KILL the Dog!

We had a lovely time with our friends for the 24th of July, but in order to have a peaceful time in the backyard, we had to put the dogs in the house.  Well, when you have a 2 year old and a 5 year old, they will continually go in and out of the house and the dogs will come right back outside again.  So for some time now, whenever we have company over, we put the dogs in our bedroom.  This is the last time we will bestow that kind of trust.  Leroy is the problem child; Fran is fairly well behaved in this area.

While we were enjoying ourselves that holiday evening, Leroy was tearing up the carpet under our bedroom door.  He has NEVER done anything like that before and had better never do anything like that again.  Kris had even said that if we hadn't put him in our bedroom, he would be gone after what he did that night.

Thankfully, Kris is willing to try new things all the time and tried to fix the carpet himself.  He cut up a piece of the leftover carpet we use as a mat in front of the front door, and bought some carpet pad at Home Depot.  He was able to fix it.  It definitely doesn't look professionally done, but at least we have carpet there.

Leroy will continue to live for the time being, but I think he might be walking the green mile shortly if he does something like that again.

Pioneer Day BBQ

It's probably been 4 years or so since we started the annual BBQ with the Holts for Pioneer Day.  Last year the Kous joined us, but this year, Jerry was flying back from China so they couldn't make it.  That left just the Holts and us once again to have a proper barbecue and firework show - and we didn't disappoint.

Eating in the backyard always has its benefits.  It allows the adults to chat while the kids can go crazy kicking balls, going down slides, or having wheelbarrow races.  The kids did all of the above and even Kodi tried to join in the big kid fun.  It was so cute watching her try to support herself on her arms.  It took a little while, but she figured it out.


When the food was gone and the sun was going down, we parted ways to prepare for the big show.  We bought out fireworks in Evanston for the 4th of July, but fireworks were banned at Bear Lake.  The Holts bought a few great fireworks, but Coulson won the prize with the amazing grand finale.  We did sparklers and it was Kodi's first time doing that too.  I was a little nervous at first because she didn't understand that she was holding fire and she tried to chase people with it.  That was a little scary.  We bought two boxes of sparklers thinking it wasn't that much - it was only 2 boxes, but I guess each box had about 60 sparklers or something.  We had well over 100 sparklers between the Holts and us, but I don't think the kids minded.  We even burned a patch of the lawn from lighting them in the same place because the fire burned the lawn there.

George even enjoyed the sparklers.  I couldn't help but get it on video.

It was so much fun to celebrate Utah heritage with our Utah friends.  We'll see if they move before next year's date.

Holiday Weekend at the Lake

While we weren't able to spend a long, extended weekend at Bear Lake for the holiday weekend, we still got to go and get away.  We took some of our long-time friends with us - David and Sara.  I've known David since we were in high school and then after we all got married, we teamed up again.  They have two children: Spencer and Rachel.  The kids have only gotten together one other time and when David and Sara arrived at the Lake, Kodi immediately welcomed Rachel by taking her by the hand and leading her into the house.  It was absolutely adorable!

The weekend was nice and relaxed as always.  We played in the water, played games inside, and jumped on the trampoline.  There were two unusual things about this weekend, however.  The first is, it was Fourth of July weekend and we were not allowed to use fireworks.  We stopped in Evanston on the way up and bought fireworks.  We were so excited about watching the beautiful fireworks across the lake.  Then as we drove into Laketown there was a huge sign saying there was a $500 fine for fires and fireworks.  I completely understand, but it still was disappointing.

The second unusual thing was to compensate for the first unusual thing.  Our relatives next door decided to "make their own fun" since they couldn't light off fireworks.  Elda Rae rented this enormous inflatable slide for the family.  It was hilarious watching them inflate this slide.  First it was as high as the roof, then it passed the roof, and it was approaching the flagpole height.  As I was inflating a little raft, Kathy, my mom's cousin said, "Ours is bigger than yours!"  I couldn't help but laugh.  The Gunns graciously let us come and play with them.  Kyson loved it, Kodi did not.  Everyone was a really good sport.  My parents went down it, and even Elda Rae and Raymond did.  It was such a great idea to really have a memorable weekend.

The last night before we left we decided to do a pathetic attempt at fireworks.  Because we couldn't let any off, we decided to let the kids throw pops.  These are not the most entertaining fireworks, but you do have to be on your toes while playing with pops - so I learned.  David turned his back to talk to us for just a second, when Spencer decided to put the pops in his mouth.  That could have turned out badly, but fortunately, he just had a lot of sawdust in his mouth.

It was a great weekend and I look forward to doing more with David and Sara in the near future.

The 4th of July

For as long as I can remember, we've always gone to Bear Lake to celebrate the 4th of July.  This year, the holiday was on a Wednesday and Kris and I only had that day off.  Taking two extra days off work is hard, so we went up on Friday night after the holiday instead.  This year, we celebrated Independence Day with my in-laws, Kris's parents.  It was such a great night.  We had burgers and some side dishes, the kids played  in the backyard, and it was nice to have some time to just chat and catch up.  There were no expectations, there was no rush, and what we had was a nice evening of company.

After dinner, we decided at the last minute to go up to the Cove and feed the ducks.  The fire had just happened, so it also gave Carol and Errol to see the burn areas and see how close this fire came versus the last one.  I had a couple of loaves of bread and we used the left over hamburger buns to feed the ducks.  I brought chairs thinking Carol and Errol would want to just sit and watch, but it instead, they joined the festivities - it was awesome!  I thought it was so cute how involved Errol was.  I think he could have stayed there all day.


After our duck feast, we headed over to the Riverton Fireworks show.  We got there pretty late and knew we wouldn't have the best seat in the house, but the kids seemed to enjoy it anyway.  While we waited for the show to begin, Kyson and Kodi were dancing and being goofy kids.  Just as they turned off the lights to give a warning that the show would begin soon, the entire crowd, nearly in unison, began to point and talk.  It wasn't fireworks everyone was talking about, it was the fire in Alpine.  When the lights went off, you could see the mountain on fire, and my heart went out to those who had been evacuated - I understood well what they were going through.

I'm so grateful for Independence Day.  It is a day that we get off work, but it means so much more.  This is the day where we became our own country and we have so many more rights and privileges that others in this world don't have.  While the holiday comes around only once a year, I'm grateful for the reminder of how lucky I am to live in America.

The burned mountain after the fire