Memorial for Dennis

 After my Dad passed back in May we decided to do a Celebration of Life this weekend.  It was the first weekend that we were all available even though it was two months out.  We kept it simple and what we think my Dad would want.  Outdoors, in the woods, near a dog park with his favorite foods, Mexican food, ice cream, and domestic beer and soda.  There was a good turnout.  It rained really hard as we were doing the memorial.  I think my Dad would have loved it.  He was always concerned about water.  A dry forest meant for a bad fire season and not enough water for the Colorado River to meet the water demands.  There were a few times we visited him after he had really started to decline with Dementia.  If you brought up water usage he snapped right out of it and could carry on a full conversation about water.  The thunderstorm was fantastic.

My other favorite part was also a group of "Larpers" doing their thing next to our Ramada.  I thought it was hilarious and my Dad would have said "They're not hurting anything" which is true. They were very entertaining. Larper stands for "Live Action Role Player"  They showed up in full costume with swords and all types of props.  It was great.

It was a nice day, I hope my Dad would have approved.

After the memorial, I flew up to Utah with my cousin Amy for a work meeting.  I was glad to get back home on Tuesday.

All the Lund Grandkids in order by age. Dax, Zane, Derek, Seth, Trey, Harper and Drew

Dad's friends, Libby, Steve and Lisa from New Mexico and Steve Lund 

The Venue Bushmaster Park

Dax Holding my Dad's old helmet from his Forest Fire days

Dax, Darrell, Steven, Me Derek and Trey.  We made the drink trof to honor our dad.

My Childhood friends "The Twins"  Sierra and Sonora

My cousin Amy and myself

Susan Watson, my Dad's housekeep who became more of a caretaker

The centerpiece

Steve and Libby

Denny and Paula Frost and Marilyn maier

Phyllis Wolfskill

Happy School and Sad School

 Trey started 8th Grade this year.  It was kind of weird only having one kid starting school.  We picked up his schedule and supplies list on Monday.  Then Wednesday was the big day.  He had a nice first day.

I made this sign in the "comic sans" font.  Trey was making fun of it the day before.

Dax had birthday #22 on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, I don't think it was his best day.  He has been taking Calculus 3 this summer for the 4th time.  This time he genuinely gave this class a good effort.  He spent a lot of time with the tutor and worked hard.  Sadly this is just an extremely difficult class and he has been stressed about it all summer.  I took Dax and Trey to lunch at Olive Garden on Monday, and Tuesday I picked up donuts for breakfast and gave Dax some cash for his birthday.  He wasn't much in a celebratory mood because he just wanted to finish the class.  It didn't end how we wanted.  The teacher told him he could take a "W" withdrawal instead of an F.  He took the "W" which was probably the best choice considering the circumstances.  Now Dax is reconsidering his major.  I wish he had a better birthday, I didn't even see him to take a picture.  We tried.  He is a smart kid with a lot of potential, we just need to get him on the right track.

San Diego Adventure

 Curtis had some business in San Diego the week of  July 18-22nd.  He had some friends that were there a week early and asked Curtis to come out early to prepare for the event the following week.  Curtis was back and forth of going not going, going... 

We decided we would drive out Monday afternoon just to get out of the heat.  I would stay a day or two and then fly back.  We left about 3:00 in the afternoon and it was a hot day. We were in the Tesla so we knew we would have to stop and recharge at least once.  The battery goes through energy faster when it is hot so we were on top of the charging thing.

We stopped in Gila Bend and got a quick charge while we went to the bathroom and grabbed some quick food at McDonald's then we hit the road again and did I mention it was HOT that day?

We get back on the road and we decided to charge one more time before we do the long stretch to San Diego.  We were getting off the exit to Tacna (the middle of nowhere podunk town) and we hear a bump.  We didn't think much of it until the car started showing low tire pressure etc.  UH OH do we have a flat?  Fortunately, we were very close to a Tesla charging station (our plan) where there was a Pilot station, mini mart etc.

We look at the car and it is more than a flat, we have a blow out.

We look at the clock and it is 4:55 p.m. in the middle of nowhere.  We called Discount Tire in Yuma, they don't have the tire, but luckily a very nice guy answered the phone.  He had already shut his computer down for the night,  he fired it back up and said he could order the tire from Phoenix, and hopefully, it would arrive by the next day.  Then we called roadside assistance to get towed to Yuma.  They said they would be to the middle of nowhere in an hour. An hour passed then two then three.  It turns out they accidentally canceled the call, and it was too late to do anything.  We called a car service in Yuma, and they came and picked us up.  Finally, we arrived at the Yuma Ramada Inn at 10:00 p.m..  The car would have to be towed in the morning.  It was not what we had planned but thankfully we were not stranded on the side of the road in the heat.  We were at a charging station where there was AC, bathrooms, and food if needed.  It could have been so much worse.

Curtis texted his friends in San Diego, one of which is from Yuma, and their reply was "Yuma in July is not good"  The next day the car was towed, and by some miracle, the tire arrived by 11:00 a.m.  I just decided to cut my losses rent a car and head home.  By noon the car was fixed, Curtis headed to San Diego and I headed home in a rental car.  That was memorable.

Curtis finally arrived in San Diego and he rented an air BNB with a few bedrooms.  A few days later he asked if anyone wanted to join him.  Derek was on a family vacation with his girlfriend, Jocelyn, Dax was finishing up summer school and Trey was done with trips and wanted to stay home.

I ended up Flying out to San Diego early Saturday morning.  I thought it would be fun to show up at the Air BNB address Curtis sent me and surprise him.  At 7:00 a.m. I arrive, knock on the door and nobody was there.  It turns out I was at the wrong place.  The owner sends out the wrong address for "security reasons"  I'm sure the people that were staying at the one I was knocking on felt secure with some stranger knocking on their door early Saturday morning.

The condo had kayaks and stand up paddle boards.  We met the Kaufmann's at the beach and played on the toys for a bit.

Tricia and Zoe

Zoe and Sophie

We cleaned up from the beach and walked about 2 miles to have dinner at "The Waterbar"  This is a restaurant that Curtis had been to before and he wanted to take me because they had the best "Poke Bowl"  We made the walk and we were ready to sit down by the time we got there. Curtis' back was hurting and my feet were tired.  When we arrive outside the restaurant there was a hostess outside, she told us it was about a 5-minute wait.  The restaurant is set up so you step inside and then walk upstairs to the actual restaurant.  While we were waiting we heard a commotion, we saw people falling down the stairs, and security comes running.  There was a scuffle then 3 very large men were tackling a guy (a few of which fell down the stairs with him)  they wrestled with him then eventually got him outside and threw in on the ground and were restraining him.  I don't know what triggered it but there were two people with the man telling him to calm down and knock it off.  That went on for a few minutes,  I thought the police would come and arrest the guy but they eventually got off him and released him.  Then the jerk man continued to insult and call the bouncers names.  That was a bad choice considering there were 3 on 1 and a crowd of witnesses emerging.  He then went off on how he was so wealthy and had lawyers back in Chicago that would sue and they would lose their jobs etc.  I thought those bouncers remained very calm and practiced a huge amount of restraint after what the loser was yelling at them. He then said he could come back and kill them all in about 2 minutes.  It was at that point a large crowd had formed to watch the spectacle and cell phones were capturing every threat he made.  His friends finally got him to walk off.    Then the hostess turns to us and says "ok you can go in now" like nothing had happened. Once we get in the restaurant there was another hostess who just said " nothing like dinner and a show"  Nobody ever said what triggered the event, but I'm guessing it was fueled by alcohol.  We had a nice dinner after that and a good story to tell.

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday, then flew home Sunday evening.  The condo was very close to the airport and we watched the planes fly over as they took off.  After I boarded my plane I told Curtis once we had liftoff.  I texted him landmarks that I could see from the plane.  He was watching outside and he got a video of my southwest plane flying over.  It was kind of fun doing a fly-by.

Curtis doing his Presentation with a beautiful beach backdrop

Friends Fred and Kevin

Chillin at the beach in athletic shoes.

Independence Day, Heber again

 We started the week off celebrating the 4th of July.  Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays.  I try so hard to make it fun, so my kids will enjoy it.  I have finally realized it is just a miserable holiday to celebrate in Phoenix.  A few times we have tried to go to cooler temps, but everyone else has the same idea.  I understand why my kids don't think much of it.  We pretty much stay indoors and try to keep cool. I normally try to make some patriotic food, this year I made red, white, and blue waffles with strawberries and whip cream. 

We usually end up watching "Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest " on TV.  It is so glutenous and disgusting to watch the contestants pound down several dozen hotdogs in 10 minutes, but we still do it every year.  We're very familiar with the contestants.  Richard Shea, the founder/announcer/carnival barker whatever you want to call him.  Makes the hot dog eating contest sound like the most epic event ever.  This year had some added excitement other than Joey Chestnutt eating a few more hotdogs than the previous year. Joey Chestnut, the reigning champion for several years, was busy stuffing his face with hotdogs when some protestor jumps on the stage and elbowed Chestnut, he immediately put the protestor in a headlock and threw him to the ground with one arm,  holding a hot dog in the other arm, his mouth stuffed full of hotdog and not to mention he was on one leg, because he was injured and in a brace.  The Twitterverse went crazy and named Chestnut one of the Greatest Athletes of all time and he still won the contest.  His hot dog count was lower than normal, but he still beat everyone else by about 20 hot dogs.  That was amazing.

We then went as a family to see "Maverick"  the Top Gun sequel.  Curtis and I had already seen it a few weeks ago, but I felt like it was a good Feel Good America movie appropriate to see with the family on America's Birthday.  

I told Curtis I thought Dax and Trey would like it, but Derek wouldn't like it just because it was our idea to see the movie.    I laughed with the movie ended and Derek said "How was this movie so good and the original was so bad?"  I said "the original was good, audiences loved it and it was in the theaters for months.  "  Derek:  "No it wasn't very good"    Ok whatever you say, Derek, I was alive back then and you weren't.  Why have people been excited for this to come out for the last few years if the first one sucked so bad?

Besides it being Hot, there were no city fireworks because of supply chain issues (at least that is what they told us).  We had a good day.  We did think it was ironic that all the cities in the Valley had to cancel their fireworks for the same "supply chain issues", yet there were firework stands everywhere, which seemed like more than normal selling to the general public.

The long-awaited Teacher/Deacons camp has finally come.  Trey headed back up to Heber, AZ to stay at the Andersen's Cabin.  That exact same place as the "Amazing Race" except this time they got to sleep indoors instead of outdoors in tents. Trey has been looking forward to this ever since they planned it a few months ago.

They went to Willow Springs lake and did some canoeing, fishing, and cliff diving.  They also shot some rifles and played a game called "007"  Trey won the third round and had a great time.  After 3 nights he was also very excited to come home and sleep in his own bed.

Soren, Trey and Henry

Other events this week:  I bought gas for the car and it has dropped down to $5.19/ gallon.  Still outrageous, but better than $5.85/gallon. Curtis made an omlet, such a rare event I had to take a picture.