July

July is probably my favorite month.  It is busy with fun things but laid back and easy at the same time.  I think it is because we are doing the things we love as a family.  The fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday and this year was fun as usual.  We started the month of with Hyrum City's Patriotic Program. Emily, Logan, and Charlotte participated in this program as part of the children's choir.  

They did really well singing all of their songs.  Now Charlotte can't wait to join choir at the school.  Too bad she has to wait until second grade.  Emily was the soloist for the concert which was really cool for her!

She sang the first verse to God Bless America and then the choir came in and sang with her during the chorus.  Emily did such a great job!  I was literally in tears listening to her beautiful voice.  Where do these kids get their talents because I definitely can't do the things they can do.  Mrs. Schiedler was very happy for Emily and glad she was able to do the solo she missed out on in sixth grade because of COVID.

The next day we got to hang out with the Stewart's.

They were able to come up to our house for a while before heading over to Rick's family for their 4th of July celebration.  We took everyone to the Blacksmith river and we had a fun picnic.  All of the kids loved getting in the water to cool off. Even though they were not "supposed" to get very wet, that never happens.

The next morning I ran the Freedom Run 15K down Blacksmith Fork.  This was pretty fun.  I really like the course through the canyon.  This we the first time running this race since the first year we moved here.  At the starting line I found out that our friend, Tyson Booth, and our bishop, Sean Dennis, were running the race as well.  They told me not to beat them too badly.  Then, when the race started, Sean totally killed both of us by sprinting the whole 9.5 miles!  I was happy with my time though and did 8:25 minute miles the whole way passing a bunch of people on the big hill.   

After the race we helped with Band breakfast fundraiser.  Emily has decided to do Marching Band this year  so now we are band parents.  Because of this we had to help but we got breakfast out of it so it was worth it.  Then it was time for the parade.  Russell went and set out our chairs at 5:00 am and we still had to fight for a place to sit because by 5:01 am every place along the route was taken over.  

We ended up cramming in with the rest of Hyrum City near the park.  It was fine though because we could still see and the kids got all the candy they needed.  When the Mountain Crest Marching Band came through, we all cheered really loudly for Emily!

She was playing the crash cymbals in this parade.  Emily is enjoying marching band and this was her first ever parade.

When the parade ended, we walked across the street to the Elite Hall to see the Grand Ole Flag display inside.

This display was pretty cool because it shows every American Flag design ever made.  From the original 13 stars and stripes to our modern day 50 stars.  It was really interesting to see all of the changes and learn more about each flag.

That evening we got to hang out with the Phillip's clan at Kristy and Mike's house.  It was so fun to get together with family and celebrate the holiday with good food, chatting, and just hanging out.  

The kids had a blast because there was a giant bounce house!  Brooklyn and Mavis loved every minute of it.

The bounce house was a big hit and kept all of the kids entertained for hours while the adults relaxed.

I had to get a picture of these two cousins.  Brooklyn and Mavis are best friends.  It used to take a couple minutes for them to get used to each other but now they just go play as soon as they see each other.

As it started to get dark, we headed home to watch the fireworks from our backyard.

First we had to do some sparklers of our own.  Brooklyn wasn't too sure about them but Charlotte and Everett and the other kids knew just what to do with them.

Then the fireworks started and they were amazing.

We have the best view of the fireworks because our house is right next to the place they shoot them off.  We love it! 

The next day was my birthday and the kids made me this fun card:

It says, "Happy birthday to our favorite 'Mamba' from your favorite 'Sugar Babies.' You are an amazing 'M'arvelous 'M'om."  I had a good birthday just relaxing and doing nothing.  I rode my bike 38 mile to celebrate being 38 while everyone else cleaned the house for me.

During July we got to take a few fun trips to Lagoon.  We even got to take an old time photo.  We look so funny.

We were all supposed to be looking tough But Russell is a little too happy to be shooting someone.  Look at Brooklyn's cheese.  She cracks me up.

These trips to Lagoon have been really fun.  It has also been nice not to have to rush around the park because we know we can just come back another time.

So far we have gone on most of the rides at Lagoon.  The new ride we tried this time was Cliffhanger.  This ride was so fun but you get absolutely soaked!  You may try to avoid getting sprayed but without fail you will get sprayed right in the face!  We were more soaked on this ride than we ever were on Rattlesnake Rapids. We were all freezing afterwards too.   Cliffhanger has become the new favorite ride at Lagoon.

One night we stayed until the park closed so we made what we called a little hobo camp in the parking lot of a nearby gas station.  There we cooked some hot dogs on the China-man and had dinner before driving home.  We looked kind of ridiculous but it was fine.

Throughout the summer the kids have been practicing their mountain bike skills by going on a lot of rides with the mountain bike team.  Russell is one of the head coaches with Teresa Parker and it has kept him busy.  During July Emily had a fun trip with the GRiT team (the girls).  

First they rode the Beaver Mountain trail and had a good time but then the real fun started when they headed up to Bear Lake to play in the water.

Emily had a blast swimming and hanging out with the other girls on the team.  These are really good girls and I am glad they are getting to know each other better by being on the team together.

Emily also loves doing things with the Young Women group like going to the temple to do baptisms.  These are also really good girls and they seem to look out for each other and get along pretty well.  I am glad Emily has some good friends.

Since everyone seems to be having babies this year, I have been making baby quilts.  I made this one for Clint and Haley's baby boy coming in September.

The fabric is totally Clint and Haley so its perfect.  I love how it turned out.

I have also been busy with the garden.  Our strawberries have done really well this year so I have made a few batches of strawberry jam.

The peas are also going well.  The rest of the things seem to be blooming late this year because of the really late spring and over abundance of snow that took a long time to melt.  Hopefully the rest of the garden will start producing soon.

Happy Birthday to this 40 year old handsome man. Man he looks good at 40. 

Russell wanted to go four wheeling with lunch so that is what we did. We all had fun driving all over the mountain. He got his favorite treat, frosted animal cookies, this cool shirt and a ribbon he wore all day that said, Birthday Boy.

Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth  came up for a few days to hang out and we took the four wheelers up Millville canyon. It was a good ride. 

We found a fun place to hang out, eat, and play in the water. Colby and Emily were excited because they got to drive the whole way up, and they were allowed to drive around the area by themselves. As we were playing around, we saw a pretty good sized slithering friend with rattlers. Russell told the kids to come here quick. He tried to scare it off, but had no luck. When he lost track of it, they decided it was time to go. It will be a cool place to go back and chill again (minus the rattlesnakes.)

While grandparents were up here, we celebrated Mavis's second birthday.  For fun we got together at the park and played in the splash pad.  Charlotte, Brooklyn, and Mavis ran around getting wet and loving it. 

Then we got together at Tyler and Ashley's house for cake and ice cream that night. 

Mavis loved showing Brooklyn all of her toys but was not too sure about letting her play with any of them.  It's funny how kids are so possessive of their things but Brooklyn does the same thing.  They finally did get along and played well.

Look at this young lady go. First time behind the wheel of a car. 

Russell got soft and let her drive the truck to see how she would do when she gets her license. They went to the Mountain Crest parking lot and drove around for about an hour. She was way excited to be driving. We can't believe we have a kid that will soon be driving a car.

The Marching Band was in the Pioneer Day parade in Wellsville on July 22.  Emily played the cymbals again in this parade and we loved watching her.   

Then on July 24, the city of Logan did the annual Pioneer Day parade so we headed to town to see it. 

Russell volunteered this year to take part as the Honor Guard detail for the Fire Department. He was able to carry the flag during the parade.  It was exciting to see him.  Russell was way excited to do this. After he was done though, the back of his foot was not happy. He wore a blister on his heel until it bled. The funny thing was when they started marching in front of the parade, they thought they were going at a slow enough march, but they were wrong. When they got to the end of the parade, the rest of the parade was about 2 blocks behind. Oops oh well, they got done early. 

That night we hung out at the Phillips' house with the family to celebrate the holiday. 

We all got wet in the pool, ate good food, and hung out. It is always good to see the Phillips family. 

On July 29 Russell and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary by doing the Spudman Triathlon.

It was an awesome accomplishment and a great way to celebrate our life together.

I have been working at the Heritage Center this summer doing Historic Adventures. For the most part I have been working in the farmhouse cooking lunch for the staff on the wood burning stove.  It is harder than it looks...   One day the girls were able to come with me and they had a blast pretending to be little farm girls.  First, they spent the morning picking raspberries.

Then it was time to gather eggs from the chicken coop.  Brooklyn loved chasing the chickens in the coop.  She wanted to pet all of them.  She was also happy to gather the eggs. Most of the eggs may or may not have gotten broken...

After cleaning up from lunch, which Emily was a big help with, Charlotte and Brooklyn helped me take all of the food scraps to the pigs.  They loved watching the pigs eat all of the food.  

It was a long day but it was a fun day.  The little girls loved it.  Emily liked it too but had to help me with most of the work.  I guess that it about right for farm life.  Ever since coming to work with me on the farm, Brooklyn has not stopped talking about feeding the pigs and getting the eggs from the chickens and all of the other fun things to see and do on the farm. She even made a new friend named, Becca, and talks about her a lot too.  Now whenever she sees Becca at the Heritage Center she has to give her a big hug.  They also loved riding the train with Emily.  On the way out, we saw the mom peacock and her little babies.  They were so cute!

What a busy fun month.  Now on to August!