Two Months of Summer - Gone?!?

July is over and done with - gasp! 

Here's how we spent it...

Watermelon smiles

The Logan fireworks show @ USU stadium on the 3rd
that my Uncle (waving from behind, in the red shirt) started clear back when I was a child....and I've loved going ever since!

Summer nights sunsets...

Fireworks...

...and family rounded out our 3rd of July!

Neighborhood party on the 4th of July - shaving cream and cheese puff game!

Summer cockroaches - bleh!

The girls and I went to "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" that my cousin was the Musical Director for!
And then out for shave ice - the BIG Kahuna - afterwards!

Kyle went on a High Adventure Scout Camp in the Tetons July 8-11.

Farmington Festival Days!

Hooray for the full-time missionaries in the Farmington Festival Days parade! 

(Sister missionaries in the red convertible behind the Elders)

Matt caught TWO shirts that they were throwing out at the evening festivities in the park - Brookelle immediately donned it as her new dress!

We {heart} our Farmington Festival Days

Family Night activity - climbing to the top of a neighborhood tree.

Annual read-a-thon and pizza picnic in our family room.

Katelyn got her long locks cut off!

Katelyn fed her obsession got crafty making bracelets

Katelyn & Brookelle were in the Days of '47 Children's Parade in SLC

Fresh Lime treats!

When the school supplies hit the shelves, we jumped on it! 

(Haylee's back pack pick) 

Lagoon

The new ride, Cannibal!

It's description: Cannibal lifts riders 208 feet and plunges them into a 116° beyond vertical free-fall into an underground tunnel

We ALL survived, although there WAS some crying and closed eyes involved. We also rode it while it was raining, so we were privileged to get pelted in the face with rain drops during our ride; the ride that was not open by Lagoon's season opening day because the dummies were falling out on the test runs; the same ride we noticed, as we waited in line, had a swaying/wobbling inverted loop when the coaster went around that section of the track  - Oh, my!

 

Road trip to St. George in the EARLY morning hours, as the sun is just coming up.

Nothing quite like the hot days of Summer, standing by Port-a-Pottys watching a Pioneer Day Parade!

Hooray for the full-time missionaries (again!), singing, "Called to Serve," in this parade in Washington, UT

Kyle got the silver medal running in the 16 yr. old foot race (because he was the only 15 yr. old who wanted to race, he "ran up.") and won In-N-Out Burger coupons, too!

Sparklers & firecrackers in the street to finish off the Pioneer Day weekend.

(including the "grand finale" that sent many of us RUNNING & SCREAMING, like last year!)  ;)

4-Wheeling in the property behind my parents' house

Our Annual Movie Marathon.  This year's titles: "Penguins of Madagascar," "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb," "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2," and "The Book of Life"

I attended the first day of this 2-day Women's Conference to close out the month of July.

This Weekend:

*Friday Night was Katelyn's turn for her DATE with Mom & Dad!

She picked everything we did.

We went out to dinner at The Nacho House and

then went to Get Air trampoline park.

* Saturday was Farmington Festival Days!

We started by going to the breakfast in the park.

Still the best city "chuckwagon" style breakfast we've encountered:

French Toast on thick bread, with your choice of maple or vanilla syrup

Bacon AND sausage

Hashbrown patties

Cup of fruit (watermelon, canteloupe, grapes, blueberries)

Orange Juice

Milk

Chocolate Milk

*After that the girls and I like to browse the booths.

There's always this "bag" booth that has some cute stuff,

but this year we actually made our purchase at 

a maxi skirt booth - the girls each got one - very darling!

*We went to the parade.

The other people beat us to putting out chairs and roping off sections,

(It's getting earlier & earlier every year!  Aaugh!) so we were only partially shaded.

 As always, GOOD "candy" (not taffy) was given/thrown out including:  sliced watermelon

from Harmon's grocery, otter pops, gobstoppers, Reeses PB cups, Mrs. Cavanaugh's

Mindy Mints, balls, fans, water bottles, smarties, skittles, etc. etc.

*We came home in the middle of the day to COOL off!

I read a bit & cleaned a bit.

Matt got the garden weed-free.

Katelyn went to the movie with her cousin.

Then we decided we "needed" some Costa Vida for supper.

I first tried to call in the order, but they didn't answer, so Matt just drove over.

After a little while, I tried to call again, and was able to order.  Great!  Matt won't have to stand in line.

I texted Matt, I called it in, it's under 'Suzanne'

4 minutes went by and I didn't hear from him, so I texted again, 

Did you get my message?  No need to stand in line, it's ready for pickup at the checkout counter.

And then 1 minute later, he called me.  He hadn't gotten my text.  He'd ordered on his own and was driving home with our food.
Ooops!  My called-in order was still there waiting...

(I tried calling back, but no answer.  I called again, and they guy who finally answered couldn't hear me even though I repeated myself 3 times.  Oh well....)

*We returned to the park for the music performances (singers/bands)

as we sat on our camp chairs in the shade.

 The girls spent time on the playground, too.

*While there, we got word that Ryan & Kyle had returned home from their 

4-day high adventure camp to the Wind Rivers (13 mile/way backpacking trip) with the 14-18 yr. old scouts!!
(I've never really worried about the boys going on scout camps before, but THIS TIME I did a bit.
Ryan has his mission call.  He has to go on his mission!  Please don't let him get lost, or sick, or hurt, or worse! 

*They cleaned themselves up and met us just in time for the fireworks to start.

(And Yes! It was a respectable showing, so it help in satisfying my craving.)

But, I'll tell ya - the crowd for that is growing every year, too - not so small town anymore?

*On Sunday, Matt & I were able to go to the Missionary homecoming church service

of the West Virginia Charleston Mission president & his wife who just returned.

Fun Fact: He also used to be Matt's Bishop & Stake President.  In fact, he was the

Stake President who interviewed Matt & I when we were to be married.

(Ryan will obviously have the new mission president when he is out there in a couple months, but we wanted to attend to see if there was anything we could learn.)

We learned there will be:

Squirral gravy

Windy, curvy roads

Missionary-minded local members of the church who make it their life to help the missionaries.

Miracles following a missionary's faith

*Went to our own church, too.

I taught a combo of this lesson and this lesson to my Young Women class.

And I couldn't get through this [true] story without crying.

(Try as I might.  Geez.)

*I cooked a whole chicken (with various seasonings) in the crock pot for dinner.

It was "Haylee approved" - that's always a very GOOD THING.

*I made chocolate chip cookies for Sunday night treat.

*Ryan had a girl FRIEND (two separate words) come over to watch 

the replay of the World Cup final game with us...because she LOVES soccer and missed it during church, too. 

(We hadn't watched it live, nor had we spoken to anyone to find out the results.)

*I worked on my Personal Progress program - I am SO SO close to completing it 

as a Young Woman Leader! (I already did it the first time as a young woman back in the 80's)

[Mis]Adventures in Fireworks

As a disclaimer, let me set the background:
I grew up going to a BIG fireworks show every year to celebrate the 4th of July.  'BIG' as in Professional. Spectacular.  Awe-inspiring.  Impressive.  "Whoa!" exclamations inducing.  Large-scale display of fireworks.
That's the way it is when your uncle owns a fireworks company!  (As in he makes the fireworks himself, dons the fireproof suit and sets off the fireworks for the show himself, some years with the help of my aunt, in a football stadium at the USU campus!)

So, with THAT to compare to, I have always thought the store bought "fireworks" (If you can even call them that) were on the boring side.  BUT, these days, what used to be illegal is now for sale to the public, so the quality of "at-home" fireworks is improving -- slightly.

So, this year, it was announced that a 4th of July shindig was going to be held on the 3rd in our cul-de-sac for the entire neighborhood.  It was scheduled on the same night as the above mentioned fireworks tradition, but we opted to stay home and join in our local party this year.  We all brought food to eat and contributed about 10 bucks towards fireworks that someone purchased in our behalf.

We ate first, and were sitting around visiting until dark so we could start the fireworks......
at least that was how I THOUGHT it goes....
UNLESS the toddler-age crowd (who have an early bedtime?) is quite numerous amongst the group...
and then they start them at 8:20 p.m. when it is still light outside. 

Huh?!?   I've never experienced THAT.

This is how it went.

You'd hear the noise/boom.
You'd look up, following the fire ball up with your eyes.
You'd only see blue sky, and lose sight of the fire ball.
Then you'd see the ash &/or cardboard packaging debris fall back down to the ground.
No lights.
No colors.
No "flowers of fire" (that's how the Japanese word for "firework" [hanabi] translates into English, cool visual, huh?!?)
Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.
Until all $200 worth of fireworks were all gone.
(Not the wisest use of money if you'd ask me -- but no one did!  haha)

So, on the actual 4th of July, Matt's family got some fireworks and came to our home to set them off since they aren't banned where we live.....BUT, we insisted they wait until DARK so as not to deja vous the night before.
We started out with smaller ones, and then moved towards the bigger ones as the night went on.
What was cool was that neighboring streets were setting them off, too, so we had our pick of displays to view.
We kept telling the kids to stay back on the grass and out of the road, but listening is not always their best attribute.....!
Along comes one of the bigger-ish fireworks and when it was set off, it did not seem to shoot up very high in the sky and the fire & lights were going off too LOW in my [semi-professional] opinion.  So, my survival instinct kicked in and I yelled, "Everybody get outta there!" (maybe a little unnecessarily?) and my outburst was followed by kids [actually listening!] running out of the road and my nephew literally leaping over the neighbor's fence!  (That was pretty admirable)
Then our neighbors drove into the cul-de-sac, returning home, so we took a break until their car was parked before starting up again.
For the "grand finale" we were setting off one that boasted 16 shots!
But, when it was set off, only about 5 went off, and it was kinda an anti-climatic ending to the 4th.
We were hanging around on the front lawn chatting for a while longer, not paying much attention to Matt's brother WHO WAS NOT SATISFIED with only getting 5/16 bang for his buck and was out there pretty much trying to dissect the dysfunctional firework and re-lighting it multiple times...... 
When all of sudden, mid-conversation, we hear a series of BOOMs and look up to see Matt's bro & dad running away from the firework as explosions started lighting up the cul-de-sac (it looked like slow motion running to me.)
Again, I screamed, "Hurry!  Get away!"  (but this time, NOT unnecessarily!)
THEN, the firework started going off sideways!!!
Right in the direction of our neighbors who had just returned home and were standing in their garage, emptying the trunk, just moments before!!!!
I had flashes of nightmare involving bushes, grass, & houses catching fire cross my mind.
(I think multiple people started screaming now!)
We were all thinking, Where's the next sideways shot going?  Towards OUR home and the 27 people?
Then almost simultaneously, we all got up and starting running for cover to the side and back of the house.

It was a reenactment of The Blob movie

Who needs Phoenixville, PA, we can do it right here in Farmington, too!

That's one way to clear a crowd, I tell ya - eveyone was gone within minutes of that!

It was very unsettling.

When I had sufficiently WATERED all remaining pieces of the fireworks, I was finally able to go inside to bed.

Hopefully, I can get my fireworks "fix" next week at Farmington Festival Days....my craving has yet to be satisfied this year!