President spoke for twenty minutes about, that being making our bedrooms a sacred place.  Having them clean so we don't have to kick our clothes out of the way before kneeling down to pray.  Make it an atmosphere that we can develop a relationship with God in. And, teach this principle to our children.
Now for some photos of our house...

 This is the before photo of our living room...

 The monstrous fireplace

 The in between bathroom.  We have an itty-bitty one in the master and our 

nicest one is actually in the garage.

 The grand master

 The kitchen

 The garden does have plants growing now and that is the greenhouse in the distance.  Our property ends where the sky meets the trees in the background.

This is the after of our living room!  I had to have at least one room in the house that didn't drive me crazy.
This home is a fixer upper but we are loving every minute of it!  Can't wait to have you come for the family gathering!

Flake Fun

26 June 2016 - This week went by in a blur with most of my time being spent at the Emergency Operations Center.  By Thursday night the fire was 42% contained and by Friday night it was 51% and the pre-evacuation notice had been lifted from almost all areas.  There are still 2 little towns on the reservation that are under a pre-evacuation warning, this time for flooding. I was able to take this whole weekend off and I'm still trying to get caught up on my sleep! 

On Friday we worked a little bit on the plumbing in our Lovelake house.  Scott's cousin TJ came over and helped us.  We made some good headway.  On Saturday we did some electrical stuff and took out the basement stairs.  Pretty soon we will be to the point that we can start putting things together instead of ripping them all apart!

The weather has been very hot these last couple of weeks which makes it hard to sleep very soundly but the monsoons should come soon and that will cool things down. 
Our garden is doing quite well.  The flowers that we planted from seed don't seem to want to sprout which is sad but I would stay in the cool ground too if I had a choice between that and the scorching sun!  We had to rig up a pallet contraption to keep the cows from eating our corn.  Hopefully it will work. 

Anyway, that is about all of the news from Arizona.  Hope things are going well for everyone and that you are staying cool and having a great summer.  We are so excited for the family gathering!!!!

Flake Fun?

20 June 2016 - I'm sorry that I didn't post yesterday.  Every day since Wednesday I have been pulling 12-14 hour days working at the Emergency Operations Center on the Cedar Creek fire that is burning just outside of Show Low. Scott was also in the EOC Friday - Sunday. I am headed back today for another 12 hour shift and just wanted to take a second to say hi. 

The weather turned really hot and I believe that we hit 99 a couple of times in the last few days.  The garden is doing really well despite the heat.  I can't think of anything else that happened this week...

Love you all.  Hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

Happy in Hyde Park

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful dads in our family!! What a blessing it is to have devoted, righteous, faithful fathers raising our grandchildren.  Thank you for your efforts to be good fathers and wonderful examples.  Here are a couple of my favorite "dad" videos for you to view:
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?category=topics/fathers&lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-04-023-home-repair?category=topics/fathers&lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/all-the-reasons-we-love-dad?category=topics/fathers&lang=eng

It was so nice to visit so many family members in the last couple of weeks!  My trip to Arizona to see Becca and Darin and Jenn and Scott was pleasant.  Warm but not too uncomfortable.  There were several missed roads, a few detours and road closures, but I got where I was going with the help of Jenn and Becca.  I enjoyed a few days in Casa Grande, then a few in Snowflake, visiting, attending the temple, doing some projects and relaxing.  It was well worth the drive.  I wanted to bring Jenn home with me, but she is too valuable where she is!  On the way home I was glad to spend the night with Grandpa and Christi and to find things going well with them.  Little Jake was in the hospital with croup when I got to Springville, but he got home late that night.  He was a sick little guy for a few days, but smiled in spite of it all!  It was fun to read books with those delightful Belliston grandchildren and to attend church with Joe, Grace and Grant.

I tried to catch up on a few things at home, then two days after returning from Arizona, Emma and I drove to Idaho for a surprise visit to help get the latest sleeper house ready for renters.  What a job!!  It was fun to work with the Harts and Ruth's family on a big project - just like the old days :)  Emma was a knock out worker and helped Alex paint into the wee morning hours.  I felt like a traitor when I had to leave in the middle of it all, but I'm sure there will be more work to do in the future and I hope to be there again.

When Elise and the boys brought Emma home, Thomas came to see Emma in the Nibley parade and then we spent the afternoon at the Summerfest in Logan with Lauren and Nick.  It was very satisfying to see all of our children and grandchildren this month!  I wish that could happen every month!  What a wonderful family we have.  I'm so grateful that you all support and help each other whenever possible and I truly can't wait for us all to be together on Labor Day!  It can't get here fast enough!

Our driveway will be torn up and not accessible for the next few weeks.  But it will be very nice when it's finished.  Becca will be coming this week to visit Uncle Burl who is now on hospice and likely won't live much longer.  That generation will be gone too soon.  It's strange to realize that when Uncle Burl is no longer living there, my connection to Manila will be pretty much gone.  I will still have memories and gravesites to visit, but there won't be anyone to visit in Manila any more that I am related to.  It's a strange feeling to have these folks who are such an important part of my life just suddenly be gone.  I suppose that's why Jeremy and Jamie have both moved their families back to Evanston - to be closer to their dad and spend time with him and help him if they can.  It's a lesson in treasuring the relationships we have while we can.

On to catching up on weeding the garden and rearranging the house.....

Flake Fun

12 June 2016 - We have mostly caught up on your sleep and are getting back into the groove of normal life.  It was difficult to go back to work but I guess it always is after a vacation.  There are quite a few forest fires in the surrounding counties but so far we haven't had one in Navajo County.

It was SO fun to have Mom here for a couple of days.  We're glad she didn't melt in the extreme heat of Casa Grande.  We had a very relaxing time together. 

So, Peru....

We flew into Lima and arrived around midnight.  It was very similar to Quito as far as that goes (We always picked the volunteers up around midnight!)   We stayed in a little hostel not far from the airport and they were having a loud party that night so we didn't sleep much.

This is Scott leaving our mark when we checked out of the hostel.  As you can tell it is a backpacker hostel and lots of people leave notes and advice "for those who may follow." (Name that movie!)

Then we flew to Arequipa...
                           

Arequipa Cathedral

We stayed there for a few days, did a city tour, tried Chicha Morada (an interesting drink made from purple corn) and went to the Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world.  We didn't hike the canyon but the view from the rim was spectacular.  There were condors gliding around and it was amazing.

          

                                   

 Colca Canyon

From Arequipa we took a bus to Puno, the mainland city on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  We visited Uros, the floating islands on Lake Titicaca.  They are made of reeds and have to be built up every couple of weeks so that the houses don't get wet! 

Then we stayed the night on a regular island (made of dirt) called Amantani, which was 3 hours away.  We hiked to the top of the hill and watched the sunset!!!

That's Bolivia in the background!

We spent the night with Felix and his wife (pictured below) and then toured another island the next morning.

We spent a night in Puno (it was really quite cold) and visited an ancient Incan burial ground called Sillustani. 

Then we headed to Cusco.  Cusco is a quaint little town that was celebrating something so we got to see parades and hear bands in the square!  We saw a lot of ruins and booked a tour to the Sacred Valley.

We went to Moray and saw the agricultural terraces that the ancient Incan's built.  They are located in a valley so each terrace has a different temperature and they were able to grow all sorts of plants that require different climates.  They also had irrigation that ran to the terraces as well as drainage.  Fascinating stuff.

After Moray we went to Maras to see the salt pools.  This is where pink Peruvian salt comes from.  There are over 2,000 salt pools! (Each little square behind us is a salt pool)

Then it was on to Ollantaytambo to see more ruins.

The next morning we took the train to Machu Picchu.

Do you see that tall mountain behind Machu Picchu?  It is called Waynapicchu.  It was a long hike but we did it.  Only 400 tickets are given out each day and we were able to reserve some.  I'm glad we did too because there was a sign that said that the tickets were sold out until the end of August!  

That little blip of light green to the right is Machu Picchu, to give you an idea of how high we were.

We had front row seats on the train on the way back to Ollantaytambo so we were able to look out the front windshield!  It was awesome! 

The next day we flew to Lima.  It is always foggy there...

We had a private ceviche class (one of Scott's favorite mission foods) which was definitely a highlight. 

And then we came home!  So that was our trip in a nutshell!!!!  Love you all!!

Hart Happenings

This week got off to an ultra-pleasant start. Mom, Dad, Emma, Thomas, and Victoria all came to hang out with us and the Nilssons for Memorial Day. We relaxed at Ruth's house, went on a photo excursion of Idaho Falls, played at the park, visited the BYU gardens, and enjoyed each other's company. So much fun! Thanks for coming all that way guys!

We spent time gardening and looking for houses this week as well. The search continues....

Most of the week found us at the Sleeper House painting and updating the bedrooms and bathroom in the basement. It looks so nice now!

The majority of us took a little break on Friday, (Alex, not so much) to hang out with our homeschool group at the park. We also met friends at the library and got enrolled for the Summer Reading program. The boys are making a big scholastic push to wrap things up by the first day of summer (June 20). If they reach all their goals we get to go to the aquarium. Yay!  Even Peter is learning to write his name. 

That's about it for us. Seems like summer has arrived and we're pretty excited about it!