July 2024

 Whoa July!! Where do I even begin?  What a crazy, chaotic, insane and super busy month.  

First of all.... it was so hot.  Unbelievably hot.  

The 8th hottest summer on record. 

We knew it would be, we are always semi prepared/unprepared for it.

But just as it does every year, it seemed much hotter this year that last year.

We tried our best to have fun with the season, but full transparency, it isn't that much fun.

July is just not that much fun.

We were sick for the first 10 days of July.

Kaleigh was kind enough to bring some sort of Covid-like illness home with her from FSY.

We really don't know how we got it because we were so careful to stay the heck away from her.  

But nevertheless, Rals got sick on the 2nd, I followed him on the 3rd and we could hardly get out of bed on the 4th.  

We didn't feel horrible, just exhausted and we couldn't sleep enough. 

I can't lie...  it was kinda fun to be sick together and we laid there all day randomly falling asleep together, waking up together, eating light snacks together, taking medication together and comparing our misery.

We managed to pull ourselves out of the house long enough to scratch a few items off of our Camp To Do List. 

I literally almost passed out in the Dollar Store.  Which would have been gross. 

What an incredibly crappy day off.

I'd like a do-over if you please, I felt so jipped.

We practiced making dutch oven Apple Cobbler twice, trying to perfect the recipe.

We could NOT figure out what we were doing wrong but no matter what ingredients we used in what order at what temperature, it failed.   Our confidence was waning. 

On Saturday, the 6th, we woke up early and headed over to the Stake Center because Rals had to conduct his very first Stake Baptism.  

He did an amazing job.  Unless you knew it was his first time, you never would have known.

He was so confident and poised.  I could not have been more proud of him.

We were in and out of there in under an hour, the thing was so well planned out and organized.  We raced home, changed our clothes and headed over to Costco to do the Camp Food Shopping. 

It was incredible.  

I wish someone had been following us around with a video camera capturing the footage... because we were hysterical.  We couldn't decide if we were coming or going.  We looked like clowns.  If we did have someone documenting our experience, it would have been genius!  We brilliantly would have had a THIRD person there to help us push the THIRD cart.  Because two people pushing three carts is actually not that possible and looks ridiculous.  Plus, we felt so yucky and hated our lives the entire time we were there.  Then we had to load the crap from the carts into the truck and it was 2,000 degrees outside and the food was melting right before our eyes.  

I was a WRECK to say the least, trying to care deeply for 13.5 pounds of ground beef and 5 dozen eggs, while watching the chocolate muffins disengrate in their container.  I honestly have never seen so much food and regretted at least a dozen times agreeing to do this horrifying job.  How did we get ourselves into this mess?  And what in the world made me think we could actually pull it off?  We're not cooks.  And one of us is REALLY not a good cook and willingly admits it.  

The sucky part about going to camp on a Monday is that you have to buy the food on Saturday and try and keep it cool enough for two days in your overstuffed refrigerator........ until you have to work a thousand percent harder trying to keep it at a safe temperature in stupid coolers.  

Ryker and his friends, who apparently are not affected by the unhealthy heat index in our hellish town, play football at the park all hours of the day.  Walt is living his best life this summer.  We never see him.  He is with friends from sun up to sun down and beyond.  

But this particular day, he came home unusually early and headed straight into the bathroom.

When he finally emerged...  This was what he looked like.

Head first into a building at the park but don't worry...  he caught the pass.

 The next day he looked like this...

And then the next day this....

SO TOUGH!!

We had the camping girls bring their bags and chairs and sleeping stuff over to our house on Sunday Night so we could get the trailer loaded with their stuff and not have to worry about it anymore.  

We established a point in the trailer where their stuff could NOT go past in order for us to have enough room for the cooking items and all the totes filled with food.

10 of 50 girls into it, we had exceeded the official load zone line.

These freaking chicks packed like they were headed to Europe for three weeks.  

So. Many. Overpacked. Suitcases.

And we were so sweaty and still feeling sick and Raleigh was getting madder and madder with every arrival of every girl.

The 8 PM drop off time ticked by and slowly became 9 PM, then 10 PM

and when the final girl left, there were about 18 inches left for food.

Oh the anger.

Finally, one of the men in the ward, with the help of his observant wife, sensed the mess we were in and rather reluctantly volunteered his much larger trailer.  

6 additional feet, made it just enough possible for us to fit everthing we needed for cooking and every kitcheny item up to camp, so these princesses could actually EAT!!

But it took 6 large men helping us off-load the way too small trailer into the better bigger one.

What a midnight joke. 

And the two physically ill cooks, fell into bed and never moved from our original positions until our alarms went off at 6 am.

Monday morning was a series of frustrating events, one after the other, with a never-ending stream of swear words and a few temper tantrums.

We tried to continue loading the trailer, pack our own bags, clean the house and not kill each other. 

We had arranged to send Walt up North to stay with Allie. 

He had to ride the St. George Shuttle up to her house. 

I think he was a little nervous, but I told him to pretend he was leaving on his mission.  For some reason, that made him feel all grown up and gave him some good confidence.

Nana came over early and braided my hair and volunteered to drop him off at the shuttle.  It was such a huge help to us.  We paid extra so he could sit in the front seat.  

He had the time of his life fulfilling the role of the world's best co-pilot/snack eater that shuttle van had ever seen.

And we left on our journey.

We arrived at Zion Ponderosa around noon and worked for about four hours setting up camp.

10- 10 man tents (obviously designed for 10 very itty bitty men). 

10 canopys

2 camp stoves, 2 blackstones, 9 water containers, 10 folding tables and the list went on and on.

I had sweat coming out of body parts I didn't even know I had.

We both could hardly breathe due to side effects from the plague that we had.

And one or the other of us would cough every 10 seconds.

And then we started to prepare our first meal.

I hadn't slept very well for a couple of days before camp because I was SO nervous about the food.

Would it taste good? 

Would it make people sick?

How would we do this or that?

You name it, I worried about it. 

And..... I'll be darned if one meal after the other didn't turn out perfectly.  Even though the cooks felt like poo and one of them didn't have a darn clue what she was doing and the other was extremely frustrated with her most of the time.

It was like we had angels on our side or something giving us Camp Chef blessings left and right. 

Even our 6 dutch ovens filled with cobbler produced the most delicious cobbler human-kind has ever consumed in the history of cobblers.  We could not believe it.  All our failed attempts leading up to cobbler night made us so lacking in self confidence.  But a miracle took place.  And the girls thought we were the best!!

Before camp, I prayed that all of the blessings that we would have received by being the cooks, would go to my sister, we still were blessed several times a day.  I guess there is not a cap on the number of blessings that can be handed out on any given day because we were getting them, I noticed every single one of the blessings as they came to us.  It was amazing!!

Skits

Glow Stick Dance Party

Granola Yogurt Bowls in matching camp sweatshirts

Camping is the BUTT WORST outdoor activity.... just slighly less uncomfortable than pushing a handcart from Nauvoo to Salt Lake.  I was perpetually miserable and almost cried twice.  But I held it in, so I didn't shame the family.  I was SO dirty.  I felt horrible physically.  I couldn't wash my hands enough times and they were never clean.  I couldn't smell, taste or hear.  Not good qualities in a chef.  I had trouble breathing.  AND my pee was GOLD!!!  

My lover, who loves me so much and knows I wouldn't have lasted 30 minutes in a tent, rented a nearby cabin for us to sleep in. 

It was a 12 out of 10 on the Ghetto Scale, but to me it was the Taj Mahal.

It had a flushing toilet and a warm shower and my dehydrated hair did this weird frizzy thing after I took my dirty braids out, that couldn't be tamed, so I looked as amazing as I felt for the second part of camp. 

Mud literally came off of my body when I stood in the shower.

We slept like babies in a full over full bunk bed in a pitch black, most likely spider infested log cabin and felt like kings.  But then the second we stepped outside, we were filthy again.

Now that camp is over and I am laying on my bed with clean hands and feet, I can honestly say that Camp 2024 was a complete and total success.  No one got sick from our food.  Everyone liked the way it all tasted.  No one went home early or cried.  The girls felt the spirit and testimonies were increased.  I am so glad we took on this challenge and were so successful.  I learned a lot about us and our abilities.  We only got into a few squabbles mostly because Rals doesn't worry enough and I worry too much and we couldn't seem to meet in the middle.  It usually resulted in one of us just giving into the other and it was mostly him giving into me and my anxieties.  It was fun.  We were fun.  I am proud of us.  

We met new people.  We had so much fun with the bishop. 

He was our assistant chef and we couldn't have done it without him. 

He is easy going and very complimentary and he's not weird.

He was so good for our self esteem as everything we cooked was the 

best thing he had ever eaten.  Especially the cobbler.  He hoarded a bowl for himself

to eat for breakfast the next morning.

This was probably the only time we had time to sit.

We were either preparing to cook, actually cooking, cleaning up from a meal 

or washing dishes at all times. 

The only down time was after sun down and then we would take a backseat full of dirty dishes to the cabin and wash them all night in the sink that could barely fit a pot.

At least the water was blazing hot and we felt like we were getting the crusty food off the 

pans really well and they were gorgeous for the next meal.

We watched episodes of Family Feud on the little 15 inch TV in our cabin palace, 

while we scrubbed and I gave thanks that my hair was 

washed and up in a towel NOT getting dust and debris in it for a few short hours.

Meanwhile....  at the same time we were slumming it at Zion Ponderosa...

Ryker was doing everything fun there was to do in Orem with the big sisters.

He grew up 2 years in 3 days.  He didn't have a single problem.

Allie kept him so busy.  He was so glad to get to go on a little vacation.

Also meanwhile....  Kori looked like this

She is not sailing through treatments this go round.

As I write this, I am not sure what really is going on with her.

It turns out she was in septic shock as there were several days spent in the ICU

with a massive infection that was causing her

organs to begin shutting down one by one. 

Starting with her kidneys, then her liver and then her heart.   

It was NOT looking good and none of us wanted to accept it or talk about it.

So we kept rolling forward with the planning of BIG upcoming events of July.

We had Gracie coming home from her mission on the 26th and Grant and Kailee getting sealed on the 27th.  Not only was Kori obviously NOT going to be here in St George for either event, we weren't really sure what was ultimately going to happen with her.

A person doesn't last too long without 4 of their 8 major organs.

Grant was silently suffering.

He just couldn't wrap his head around getting sealed without his mom there. 

He and Kailee had many talks and many trips to the temple, trying to decide or feel inspired as to what to do.  They finally selflessly decided to postpone the sealing.  They very hopefully agreed that they would reschedule after Kori finished treatments and could travel again.  And then they secretly eloped.  They were married in the red rocks of Dixie mountain with two witnesses, officiated by Grant's childhood scout leader who is now the bishop of the ward he grew up in.  

Just the 5 of them.

And signed a marriage license on the back of a car

And danced while the hot summer sun set

Then he called his mom, who was barely coherent and barely alive and said "mom, I need you to fight so you can be at my sealing when you feel better. Can you fight?  Will you fight?  

And Kori went from "Russ about to call the family together to tell her goodbye" to sitting up in a wheelchair eating breakfast overnight.

We think she knew that she was going to miss the sealing and so she would try to see it another way and when her body started to shut down, she was kind of giving in to it.  

But Grant gave her a reason to hang on and a really good reason to live and so she changed her mind and her course FAST.  

She is for sure not out of the woods and there will be many more rough days.  But that girl is definitely a fighter and continues to be a living and breathing miracle.

At work, we have been SO busy.  

We are solidly booked and have a steady stream of unbelievable occurances.

We get to go on field trips to see new condos being built all over our town.

We get to crane hot tubs off of decks that they never should have been

placed on to begin with.

A absolute mystery as to how they don't come crashing through to areas below.

The weight of the hot tub combined with thousands of gallons of water and 8-10 bodies up on a poorly built balcony that has endless structural challenges was just asking for trouble.

So off it goes.

The week after we returned from Girl's Camp, Ryker left for Young Men's Camp.

He was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

He was SO excited when he learned that Rals was going up for a couple of days. 

He lived in the water and his most favorite part was playing football with the

older boys who challenged his skills and made him better.

Unlike Girls Camp where the girls felt love and the spirit....

the boys teased each other, tripped each other, tried to flip each other out of kayaks, pushed 

each other off the dock, tackled each other, then there were 2 or 3 physical fights, LOTS of 

swear words, hand gustures and bad feelings.

My goodness...

I don't think my son was involved in the fights or the swearing

He promised me he wasn't....

But he did confess to laughing at the people who were and making fun of those who

let their emotions get out of control.

"Wow Luke, that middle finger has been up for 10 whole seconds, is it your favorite finger? Is that why you are showing it to us?"

I can't lie...  I am so glad that camps are over.  I don't like it when people are missing at our house.

It doesn't feel right.

On Pioneer Day, Papa and Nana took the St George Shuttle to the LV airport to get on a plane to Eugene Oregon.  They volunteered to stay with Kori, so Russ could come to  St. George for all of the July Hyde Family events.

They were SO nervous to shuttle and fly and they were so cute and brave to go and do something so hard.

On Friday July 26th Gracie came home from the California, Sacramento Spanish speaking mission and we met her at the St. George Airport.

She had a lot of support and it was fun to welcome her home

Then the next day, we celebrated Grant and Kailee's marriage at a lovely reception

While most of us were doing some celebrating, Mom and Dad were getting an education of a lifetime.

My mom was asked the question recently...

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

A good question, unless you don't want to be doing a particular thing AT ALL, ever.

In six days, they esperienced doing something for the first time several times a day.  They learned how to move our sweet sister, who currently only has 1 functioning limb, from a hospital bed in her living room, to a recliner, to a wheelchair, out to a man driving a transport van.  They learned how to give sponge baths, how to treat and care for a catheter, how to turn someone to prevent bedsores and how to serve with the most unconditional love any two parents could ever give. In a town where they had never been, in a state hundreds of miles away from anyone they knew with literally NO training.  They figured stuff out, they tried new things, they supported each other and comforted Kori in what have to be the some of the hardest days of her life.  While they were so so sad, they couldn't help but be overwhelmed with gratitude that she was the same ole Kori they have always known, healing from a virtual life threating illness just one week prior.  She was every bit as brilliant as ever, spewing out medical terms and communicating with home healthcare nurses in "their" language.  Even at times telling them how to do certain things.  The entire time, with the greatest of attitudes and a strong and stubborn determination to beat this SHIT DISEASE for the second time and to WALK AGAIN on her own.

Absolutely incredible.  I wish I had more adequate words.

In Mom's words "I am changed forever"

Russ and Gracie arrived in Eugene on Sunday the 28th.

They will take over care of her until Gracie goes back to BYU.

As I said, July was not only out of control in the number of days spent participating in a significant event but second only to the the days spent feeling super intense emotions. And in the 31 days, it felt like we felt all of them.  From a human comfort standpoint, July is by far, the most unpleasant month of the year.  Every day was over 100 degrees.  We are hoping that August will fall into a monsoon pattern and give us some relief.  I also hope we will get some relief from big, signifcant, emotional life events.  

When I think back to the beginning of the month, it seems like it was 4 months ago.

Thankfully we don't have a crystal ball to see the future...  If I had seen this month ahead of time, I never would have believed what was coming our way nor would I have wanted to do any of it.

And I probably would have opted to stay in my house until the month was over.

I think I will be so glad to move on and get going on some new and less emotionally draining adventures.

Easy stuff like watching football, back to school stuff and helping one of our babies get her drivers permit (what?)

One thing is for sure, I won't be volunteering for any massive projects for a while, if ever and I think I will also try to encourage my entire family to chill and tone down the drama for a month or two so we can all recover.