4th of July

We have usually fled the heat and are in Utah for the Fourth of July, but this year we stayed home and discovered a fun family event that made it worth leaving all air-conditioned comfort behind.

Mesa is only in its second year of hosting the Arizona Celebration of Freedom, but what a celebration it was!  For a free event, we were amazed at what was offered.  Too many bouncers (including those with water) to count, a Heritage Lane, several stages worth of musical and patriotic performances, a classic car show, and numerous booths and vendors.

As soon as we got out of the car, we knew we were in for a hot night.  It was about 7:30 pm and the first thing the kids wanted to do was jump right in line for one of the water bouncers.  They got soaking wet, which was good!  We found out the next day that it was a record high of 119 degrees in Mesa (the official high for the day was 118 but that was in Phoenix).

Luckily we found some of these "mister" trailers scattered throughout the event.  Just a matter of seconds in front of one of the fans, and you're all wet and able to survive until you reach the next one.

Lots of water and snow cones helped, too!

The Spanish Fox Sports channel was there.  Isaac and Jacob both stood in line to kick a goal at their booth.

Isaac won a hat and Jacob ended up with four shirts!

At the end of the night, they had a beautiful fireworks show from the top of City Hall.  Happy Birthday, America!



AZ on the Rocks

Due to a variety of circumstances, Noah had to wait one month after his birthday to have a party.  He wanted to take his friends rock climbing.  We found a new place, AZ on the Rocks, and really loved it there!

Of course, Noah had to show off right from the start.  He is just amazing.  I can't believe the strength and focus he has.

He brought along some friends, of course.  This is his best friend, Ben Meek.

Spencer and I both learned how to belay.  It is so much harder than it looks (not difficult, just uses muscles you don't realize you have)!  Yet, there were just kids there belaying each other.  Crazy!

This is Noah's friend Bryce Park.

And his friend Christian Lauritzen.

My back and arms were sore for days!

What a cute bunch of boys.  Noah really chooses great friends.

Happy, happy birthday, Noah dear!

Swim Team

Jacob joined the Taylor Torpedos swim team this summer.  I am so proud of him!  Four days a week of grueling practices plus one meet a week.  It's been tough but he brought home ribbons: a 1st, a 2nd, a 4th, and a 5th place. We love the saying, "Eat My Bubbles!"  It's been so much work and Jacob is ready to just relax and swim for fun at Bear Lake next week.

YM Super Activity

As the Priest's Quorum advisor, Jeremy plans a Super Activity for them each summer.  This year he wanted to take them to Zion's National Park and other sites in Southern Utah.  My mom and dad were so gracious to open their home in St. George to these 15 boys and their leaders for a week in June.  The day the group arrived in St. George they had tickets to see "Grease" at Tuacahn.  Jeremy went all out and got them the pre-show dinner and tour as well.  He said the boys almost bankrupted the theater at the all-you-can-eat dinner!

The next day Jeremy took them to our favorite hike up Red Rocks Canyon in Leeds.  They loved climbing in the carved-out toeholds.

It started to get really hot and the water was so inviting.  Many of the boys braved the jump into the natural waterfall-fed pool.

They spent two afternoons at the Rec Center in Washington, swimming, lifting weights, and playing basketball.  They were mostly interested in the female lifeguards.

The main activity they had planned was a hike through "The Narrows" in Zion National Park.  They got up early, drove to Zion's, rode the shuttle, began the hike and at the entrance of the Narrows saw a sign that said it was closed due to extremely high water.  They were so disappointed!  In fact, our Bishop said, "I didn't come all this way for nothing!" and took a small group of boys through the water anyway.  It was such a blessing that they made it up and back.  Jeremy, Spencer, and the rest of the boys spent a couple of hours just playing in the water, skipping rocks, and enjoying the scenery while they waited.

The boys spent one day in St. George touring the tabernacle and the Jacob Hamblin home.  They also went to the temple grounds that night.

Dixie State College was kind enough to line up a tour of their campus for the boys.  They showed them around and then let them play in the broadcasting studio for a while.

On the way home, the group stopped at the Hoover Dam and had fun taking the tour of the inner workings of the dam (and throwing paper airplanes off the top).

It turned out to be a successful and fun activity for the boys, and we think they learned something, too!  Perfect!

St. George

While we were in St. George for EFY, the rest of us planned an exciting week, too.  We had never visited the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum and were amazed at our experience there.  The boys loved the recorded tour of the different animal habitats with narrated adventure stories from Mr. Rosenbruch.  We highly recommend a visit to this museum when you are in the area!

Just before we went to St. George, we found out our Bean cousins were moving to Utah.  They arrived there the day we did, so we invited Grace, Liam, and Clara to spend the week with us while their mom and dad got settled.  It was so much FUN!  Everyone got along so well and we did some super cool things together.  Isaac and Clara especially like to play together.  Granny bought them each a butterfly net and the spent one afternoon exploring Grandpa's big back yard.

Grandpa planned an overnight at the cabin at Fish Lake and took Noah, Jacob, Grace, and Liam fishing.  They were so proud of the fish they caught and we ate them one night for dinner.  So delicious!  The night they returned to St. George we had tickets to "Grease" at Tuacahn.  We enjoyed the show so much and were singing the songs all the way home.  Except for Isaac, Clara, and Liam.  They zonked out and we laughed and laughed as Grace was gradually inched out of her seat.

We also spent a day at the Washington Recreation Center, our favorite place to go!  Clara became my little buddy and we went around and around the lazy river and again and again down the tube slide.  Our last outing together was to see the movie "Rio," which we loved, too.  What a great week!  We made the drive home on Saturday and Jeremy was so happy to see us.  Isaac snapped this picture:

So silly.