Hot, Hot, Hot!

It has been 100 degrees every day! Yesterday afternoon we took Zam with us over to the splash pad in HIghland. We figured she hadn't seen a splash pad back home in Uganda!

Mabel is just an excuse for us to get close to the water and cool off a bit!

Mabel seems to prefer the little river next to the splash bad. We took turns walking in the water with her.

She also likes running in the grass, which seems like a very safe place to run for a toddler who is a little out of control of her feet sometimes!

Clementine was an angel, although she didn't even get near the water!

We came back to Grandma's house for snacks and dinner.

The Pinyon Rats practiced in the evening, and Mabel took it easy, resting in Brittany's mandolin case!

We ended the evening by watching a horror movie before bedtime. It was pretty good and very scary.

I stayed awake longer than usual, but missed the ending! Fortunately, the family filled me in on the ending the next day. Spoiler alert: Things don't go well at the end!

Snake in the Trail

While walking in Lambert Park this morning we ran into a snake. Ed was looking down at the path thinking, "Look at all those slithery marks. There must be a snake up ahead..." Unfortunately, he didn't say those thoughts out loud!

I was up front looking for flowers, and was startled to find this Great Basin Gopher snake right in front of me! I know they are not dangerous, but they scare me anyway. Ed picked it up with a stick and moved it off the trail!

On a happy note, we did find some very nice flowers in our path, as well. This pretty blue chicory is my current favorite!

Fourth of July

We had a fun Fourth of July yesterday. We started with the Provo Independence Day parade.

We were lucky to find a place to sit right behind Brittany and John's friends, Eric and Emily.

Mabel was impressed with the big Cookie Monster balloon.

There were also a number of beautiful floats sponsored by smaller towns in Utah Valley.

We liked the bagpipe bands. Mabel liked my sun glasses.

We also liked the marching bands, especially if they played while they passed us!

There were some really beautiful horses and carriages.

Afterwards we met the Nuttalls for lunch at Malawi pizza! It was nice to get out of the hot sun!

In the afternoon we went to the Provo Carnival. There were lots of vendors and we bought some new sun glasses.

We tried to cool off with some shave ice. It was 100 degrees out, so we were only comfortable while we were actually eating the shave ice!

After I ran out of shave ice, Mabel went over to Grandma Nuttall to get more!

We took our instruments over to Brittany's house. Looks like Monkey wanted to let us know who is the king of the house here!

After a quick ukulele lesson, Marti was off and running on a new instrument!

We sang songs in the back yard (to the enjoyment of the neighbors) where Mabel could also swim in her pool. She enjoyed walking around au natural, as well!

We put Clementine to bed and did some fireworks for Mabel. John did the Flaming Fountain Dance for us after he lit this one!

With a little coaxing, Mabel did several sparklers. She was a little nervous about them!

She preferred sitting tight on someone's lap and watching from a distance. We liked the cuddly Mabel the fireworks brought out!

The Stangers Came to Town!

We met Helen and Adrian and family at Settebello in Salt Lake for lunch today. They drove all the way from Maryland, stopping off at Mount Rushmore and Glacier Park on the way. They ended up with a week with Adrian's mom in Utah. We were glad they carved out a little time to see us!

It's been a year since we moved from Maryland, and I'm feeling the need for a little Pearl Strings fix! Having Helen here was the next best thing to it!

When we started Pearl Strings, Joseph wasn't even in kindergarten yet. Now he's in 4th grade! Time flies!

Camping at Fairview Lakes

We took our new tent trailer on her maiden voyage to Fairview Lakes this weekend. We got real good at popping it up, as the first location was claimed by another party about 4 hours after we arrived!

It was a bit of a problem vacating the site quickly, as we were in the middle of dinner when we realized we had to move!

Clementine was blissfully unaware of all the hubbub around her and enjoyed sitting on a table in the middle of the aspens!

Mabel was thrilled to be camping and in addition to collecting rocks, enjoyed taking the dog for a walk!

My cousin Kendall Brady, who arranged the family gathering, caught a few trout to share for dinner.

We enjoyed having the large tent trailer, with one king size bed, one queen, and a double bed in the middle, where the dinette is.

Our new location, while not in the aspens, was in a meadow full of sunflowers (possibly long-leaf arnica).

We spent a restless night huddled up in our sleeping bags. In the morning Brittany brought the baby into her bag to warm her up a little.  In hindsight, we should have turned on our heater!

This was Coda's first camping trip. She stuck close to us, and even slept on Ed and my sleeping bag, which amazed us, as she is not a cuddly dog!

John joined us after work on Friday, and also got some good cuddles from Mabel to keep warm at night!

Ed and I only heard Clementine cry once in the night. Brittany nursed her and put her back down, but complained that her lips were uncomfortably cold!

Saturday morning we entertained ourselves with a few camping songs while we waited for more relatives to arrive.

Ed got lots of cuddles from Clementine. Coda looked on with jealousy.

Verlene and mom showed up in time for lunch. We all had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Verlene came all the way out from Colorado just to be with us!

Barbara and Kent arrived in time for a little shooting practice arranged by my cousins, Mike.and Kendall

I liked the skeet shooting the best. I even hit a few of them!

Ed was successful with skeet shooting, but was particularly proud of his long shot with the AR-15.

Kendall had built his own historic flintlock rifles. It was fascinating seeing how they worked. Shooting them was a little scary, as there is a little blast of fire right next to your face!

We finally got to see my brother Jon's cabin at Fairview lakes. It was really nice, and full of Sara's family, who were also up for the holiday.

We gathered at Kendall and Cate's lot for dinner. There were representatives from five of my dad's siblings there. I wish I had taken a group shot. From Aunt Frances' family we had Suzanne and Marcus. From Aunt Lola's family we had Mike and Arlene. From Uncle Gordon's family we had Kendall Cate and Aunt Alla Lee. From Aunt Helen's family we had Sandy and Charlene. From Verl (my dad's) family we had Norma (my mom), Verlene, Annette and Kent, Judy and Ed, with Brittany, John, Mabel and Clementine, Barbara and Kent, Jon and Sara, with Caleb, Amelia and Rachel. There was also Eileen and Virgil, my dad's cousins.

It was nostalgic camping in the same place where my dad and uncle Gordon came up and stayed for the summer while the cattle fed on the grass in the meadows.

We feel grateful to live close enough to spend time with our Brady cousins!

One last potty story. We didn't set up our toilet and shower, but Brittany asked us to set it up so she could see it. We let Mabel play inside with the door shut. After a little while she called out, "Mabel, help." She had pulled down her pants and crawled up sideways on the toilet, holding onto the side rail. She was proud to be the first person to pee in our toilet! We laughed so hard it was impossible to be annoyed at her!

We got home at 10:30 p.m. last night to find out we had locked ourselves out of the house (the door between the garage and house was locked). We avoided another night in the tent trailer, by finding we had left our bedroom patio door unlocked. Ed says "Two stupids equals one genius!"