July

Summer is half over!

 We began the month inviting Gr. and Gr. Wong, Jared and Stephanie, and the girls over for a fire pit.  It has been a hot summer so we wanted to wait until at least 8 p.m. when the sun began to go down a bit.

The "Kid's Zone."  Jacob, Connor Woods, Grey Higley, Noah Cebellos, William Higley, Sophie Cebellos, Everett Higley, Ashton Bolingbroke, Nick Cebellos, Gabe Woods

 4th of July!  We had our annual neighborhood breakfast down in the Woods' yard.    Many of the families came and we had a good time visiting.

Mike & Melody Bennet, John and Ann Manning, Ben Higley Kicking it up!

Matt & Monroe Meacham, Mike McNall, Melissa and Paul Cebellos

Charles Woods, Ben and Jen Higley

 We had the neighborhood bike race and later went down to Mom's for dinner and a water fight.

That night we went to Nef's for fireworks.  It was a busy and fun day!

We joined the Draper community garden along with Tom and Wendy Cathey.  Here is a picture of some cantaloupes we planted here at home.  Our area at home is pretty shaded now by trees so we thought we'd try the community garden.  We have had lots of luck with tomatoes, but not with the cantaloupe, butternut squash or corn.  There may be soil problems.  I'm not sure if we'll do it again next year.

 We've gone to playgroup with lots of splash pads.

 We went on a family walk with the Nef family.

 Jacob and Jason have done some bike riding.  Here is a donut stop after the ride.

On 7-11 day we went to the skate park with Elias Ahyou, Jaxon and Alex Nef, and Bridger Gee.  They had a great time!

Afterward we headed over to 7-11 for our free Slurpee.  

Chase and Kyle came over one afternoon to play and all the neighborhood kids came to see them.  With the Anderson's gone, playing and where the kids play has changed a bit.  It was fun to see them.

Jason's annual work Lagoon day

Jason has begun to ride with Ben Ahyou and the boys come along some days.

 While Jason and Jacob went to Lagoon day I went up to Washington with Mom, Heidi, and Malia for my Uncle David's funeral.  He had had cancer for many years.

On the way we got a flat tire.  We got the spare out and tried to loosen the bolts.  We got most of them off, but the last one was impossible.

 All this time cars were whizzing by...no on stopping for 4 women stranded.  We said a quick prayer for us to be able to get the last bolt off and then this National Guard member pulled up and helped us.

 It was so nice of him and so much faster!  
We then drove to the closest Costco in Boise to get new tires.

Lunch in Costco while waiting for tires.

 We got to the hotel in Coulee Dam about 7 p.m.  Not too bad, but later than we had planned.  I thought the funny thing was Uncle Steve telling Mom that he was going to get her a cheater bar (to help with leverage when taking the bolts off)  for the back of her car and teach her how to change the tire.  I'm thinking, "Mom is 78 years old.  She never drives far from home without a family member driving her.  She will never need to change a flat tire.  That is what we're for."  It was funny. 

 Aunt Bonnie came with her daughter Julie.
Aunt Diane and Uncle Larry drove up as did Uncle Dan, Uncle Steve and Aunt Debra. Aunt Penny had been there 2 weeks before visiting with David and did not come back up for the funeral.

Russ, Niki and Lance all spoke and it was a nice funeral.

On a lighter note, I worked on teaching Jacob how to clean a bathroom.

 We went to Nef's again for 24th of July fireworks.

Apple had a free 3 day coding class where they learned to code Sphero balls.  He went with Elias Ahyou.  

 On Saturday we went up Little Cottonwood canyon to Alta where they had free guided nature hikes.  We went up with Catheys.

At the end of July Robert Randolph Wong was born.  He is a cute kid!  Almost as cute as Jacob!  :)