Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July.

We had a fun 4th that included skating with Caitlyn,  swimming and watching our grandchildren swim at the Green's, a wonderful BBQ, and then fireworks (courtesy of Mark Green-again).  Gunnar told us, "This is the best day of the year! The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday!"  And we could certainly see why, as he helped his dad light each firework for a fabulous display. 

Yuna

Finn and Adrienne

Caitlyn, Jieun, Dojin

Adrienne and Finn

Cait and Dojin

Ollie and AJ

The Green's really know how to spoil their grandkids

Gunnar started off the fireworks by leading the group in the
Pledge of Allegiance.  

We also celebrated Sarah Christensen's upcoming wedding when we hosted a shower for her and Paul.  It was a fun shower for several reasons.  Mainly because we got to see lots of family, and husbands and families were invited.  Nan made delicious BBQ pork, and provided the buns and some gluten free items, and I made some salads and desserts.  Char brought a salad also, and Jieun brought fruit, so we had an excellent meal.   I did make one horrible mistake in my efforts to provide a little entertainment to the children-- Roy and I went to the local Farmer's Market on Thursday and there was a little girl selling a "Gak" like product.  The mother told me it wouldn't be messy, "it won't even stick in the carpet--as long as you get it up quickly."  Luckily, I wasn't dumb enough to try out that theory, but I gave the kids (all my own grandchildren) the goo and they went outside to play with it.  Guess what--it was messy.  Very, very messy.  I had to take a scraper out the next morning, sit on the ground in 90 + degree heat, and scrape goo off the back steps, the driveway, and even some of our rocks.  There was plenty of it in the dirt, too, but that came up easily (coated with dirt, of course). 

Oh well, the joys of being a mom and grandma.  I'm sure it's not the worst mess I've ever cleaned up.

Front: Kenzie, Tristan, Jieun, Jennie, Yuna
Back: Spencer, Olivia, Peter, Cameron, Charlotte.

John, Sarah, Paul, Greta and Matt

Bruce, Nan, Violet, Kenzie, Tristan (Spencer and Olivia in back)

Phil and Steve

Roy, Catharine and Ruby

Jennie

Nan brought some various discs of photos for Dave, Phil, Christine and I.  She gave me one labeled, Philip and Catharine.  I picked out a few pictures of when I was small.  

This picture is of me and my duck.  Apparently it adopted me and followed me everywhere.  I'm not sure why my parents decided to take the duck to my cousins house to live, but they had horses, and my duck met it's demise when it was stepped on by one of those horses.

(It's also amazing how far photography has come since then!)

Roy and I enjoyed an hour walk on Saturday morning, an hour or so of work in the yard (I did goo clean-up, and Roy worked on adding sprinklers to our garden).  We had a nice rest, and then did a little shopping at Harmon's (believe it or not, we think it's a fun date to go to Harmon's together).  It's a little on the expensive side (except for the Jicama is cheaper than anywhere), and they have gelato!

Saturday night also offered us the opportunity to attend a Dirty Pinewood Derby with the Elder's Quorum in the Young Single Adults Ward.  Dirty means no rules.  It was fun.  There were cars with balloons tied to them so they could get the "tallest car" award.  With the drag, however, they didn't go down the track very fast.  There were a couple of cars with barbie dolls attached for the ride.  There some fun, creative cars.  We had a good time.

We settled down for bed at around 11:00, and then Roy went down to check on Caitlyn, because she was coughing so hard.  He decided he was going to take her to the ER and have her checked out.  She has bronchitis, which is horrible, and it will mean she'll have to skip or go late to girls camp.  I'm afraid she's not too disappointed.  They got home around 1, but Roy didn't come to bed until about 1:40.   I think he went up to his office to work.

Caitlyn and I played, "How Great Thou Art" today in our ward sacrament meeting.  We've now played it several times.  We played it in our old ward and in Roy's single's ward, Crista played it with me in her ward in Logan, and Adrienne played it with Caitlyn in her ward.  Dan played it with Caitlyn is his ward, also.  Jieun has played it every time.  I think she probably has it down by now.  Next time we get asked to play, we'll have to come up with something else :)

We had a busy Sunday with church (Roy went to 3 Sacrament meetings: Ours to hear us play, his, and then a missionary farewell in our old ward).  We had Home Teachers and Ward Prayer, then we went to congratulate the missionary and give him a card.  It was on the late side when we got home, so we read my dad's book together and went to bed.