June 2024

June's pace never changed.

Mason continued baseball and finished with a great tournament on a beautiful day! He played so well!

Emerson celebrated her Grade 9 Grad!

Don and I went on our annual Calling Lake fishing trip with Bruce and Keri. How is this my only photo? It was a successful time for me - I think I actually caught all the walleye - sorry guys.

We watched so many fantastic lacrosse games and were so proud Blake played with the Junior team that drafted him!

And of course we had another Saskatchewan trip for co-op for me and a mom visit for Don.

The month ended with a few days spent at the Stecyk house while Lindsay and Jeremy were on short trip.

Another great month!

Home and Settled - Where Did May Go??

 Well I did warn you when we home you may not hear form us, but I expected more form me than this.

The best I can do is a summary of time, and a lot of photos.

April ended and May started with Emerson in the Veeteretz Festival. Watching Em and her partner perform their Ukrainian Dance sets is pure magic!

Next up was the wedding of our friends Amanda and Rob. It was a smaller intimate wedding and such a delight to see them wed.

Then we quickly celebrated Blake's 17th!!! birthday, and left for Tisdale to visit with Don's mom.

Once we were home my days were filled with work, and our downtime filled with 4 on 4 hockey with Connor and Mason, 3 on 3 ringette with Reese, more dancing viewing with Emerson, and Blake and Lacrosse.

I fit in a few Co-op road trips, some driving, some flying,  to visit a few of my assigned retails, and before we knew it we were celebrating Lindsay's birthday and our anniversary.

And that's a May wrap.

Las Vegas and Home

One of our last stops is Las Vegas. We are here for 2 reasons - we love Las Vegas and I am flying to Saskatoon for work from here.

When we here in November we tried to see the new Sphere and get some great photos, but the great photo part never happened. This time we got some great shots!

We stayed at Government Wash which is a fantastic boondocking spot for its access to the city and the fact that you are still in the desert and can see the night sky and enjoy boondocking. We played a bit of tourist, I had a bit of a spa day, and we did some shopping from a few request lists we had.

The heat chased us away and while I was in Saskatoon Don moved north to St George. 

We used this opportunity to revisit Zion National Park and it did not disappoint, although it was so busy already that there weren't many opportunities to do things as parking was typically full.

This is the point where you won't hear from me for a while as we return home to the wonderful craziness our life is of family and friends and who knows what else!

The Sphere:)

Zion:)

Death Valley

This needs to also be about Starlink, solar and lithium batteries.

We found The Pads just outside of Death Valley on our last visit to the area. An amazing boondock find but not quite perfect as there was no cell service. But... welcome Starlink to our lives! We've appreciated Starlink on this trip, but have been in places where there was always at minimum weak service. But this was the ultimate test. We became 100% confident the purchases were worth it as we learned we could turn things on in the morning, run toasters and coffee pots, fireplace, TV and microwave, etc. Its important to know what your system can do and what the limits are, so an entire boondocking experience does that.

Back to Death Valley though.one main reason we wanted to return is we had read from other blogs that there was water. Badwater Basin in Death Valley sits 232 feet below sea level and typically only sees about two inches of rain in a season. Over the past months, the area has had almost 2 ½ times that from a series of storms. The storms this season have brought enough water to out-pace the evaporation, which usually keeps the basin dry. That's allowed the lake to form. It's called Lake Manly, and it was as awe inspiring to see as one can imagine. Having been here when it was in its' normal dry state and now seeing it with water as a lake should be was a once in a lifetime experience.

We love our "site" here at the Pads:)

Here are some photos of the Rhyolite Ghost Town.

This may be the most "real" ghost town we've seen, since it hasn't been turned into a tourist shop area.

Next I will deluge you with photos of Death Valley and the lake!

And the Lake:)

Lastly the magnificent night sky - no filters, no lights!