Our Story: The Bell Family

We had the best vacation! It was so wonderful to see new places, but most importantly just to be together.

Friday

Mark woke up early to donate plasma and finish a draft of a paper and I did my regular work until 11:30. After that we quickly ate lunch, loaded up and were on our way!!

We planned on an 8 1/2 hour drive to Hawthorne, but somehow every time we looked, the destination was further and further away! It ended up taking 10 1/2 hours and we still don’t know how!! We did enjoy talking and listening to Children of the Promise on CD. We listened to almost an entire book!!! We had a really hard time finding a bathroom along the way. One we found required quarters, but then still wouldn’t unlock! Another gas station required us to buy something to use their bathroom!

We thought the desert views were more beautiful than we expected and we even got a few raindrops on the way! We saw hundreds of “Mormon crickets” on the road (sooooooo gross). We saw signs warning of bulls, mountain sheep, and prison inmate hitch hikers….

We finally made it to Hawthorne, Nevada! The motel we stayed in wasn’t fancy, but it had everything we needed after a long day of driving and the owner was so nice!

Saturday

We got up early and drove to Mono Lake in California. We specifically chose this route for our trip so we could see Mono Lake. Mark has learned a lot about Mono Lake in school because Mono Lake is a saline lake like Great Salt Lake. He was excited to see so many Greebes!

We walked on the South Tufa Trail. Tufas are calcium carbonate structures formed under the water of the lake. Because the water levels are so low right now you can walk out and see just how big they are! They were so cool!

After Mono Lake, we headed to Yosemite! Neither of us had been to Yosemite before. The rock was so unique-very white with lots of sharp drop offs.

Our first stop was the Tulumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. We walked around a bit but didn’t hike the whole thing. The trees were so big!

Next, we saw Tunnel View. It was so pretty! Mark really enjoyed all the tunnel roads that go through the mountain.

Then we stopped at Glacier Point. The road there was much too curvy for my liking, We can’t believe people climb Half Dome!

We planned to walk to Lower Yosemite Falls next, but we had a hard time finding the parking lot with all the one way roads! We decided to call it a day and went to Sacramento to stay with Mark’s brother, Chris.

Sunday

We enjoyed the time we had with Chris, Lara and their girls in the morning. Lara made us a delicious breakfast then Mark and I watched our ward’s sacrament meeting over Zoom. That’s a definite perk of the pandemic! After church, we loaded up and were on our way.

We drove six and a half hours to our Airbnb in Mickinleyville. We had considered stopping along a scenic route on the way but we were just too tired of driving and too tired in general. It was a great choice because the Airbnb was amazing and it was so nice to have the evening to relax there.

Mickinleyville is small and has lots of farms with cute old barns. Our Airbnb had some donkeys, a horse, and a goat. We were so excited when we found a container in the fridge with carrots to feed the animals! Flynn loved sniffing around the yard so much!

We found a few snails! Here’s one:

We then relaxed inside and took advantage of the treats and hot chocolate the host left for us.

Monday

We were sad to leave our cute Airbnb but were so excited for our day in the Redwoods! The Redwoods were the reason we planned this trip!

We first planned to walk on Cal-Barrel road, but it had recently had tar sprayed on it so we didn’t get to walk on it. We did slowly drive up a ways and it was really pretty! The mist made the forest a little spooky. We kept picturing Ewoks running in the trees since that Star Wars movie was filmed around here!

We made a little pit stop and found this beautiful meadow! And a big tree!

Next, we tried to find Coastal Drive Loop. The maps app took us to a Coastal Drive but most of the road was closed! Then we lost service so we couldn’t use the maps app anymore! Luckily, I had printed a map of the area. It wasn’t the best, but it worked. We then saw a sign that said Coastal Drive. After a few wrong turns we found the actual Coastal Drive Loop!! On the loop we found an old World War II radar station.

We also found this beautiful view of the ocean. I was so happy the fog let up so we could see the seals! There were also sea lions (we think) swimming nearby.

Next, we drove through the Klamath Tour Through tree! It was amazing! And no one was in line behind us so we had time to take a few pictures!

Then we drove to the Klamath River overlook for a picnic lunch and scenic views. Speaking of lunch, our bread was left near the bananas (not in the same container) and now it tastes like banana bread!! We’ve had a lot of good laughs on this trip. The view at the overlook was gorgeous. We thought we saw a couple whales, but decided they were just rocks haha. We did see the cutest, little bunny though and lots of wild blackberries!

We went to the Trees of Mystery next. I was so excited to find this place because dogs are allowed everywhere (except the canopy trail). Paul Bunyan and Babe welcomed us. Someone was hidden and speaking through a loud speaker pretending to be Paul. He would say things to specific people which was kind of funny.

At The Trees of Mystery we walked through the forest and saw lots of big trees!

Mark really enjoyed the Canopy Trail! I stayed on the ground with Flynn and watched.

The Brotherhood tree was unbelievably big! It’s estimated to be 2,600-3,000 years old!

All three of us went on the gondola Sky Trail ride! It was a little scary, but had great views!

There were some fun carved trees too!

We ended the evening watching the sun set at False Klamath Cove. It was beautiful!! The waves were big too! Flynn didn’t love the waves, but he liked the sand and made friends with another dog!

Tuesday

The receptionist at our motel (at the Trees of Mystery) warned us that the road to go North would be closed for construction at 8:00am so we got up early and headed past the construction zone to Endert’s Beach for a breakfast picnic. On the way to the beach, we saw elk! The beach was awesome! It was so peaceful watching the waves and we had a great time looking for sea shells.

There were so many of these tiny footprints! We can’t tell what they were from-probably some kind of mouse.

We then headed to Pebble Beach to look for sea lions. There were so many on a big rock in the ocean. We were able to see them with binoculars. Some were swimming and jumping out of the water!

We saw the Battery Point Lighthouse next! I LOVE lighthouses. It was so pretty! We weren’t able to get close to it because Flynn wasn’t allowed in it and you have to be there’s during low tide to access the lighthouse.

We found an even better view of sea lions at the harbor! They were so loud!

We were so ahead of schedule (thanks construction for getting us out the door early) that the restaurant we planned to eat at wasn’t even open yet! We found a different seafood restaurant close by and had an early lunch of fish and chips! We had grilled cod, fries, coleslaw, and a side salad. We sat by the beach and watched surfers as we ate. It was such a nice moment and very delicious!

We left Crescent City and drove to Jacksonville, a little historic city outside Medford, Oregon. We drove through the cemetery and saw a bunch of old headstones. We also saw some adorable black tail deer fawns! We drove down main street and saw other cute old buildings.

We arrived at our Airbnb in Medford, Oregon in the afternoon. It’s an adorable cottage in an orchard! Just down the street is a pear orchard owned by the church!

We found a nice park for a walk after dinner. Medford is so cute! Then we watched Onward at the Airbnb. We wanted to watch an adventure movie during our adventure!

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we drove to Crater Lake! It was really pretty, but also really smoky and cold! It was a little hard to see the lake through the smoke, and it was 45 degrees and very windy!! But the lake was huge and it was fun to read some of the signs about it.

We went back to Medford for the rest of the day. We went to a local ice cream shop called Sweet Cream. I got island cookie (basically Samoa cookie) and Mark got s’more!

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and returned to the park for another walk in the evening. It was so nice to have down time among the sight seeing.

Thursday

We left our cute Airbnb at 6:00am and drove home! We listened to another Children of the Promise book and the time went quickly! We were home by 7:00pm which gave us enough time to unpack, do laundry, go for a walk, and pick the produce that had been growing in our garden all week!

We had such a great time, but home is always the best place to be!

Mark finished his field research this week!!! The past three summers have been busy and hot for him as he’s gathered data for his research.

Our garden is producing more and more! We’ve gotten lots of tomatoes. We’re starting to get cucumbers and we had our first zucchini! I found a new recipe for zucchini quiche that was amazing! We’ll definitely be making it again!

We had a coupon for free snowcones that we enjoyed using this week! The snow cone shack was right in front of IFA so we took Flynn shopping.

We were able to squeeze in some time Thursday afternoon to go to the county fair. It’s a favorite summer tradition for us!!

Mark is making great progress on his rifle cabinet! He’s building it at Bridgerland Technical College in the community cabinetry class. This week he got the face frame on.

We’ve been busy getting ready for our road trip this week too! We’re going to Yosemite, the Redwoods, and Crater Lake. We are so excited to have a real vacation together for the first time in two years! As I was gathering up things for our trip, Flynn went and crawled in his crate like he was saying, “Don’t forget me!” (Not that we ever could!)

Mark and his technician finished surveying several areas on the bird refuge. It’s bitter sweet knowing he won’t be there again. He’ll finish up the last areas next week and then he will be ALL DONE with his field work for his PhD.

Monday morning, Mark drove Flynn to the pet dermatologist in Salt Lake City. I had to work, and only one person was allowed into the vet’s office because of COVID. Mark said everyone though Flynn was adorable! They did a mild sedation and tested him for a lot of allergies! He did have some allergies to different plants in the area, but the vet thinks the allergy that’s bothering him the most is his allergy to house dust! She said it doesn’t matter how clean your house is, there will just always be dust. Luckily, this is an allergy dogs can usually be desensitized to. The vet’s lab is making medicine specifically tailored to Flynn to desensitize him to house dust and a few other allergies. He’ll need to take the medicine every day for six months. We’re hopeful that he won’t need allergy medicine after that!

I hosted a bridal shower for our niece, Lauren, this week. She’s getting married in November (the best month for weddings!!). I knew she wanted a crepe bar at her wedding reception, but decided it would be too much work, so I did a crepe bar for her shower. The theme was “Berry Much in Love.” It was an open house Shower so I just had one game available for people to get to know the couple. Mostly, everyone just enjoyed visiting! And the crepes were delicious! Everyone pooled their money together and we were able to get her a kitchen aid. She was excited!

We had an at home date night on Friday. We played Clue (Mark had never played it!) then made a fancy dinner and dessert. After our date, Mark went spotlighting for the last time. I watched the Olympics, worked on a paint by number, and read. It’s been so fun watching the Olympics! I always feel so inspired by how hard the athletes work!

Mark is continuing to do vegetation surveys! It takes quite a while because they do four surveys at every nest. Friday night he also went spotlighting again. They saw tons of raccoons, two beavers, seven deer, an owl, and a coyote.

Monday evening we had birthday cake with my family. We made a chocolate cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting. Yum yum!!

Mark was so nice to take off fieldwork on my birthday! He went into the office while I worked in the morning. I worked a little earlier than usual and as soon as I was done we headed to Layton to the SeaQuest aquarium. It’s a small aquarium, but you can pet most of the animals. We splurged and purchased an encounter with a kinkajou. It was incredible!! The zookeeper put fruit in our hands abs the kinkajou, Diego, ran right over. He was happy to climb on our shoulders and arms. He was small enough he could stand straight up in my palm. It was incredible!

We also loved the parakeets!! There were at least fifty in the enclosure. The zookeeper put seed in our hands and they would fly down to eat. Our toes got gentle pecks when seeds fell on our feet. It was so fun! We might need to get a pet parakeet some day.

We also enjoyed feeding the stingrays and having the little fish eat dead skin off our hands.

After the aquarium we came home to eat leftover birthday cake and watch the Olympics!! Mark made me grilled chicken and pesto zoodles for dinner!

After dinner I opened presents. Mark, my parents, and friends spoiled me this year! Then Mark headed to his cabinetry class for the evening. Flynn kept me company at I read and watched more Olympics. It was a great birthday!!

Wednesday I hosted a shower for our niece, Katelyn, who is getting married next month. It was supposed to be outside, but we finally got some of the rain we have been praying and fasting for! So we set up inside the relief society room. The theme was “She found her main squeeze” with lemon decorations. We kept it pretty simple with just a few fun games, treats, and of course gifts! I think everyone had a great time!

Saturday we got to play with the bernedoodle puppies our ward friends bred. They were so fluffy and cute! I guess I was distracted by their cuteness because I forgot to take pictures! Then we went to a bridal shower for my cousin. It was a big family potluck, then the couple opened gifts. It was so fun to visit with everyone!

We’ve started getting cherry tomatoes and peppers from our garden. Mark made his own rendition of jalapeño poppers in our air fryer!

Mark started vegetation surveys this week. He went to public shooting grounds and the duck club for the last time. It was bittersweet knowing he may never go there again. He also went spotlighting Thursday night and saw lots of raccoons!

The BYUI semester ended on Wednesday. Most students took the final early so I was able to finish grading and submit final grades on Thursday morning. I also finished up my hours grading for the English Connect program. I won’t know until closer to the fall semester if they need me to grade again. However, I did learn that I‘ll get to teach two sections of the parent education course again in the fall. I’m happy to have so many students to teach!

Wednesday morning was also our primary Pioneer Day activity. I had hoped to take some pictures but I was super busy running the butter-making station!! I helped the kids make butter in jars, my first counselor ran a potato sack race, my second counselor helped the kids make spinning buttons on a string, and a very sweet sister in the ward sang kids with the song and played some fun dancing songs on her violin. My counselor even made a cute fire for them to sing and dance around. (The fire was the only part of the entire activity I got a picture of). My counselors and I wore Pioneer clothes which the kids thought was fun. The kids had a great time!

Friday we didn’t have work because of Pioneer Day!! We went to the North Logan parade which was a lot of fun! There wasn’t a parade last year because of COVID. Then Mark took the afternoon to help his parents work on their car in Blackfoot. When he got home we had some home made ice cream and watched the Olympics.

Saturday morning my parents took us to breakfast at Herm’s Inn for my birthday! It was delicious as always! We spent the rest of the day getting some much needed relaxing in and watching all sorts of fun Olympic events!

In preparation for our road trip, we bought a backpack carrier for Flynn. He loves hiking and does a good job, but does occasionally get tired moving his cute little legs! We will be doing quite a few short hikes during our trip so we wanted an easy way to carry him. We spent this week getting him used to it and he loves it now! Saturday night we took it for a trial run walking in the cemetery. He does so well climbing in it and then just loves to look out the window!

We had a furry friends visit this week too! This tiny bat was on the wall in our stair well. We left it alone hoping it would fly away at night but it was still there the next morning! We didn’t want it to get hurt. Mark put on his leather gloves, caught it, and released it at the ecology center near green canyon. We hope it found some of it’s bat friends!

Mark finished searching for nests this week. Only 7 out of the 126 nests they were watching successfully hatched. Now they will start doing vegetation surveys. That means they will measure the type of vegetation and the height of vegetation around the nests.

I met with my BYUI students over Zoom throughout the week. I love this end of semester meeting because my students report on their experiences teaching their parenting classes. It’s always fun to hear their insights and celebrate their successes. A few students thanked me and that made me very happy too.

Monday was also my first day working in the office (for WebAIM) since March 2020. I was not looking forward to going back, but it was really fun to see my supervisor and other team members in person again! I just have to go into the office on meeting days from now on.

Flynn and I walked with my friend Regan and her dog Champ this week. And on Saturday Mark joined us as we hiked the Bonneville Shoreline trail together. It was a lot of fun!

Flynn asks to dig in the sand volleyball court every time we walk by it now!

Our garden is still having a hard time with the heat. It’s been about 95 degrees every day and we haven’t had rain for months. We did get some bell peppers this week though! We ate them on cauliflower crust pizza and they were delicious!

We didn’t have any big celebrations for July 4th but we took advantage of the time to relax! We coordinated to wear red, white, and blue on Sunday too. Mark was sustained as the Sunday School President that day. I’m really excited we’ll get to attend ward council together!

Monday morning I woke up early to teach VIPKID and do some work for BYUI, but I didn’t have to work for webaim. After I worked, we did the Bonneville Shoreline hike with my brother, Jarin and his wife. It was a nice hike and we had fun chatting. We even got to FaceTime their daughter who is on a mission while we were with them!!

Mark was interviewed for the Salt Lake Tribune last week and this week he had a radio interview for Utah Public Radio. The interviewer used Zoom to call and talk to Mark then edited it to be radio ready. It was so fun to hear Mark’s interview! He did a great job answering questions and sounded very professional! You can listen to the interview here: https://kcpw.org/blog/in-the-hive/2021-07-08/gsl/

This week marked 3 years since we brought Flynn home!! He’s such a good dog and brings so much happiness to our lives. Look how tiny he was when we first met him!

Thursday night I went to a relief society activity. We visited and ate fruit. It was so nice to socialize a bit! I’ve missed seeing the sisters in our ward!

Friday I worked really hard in the morning so I could finish earlier than usual and we headed to the Fielding Reunion (Mark’s family). We had fun watching nieces and nephews on the water slide and chatting with family. Flynn had a hard time being quite at the reunion, which is not normal for him. I guess we need to do more practice being quite while other dogs are walking by!

That evening we headed to my sister, Tiffany’s, house. We took up a few things for her daughter who is getting married next month. I went to Target with Tiffany and two of her daughters and then we watched Black Widow in their backyard with a projector. It was the release day for Black Widow so that was fun!

Saturday morning, Mark headed to Blackfoot to help his dad teach a wilderness safety class at their stake trek. He had a good time. They set up a tarp for shade and Mark’s dad brought a fire truck.

I stayed with Tiffany until the evening when Mark was ready to go home. We did an exercise video together, watched Father of the Bride, and talked. Flynn had fun playing with her kids and sniffing their rabbit. It was a busy, fun weekend.

Wow, summer is flying by!!! Mark says he did the “same old, same old” this week. They haven’t found hardly any nests along the dikes where they look. He took these beautiful pictures though! He also went fishing with his professor again at Willard Bay.

Our garden is doing pretty well. It’s so hot and dry that Mark has to water it every day on his way out to work! I often stop by on our afternoon walk to pull weeds. We’ve gotten a few banana peppers and beet greens. We have a bunch of cherry tomatoes and peas that should be ready to enjoy next week!!

My sister, Marisa, visited this week. We got pedicures at the beauty school with our sister Janese and her daughter. It was Marisa’s birthday present to me and we had a lot of fun!!

Saturday morning, we went to my parents’ for a 4th of July breakfast. We picked raspberries in their yard for our flag waffles. Mark and I spent the rest of the day relaxing. I read almost an entire book and Mark played an old game on his phone that his brother used to play on his game boy. It was so nice to have a day to rest.

We started off Father’s Day by making breakfast for my parents. It was a lot of fun and delicious!!

Mark is still working hard on his research! He got permission to start bow fishing for carp at the refuge. The carp will be used for a research project his professor is doing. Mark had a lot of fun, but his line broke and he decided to jump in after his arrow. He was wet and stinky the rest of the day.

On Monday I helped with a WebAIM webinar for a reseller in the Middle East. It’s really exciting to see people around the world working to create a world that’s more accessible for people with disabilities!

Tuesday evening we drove to Pocatello to do an escape room with Mark’s brother, sister, and their spouses. The escape room was set up like a jail. We were handcuffed and put in cells. We definitely needed the helpful hints from the girl that worked there but we were able to get out in about 45 minutes. It was really fun! The day after the escape room I donated blood. One of the donor screening questions asks if you’ve been in jail recently. I thought it was pretty funny getting that question right after the escape room!

Our garden is starting to look a little better. Our seeds had a really hard time this year. Even after a second replanting our peas, beans, and beets are really spotty. Our peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini are looking great though!

On Saturday we were able to do sealings at the temple with my parents, brother, sister, and sister in law. We made an appointment online since attendance is still a little limited.

Cute Flynn 🙂

Mark survived the 103 degree weather while looking for duck nests this week. He had fun going to Copenhagen Basin on Thursday. His family was camping there and Mark was able to get a day off to meet them at their camp. They rode around in the Ranger and he and his brother went shooting.

There isn’t too much to report on me this week. I’m finding a good routine to add English Connect to my other jobs. Our niece, Katelyn, got engaged this week and I’m her unofficial wedding planner. We had fun talking about wedding colors this week. 🙂

Flynn has been on his hypoallergenic diet long enough that it should have helped his itchiness by now but it hasn’t. So it’s safe to assume he has an environmental allergy rather than a food allergy. He’s on allergy medicine now but in a couple months we will likely get some testing done and try to build his resistance to the allergen. Flynn was very excited to have his old treats and some special veggie treats this week. He knows the sound of a pea pod opening because he loves garden peas so much! I’m excited we can do more training again now that we can use less expensive treats!!

Friday evening we walked to Aggie Ice Cream. We had coupons for free ice cream from an Aggie Village exercise challenge. We tried a new flavor called Aggie Space Debris. It’s huckleberry ice cream with huckleberry/raspberry syrup then dark chocolate and white chocolate pieces. It was so yummy!

June 19 was the first official Juneteenth federal holiday! We’ll have to find some good ways to celebrate the new holiday!

And just a cute picture of us before church 🙂