JULY 2020: 1st Half
7/1/20 Halfway Mark
We are halfway through the year! heeeeooo yeahh!!! I wonder if we get a half time break or half time show to break up this craaaazy weird year. Even for a week or two lolAnyways, it's JULY. I've ended my employment with the UCAC program. Aljay is continuing to book projects/commissioned work, which has been a huge blessing. The kids are fully into Summer routine: swimming at least twice a week at the pool/splash pad, playing outdoors all the day long, eating ice pops, and sleeping in.
In local news...
- There is still so much controversy over Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, COVID, Wearing Masks, President Trump, conspiracy theories, and just about anything you can think of. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't type of thing. Signs of the times I tell ya.
- Some horrible idiots are trying to normalize pedophilia (sickening). There's more awareness and light on child trafficking in social media and mainstream media. It's horrific and very hard to fathom.
- COVID cases in Utah continue to rise. Everyone is unsure of what to do about opening up schools in August. The Governor mandated masks for kids going back to school and some parents lost their minds over that. Unreal I tell yah.
But there's still good things happening, I promise.
7/2/20 Vineyard City Celebration
Vineyard city still did a city celebration with food trucks, a movie in the park, and live band performance. They did a great job at taking safety precautions and keeping everyone spaced out, masked up, and sanitized. We didn't participate in any of those events, but we did enjoy the firework show from right outside our house! Our location is the perfect place to watch the fireworks. It was so much fun seeing the kids enjoy the fireworks.
7/4/20 4th of July
Okay but our 4th of July was awesome! We had a block party with our neighbors and popped fireworks all night. The last two years it was really just our house that would pop fireworks. This year our whole street went craaaazyy!! It was so fun! But it wasn't just our street, there were fireworks going off at the park, and in the neighborhood just east of us. And then there was that one house a street down from us (but in the same division) who had a whole pallet of fireworks and was setting off like crazy! It was an amazing site to see. I felt like it was a result of COVID and quarantine lol Everyone just needed to get lit! lol jk
Okay but hows this cutie patootie pie!! I can't get enough of her
Aljay looooves doing fireworks and that's something him and the kids look forward to every year. So even though he painted from 8am-4pm in Park City, he still came home and did the BBQ, set up the fireworks, and partied with everyone.
Liz and Toli and their family joined us as well. Always a good time with those guys! They had just cleaned up and finished camping that day too!
Usually this holiday is totally Aljay's happy place, but this year I enjoyed it just as much as he did. With good food, good company, getting to know our neighbors a little more, and seeing the kids have the best time, it was just the "half time break" I didn't know I was going to get. Thanks God. You the realest!
7/5/20 Park City Racial Equity Street Mural Completed
So after partying allll night and into the early morning, Aljay work up and went back to Park City to finish his mural. I'm so glad he was able to get it done cuz it was super hot! We thought about going to Park City with him, but I knew it would be tricky with all the kids. So we stayed home and had home church. Luckily Uncle Tui was there to bless and pass the sacrament for us.
7/7/20 Your Gurl is 33!
Happy Birthday to Me! I started off my day with breakfast in bed (woohoo!). Then we decided to go out to Park City to celebrate. We got some ice cream and walked down Main Street checking out the street murals and many of the art galleries. It was pretty cool.
*Also, having to go everywhere while masking kids is such a strange new "normal".
*Also, having to go everywhere while masking kids is such a strange new "normal".
We then came back to Orem and had a swim at Scera Pools, followed by all you can eat Sushi at Sushi Ya! After we got home, I ended up meeting up with a friend and we hung out for a while. I came home a little after midnight (who am I? hahaha) and I had just missed Rachel and her family coming by. They dropped off the bombest chocolate chip cookies and some Hawaiian Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts. Such a great birthday!!!
Pics are in reverse order.
Pics are in reverse order.
7/8/20 BLM Mural Defaced
Oh boy. aaaand the break is over lol.
So our phones started going off with notifications, text messages, emails. We found out that someone had defaced the mural. You can read the news article here.
It was sad.
Sad that we weren't surprised. Even though we were still hopeful that no one would do anything to it.
Sad that Park City government and Art Council was getting heat from haters who did not think the artwork was appropriate for public art. The vandalism just wasn't a good look for Park City.
It was sad.
Sad that we weren't surprised. Even though we were still hopeful that no one would do anything to it.
Sad that Park City government and Art Council was getting heat from haters who did not think the artwork was appropriate for public art. The vandalism just wasn't a good look for Park City.
Sad that the art piece was so controversial and that the other beautiful murals (and the messages) were being ignored.
Sad because it was not an easy project and not everyone can bust out a 300ft mural in 2 days.
Buuut. There's always a lesson and a blessing right? Get to that in a separate post. It deserves a separate post. I don't have the bandwidth to unfold that experience in this post.
7/9/20 Field Trip
So Aljay started doing a bit of research about Pacific Islanders in Utah, specifically the Iosepa settlement, and at 4 oclock in the afternoon he goes "Get ready guys! We're going on a field trip!"
Off we go to take our kids to the Iosepa memorial out in Toeele County. It is literally in the middle of no where, but I'm glad we went. It was a cool experience to teach our kids about the saints who traveled from Hawaii to Utah in the 1800's. These faithful saints came out here to be with the members of the church and to participate in Temple ordinances (circa 1889). Although they were treated unfairly and cast out to live in the most undesirable parts of Utah (about a 45 min drive to Salt Lake, don't even know how long that would take by wagon/horse/walking), they built a strong hold in Iosepa and thrived. It is truly remarkable what they were able to achieve. Many died due to illness and lack of food/shelter in the beginning, but they were a resilient people. The settlement ended up being nearly abandoned as many returned to Hawaii, when the Laie, Hawaii temple was being built (dedicated 1919). A few stayed and lived in Utah. You can feel their strength and spirit when you walk the grounds. I got so emotional walking through the cemetery and reading so many Pacific Islander names. It was definitely a humbling experience.
Blessing! I learned about the Iosepa when we first moved out here and have always wanted to take the kids out to see/learn about the history. It only now happened because Aljay was finally on board. I'm so glad the kids got to learn and see for themselves.
Oh and since the road to Iosepa had almost zero drivers on the road, Leila got another driving lesson. I have more videos of that, but I'll link those later. She's only 10 but she's tall enough to drive, so we don't mind letting her get a little taste.
7/11/20 Happy Birthday Iosefa!
Our boy turned 9! See his full birthday post HERE.
And thus ended the 1st half of the month of July in the year of the Covid.
I think that's a good place to end this post lol. It's been a wild July, but I have a feeling that 2020 has most wild in store for us!!
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