7.25.26 Baler. Tetris. Cliff. Steak. Fire! Dam & Ass. Home.

 Retired/Missionary Life. Sunday.

Happy Sabbath!! Here! Have a Jesus Picture. He LOVES YOU!!
First thing this morning I heard a very familiar sound.....a hay baler! The field across from us is mid-way through their second harvest and there was a hay baler trying to work away. I say "trying" because it was doing its best, which was not good enough. About every third bale or so came out with untied or broken twine. No problem, the dude ran it through again, which still resulted in every third or so bale not tied up. Finally, it was quiet out and I saw the tractor and baler silent and not moving in the middle of the field with a lot of windrows yet to be baled. Broken down. Typical day of baling. And it brought back dire memories.....
Sacrament Meeting. Sunday School. Missionary Correlation. Back home for leftover lunch, reading, naps.
The boys are cute even when they play fight.....on their backs! Crazy dogs!!
We ran back to town in the evening for a baptism. Exciting times for all the missionaries! Pictures will come in soon.





Retired/Missionary Life. Monday.
Family Reunion Day 1!
We grabbed the grocery list we created on Saturday and headed for Plummer. There we ate breakfast and played Book of Mormon Rummy at the Gateway, bought the groceries (DRAMA!! At the checkout, one of our bags of ice exploded. Ice all over the aisle. sigh.......) Took the boys for a walk on the Trail of the CDAs (it wasn't hot yet, but close...), filled up with cheap Idaho gas, and drove back home. Unloaded and put away.
And then we packed up for the next week. Back of truck AND the trailer. Like a huge game of Tetris. Teamwork. I hauled. Hanna loaded and arranged.
They boys were excited, they love road trips. But waited patiently.
Once all packed, we drove to Seven Bays at Lake Roosevelt where we met up with all the locals of the family (except Justin...he'll join us later.) Domino's Pizza for dinner by Dominick's Family. And we were going to play board games for the activity, but we ran out of energy and everyone is going to bed.
I included pictures from last night's baptism. Very happy new member of our church and very happy missionaries!
Wegovy report. Going in to my third week now. Down just over 3 pounds so far. Average Calorie intake 1864, average deficit 975. The biggest challenge is what to do with all the leftovers. I can't eat everything when we eat out so I bring it home for later consumption. The fridge is getting full of leftovers now! No real side effects this week. Runs for a little while one day, but it passed quickly.












Retired/Missionary Life. Tuesday.
Family Reunion Day #2!
Half the family was out in the boat in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. We were afternoon shift so that left the morning for napping, reading, and hanging out.
Other activities included swimming, cliff jumping, tubing.
Dinner was provided by Del and Ella, an incredible dish of scalloped potatoes. This was followed by a huge game of Monopoly that went late into the night with no apparent winner yet.









Retired/Missionary Life. Wednesday.
Family Reunion Day #3!
Hanna and I took time to break in the new scooters today. And neither one of us got broke. Hanna is awesome on the scooter and we're looking forward to a ton more rides, which also could be called date nights.
We were in charge of dinner. Grilled Sirloin, hot dogs (for the ones that don't want steak), mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, dutch oven cherry chocolate cobbler topped with homemade vanilla ice cream. DELICIOUS!
And tonight we finished the Monopoly game we began last night. Hanna dominated. And that talent is why we were able to retire early.......





Retired/Missionary Life. Thursday.
Day #4 of the reunion.
We were in charge of the activity for today. We put on the first ever Stewart-Longhurst-Franchino Family Olympics. The events included tomahawk throwing, knot tieing, fire building, lashing, Geocaching, Horseshoes, Corn Hole, running, swimming, kayaking, flag etiquette, splinting a leg. It was hot, but fun. Probably will become a new family tradition.
Later, Hanna and I got to go out in the boat. Hanna did some tubing and had a blast.
And here! Have pictures of our missionaries that we serve with. They met with the Mission President today. We miss them.






























Retired/Missionary Life. Friday.
Day #5 of the reunion.
- We drove to Grand Coulee Dam and took a free tour. They took our picture on top of the Dam!
- We spent the afternoon at the Fort Spokane Beach swimming, boating, tubing, kayaking, reading, hanging out. And.....Frivvy and Gussy got to try out their new life preservers in the deep water. They were still petrified, but happy.
A huge game of Red Neck Life took place after a dinner of tacos by Justin and his boys. Hanna won. She is the champion red neck!







Retired/Missionary Life. Saturday.
Easy to write about today.
We got up. We packed up. We drove home. We unpacked. And then we chilled and rested and read and stuff like that.
Oh yea. We did take a nap at the AirBnB just after the last of the family left. I was exhausted, hot and sweaty. So I took a nice shower and then a nap. It kept the drive home alert.
Here is a picture of Frivvy and Gussy. Happy to be home, but also exhausted, just like us.
And a critter at the Highlands. Enjoy!







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