Pioneer Day

Every year, we team up with the Holts and have a barbecue and then light off fireworks together.  This year, Lise and I decided to buy our fireworks together to try and have a bigger variety.  I think it was a success. We had our typical casual dinner in the backyard, and camped out in the front yard ready for the fire fun.  We normally buy our sparklers in Evanston, but didn't this year.  That was a mistake.  The sparklers here were very expensive and didn't really work.  We had to light entire bunch at once to keep them lit.  We weren't about to hand an entire bundle of sparklers to children, so that was an activity for the adults.  At least our grass didn't get burned this year.  Kyson, Kodi, and the other Holt kids did have fun with the metal sparklers.  I don't care for those as much because they have shorter handles and don't last as long.  But metal is better than nothing, right?

After the opening act, came the headline act.    We had an intermission for junk food and George was tyring to get the kids to open their mouths while they had food in their mouth.  Kyson was too smart for his trickery, but Kodi hasn't learned to ignore George.  We'll work on that.  And now...Act II.  We bought a variety of aerial fireworks and some of the less expensive ones were really good.  We didn't have a $50 grand finale this year, but the whole show was great.  Besides, the entire neighborhood is lighting off wonderful fireworks, so we always get a wonderful show and the kids laid back and enjoyed the show.

Finley's Baby Blessing

Finley has been in our family since just after Thanksgiving and we love having her. It's so nice to have a girl on Kris's side of the family. Until she came along, Kyson and Kodi had 5 boy cousins.  Kyson loves it, but it's nice that Kodi will have a little girl to play with.

Sunday, she was blessed and she looked so beautiful in her little white blessing dress.   I also always love the opportunity to socialize with family.

Amy's sister-in-law, Audrey was there as well and was nice enough to take some pictures of our family.  We don't have too many family photos, but she took a few for us and I was very grateful.

Peter Pan

The Herriman City Arts Council put on the play Peter Pan.  At the last minute, we decided to try and make it.  I didn't want to spend money for the tickets, but good opportunities to take the kids to see plays don't come around too often.  I was a little nervous when I found out it was two and a half hours, especially considering the last attempt to see Charlie Brown I ended up taking Kodi home at intermission because she was so bad.

This play was very well done.  Peter Pan and the Darling children flew across the stage in many scenes, there was a live orchestra and some were dressed as pirates.  Our next-door neighbor was one of Captain Hook's pirates too, so it was fun to see him perform.  My favorite actress was Wendy.  She was absolutely amazing, and then I looked at her bio in the playbill.  She has been in many plays at Hale Center Theater, Pioneer Theater, and even been in some movies.  It definitely showed.

After the play, we went to see the actors and surprisingly, Kodi wanted to talk to all of them.  She was in her Tinkerbell costume and I think the actors really liked that.  They were all willing to take pictures and take a moment to talk to her.  Kyson, on the other hand, was tired and done when the play ended.  He liked it, but wanted to leave when it was over.

After seeing how enthralled they were during the play and how excited Kodi was after, it was well worth the ticket price and I'm glad we went.

Kodi chatting with one of the Indians

The kids with Peter Pan

The kids with Captain Hook

Kodi with Tiger Lily

Wendy chatting with Kodi - she said Kodi was "adorable"

Kodi and Wendy Darling

Kodi and an Indian girl

Kodi with Smee and a pirate

The kids with our neighbor who played Starky, a pirate

Bear Lake Vacation

Because we couldn't take a vacation...again, our vacation was at Bear Lake this year.  It's unfortunate that right now, Kris and I are on hourly at our new jobs so it cost us a pretty penny to go, where normally it's just a couple hundred dollars for food and gas.It was worth it though.  It gave us the chance to spend four extra days with Grammy and Stacie.

Wes and Shelly came up as usual and it was a nice crowd.  Not too many, and not too little.  The kids were a little crazy, but they loved playing in the water.  Every morning they were running to the water and poor Stacie was trying to go to the water to just have some peace and quiet, but the kids saw it as an opportunity to play.  They kept attacking her but she was such a good sport.  She played with them and they loved it.  I was so grateful for her willingness to play with them.  They really liked her.

Grammy was a good sport too.  We dragged her down to the beach.  Even though we took her down to the beach on the four-wheelers, she still had to get on and off, and sit on the beach all day.  One time after I'd jumped off, we told her to hold onto the handles as if she was driving it.  Boy it was good - it really looked like she was driving it.  I tried to get her on the wave runners, but that didn't happen.

We also went on a short four-wheeling ride and Kodi feel asleep by the end of it.  Stacie loved seeing the cows on the trail and the big tractors that were doing farm work.  Kodi was with me for the first half and at one point she quickly lifted her foot and said, "Hot!" I looked down at her sole and the bottom of her shoe had melted and was dripping off.  Fortunately, those shoes were close to retirement anyway, but it's sad that princess shoes have to go in the garbage instead of getting additional use from someone.

I also did a little art project with the kids.  We got an acorn from the yard and made a bird feeder with it.  I put the peanut butter on it, and then the kids spread bird seed on it.  There are lots of birds in the yard, but I'm not sure if they ever used the bird feeders we made.

All week was wonderful.  I was so sad for the week to end.  I LOVE to have time away from work, especially when I'm at the lake away from household responsibilities and I can just sit on the beach all day.  It's hard knowing there isn't a vacation coming for a long time.