Summer miscellany

June 1-6: Band tour

Miriam with a group of her band friends while on tour. The kids went to Las Vegas for a music workshop at UNLV, then they got to see the Blue Man Group perform. Then they drove to California where they spent some time at the beach and then ...

... they went to Medieval Times. The next couple of days they got to spend ...

... in Disneyland. The first day they got to do whatever they wanted within the park for the day, and the next day ... 

... they performed in the park and got to spend time in the recording studio before ... 

... spending more time on rides ...

... and picking up a few souvenirs. (Miriam is the one of the far left.)

The last full day they spent at Universal Studios where they had time to perform on their stage and also enjoy the rides before boarding the bus and traveling home through the night.

 Thursday, June 4: Temple trip

Andrea and Winnie outside the temple before doing baptisms for the dead.

 Saturday, June 6: Walking Peach

Peach and Seth at the St. Leon church picnic shelter during a walk.

 Friday, June 12: Kelly's date

Andrea and Seth riding the lift at Kelly's while on a date. We got to ride the lift for free when we went to pick up our season passes for the next winter. Kelly's had an ice cream machine at the top, so we got cones and then walked down the hill.

Sunday, June 14: Chesapeake Brass Band tour

Rebekah and Nathan perform with the Chesapeake Brass Band while on tour. Rebekah auditioned for the band after moving to Delaware and performed with them while they lived there. Nathan filled in on tour because one of their percussionists couldn't make it. They went to Boston, among a few other places in New England.

Tuesday, June 16: Beach

Rebekah and Nathan at a beach house. They had a friend who lent them the space for a little vacation.

 Tuesday, June 16: Front door transformation

The front door before and after Andrea painted it.

 Thursday, June 18: Thirsty girls

Peach and Dixie get a drink from the water bottle while on a walk to the church.

 Saturday, June 20: Siesta

Winnie takes a nap in the living room. 

 Monday, June 22: Bowling

Andrea, Winnie and Miriam at Homestead Pizza and Bowling. We had coupons for their pizza and learned about a summer-long kids bowl free program, so the three of us went together.

 July 7-8: Manhattan

Seth outside the Ghostbusters firehouse in Manhattan. He had a quick work trip to New York.

Seth at Times Square.

Monday, July 13: Softball party

Grandpa setting up the pitching machine for the softball team party with Grandma at home plate.

Winnie talking to Grandma before all the girls get to the party.

Wednesday, July 15: Family picnic

Doug talking to/petting Peach at a family dinner at Grandma Susan's house.

Thursday, July 16: Shakespeare treats

Andrea, Miriam and Ana at Kiwi Loco after watching Shakespeare in the Park (Hamlet) in Rexburg.

July 20-25: FSY

Miriam and Winnie in their room at FSY. They went together for Winnie's first year and attended at BYU-Idaho. Their apartment was really, really nice, and they had a good week together.

Tuesday, July 21: Date night

Andrea and Seth listen to a bluegrass band playing at the Idaho Falls Greenbelt. Every Tuesday in the summer a different musical group performed a free concert at this venue.

Wednesday, July 22: Moving out

Ana's roommate's cat Goose says goodbye to her from Ana's bedroom window at Brookside Village. All of Ana's roommates stayed for the six weeks between semesters, but Ana moved home.

Friday, July 24: Bike ride and stake dinner

Seth, Ana and Andrea pose on the trestle while riding bikes from Tetonia to most of the way to Ashton. (The last part of the trail was closed, so we had to plan around that.) We borrowed electric bikes from Grandma Susan, Grandpa Dennis and Uncle Doug. It was a lot of fun with beautiful scenery, but it almost felt like cheating.

Andrea and Seth smile at the stake Pioneer Day celebration at the St. Leon church. After riding bikes, we can home to shower and then went to dinner with our friends from the ward and stake.

Saturday, July 25: Toe socks

Winnie tries on toe socks. Aunt Jessica was cleaning out her closet and gave us bags of clothes to go through. Nobody kept the toe socks, though ... those were donated.

Tuesday, July 28: Sisters and another date night

Winnie gets a piggyback ride from Miriam in the kitchen.

Andrea and Seth at another free concert at the Greenbelt. This time it was a classic rock cover band.

Saturday, August 1: In-home date night

Rebekah and Nathan make soft pretzels for their date night while Seth, Andrea and the younger girls are at Snowbird and Ana is performing in her musical.

Friday, August 7: Bowling with nails

Winnie goes bowling minus one of her new nails. Her friend Eliza had just done her nails the day before, but unfortunately one came off while bowling.

Saturday, August 8: Going to the movies

Andrea, Ana and Aunt Jessica see the new Spider-man movie at the Paramount. 

Sunday, August 9: Anniversary trip

Nathan and Rebekah pose at Big Springs. The two of them spent the weekend at Aunt Rachel's cabin in Island Park celebrating their one-year anniversary.

Saturday, August 15: Jellybob

Ana sits with Jellybob (Jelly for short) on the back porch. About 10 days after Peach passed away, Seth, Andrea and Ana went to the Snake River Animal Shelter and adopted Jelly (formerly Remi). She's a 5-year-old cattle dog mix.

Sunday, August 16: Parking job and time at Grandma's

Ana's parking job at church. She purposely parked as close as she could to Nathan and Rebekah's car as a joke.

Rebekah tries playing Apples to Apples while wearing Ana's glasses. Ana tried wearing Rebekah's as well.

Seth napping on the couch at Grandma Scott's house.

Friday, August 21: Registering for high school

Winnie tries out her locker combination at Bonneville High School. The first locker combo wouldn't work (the lady in the front office couldn't even get it to work), so Winnie had to get a different locker.

Sunday, August 23: Seth and Jelly

Seth gives Jelly some attention while the family hangs out in the back yard together.

Monday, August 24: The accident

The smashed in front of Nathan and Rebekah's car after they accidentally hit another car on Hitt Road. The car that had been in front of them changed lanes very quickly, and Rebekah didn't have the chance to register that a car was immediately in front of the car that moved. Nobody was hurt, but their car was totaled.

Saturday, August 29: Escape rooms

The family poses after completing our escape rooms. We split into two groups so as not to overwhelm the room. Seth, Rebekah, Nathan and Winnie did one room; Andrea, Ana and Miriam did another. (It should be noted that the second group completed our escape mere seconds before the first group.) We had planned to spend a weekend at Grandma's cabin in Island Park, but some extensive building/repairs at the necessitated us changing our plans, so we did a staycation instead. We spent one night at hunting camp setting up the trailer, we did the escape rooms, we spent an evening at Iona Park playing softball, pickleball and tennis, and we had a game night at home.

School starts

After years of having our kids at three or even four different schools, this year we consolidated back into two: Bonneville High School and BYU-Idaho. As a freshman, Winnie's first day was Monday, August 31 while Miriam didn't have to go until the next day. 

Winnie the freshman headed to school on the bus on Freshman Day. It's a half-day of school where the kids go to all their classes basically to get familiar with the school.

Miriam the junior before driving herself and her sister to school on her first day. 

Ana sneaked into the background of a couple of Miriam's pictures without me noticing. She's a good kid, though, so she didn't encroach on all of them. 

I helped move Ana back up to her apartment at Brookside Village on Wednesday, September 9. 

Standing outside her basement bedroom window. We totally cheated by removing the screen and shuttling everything that went to her bedroom right through the window. That totally beats carrying it all up the outside steps to the front door of her apartment and then back down the inside steps to the bedroom.

Ana, Rebekah and Nathan all started school on Monday, September 14. Ana is still working on her degree in English with an emphasis in technical writing and editing and working at the writing lab. Rebekah is continuing her music education degree and working as a music department librarian. Nathan is an adjunct professor in the music department. 

Rebekah and Nathan spent a few weeks commuting from where they were staying at Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house to school in Rexburg. They had put in an offer on a single-wide mobile home in Thornton, but after the inspection revealed lots of water damage both inside and outside the unit, they withdrew their offer and quickly looked into renting an apartment. They lucked into finding a house that's been divided into two units--upstairs and downstairs--and moved into their new home on October 2. 

Rebekah and Nathan enjoying pizza in their apartment in Rexburg.

After having a happy houseful over the summer, it was a stark contrast when everyone went back to school. But by all reports everyone is enjoying where they're at and what they're doing. 

Goodbye, Peach

 After having our sweet Peach for over 13 years, we knew her time to leave this life was approaching. For a while she didn't show much interest in eating, but between soaking her dry food in hot chicken broth or adding a little bit of wet dog food on top of her dry food ("to prime the pump," as Seth put it), we were able to help her with sustenance. But it was becoming more and more obvious that it was hard for her to get around; she limped with every step due to arthritis, and sometimes her back legs would kind of give out on her. We had been helping her in every way we could imagine: the vet recommended a couple of medications for her, and I constructed a dog cart so she could still go on walks but Dixie could pull her. 

But the day that Rebekah took the dogs on a walk (while we were at Snowbird), Peach tried going to the ditch to get a drink of water and fell in over her head. Rebekah had to jump in because Peach didn't have the dexterity or strength to take care of herself. At that point, we realized that we needed to schedule Peach's release.

Seth called our vet's office, but it was hard to find an opening in their schedule that worked with all of our schedules. I remembered reading about a company that would come to your home for pet euthanasia, so Seth contacted them and was able to find the right time for all of us to be with Peach when she passed. 

It was a hard, beautiful experience. On the morning of Wednesday, August 5, we all sat around her and gave her love and attention until the vets arrived. We said our goodbyes, and Peach passed peacefully surrounded by her people. Seth had prepared a grave for her about 10 months prior when we found out her kidneys were failing and wrongly assumed she wouldn't live through the winter. We wrapped Peach in a purple sheet and buried her under the crabapple tree in the side yard where the sandbox used to be. 

The family stood around her resting place for a while and shared some of our favorite memories of Peach: jumping up onto the grill and resting there when she was a puppy, stealing the ceramic ducks from Berretts' yard, going on hikes and running back and forth on the way in but stopping in the shade for a quick lie down on the way out. It was a bittersweet experience because Peach had been the best family dog we could have asked for, but we knew she was without pain and in a better place. 

Baby Peach napping on her momma. This was the day we visited the litter of puppies that Grandpa Dennis' dog Buddy had sired and picked out our puppy. We chose the runt of the litter thinking she would stay small enough to not knock over our little girls.

Puppy Peach resting on the grill. All of that stuff we used to store in the back yard had to be moved because we learned that puppies will chew everything they can get their teeth on.

Peach experienced lots of places with our family. This was while we were camping in Island Park.

Peach went duck hunting but never really got the gist of it.

She and Toad became cuddle buddies.

Peach really loved hunting camp in Island Park. She loved the place and the people ... but she could have done without the other dogs up there. Oftentimes we'd find her hiding under the trailer instead of socializing.

Peach loved her walks.

In all weather.

And her hikes.

And she loved spending time in the laundry room when Seth determined she needed to come in out of the cold.

Peach with our whole family over Christmas break 2025. We didn't think she'd make it much longer, so we made sure to take this picture while we were all home for Christmas. Poor Rebekah said goodbye to Peach about four times (before both of her missions, before moving to Delaware, while home from Delaware for Christmas) because we didn't know how long she'd live.

Peach in her cart when it got too hard to walk the whole way.

Seth spent Peach's last night in the shop with her so they could have a sleepover.

The entire family spending their last moments with Peach. Seth scrambled some eggs for her last breakfast, but she was much more interested in Ana's PB&J, so we let her finish that.

Rebekah posted this on Instagram: 

Princess Peach Toadstool Grover: June 2 2013 - August 5 2026

Peach Grover was the best dog in the world, and lived thirteen years and two months of the best life a dog could live. She was born two streets over and lived at our house her whole life, and she went on countless hikes, camping trips, walks, and adventures. During her life she swam a lot, went duck hunting, had brief encounters with both a skunk and a porcupine, and caught birds.

She lived to a ripe old age, happy and loved, and peacefully went to sleep surrounded by her family in her yard. She got to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast just before, and she was very thrilled. She had a wonderful last few days with lots of carriage rides and love and finished her mission happy, and is no longer troubled by old age and aches.

She was besides me and was my best friend for most of my life, and she always took naps with me, played with me, listened to me, and loved me. She exemplified the pure, unconditional love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and she was a truly God-given member of our family. It was truly a blessing that she lived through two missions and a year in Delaware, as well as the rest of the spring semester. The family was all together at home, and we could all be there for her.

There will never be another dog like Peach, who loved every person she met so much, even the vet. She was such an important part of our family, and she always be until we are reunited.

Seth wrote and posted this poem he wrote in tribute:

From the same dust as me

Made He you;

Not in His image

But like Him elseways.

The same Spark that makes me

Made you;

Smaller, and though not as bright,

Concentrated and pure.

You came to show us love

And to do His will

(In all things)

Which was to lick my face.

"Greater love hath no man than this,"

And though you were no man

You gave your life to us

A holy sacrifice of joy.

I am convinced

That if I must go on

Then you must go on

"Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory,"

Wagging your tail.