The 4th of JULY!

The 4th of July is when our kids like to come home and enjoy the traditions they grew up with. The parade, the fireworks, the rodeo and the dances. This year was Bret's 20 year class reunion so he and his family came,  Lisa and fam, Kari and her boys and Tami's family. We had a crowd but we survived!

We had a unique parade this year, meaning I think our little town was maybe the only one who continued to have activities because of the corona virus. Everything has been shut down, mandated by Gov. Ducey. Our mayor, Bryce Hamblin, (my best friends oldest son) wrote a letter that hit social media and was highly controversial because it said that people have a right to choose what they want to do, that the government shouldn't be able to tell us that we can't have a local parade if we want to and that he will always "err on the side of freedom!"

 The parade was super long because Show Low Car Club entered all their really cool cars. They passed out over 10,000 of these flags to everyone! As long as there is candy, the grandkids think its the BEST parade ever!!

 Adlee was so cute to watch!

 Kari brought tie-dye and everyone made their own shirts!

 Lilly has learned how to 'pose' for pictures!

 It was Bret's 20 year class reunion and he loaded a whole huge ice chest full of water balloons! It took him all morning! They got had a ball getting spectators wet, but they got soaked too! We had a small ice chest full that the kids got to throw back, it was great!

This was about the only float in the parade. It had 3 trailers, the 1st on said, "Err on the side of freedom", the middle one was our 2nd amendment right and a statement from the Town of Eagar, and the 3rd one was a quote from Elder David A. Bednar about our religious freedoms.

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Later that afternoon we started picking cherries. Our pie cherry tree is always ready on the 4th of July!

Kingston and Leo hung in there for the longest, while all the other kids left to play. They got to go to the "Pop Shop" as their reward!

My three beautiful girls!

 

It was a great day, a day to remember our freedoms and all who gave their lives so that we could enjoy those freedoms, to be with family and enjoy the outdoors and our harvest.  We also played on the zipline most the day, its super fun!!

Another Project and an OOOOPS!!!!

Well, when you have a house that is 36 years old, things need to be replaced, worked on, or upgraded!  It was time for a new septic tank and our friend Randell Penrod came over and did all the work!

 
 He dug the new line and a BIG 14+ foot deep hole for the tank!


 He dug all the leach lines and put in a 'distributer' thing so that it goes down 2 lines.
 

He filled all the leach lines with $700 worth of cinders!

He ordered the tank and arranged the delivery.

It has two really deep manhole things. You wouldn't want to fall in one of these!

He worked another half day leveling out all the big piles of dirt and covering the tank and all the leach lines. Isn't it great to have such handy friends?

Another project to be replaced was our old bridge across the irrigation ditch! All the boards were rotted out and it was getting real scary to walk across it! Uncle Bryan was in town and wanted to help.

 

 The OOOPS part of this post was back on May 25th, when I was down in Mesa with my folks, LaVerl and Ron decided to go fishing at Big Lake. LaVerl had alot to do that day, so they decided to leave early, like at 4:30am while it was still dark. On the way up, an elk wasjust right in the middle of the road and he couldn't help but HIT it! It pretty much smashed in the whole front end of his pickup. It took about a month, but now its back to almost brand new!

Lake Fun with Mark's Family

JULY 1st and 2nd

We met Mark's family at Roosevelt Lake for just one day for some lake fun. They drove from El Paso on Wed. and it took them the same amount of time as it does to get to our house in Eagar- about

5 1/2 hrs.

I came from Mom & Dad's house and met them there. 

We got up Thursday and got out on the lake by 9:30. We were about the only boat on the lake and the water and weather were

perfect! The kids all tubed and did a little knee-boarding.

Wembley

 Mark driving the boat, trying to throw the kids off the tube!

 Milea, Wembley, Bolden and Zallen!

 "Hey, don't make fun of my hair!" Daxxon

 Everyone fell off the tube except Wembley!

 Kaemon kneeboarding and Zallon looking like a Viking!

 Mark & Holly finally got Daxxon on the tube.

The water was so nice we spent a lot of time just playing in it!

 By later afternoon the water got a little rough.

 The kids just couldn't get enough tubing!

It was also Zallen's #11 birthday on June 25th, so we had to have

a traditional 'rainbow cake'.

It was just one day at the lake, but we were out there until 5:30, so we put in a full day. Good times!

Back in Mesa

Sonja and I are taking turns being with our folks every other 2 weeks. I also get to see a couple of my kids while in Mesa.

Lisa came over with her 3 this week to visit and spend some time!

The 2 Lillian's

 Lucy

 All 3 enjoying some popsicles!

 And Landon is one very busy boy!

LaVerl came down this weekend to help Bret with the electrical work on his kitchen he is remodeling. He's got a big plastic tarp up to keep the mess from going everywhere in his house.

LaVerl and Bret worked about 8 hours getting everything done!

A new BIG double refrigerator will fill almost this whole wall.

They have their whole kitchen stacked up in boxes. 

Remodels are pretty rough!! But it will sure be nice when

its done in about a month!

Ivory was just so cute eating her Nutella sandwich!

Grandkids!

Its summer and that's when grandkids like to come and play at Gma's and Gpa's house. The big ditch is always fun!

 It's cold and muddy, but they love it.

 Bret's kids came for a week. Then I went and got Kari's 3 boys too.

 A trip to Dairy Queen is always fun.

 Rivers took a 'selfie' with my phone!  Funny!

More FUN to come!