24th of July

I haven't posted for almost a month, so I'm working my way backwards through pictures.  We celebrated the 24th of July with the Clingers at the cul de sac of fire.  It was a spectacular firework display, delicious food and fun to chat with friends that we see on occasion. 

These are the "kids" waiting for the parachutes to be shot off so that they could catch them.

 

Robertsons

The 4th of July Robertson Reunion happened in two stages this year.  One was with the Tarkingtons, Hansens and Morisse families.  The other was at the end of the month with Jay and Emily's family, the Clary family and the Hansens. I think the pictures I took at the 4th were on my phone... so I'll have to look for them, but here are the ones from the 24th of July.... Jay's birthday.

Sam and Rocky.  Definitely teenagers.... They both have really good eyebrow lifts.

Jay, Jude and Emily

Millie and Ellie cleaned out the playhouse for Judy.  Jude was so excited about that.  He loved going in and out, up and around the playhouse.

Rocky, Taylor, Sam and Seth

Aubrey and her sweet soon to be husband, Corbin.

Grace and Aubrey

We decided to get a group picture.  

Millie, Jon, Judy, Jim, Joseph, Jonathan, Taylor, Jeremy

Jay, Emily, Jude, Grace, Corbin, Aubrey, Becca, James, Rocky

Seth, Ellie, Owen, Walter, Sam

 

Pioneer Day

On Pioneer Day, we went down to ride bikes with my parents and Aunt Nellie by Utah lake.  We had so much fun and it wasn't too hot yet.

Ada, Jer and I all kept going when the littles had had enough.

Jer got this pretty picture.

Then we tried our hand at pour painting.  I think that the key to it is to not expect anything specific.  Just play with the paints until you see something happen that you like....

 

Not my picture

This was on social media.... apparently Salt Lake county had a lightning storm during the 24th of July celebrations.

 

Pioneer Day

 

Last night was our neighborhood Pioneer Day celebration.  The Clingers put it on every year and they are spectacular.  The kids love the fireworks, though we left a little early this year.  We were babysitting Peter and Rosie for the weekend so Emma and Stephen could celebrate their anniversary. Peter was soo easy.  He just chatted, did puzzles, jumped on the trampoline, played with balls, and did whatever was asked.  Rosie did a great job too.  She did whatever Peter was doing.  She did take off her diaper once, so that was an adventure and she woke up extra early this morning, but she was so sweet.

My Aunt Margo and Uncle Wayne returned from their Portugal mission.  I loved seeing them again.  We got to go to their mission talks today in their ward.  I loved seeing all three of my Wilcox Aunt and Uncles.  Gian and Wendee, Whitney, Amber, Elliot and Susan and their kids, Miranda (who played a beautiful musical number on the organ), and Margo's parents whom I've known since I was a little girl.

Then we stopped over and Grandma and Grandpa Robertsons' for a minute to say hi and pick up last minute things that we'd left for the Tarkintons' to use.  We still need to get the slack line.... 

Evelyn again and Pioneer Day outing

While we were walking over to the Pioneer Day BBQ, Evelyn took the hand of the 7 year old boy that Janelle brought.  She said, "I can see that you're nervous to meet new friends.  Don't worry, I'll help you not be scared."

Earlier in the day, we had planned a kayaking outing with my friends Robyn and Michelle up at Tibble Fork.  We got to the mouth of the canyon and they said that it was full. We just turned around and ended up at Highland Glen Park.  It was fun, smelled a little of dead fish, but it was a good morning.  Michelle didn't get our message and ended up not joining us, but she said she was fine.

We had been planning on doing the Temple to Temple 5k that morning, but Jer has hurt his knee three times in the last month.  He really needs to stop and let it heal.

The kids all found sticks and were using them like wands.  We have just finished the 7th Harry Potter book.  Seth doesn't cast spells, he aims the wand and says, "Harry Potter!"  Sam moved on to finish Tom Sawyer (which I liked more as a parent than I did when I was younger) and the Impossible Quest Series.

This girl is growing up into quite the reader.  This year she's finished Harry Potter with the family, read the entire Michael Vey series, the Wings of Fire series, Pollyanna, Pippi Longstocking, Island of the Blue Dolphin, Emperor's Soul, part of Tom Sawyer with Sam and I, and several others that I can't remember at the moment. 

This girl wasn't interested in reading this summer, which isn't like her very much.  Ada read Pippi Longstocking to her and tried to read Wings of Fire.  She wasn't interested until we found Wings of Fire the graphic novel which she's read several times and has now moved on the read the first book of the series.

Sam doesn't go out on the paddle board very often, but he has no problem with it at all.

Ada is such a great big sister.  Seth doesn't like to swim with me... he likes to boat with me and have me hold him in the water, but he will swim with Ada til the cows come home.

This one said she wasn't going to go swimming, but yet....

This was the only duck in the entire pond with a fluffy head of hair.  It was awesome and made me giggle every time we passed it.

These guys like to play king of the hill on the paddle board.

24th of July BBQ

The Clinger family hosted barbecue every year for the 24th of July . Pioneer Day is a very fun day. They had some amazing fireworks and Todd even built a wooden bunker in the middle of the street so that if anything tipped over it would run into the wood instead of into the crowd. It was pretty cool.

Accidental mess and Stake Pioneer Day Celebration

Saturday was our first day of mostly work day for weeks.  It felt good to get our piling projects worked on.  I had worked on getting the house cleaned all week so that we could work on some other things... then on Friday and Saturday we had 7 kids in the house for most of the day and all that cleaning had to be re done.  On Saturday was the worst one though... Jer emptied and cleaned the garage, I took a load of stuff to the dump and went to fill up the gas can so we could mow the lawn.  While he was outside and I was gone, the 7 kids found a spray bottle and "washed" their toys with them on the back porch and had a tea party with it in the kitchen.  Result?  The baby oil that I had in the spray bottle to keep flies off the dog when there were chickens next door was now all over our outdoor patio, the back door window, the toys, the entire kitchen... especially the floor, the walls all up the stairs where kids put their hands when going to get more toys, and the kids bathroom.  It's taken me three days to really clean up the oil from everything.  I'm glad they thought it was water though... if they'd done that knowing it was oil I would have been so much more angry. 

Saturday was the day that our Stake celebrated Pioneer Day.  We had a 5k, pancake breakfast, kids parade, face painting, pioneer games (tug o war, sack races, wheelbarrow races, plain old foot races, etc...), and the fire engine that came to spray everyone down.  We didn't get the kids up early enough for the 5k, and we forgot about the fire engine and left before that, but the kids Loved the races and the parade.  They ran out of food before we got to it, so we had some juice and enjoyed the rest of it.  I do wish we'd stayed for the fire engine though.  Then our neighbor hosts a bbque and firework show every year.  When I say firework show, I really mean the big stuff.  It's what I remember the stadium of fire being years ago.  It's fun to chat with neighbors, lay on your blanket in the grass and giggle with the kids as the fireworks explode above you.  My favorite is Seth.  He had absolutely no idea what we were doing, but I got him to come lay by me... after the first pause in the fireworks he clapped and said, "Yay!"  Then at each pause after that, he'd do the same thing.  The finally was a little too loud for him, but the rest was so cute.  

Sunday morning was hard because of staying up so late though!  It's hard to decide whether tired kids at church is worth it, but I do love the socializing.