More July Love

The 24th of July! I look forward to this day every year. Always on the 24th we go to my parents house in Mapleton. Mapleton really does put on a spectacular fireworks show. I know everyone is partial to their own town's firework show, but really Mapleton is the best I've seen. I'm not sure if it's because we have the best seats in town, or if it's because the rich orthodontists on the hill buy the fireworks and feel the need to outdo themselves each year?

We get to my mom's house early in the evening so we can spend some time doing crafts with the kids. Then we have a BBQ and then the most famous ping pong ball drop. The kids get a wrist band, then when they call their age group, they gather around. The helicopter drops a huge bucket of ping pong balls with numbers on them. The kids grab a ping pong ball and hope their number is called so they can win a new BIKE! Hally won last year:)

Then the kids play, we listen to the music and wait for the, oh so AMAZING FIREWORKS! It's the best time ever! I love it! Then after it's over, hundreds of people trample my parents field as a short cut to get to their cars. I'm pretty sure we could make bank if we charged $5 a car for them to park in the field. We talk about it every year.

Summer Happenings

A brief overview of some summer stuff...

The Eagle Mountain fire...

Laynie comes to visit for the week...

A trip to Hogle Zoo...

Enterprise Reservoir/Easter

This year for Easter weekend we headed south to camp with the Stubbs clan. We camped at Enterprise Reservoir, which was probably one of the neatest places I've ever camped. It's located about 45 minutes west of Cedar City. Everybody had a trailer but us. I've slept in a tent my whole life. Everyone was shocked that we were going to sleep in a tent. They were so nice to offer us beds in their trailers. We decided to go ahead and sleep in our tent, because that's what we always do. Addi and Hally slept in Grandma and Grandpa Stubbs' trailer. Well, we froze. I don't think I've ever been so cold and I've tented it in some pretty cold weather. Kendall slept in the middle of Tim and I so we couldn't huddle together for heat. I was awake the whole night making sure Kendall was warm. AND I had to go to the bathroom twice in the middle of the night. One time a mouse ran out of the outhouse at me. Awesome. When the sun came up it started to warm us up and it felt so nice. I was glad that night was over. The next night we stayed in Larry and Becky's heated trailer. Blissful.

A neat cave the kids had fun playing in.

The cool Enterprise damn.

Kendall sitting in the Ranger with her cute cousin, Cody. She adores him.

Eatin' breakfast.

These "honey comb" rocks were surrounding our campsite. The kids had a ball playing on them.

Enterprise Reservoir.

Addi's eggs.

Most all of the cousins. Love these kids so much!

The great easter egg hunt in the "honey comb" rocks.

Hally's loot.

Kendall's eggs.

More of the hunt.

Eatin' lunch with cute cousins.

CHEESE!

Silly faces.

Best friend cousins.

Family time is the best!

Blowin' bubbles. Her cheeks kill me.

The boys are off to play a game of paintball.

Sweetie pie.

Kenny and Hally trying to warm up.

The Easter Bunny brought Easter baskets to grandma and grandpa's trailer. I forgot to get a picture, but we'll get some pics of them in their Easter dresses this Sunday. On Easter morning we had a little devotional about Christ. There were some great talks by cousins Baylie and Kenadee and Tim's brother, Brandon. All of the grandkids also sang a few primary songs.

I'm so thankful for Christ and the sacrifice he made for ME. He atoned for MY sins which is the most transcendent thing anyone has EVER done. I love him. Just thinking about him and his example makes me want to be a better person.