Near Disaster

We've been waiting all year for the next couple of weeks...Christian's last couple of weeks of vacation before having to go back to school. The summer has been extraordinarily hot and short. It has been difficult to get all that we need done before Caitlyn goes off to college with Emily. Taking breaks to relax a little has been difficult as well since the price of gas is so high. Plus, we have to work around Caitlyn's sporadic work schedule. She's afraid to schedule time off or her boss will seemingly punish her by giving her less hours that week.

So Emily started to make her way home. She left with her roommate and decided to stay with her and her dad in Manti as they made their way home to Tennessee. They dropped off another roommate in Salt Lake City to fly back home to her family. The next morning, Emily left them to continue on her journey.

I went shopping in the morning for our trip as we planned to leave on Sunday after church. Afterwards, I dropped the groceries off and went with Caitlyn to get a new phone she wanted to buy. On our way home, around noon, we got a call from Emily and she was hysterical. A stranger took the phone from her to explain that Emily had been in an accident but that she was okay. They were waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Apparently, she rolled her truck in Nevada. Luckily, there was no one else involved in the crash. She was actually able to get herself out of the vehicle but she was very shaken and scared.

We had to drop everything to call her Aunt Aron who lives nearby. The police who arrived on the scene called to tell me that they were transporting her all the way to a hospital in Las Vegas, so we conveyed the information to her Aunt who was going to the hospital to meet her. Meanwhile, Christian and I jumped in the truck to head to Las Vegas as well. Obviously, it would take us much longer. On the way to the hospital, Aron saw Emily's truck, or what was left of it. She took some pictures but I don't want to post them because I never want to see that image ever again. She was also able to recover a few of her possessions.

As we traveled, we got a few updates. She got some x-rays. They showed that miraculously, nothing was broken. She got a bunch of stitches on her chin and inside her mouth. Apparently there was a hole they had to sew up. They surmise that she might have bitten through it. The airbag did not go off. Her back hurt  a lot as well but no serious damage. We were nearly to Vegas when they were basically done with her at the hospital. They had to kick Aron out because something was happening there with another patient. We asked Aron to just take Emily home with her and that we would meet them back at their house.

While all that was happening, Aron called Emily's insurance company and the stupid tow yard to try to arrange something with her vehicle. When we were nearly there, we saw them on the freeway and followed her off the freeway. Apparently the tow yard was nearby. It was considered "after hours" by this time and she was able to get a hold of the people in charge and arrange to have us see the vehicle and attempt to get the rest of Emily's belongings. The tow yard that the CHP uses has a very bad reputation in the town and for good reason. They had Emily's truck in the garage locked up and they would not let us in without paying them some money. Basically, they were holding her stuff for ransom. The demon that was helping us made a snide remark about why Aron did not get her stuff before, since they had seen her trying to get thing but did not help in any way. Aron could not get the door open and was crawling through broken glass to reach things and had to stop. 

Christian was seething at their treatment of us. There was nothing that can be saved from the vehicle. To look at it, you have to wonder how she was even alive, let alone, walk away from it. We told them to junk the vehicle but they wanted to charge us a crap ton of money for storage for the day, even though it was literally only a few hours...half a day if they got it there right after the crash. Everything was soaked in gasoline and they tossed her busted up battery on top of everything else in the bed of the truck so all her belongings reeked of gas or was damaged with battery acid. We took what we could salvage and Christian ended up breaking up anything that might be useable still because he didn't want them profiting from it. He ended up with a big gash on his fist and some minor cuts on his arms and hands just trying to get Emily's things.

Aron picked up some dinner for us afterwards and filled Emily's prescriptions. We were pretty mentally exhausted from the ordeal and don't know what we would have done without her. She just took charge and got everything rolling for us. We are very thankful. Emily decided that she wanted to just come home afterwards to sleep in her own bed, so we left and headed home.

Caitlyn had to stay home since she was scheduled to work that afternoon and we did't see what she could do for Emily anyway. We texted her but didn't get to see her because we got home late and she left early the next morning for an early shift at work. They have been having her basically help open the restaurant with the cook on Saturday mornings so she didn't see Emily until she came home from work that afternoon.

Obviously, the long awaited and much needed trip got cancelled. I spent the next morning on the phone with friends and relatives giving everyone updates on what was going on and that Emily was okay. Christian's mom started thinking about how she could help and after a few hours, she called back about some possible replacement vehicles for her. By the afternoon, it had been decided that we were heading back to Oregon the next day. We were going to leave after church as planned but to a different destination. There was a deal that we didn't want to pass up and we didn't think would be there for long. 

We arrived in Oregon late that evening. His mom was relieved to be able to see Emily. She actually wanted to see both the girls since Caitlyn was not able to make it up for the last trip because of work. She had scheduled to be off already for the next couple of weeks for our grand summer plans anyway. We decided that we should just stick to that schedule as her grandmother wanted to see her and we didn't want to split up the family after all that had happened with her sister.

The next morning, we went to the dealer to check out the vehicle. It is an old 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee...so an older but fancier version of the vehicle Caitlyn has. It is something that we knew Christian could fix and maintain. We checked it out thoroughly and test drove it. It has some problems but nothing we don't think that we can handle for the price. Before we knew it, we were leaving with another Jeep. It was totally crazy. Christian and his mom went to go get a trailer for it afterwards. We spent the next day visiting with her but didn't stay too long. She is still recovering from her hip replacement surgery and tends to do too much when we are there, no matter how much we try to get her to sit down. 

We left the next day and made our way back to Southern California. It was shorter than last time as we took the most direct route, but it was a lot more stressful because the trailer was a piece of junk which cost a lot more than the last one. We left early, so got home at a decent hour.

Emily is on antibiotics for the hole in her mouth and Tylenol for the swelling of her muscles and Advil for the aches and pains so there isn't a whole lot she can do anyway. 

July

At the start of this month, Caitlyn got a chance to play the organ again for us in church. This will be the second congregational hymn she has played. She played the closing hymn and the postlude. She is getting a lot more comfortable doing it and is not so nervous anymore but she still resists having to do it.

We stayed home for the 4th of July this year and enjoyed a different kind of light show. Caitlyn worked half the day and Christian made a neat tailgate table for the TJ.

We usually use the tailgate of the pickup truck or just balance it on some rocks but this will be really convenient when we go out in the Jeep.

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I had jury duty that first week of July, but squeezed by without having to go in. 

Harbor Freight had some sales for the 4th. Since they don't normally have their coupons anymore, we decided to go in to pick up a few needed items with the coupons they were offering. (Un)Fortunately, we ended up coming home with more than we went in for.

We couldn't believe that they didn't exclude their winch from the coupon and thought we better snag on the deal before they got wise to their mistake.

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The next week, we planned to go to Monache Meadow on Caitlyn's day off to test out the winch and take the opportunity to go topless since it should be a bit cooler there because of the higher elevation. Caitlyn, however, decided to stay home and made plans to hang out with a friend. They went to do some shopping and swimming.

Christian and I took off on this adventure on our own. The drive up was very pleasant. It was not too hot or noisy or crowded. 

The place was beautiful. We took the main trail through to Monache Meadow, which was a bit too popular for our taste but found many possible off-shoots that we would like to explore in the future. We stayed pretty cool under the sun screen. When we stopped to take pictures or whatever, we definitely felt the heat of the sun when we got out but it stayed pleasant for us traveling in the Jeep.

We went up a few crazy obstacles with no problems or even struggles, so we were happy with the way the Jeep is performing...only, we didn't take the stabilizer bar links off when we aired down and I think we demolished them for good now. Christian had put in a make shift fix to them before but there is no band aid for this problem now. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the parts we ordered to fix the problem. They claim that the parts were lost at the FedEx hub in Tennessee...twice. It seems like an awful big coincidence for two shipments of the same order to be lost at the same place. They sent out a supposed third order but this time, I requested that they not send it through FedEx again. We'll see how that goes and if we ever get our parts which we are now in dire need of.

There was another water crossing on this trail.

With the trail done, we pulled over to try out the winch to make sure it works okay. 

Everything seems to be working great. It was getting late though, so we started to make our way home. We did not want to be on the roads late as it gets dangerous these days. 

Unfortunately, once we got back on the main roads, the wind kicked up and it made for a pretty rough ride with the top down. It was actually downright miserable. I could not believe how strong the wind was. We stopped for dinner but could not eat on the go as we usually do because it was still so windy. I ended up having to wrap myself in a blanket to try to get some shelter from the wind. As it got dark, it got downright chilly going down the freeway. Even Christian was shivering at some point! Not only was the top down on the Jeep but the doors were off as well, so there was no shelter from the wind at all. I am not eager to do that again any time soon.

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Caitlyn has selected an apartment in Idaho. She didn't want to live at her sister's apartment complex after hearing all Emily's complaints. She went through several different plans for other places before she finally settled on one. We think it sounds pretty good. In fact, Emily wants to join her there eventually if things work out. We were a bit panicked about whether she would be able to reserve the spot in time before they gave it away to someone else, but everything worked out.

Emily will be home towards the end of the month. She stopped working at the daycare already and has given her notice to her normal job. She has been going camping a lot on weekends with her friends. Her roommate and best friend will be moving home to Tennessee at the end of her lease so they are spending a little time together before they have to go their own ways. We are sad that things did not work out for Lanie there at BYU. She will definitely be missed. Hopefully the new avenue she has chosen for herself will work out better for her.

Christian has been working his butt off on Caitlyn's car, trying to get all the things we planned for it before  she takes off for college. He only has a small window of time when it is actually cool enough to work. He usually works a few hours beyond that but he usually pays for it. 

Calico Trails

 At the end of the month, on one of Caitlyn's days off, we set off for Calico Ghost Town. There are supposed to be some interesting 4x4 trails going to all the different mines that used to be worked out there.   In fact, trails spread out all over the place like spiderwebs so it was a little hard to figure out which trail we were looking for. Sometimes the trails lead to something and sometimes you just want to avoid the super hard trails that you know are out there.

Our main trail was the Wall Street Trail. 

We mostly came out to test on the new suspension lift. The Jeep handled great. It just rolled over everything! We were pretty excited about it. We did end up breaking the other stabilizer bar link though. We have plans to replace them anyway and have parts on order.

Some of the mines were closed off while others were left open for people to roam through. The Bismarck mine was mostly open but that means morons end up chucking their trash into the pits and tagging their graffiti everywhere. Since it was blazing hot out, we at least got to explore in peace.

We explored some of the off-shoot trails but we didn't care to spend too much time in the area. It was getting too hot to really enjoy getting out to take pictures and stuff so by early afternoon, we headed off to find the tail end of the Mojave Trail. It is a famous trail that we've been talking about going on but have thus far ended up going elsewhere. We didn't have time to do the actual trail but we wanted to find out where the opening was. Unfortunately, we had many false starts as a bunch of places seemed to claim to be the Mojave Trail. 

We finally found it in the end but our enthusiasm for the trail was waning. There is a famous water crossing that everyone loves near the end of the trail, so since we found it, we decided to check it out.

It was actually quite beautiful there but it smells like the Salton Sea...not so great. We probably wouldn't have tried it, but we knew that someone had partially filled it in with gravel somewhat recently, otherwise, it would have been too deep for our taste. Anyway, it was fun.

We were done after that and headed on the long trek home. It was actually very long. We took the scenic route back and miscalculated exactly how much longer it would be to get back that way. We got home very late.

June

We returned home Sunday, June 12th to a roaring party down the street from our house. We deeply regretted not staying out in the mountains longer. I quickly threw a dinner together while Christian brought our stuff in from the Jeep. Caitlyn had gone to get her Patriarchal Blessing earlier that afternoon.

We sat down for dinner and did our weekly video chat with Emily. During the week, Emily had been helping Caitlyn register for her fall classes. Caitlyn worked most of the week but took off Wednesday to hang out with her high school friends. One of them turned 18, so they had all taken the day off to go to the beach to celebrate. Aubrey had already turned 18 and was able to drive them all to Laguna Beach. 

Caitlyn had the next Tuesday off, so we decided to go for a drive. We let Caitlyn choose where we were to go. She decided that we were going to go to Salton Sea. She saw some pictures in our archives from when we took them when they were little but she could not remember it. Since she is into photography these days, she wanted to go back to take pictures of all the birds and dead fish and stuff.

Before we went, we decided to start our Father's Day celebrations a bit early because we got Christian some little accessories for his Jeep that we knew that he would love to try out on this trip.

I got him some little entry guards and Caitlyn got him some side mirrors so that he can take the doors off his Jeep and still drive legally. So he put them on and we left the door behind!

Unfortunately, Salton Sea is pretty much a dump. We went through some pretty sketchy neighborhoods to find the marina we visited years ago. Also, some company bought a lot of the land up so much of the access to the beach was no longer open to the public. It was pretty frustrating. We also did not really see any birds anywhere. We decided to go to the Sony Bono National Wildlife Refuge...where we saw no birds. The water has receded so far that you cannot even see it from the observation deck. We travelled a long way, it was getting really hot and poor Caitlyn was so disappointed at there being no birds there.

We decided to traverse up the other side of the sea to see what we could find and started to talk about alternative plans. We found ourselves at the boat launch.

It was bone dry. We could have driven off of it. You can almost see the sea off in the distance. It is astounding how much it had dried up. But I guess if you think about it, we saw the same issues at Lake Powell and Shasta Lake. We have, however, passed a lot of smaller lakes that don't seem nearly as affected. A few of them look totally normal, so I'm not really sure about what is going on with these lakes and if there is more to it than the drought to contend with.

We eventually found a few birds here and there but you had to be pretty quick on the draw. To be honest, we saw more birds going through the farms than anywhere else.

Once we had our fill of the Salton Sea, we decided to head over to check out the Painted Canyon Canyon near Mecca (unfortunately). But it was a really neat canyon. We just kind of drove through it. If it wasn't so hot and getting late in the day, it would have been nice to stay here much longer to explore, but as it was, we were on the verge of getting heat stroke.

We headed out of the desert and went in search of some Icee to refresh us for our drive home.

For the actual Father's Day, we had Terry and Jackie come over for dinner after church. Christian smoked us some ribs.

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Emily has just been spending most of her time working to get enough money to return to school in the fall. Her new job is very tiring but she has gotten some good experience working there and the money is definitely better. In her free time, she hangs out with her friends. Her roommate, Lanie, has decided college is not for her and will be returning home to Tennessee to pursue a nursing career. So they have been trying to spend as much time as possible together. We are sad that she won't be up there with Emily anymore.

Grandma Jackie gave Emily some funds to get a top for her truck. She decided to get a soft top so that she can take it off if she needs to or just put it down. Traveling with her stuff back and forth to or from California will be a lot easier to deal with with a top.

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It has been difficult for Christian to work in the shop in the extremely hot temperatures we are currently having but Christian will try to get out early and get some things done before the heat gets totally unbearable. We need to finish Caitlyn's vehicle for her to go to college so we have a deadline to make. 

We had a brief summer thunderstorm on day, but we didn't get any rain from it. It was really neat but we didn't get more than a few drops of rain. Christian took Caitlyn in the out just in the neighborhood to teach her how to take pictures of lightning. She got some really good shots.

Also, the TJ got a bit of a lift. Although, it should have just taken half a day, it ended up taking a full two days in the usual fashion. So that set us back a little, but boy does it look so much better. I think we will not have as much problems getting over things now. We drove it around a little to make sure there were no problems but haven't gotten a chance to test on it yet.

Return from Oregon

It was late morning when we left, but Christian didn't want to stay a moment longer with the psycho pup. We originally was supposed to stay the weekend and leave Monday morning, but it was just getting miserable. So we decided to brave the weekend traffic over staying longer in Oregon for all the reasons I outlined in my last post.

We knew that there is no way to make it home in one push safely while starting out so late, so we planned to take the scenic route back and camp in the Mono Basin area. We decided to head east in Oregon and travel down to California from there as we have never gone through there before. We drove to Ashland and headed over to Klamath Falls. It was a beautiful drive. We enjoyed it very much. Christian seemed to even breath easier by the time we got to Ashland.

I don't know if it was the mountain air or that maybe he is even allergic to dogs but he seemed to revive shortly after heading back out on the road. The dog thing didn't seem likely as he grew up with dogs but they generally lived outside and we've even spent the night where they had dogs in the house before, but we never spent that much time with a dog living in the house and he did seem to get sicker and sicker the longer we stayed, so it might be a possibility. He had some lingering symptoms of his sickness when he got there but it was much improved. By the time we were out on the road, he was back to just having some lingering affects again. 

A couple of older people in our ward died of a lung infection recently and while we were away, another person died, but we were not made aware of who it was or what they died of. Either way, there seems to be something new going around.

We stopped by to check out Glass Mountain. We wanted to come see it last year with Caitlyn but there were a lot of fires here that mostly closed the area. It is a big mound of obsidian. We scrambled up a little way but did not venture far from our vehicle. The volcanic rock were really sharp and you didn't want to take a fall on this stuff. 

We had dinner in Susanville and found our camping spot near Mono Lake. It was a bit trashy as other people definitely used this spot a lot for camping, partying, and target practice. But we were tired and it was sufficiently out of the way for us to rest for the night. We did not plan to stick around.

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It was a pretty pleasant night when we stopped but shortly after we got up he next morning, the wind started blowing again. We quickly packed up and explored some more roads on our way home. We found some neat rocks we are considering returning with the kids to climb. 

We took the Casa Diablo trail that let out near Bishop. It was a really nice trail and I would love to return there some day...hopefully when it is cooler because it was quite hot out by the afternoon. We were enjoying ourselves so much, we considered staying an extra night out in the Sierras and return Monday after all.

While traveling down the trail, however, we found a lost sheep. It was either hurt and/or lost as we passed a flock of sheep five miles back and this one was sitting despondently on the side of the road. Christian tried to give it some water and it sucked a quart of water in no time flat. When Christian tried to walk away, it finally wobbled up on it's feet to try to follow Christian. We gave it another quart of water and decided to go back to alert the shepherd of his missing sheep as we gave it almost all of our water. We forgot to fill up before leaving Oregon and figured we would refill in Bishop.

We had passed a bunch of trucks that we thought might be in charge of the sheep, but they turned out to be a big pack outfit taking tourists down the trail on horseback. They were taking the trailers out ahead of the pack and leaving water and stuff for the horses. They had noticed the sheep as well and tried to give it water too. When they heard that we had given the sheep all our water, they offered us some of theirs. We took it for the sheep.

We continued on to where we saw the flock being watered by a truck but there was no one there. Some of the sheep had wandered off. Some were sitting under the truck with a few sheep dogs trying to hide from the relentless sun. We saw a trailer not far away and decided to see if the shepherd was in his trailer. He was, but he was a Mexican guy who didn't speak a lick of english. Christian tried his best to relate the information to him. He seemed to get the gist of the information...kind of. As he closed up his trailer and started walking down the road towards where we indicated his lost sheep was. Unfortunately, he was walking and had no way to really rescue the sheep and he didn't even take any water for himself so he was likely to end up needing to be rescued as well. We tried to tel him the sheep was five miles away, but we are not certain how much he understood. 

We only had two seats and the back of the Jeep was packed to the gills so there was no way to offer him a ride and could not communicate the situation to him clearly since he didn't speak any english and we did not know enough Spanish to explain the situation to him. We were very frustrated but there wasn't anything else we could do. We returned to the sheep and gave it another half gallon of water. It got up and tried to follow Christian a bit, so he thought many he could just walk it back partway and meet the shepherd down the road but it would not walk more than a few steps before slumping back down on the ground. It was then that we knew for sure that it was suffering from heat exhaustion as we do not know how long it was separated from the rest of the flock and it was really hot out. It wobbled back up on it's legs and limped over to the Jeep. It tried to get under our Jeep for some shade but it was next to the hot engine block and couldn't really fit anyway so it was in a bunch worse position. 

We couldn't just leave the sheep there though because now, it was in the middle of the road. In the end, Christian build a little shade for it with some tumble weeds and bushes. We cracked open another little small bottle of water and gave it little sips to lure it across the road to the other side and into the little shelter next to the road. It took a while, but it finally managed and slumped into the shade where hopefully the shepherd would find it. After all the water it got, we hoped that by the time the sun went down, it will have revived enough from sitting in the shade to be able to move on it's own.

It was a pretty crazy day so far. We had a headwind the entire way up to Oregon and a headwind half the way back down. I'm not even sure how that is possible. The hardtop on the Jeep doesn't fit really well so when the wind hits it just right, it makes it really loud and obnoxious in the vehicle. We had a headache by the time we reached Oregon from the noise. We figured that since we had a headwind all the way up, we might have a tail wind on the way down, but it was not to be. In the end, we stopped and put duct tape across the top where the top meets the windshield and it made it tolerable again.

If it was not for the infernal wind, I think we might have stayed an extra night out there.

Oregon

As soon as Christian's school year was ending, Christian's mom asked us to go up to help her with a few things around her house. We had originally planned to go up there to watch her house and dog while she and her cousin went out on some adventure or another. I think the original plan was to go to Florida. But in the end, she cancelled her trip because she needed hip surgery. 

So, Christian's last day was Friday and we planned to drive up early on Monday. We got up to Shasta before the sun set for the day. Since it is a pretty long drive, we didn't stop very much or for very long except to take some pictures here.

There was still some snow on Shasta, or at least they might have gotten a bit of new stuff the evening before as there had been rain in the forecast. 

We arrived in time to get a late dinner at his mom's house. Her dog, Chance, supposedly a puppy, is huge now. As soon as we tried to bring in our stuff and put them down, she absconded with one of my flip flops. Cheri had us move our stuff beyond a little gate that she had trained the dog not to pass. I moved things into the bedroom area while Christian brought things in from the Jeep. When Christian finally came in to take off his shoes, the dog stole one of his socks before he could get everything off and move it to safety. Chance was certainly an overexcited pup but we figured she'd calm down after she got used to us.

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The next morning, we got started on the list of projects she needed help with. They were just a bunch of minor house and garden projects that she needed done and had been unable to do herself, especially with her bum hips. She has been in a lot of pain for some time now. She kept falling and hurting herself until the doctors finally suggested that she get total hip replacement surgery.

We got a decent amount of stuff done. Chance didn't really calm down much but seemed to get more and more excited as we stayed. Luckily, Cheri kept Chance away from some of the areas we were working.

Cheri usually retires early and gets up very early as she isn't really able sleep very well because of the pain. We watched some movies and kicked back in the hot tub to relax my aching back before turning in for the night.

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The next day, Cheri insisted that we take a day off to see the views and we agreed only so that she could rest and stop fussing over us. We were supposed to be there to help her out, not to give her more work in having to take care of us. 

Cheri gassed up her Hummer and let us take it for a spin. We packed some lunch and headed out to the ocean for the day. We could not find ready beach access on the Oregon side of the border and decided to head down to the California side instead. After several, false starts, we explored a little hiking trail near Lake Earl. It was fairly quiet and there were lots of wildflowers still in bloom. 

It was supposed to be a short hike to the beach but the mile postings were all wrong and showed conflicting information. We never reached the beach access that was posted and turned back when we got to the lagoon and saw that there was no way we were going to hit the beach access on this route. We doubled back and briefly tried another direction, but the trail was mostly obscured and we were getting quite hot and tired. I was also developing some blisters on my feet!

We did not take our lunch and drinks with us since it had been early and they had posted on the signs that it was less than a mile for beach access. We had planned to see the ocean and then continue on to see the redwoods for the rest of the day. Since we did not actually find beach access yet, we went exploring some more to see what we could find. After reviewing the map, we finally ended up at the Tolowa Dunes State Park. 

There were a few groups of people fishing  but to the north, was a large stretch of beach that was relatively deserted. A truck hauling a side-by-side was just exiting the beach so Christian decided to try driving up it as well. I was a little skeptical because she did not really want us taking it off road.

It was overcast and cool out but not cold and we had that section of the beach all to ourselves. It was pretty nice. It was filled with really neat driftwood and rocks that Christian new that his mom would like. We took a couple of pieces back with us to show her.

Plus we got to give it a quick car wash in case we got any sea salt on the undercarriage!

We never did have time to visit the redwoods any more than what we saw on the side of the road after that. We filled her gas tank back up and we returned back to her house for dinner. Christian showed his mom the pictures of our adventures and convinced her to return there with us. She was pretty excited.

Chance was still jumping all over us. She damn near tacked each of us at some point in her enthusiasm. I have to say that it was getting a bit old as she as not calming down at all. She mostly stayed off of us when we sat all the high chairs at the counter or at dinner table but we could not sit on the sofas at all to relax. She would jump on us and get in our face and lick us. It was kinda gross. She wouldn't sit still and let us pet her and for some reason, Cheri didn't want us to take her out for a walk either.

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The next morning, we headed back to the Tolowa Dunes. This time with Cheri and Chance with us. Christian has been fighting a lung infection or something from the last time he got sick and it seemed like it was getting worse. 

We only had partial clouds on this day, so I ended up taking my pictures all over again since it looked so different plus more because we brought Cheri and Chance with us.

We gathered more driftwood and rocks for Cheri. She had some projects in mind that she wanted to do and there was just so many nice pieces everywhere. Finally, when Cheri got tired and had her fill of driftwood, we decided to start heading back. Chance didn't want to get back into the truck and Christian had to convince his mom to let her run beside the truck for a while. She had the time of her life. She's an Australian Sheppard, so she likes to run and stretch her legs and is not made to be cooped up in a house. She was the most well behaved we have seen so far on this entire trip. She was just happy to explore and run around instead of jumping on us.

However, when we were turning around to head back, Christian did not see and drove over a huge trunk of driftwood which then got caught on the undercarriage of the truck. He tried to make sure his mom didn't panic and went to dig our way out. Unfortunately, we did not bring a shovel. It took a bit of time, but Christian got us loose without too much trouble and Cheri seemed to handle it fine.

We didn't stay out too late as not to overexert Cheri. We returned to the house to relax, watch movies, work on puzzles and have dinner. Chance still jumped on us but she seemed a bit better, so we hoped that she was learning and getting used to us after spending the whole day together. Christian took a much needed nap when we got back as well.

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The next day was to be another work day. We got a few more of the items on her list done and a few other items besides. Cheri's cousin Debbie does upholstery for a living...mostly automotive and marine. She had offered to re-stuff the TJ front seats for us. so Christian stopped mid-morning to bring the TJ seats to her. She had forgotten that she had to take her mom to a doctor's appointment that morning, so there was only a small window of time for Christian to drop it off before she had to leave, so he stayed and tried to help her take the seat coves off. He was going to bring it back to his mom's house to wash. Unfortunately, he cut his finger pretty badly on some really sharp edges of the seat frame. Even Debbie got a bit scratched up. 

We were a little worried about the seat covers because some of the foam was falling apart in the machine. It seemed like a disastrous decision. Cheri let it run twice through the machine and took it back to Debbie later that afternoon. After she returned, she wouldn't let us work any more. Christian's health seemed to be declining and his finger had a huge gash in it.

We tried to relax and watch movies with her, but as usual, Chance would not let Christian alone. I mostly made excuses and stayed in the areas that I would not get attacked, but the high chairs were hard and not comfortable. Cheri tried to keep Chance off Christian but every time Christian started to relax, the dog would jump on him and get in his face again. Finally, he couldn't take it any more and went in to take a nap in the dog free zones. He was pretty irritated because he didn't feel well and we went up there so he can spend time with his mom and help her out. She would not let him work any more and Chance would not let him spend time with his mom.

I just stayed in the background and worked on some insane jigsaw puzzle. Christian helped me with it on and off but we didn't like it because there was no main objects in the picture to put together and it was a thousand pieces that all looked nearly the same and even fit together when it wasn't supposed to. It was all but impossible. I finally figured out some pieces that I thought fit together but actually didn't and took them apart. Once I did that, I seemed to finally get somewhere with the puzzle and probably stayed up too late working on it. Cheri retired for the night at some point but came back out when she got a call about some new drama that Erin was entrenched in. She had remarried some rich guy in Nevada with his own grown kids. Cheri is starting to think that she is bipolar and will reck her second marriage if she didn't get help but could not get a hold of Erin.

She came back out to do some searches on the matter on her computer but chance just sat there dolefully looking at her because she wasn't in bed. She finally gave up and went back in. Chance went in to make sure she got in bed then came back out to sit and nap at my feet.  After a while longer, I retired for the night as well. Chance had gotten up several times to investigate noises around the house and settled back to nap in different places in the room. Apparently, she must have been sufficiently tired, because I was able to get up and put a few things away and turn off the lights without her trying to molest me.

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The next morning, we got up. Chance again, jumped all over us the minute we went out. Cheri would not let us do any work again. She was convinced that Christian had Covid or something. She went out that morning to get a test for him. It came out negative as Christian knew it would. That is the second test he has taken this year through his many sicknesses but it always came out negative.

She tried to get us to just take it easy, but that was impossible with Chance around. Finally, Christian decided that if she wasn't going to let us do any more work and Chance would not let him spend any quality time with his mom or let him even relax, we should just start heading home. He seemed to be getting sicker the longer we stayed and he didn't want to get his mom sick ahead of her surgery. The doctors were giving her the run around for the longest time and she finally got them to schedule her surgery while we were there and we didn't want her getting sick and ruining her plans.

May

The month seemed interminable. Christian has just been waiting for the month to end. He is so burnt out. It doesn't help that he seemed to have gotten sick a couple of times this month and has had to stay home to try to recuperate. 

Caitlyn has been seeing her friends scramble to finish school (i.e. state testing, senior exhibition, finals, etc.) She doesn't miss any of it. She had to work late the night they gave out the senior awards. She is supposed to graduate Magna Cum Laude with Highest Honors. She got the Academic Lamp, a cord for RUSD Dual Enrollment Cord, President's Award for Academic Excellence and Perfect Attendance for 2 years. She picked up her awards the next day, along with her cap and gown.

She wanted to attend the Baccalaureate to see her friends but she also had to work. She would not be able to get back in time to eat and change before it started. She actually did have time to attend the senior sunset, but her best friend opted to go to some concert instead, so she didn't want to bother going to it.

Her friends assumed that she would at least walk during the Graduation with them, but she didn't want to bother with it. It is a lot of hassle and would take a lot of time, especially since you had to attend two rehearsals in order to walk. 

On the bright side of things, she finally started getting better hours at work. She still isn't offered full time, but it has increased to a more acceptable amount of hours.

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Emily also got a new job. She is working with metal now. She helps make brackets for floating shelves. The brackets are made on a CNC plasma cutter, then she uses a grinder to finish the edges. It is tedious and hard work but they pay better than the daycare center and they give her a full 40 hours a week. She actually works 10 hours 4 days a week. So she has Fridays off, but she agreed to work on Friday still at the daycare center to help them out and get more money. She might also be eligible to get a bonus at the end of the month if her department meets or exceeds their goals. It is tiring, but she is more confident about having enough money to go back to school in the fall with this path. The daycare center kept cutting her hours here and there and they never paid much to begin with, so she was a little worried about whether she would have the money to go back to school.

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Christian has been back to working on Caitlyn's front bumper.

The front bumper is more complicated than the back one because we got a tie in kit to attach it to the frame. And as usual, the bolt in bumper needed some modification in order to make it even fit, even though it is supposed to be custom made to fit this model car. It took a while to figure out how to make it work. Christian even managed to gt it all painted up, but in the end, we could not install it yet because the hardware that came with the bumper kit was total trash. He has to order new hardware in order to install it. JCR sucks.

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Caitlyn also finally graduated from Seminary. That was a complete pain in the ass because of the seminary instructor. Even after she finished, we were never even sure if she was done because the class was online and the kids pretty much did everything themselves. The guy would hardly ever have any contact with the kids and never would answer any of the parents. I can't believe they wouldn't fire the guy. Very disappointed in the leaders for leaving this guy in place. We know kids that never got registered for seminary because of this guy. It's sad that seminary has not been a good experience for the kids for the most part.

This past weekend, Caitlyn played the organ at church again. She agreed to play the prelude and the opening hymn. It is the first time that she has played while the congregation sang. She was really nervous, but she did great! Sister Crocket is trying to get her to play one more time before she leaves for college to get her to not lose her momentum.