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!  :)

June

For a summer that I was worried about having enough to do with Jacob, we are managing quite well.

Wu Laoshi

It was so hot at the end of school we went to Cowabunga and to this pool before school was out!  Here are Jacob and Chase on the diving boards.  Jacob's first time diving.

One of Jacob's 3rd grade teachers, Mrs. Owens was leaving the school and they had a going away party for her over at Draper Park.  Kids could come and say good-bye and visit with both teachers.

Mrs. Owens

Field day was hot and LONG!

 The 3rd grade did a patriotic program~~it talked about the pledge of allegiance and what it means.  They even sang, "Freedom Isn't Free", a song I sang with Primary at a Bicentennial program back in 1976 at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, CA.  I remembered the words and could sing along to it!

 End of School year swimming party at Dalton's house again.  It was only while I was sitting there that I discovered that Jacob wasn't in his class this year.  He was last year and got an invitation so when saw the invitation this year I didn't even think about if he was in Dalton's class or not.  Dalton had given it to Jacob at recess.  He had a good time.

 Ah, Jon Huntsman Day at This Is The Place State park.  We try to do this annually with Debbie and her kids.  This year I invited Wendy to come along with the kids too.  Free day is always good.

Riding the train

Free ice cream.  I got a missile popsicle which reminded me of my yourth

The weekend after school got out there was an Outdoor Adventure day at a shooting range.  Wendy told me about it and we told Jared and Stephanie--so we all went.

We rode ATVs....

Jacob shooting a shot gun

 We shot guns.  I liked the 22s with the nice scope the best.

Jason and the shot gun.   He did well.

Jacob and Jaxon

 They had a small pool set up where you could kayak.

Shooting an old fashioned musket

ATV riding with Ashlyn

I include this picture of a glass bottle in front of the recycle bin because if you know me you know I am a rule follower and do not vandalize things.   But I get a great amount of satisfaction throwing glass bottles into the recycle bin and hearing them shatter.  In fact, I love it.  It is the small deviant side of me that never has a chance to come out.

Here are most of the kids that have played together for years.  Chase, Ryan, Nick, Jacob, Katelyn, Gabe, Kyle, Connor.

 This was one morning before swimming lessons.  Jacob got the milk out for cereal and was swinging it over his head. The lid was not on tight and this is the end result.  :)













School ended and swimming lessons began.  He is working in the deep end this year.

We went to 7 Peaks with Debbie and the kids.  Jacob went down this slide on the yellow skimming  seats.  I helped him carry the seat up 3 times -- they are heavy.  He had fun.










 Father's Day.  Always have a hard time figuring out what to get Jason. This year he bought his own gifts. A pair of gym shorts and a wrench.

















Jason's mom's side of the family had a siblings reunion this year.  So we had everyone over for dinner Sunday night when they got back into town.

 To beat the heat we went to a splash pad for FHE with the Nefs.

Here we are at Taylorsville Days waiting for the fireworks to begin.  It is always a party for Jacob when he gets a soda!

Doing OK on my own.

The following day we went to they Daybreak neighborhood for their luau. They had activities like riding a circular bike--with 6 people...

Here comes Mylee

 They also had paddle boarding.  I wanted to try it and was OK at it....until Mylee got close, bumped into me and I fell in that gross lake!  Once you were out there on the lake it was hard to get back in because of the current.  That is what I was trying to do  before I fell.

Down I went

Getting towed to shore

Jacob and Jason had no problems.

Holdon, Daniel, Cherie, Kim, Becky

 Andersons were moving at the end of June and in the meantime, Mannings put their home up for sale also.

We decided to have an ice cream social to say good-bye to them.

Ben and Jen Higley, Brenda Anderson, Melissa Ceballos, Jon Anderson

John and Ann Manning, Dion, Jason

Jason, Charles and Nicole Woods

This is the garden I wrote about in May.  It is looking pretty sad.

 We've played with friends this month.

 Chase's last day with us playing before they moved.

2 days later I took Jacob down to Orem to play with Chase in his new home.