Happy Fourth of July!

We started out the Fourth of July again this year with the Provo Freedom Festival Parade! This year we were smart and sat on the east side of the street (less sun in our eyes)!

Brittany had taken some time and fixed the girls' hair really cute. Mabel seemed to like her new do!

 Clementine even had enough hair for a little tiny pony tail!

It was so fun taking pictures of the girls while we waited for the parade to start! I especially liked Clementine in my hat!

 John taught Mabel to wave at everyone, which made the parade even more fun. She even got a few high fives from the participants!

Mabel especially loved the marching band music. That gave her a chance to break out some moves!

There were lots of great floats, including this trip to Mexico!

We met the Nuttalls for lunch at El Mexsal! They have Mexican and Salvadoran food. The pupusas are really good!

We stopped by the Freedom Festival for a while, but it was super hot outside!

 Mabel got a kiss from a llama which both terrified her and thrilled her at the same time!

In the late afternoon we did a few fireworks, including some sparklers.

Mabel remembered them from last year and was still very careful with them!

We all got into the act with the sparklers!

Clementine was happy to be cuddled while she watched the show. Thank heavens she was content to keep a respectful distance from the fireworks!

Goodbye, Annette's House! Hello Nikki!

Annette and Kent have sold their house, and we got to say goodbye to it last night!

They are going to miss their giant lot and their fruit trees, including the pie cherry trees!

But, they will be building a brand new house on the southwest corner of their property! Imagine a new house right here!

Their old sunroom has been a gathering for many family parties over the years and will be sorely missed! Hopefully, they will have another wonderful gathering spot in their new house!

Yesterday we celebrated Nikki and Dave and their families being here for vacation! It is fun to talk with them about their adventures living in Scotland!



We also enjoyed singing some hymns together after dinner. It was fun singing with the Evans clan who all know how to sing parts!

Brittany and John came over after dinner, which was great, as we got our grandkid fix for the day! Clementine LOVES her grandpa, and will play pat-a-cake with him endlessly if he'll let her!

Ministering Partner

Ed has been assigned a new ministering partner, which gave us the opportunity to get to know two more people! Kirk and Gael are very interesting people who unbelievably have a pickleball court in their back yard! (They don't yet know how to play the game!)

We enjoyed going with them to Thai Village Friday night for dinner. The food is not only delicious, but has pretty flowers on it!

Cats, Kids and Music

Saturday we went over to Brittany and John's house for Pinyon Rats practice. Ed is like a cat magnet! Roo and Skimmy couldn't get enough of him.

Monkey liked Ed's bass, and made herself at home on it!

We had band practice on the back patio, but found none of the neighbors hurried over to hear us! (Neither did they ask us to stop making all that racket.) We thought we sounded pretty good. Mabel and Clementine (not pictured) enjoyed it!

Mom's Renovation Almost Done!

Mom has been able to move back into her kitchen! It looks so beautiful and new! There are only four items left for the contractor to take care of! It has been a fun project!

Her new furniture is getting delivered tomorrow, but in the meantime, Ed and I picked up a TV stand on Friday and brought it down. Ed connected the cable wires and she is set to watch TV, even if she has to sit on a folding chair to do it!

Amber Waves of Grain

It was fun to get home from our trip and get back into hiking! The grasses in Lambert park are fabulous! I can't tell whether this is wheat, rye or barley, but it's beautiful all the same!

We got back from Iowa just in time to find our mystery berries ripening! I've been trying to identify this tree for months now. It turns out it is a St. Lucie Cherry! The bad news is that only birds eat it! My mouth had been watering, too!

Two Good Watering Moments

Ed and I needn't have worried about the seedlings in Lambert Park last week! While we were in Iowa a good number of people showed up and watered our tender little plants, including Marilyn and her grandson, Alex!

We had enlisted the help of Evertt and his horses to help us haul the water up the hill, but only needed to water two zones on Thursday! We even made got out before the sun crossed over the mountain, which made it nice and cool out!