Rasmania 101: Independence Day

Independence Day! We were able to enjoy the 4th of July this year with many of our family members. We missed Elise and her family--Elise was in Myrtle Beach with her in-laws, and Andy was in officer training in San Antonio. Independence Day is Andy's favorite holiday for obvious reasons and he has spent many years serving our country and putting his life in danger for our freedom. This year he had to forego the fun celebrations and stay on base. Even though he had the time off, he could not leave the base and still be paid, and his family was too far away to easily join them. He was lonely this year and hungry, too, I heard, since everything was closed and he hadn't planned accordingly. So, Andy, thank you from me for your sacrifices for all of us. Here are a couple of cute pictures of Max and Maverick on their fourth of July.

The rest of us had a relaxing and fun day. We joined the Mark Green family at their home for swimming and dinner, then we moved down to our home where fireworks are legal (Green's are past the line where you can set off fireworks--too close to the mountain I guess), and had a fantastic personal fireworks show. Thanks to Mark Green and Matt for the entertainment.

Ori and Yuna love each other--but this is one of those
rare occasions where they really got along

Finn with his grandma Lisa

Gunnar announced the name of each firework as AJ got ready
to set them off.

Up at the pool. Gunnar would swim, get dressed, then swim again. He's a really good swimmer.

On Wednesday Roy and I went to Becky Cook's father's funeral. This is what Nan said about it

"Today we attended Becky Cook’s father’s funeral. Becky paid a wonderful, serious tribute to her father,

Bill Inman, and it was fun to get to know him. He was born in Kentucky and orphaned about age 5. His

two older sisters cared for him and his younger sister. At 13 he was in a store when a woman came in

and asked if anyone knew how to drive because she needed someone to drive her and her daughter to

St. Louis. No one volunteered, so he said he could do it even though he had never driven a car in his life.

In St. Louis, he hitched-hiked to Utah and stayed here until his sisters came and insisted he return home.

A few years later, he came back to Utah and stayed. Becky said a couple of hours before he died, he

looked up at about a 45 degree angle and it looked like he could see something. He was really happy.

Becky asked, “Dad, do you see Tim?” Tim was his son that died a few years ago. Her father didn’t

respond, but closed his eyes. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes again at a 45 degree angle and

looked terrified. Becky said, “Dad, Is that Mom?"

"Her brother, Todd, also spoke. His talk was full of humor and very cleaver. He said that if his father had

known that the bill for the nursing home was coming out of his money, he would have died years ago.

He also said that just in case you can take your money with you that David, being an accountant, totaled

his assets and enclosed a check in the casket. I found the funeral interesting and entertaining."

I used Nan's words because she remembered so well. It was an interesting funeral, and sad, too, because, although I think the family had an LDS background, they were never active and did not take advantage of the blessings the gospel could have offered them. Becky gave a very good talk.
After the funeral, we went to lunch with Bruce and Nan to Caputo's,. While we waited for Nan and Bruce to get there, we stocked up a little on my addictions--Creo Breu and CHOCOLATE. After luch we hurried to the lot to meet a Sunroc Representative to make some decisions about mouldings and railings, etc. Speaking of our house, here are a couple of pictures of where we are currently in the building process.

Front

And, finally, a bridge to the backyard so Roy can start messing around back there. We need some truck fulls of dirt.

Updates on the family: Sara will be having her baby around the first of August. She's not due until later in the month but the Dr. doesn't want to take any chance of her going into labor for medical reasons. Jieun is expecting a baby on January 9, and Crista gave us the awesome news this week that she, too is expecting. She is due on February 11. That will make 13 grandchildren. That's pretty good considering that right now the oldest one is 6.

Roy has gotten really ambitious with his biking. This weekend, he and Matt and Crista and one of Matt's cousins went on a bike tour in Logan. "The Cache Valley Gran Fondo. It was 50 miles. Well, Roy and Crista went 50 miles, Matt and Tyler were supposed to go 100 miles, but somehow got routed wrong in the beginning and it turned out to be only 96 miles. Matt was bummed--but the free sunscreen at the IHC booth made him happy so all was well.

We took Jennie and Caitlyn to West Side Story Wednesday night, and Thursday night we took Matt and Crista to Porgy and Bess. I'm pretty sure I didn't love either story (I like happy endings) though the music was great in both. Porgy and Bess probably wasn't a favorite of my dad's, but I was reminded of him just the same. He loved opera.
Friday night before the big bike ride, we went to pizza to do some carb loading. The only problem was that I wasn't doing the bike ride with everyone, but it was delicious. Ruby loved it! Cheese and bread, her favorite. '

Last Sunday night Dan invited us for a walk at his house after we went to the Singles Ward family prayer. He didn't know he was going to get practically the whole family. Crista and Matt were down for the weekend and Nick and Sara had stopped by. It was totally crazy with all of us. We walked from Dan's house to our new one. It's fairly close, but there are some busy streets.

I get my heart rate up when I carry Yuna!

Dave commented on one of my weekly letters that we know how to have fun. Of course, I'm not writing about my boring everyday routines, but we do have a lot of fun together. (That's why I didn't write a newsletter last week, there wasn't much to write about). It is great to have so many of our family members close, and I'm grateful for airplanes and cell phones and Facetime, so I can interact with Elise and her family often.

Here are a few more pictures:

Jieun sent me the two pictures above, but I don't know where they were taken.

We have had a bumper apricot year! Dan and Nick each picked a 5 gallon bucket
Nan and Bruce picked a couple of 3 gallon buckets, and our tree is still loaded
(and dropping ripe ones all over the place).