Sibbles

Today was a fantastic, wonderful day! Maysen, Stockton and I started the day off with a short walk/run. It was fun to watch the mini-triathlon participants as we were walking. I then took the kids to the water activities at the pool. I was worried we would be late, but after rushing to get there we discovered they changed the time. We were now an hour early. They did have live music and a large crowd. Two of Stockton's favorite things. Stockton & Maysen decided to walk home... I was okay with that but felt bad that Stockton had no shoes. Jorja, Preston and I stayed. They also had balloon animals and breakfast. Jorja played around with her friend Ashley.

There were two activities we participated in. The first was a dive for soda activity. They threw soda cans and juice boxes in the pool. They let the 9 and under dive first. When they said go it took about three seconds for all of the pop to be snatched up. Preston was barely in the pool. He kept looking though and someone had pity on him. They dropped an apple juice can right in front of him. He was so proud.

The second event was the one Preston was really excited about. It was a dive for cash event. They threw a lot of coins in the pool. This time they had the first group be 6 and under. Much better. I kept coaching Preston and saying, "You need to be really fast and grab what you can." I was hoping he would get one coin. It was perfect for the little kids because they had it in the shallow end and it took at least five minutes, probably more. Preston was so funny because he would try to dive down and reach the coins, but he would float. After month of struggling to get him to float, now he can't sink! A couple of times when he dove down I would push him to the bottom. I wish I had a video of that because it was pretty funny. Preston did come away with sixty-five cents and wonders what he can buy. He thinks he is rich now.

After we came back from the pool much cooking & cleaning was done. It was worth it because we had a blast today! First, Mike and Christen came! They were only here for a bit, but it was fun to visit with them. We will get to see them more tomorrow. They came today because Mike's sister was coming over. She brought her clay and we got Blake's handprints done! I brought out Jorja's handprints to show Christen the glaze on them. Jorja's prints got cracked when they fell off the wall in the middle of the night a few years ago. Sherry took clay and made imprints of the prints. She is going to recreate it. How cool is that! I can't wait to see how it looks!

Mike had the sibbles (his brother and sisters) over to our house today. We had a great time. Ever since Sharen died, it has been hard to get everyone together. They always joke about how they just make one phone call to each other a year. We had so much fun today that everyone is coming back in two weeks! Miah and Xander were in the pool forever! We also had badminton, croquet, wiffle ball and lots of food. I was worried for a bit about the weather but it ended up turning out perfect. I got teased about the hot-tub pool, but I still love it warm! I gave my camera to my nephews and they played around with it for a long time. I tried to post some of their random videos on here, but I couldn't figure it out.

While I was talking to the sibbles, Jorja put her clip-on frog earrings on me. She loves these earrings. Rachel gave them to her two years ago for Christmas. I forgot I had them on. I only realized after I had been swimming for a half an hour. By that time I only had one. I tried searching the bottom of the pool, but it was so dark. I searched for over a half an hour...needle in a haystack. Jorja was pretty sad about it. Hopefully I can find it in the morning.

Steve & his family stayed all through the evening. We only bought sparklers this year. The kids had fun dancing around with them. Our neighbors had awesome fireworks. This year a lot of the previously illegal fireworks were deemed legal. We watched the fireworks while swimming in the pool. Greatest Fourth of July ever! Can't wait to play again tomorrow!

Miah

Nathan & Melissa

Michael

Maysen & Erica

Miah

Jorja, Xander, Weston

Michael

I was excited when I saw our camera had an underwater setting. I was less excited when I saw the pictures and realized it made everything look green and gross.....

Weston & Jorja

Taylor

Brandon

Weston

Later there was a war game. I think the object was who could gather the most stuff.

Derek

Connor

Melissa & Derek ~ the newlyweds

Melissa & Derek are leaving for Porto Rico tomorrow for six weeks. So glad they could come today! Derek has an internship down there. Sounds like a pretty rough life to me!

Melissa

Melissa & Jacob

I love living in Utah!