We took Ben's family to the airport for their flight to New York. It was time for their annual 3-week summer vacation with Haley's family.
Ben planned to be there a week, gone on a work trip for a week, and then back to spend the last week in New York. Their whole family loves going boating when they are there. Ben was sad that his birthday falls on the week he is working and away from his family.
Caroline celebrated her 15th birthday.
She presented herself with a gift right on her birthday when she got her learner's permit.
Now she's busy logging in her many hours of accompanied driving so she can get her driver's license.
Jan invited the friend group to her home for a delicious salmon dinner in honor of Bill's 80th birthday.
As always, her table was set so beautifully for the occasion. Bill and also one of their sons, Nate, both share a 4th of July birthday.
There's the birthday boy Bill Evans on the left with Grant Stewart, Dennis Crandall, Bruno Kossin, Rick Winder and Glen. Lane Lewis was late arriving and missed the photo shoot.
This is the women part of the group: Jane Crandall, Colleen Kossin, LaVona Lewis, Diane Stewart, Jan Evans, Debi Winder and me.
Speaking of good meals... We invited the girls' families over for our traditional cook-out dinner followed by the fireworks show up at the Eaglewood Golf Course.
Ben's family is usually here for this event, but they had to plan their trip a week earlier than usual this year. He would have loved it because the high temperature of the day was only 80 degrees. It is usually 20 degrees warmer this time of the year.
We entertained ourselves with pre-dinner card games of Speed.
Jeff and Eli went to the store to find glow sticks and came home with the glow sticks and also glow swords. Couldn't have been a better find for our group of grandsons.
Glen got some willing helpers to get chairs and blankets hauled up to stake out our favorite spot on the golf course.
They also left two vans parked up close to the golf course to get all the stuff back home. The little ones usually like a car ride back down the hill after fireworks while some of us enjoy walking down the hills back to our home after the show.
We made many batches of popcorn and got it all bagged up. Then Glen got busy shuttling all of us up close to the golf course. Sure beats hiking up the steep hills from our home.
We only had a 2-block hike from where Glen dumped us off. He took our car back home and left it and then he made the hike back up the steep hills to meet up with us.
Here he is trying to cool off from his hike while the rest of us had gotten chilled just sitting around waiting for darkness to fall so the fireworks show could begin.
Everyone enjoyed the popcorn treat. Jonah and Lincoln also enjoyed going down in the roughage on the hillside in search of golf balls. They collected quite a few last year. This year they came prepared by bringing back packs to haul out all the golf balls found.
Natalie and her friend Emma came for dinner and fireworks. They also spent the night with us and enjoyed a French toast breakfast the next morning.
It is so fun sitting there with all the other families enjoying the great outdoors, feeling patriotic and watching the kids running around playing together.
It finally got dark enough for the fireworks show to begin.
This year the traffic was so slow that the family walkers beat the two vans home.
It is such a great way to celebrate Independence Day!!
One day Sarah asked if she could bring her four boys to our home that afternoon to play while she went to the temple.
I invited myself to go to the temple with her. She invited Rebecca to go with us. It was a pretty spontaneous thing that happened and it was so enjoyable being at the temple with my daughters.
Once back home, the girls lingered longer in hopes dinner would appear. What do you know--it did!!
We even had the bonus of seeing Brooke when she brought Caroline over. Brooke was just finishing up her work shift at Lagoon when Caroline was finished playing at Lagoon. Rebecca was happy she didn't have to drive over there to pick up Caroline.
I loved watching Lincoln building with the Lincoln logs.
Jeff and Sarah took their boys to Morgan to see "the world's largest steam locomotive Big Boy No. 4014, a 1.1-million pound steam engine that once played a pivotal role in carrying freight across the Wasatch Mountains."
Lincoln is such a train lover that they thought this would be a fun experience for him and the other boys.
Another fun thing they did was going to see where Jeff works as a postal inspector.
Sarah posted the following photos along with the caption: "We are often grateful Jeff is no longer an accountant, but most especially on Take Your Kids to Work Day."
Lincoln and Jonah were on the job the next day when they found an open package next to an open mailbox. They got busy writing up a report about it.
Glen and I went to dinner with our missionary Brendon Anderson and his new wife Alison.
Sarah organized a cook-out in Mueller Park Canyon. It is so close to our home--about 10 minutes away. Glen and I went up early to get a camp site all set up before everyone else arrived.
We enjoyed sitting in the shade reading a book together while waiting for the others to get there. So relaxing listening to the nearby river, looking at the trees all around, and spotting a few people walking along the trail.
The girls and their families soon joined us. Dallas did his magic of getting the fire going.
We were missing Jeff who was out of town, Brooke who was working at Lagoon, and Ben's family who are still in New York. Our group felt so small!!
The grandchildren were happy when the hot dogs had been eaten, the river had been played in, and it was finally time for the roasting of the marshmallows. It was a fun evening.
It's enjoyable to be in the great outdoors as long as it is only for a few hours followed by a refreshing shower once back home to get rid of the fire smell.
One day I noticed something outside our basement window.
The deer startled me, then I startled him when he saw me, and then he ran away into the woods.
