INDEPENDENCE DAY & IN DE TE-ENTS DAYS

Dear Family,

It's beginning to feel like July is where the fun really begins w/ summer! We had a great time celebrating the 4th last Monday.  We started w/ the Layton parade (where we saw that our stake's float won "Best in Show"!),

and since it was such a beautiful day, we lingered at the Layton park to play on the playground (and eat all the taffy that was thrown) and see the ducks.  We tried driving up Farmington Canyon, but found it closed, and then hit the Kaysville afternoon parade traffic coming home. 

By this point, we were ready for naps, so we picked up some groceries for subs, came home to eat and let the little ones sleep, made shishkabobs and a flag dessert, and played Boggle and Huggermugger until suppertime. I don't know why red, white and blue are so much fun!:

We took our late supper over to the West Point church lawn like we did last year, and our neighbors the Merrit's followed us (minus their Mom and 3 day old baby boy!), and we had a GREAT evening playing frisbee, ninjas, toss, and more Boggle on the lawn until it was dark enough for the fireworks. 

Tuesday, I bottled peaches w/ a neighbor (4 dozen quarts total), Thursday morning, I took Maddie, Masina, Tyler, and neighbor Emalee to Bountiful Temple for Baptisms, doing initiatories myself (and running into a worker who's a Centerville Mendenhall, and lived across the street from Joe and Mary Mildenhall!), played kickball w/ a couple of other families Thursday afternoon, and the rest of the week, we got ready to go camping again! I wanted to try out something more in our area, so we headed up Ogden Canyon Friday afternoon, and were SO grateful to find plenty of spots to choose from! We settled on Willows Campground, and found a spot that had some good, tall trees (a lot of the area is more bare than I picture "canyons", but there are lots of pretty fields and wildflowers!). 

our site--our tent went in the little grove I was facing

Anne in some of the wildflowers

Emily w/ flowers she had put through her hair

We had chili dogs and peach cobbler, actually got the little ones to bed earlier this time(!), and stayed up playing a few rounds of Boggle.  We loved the added convenience of a table and real fire pit AND TOILET! Brian and Brent are now pro's w/ our AWESOME new tent (see pictures from last trip)--they have it up/down in about 10-15 minutes while I start the fire.  We got the tent for Christmas, and Brian wants to put up a sign that says, "Dome Away from Home" on it.  It's big enough to sleep 10, has a great tough floor, and perfect dividers--even a separate spot just the right size for Lucy's crib. 
Saturday, after our biscuits and gravy breakfast, Maddie and Spencer climbed the rise nearby, then we drove around checking out other campsites for future reservations. 

Maddie and Spencer hiking

same picture, but you can see how big the mountain really was

after their conquest--holding flowers found only at the top!

We enjoyed a beautiful drive out of the canyon (well, those of us who weren't carsick, anyway), then stopped at a park right outside the canyon along Weber River and had our picnic lunch, then played Bocce while Anne was sleeping in the van.

I took Lucy on a walk by the river, and practiced using our new camera:

In trying to fit as many camping trips in that we can this summer (and knowing how quickly the summer got away from us last year), it nearly feels like summer's over as we have all the weekends already filled!  We will take one big 3 day trip in August, and that's the weekend before school starts! We've been collecting all these supplies since we got married, and except for a few ward campouts here and there, we've hardly taken advantage of all this equipment.  It's been fun putting everything to use--even Brian was first in line to heat the water in the pot and wash dishes in our little basins.  It is also so nice to get out of the house (that is especially impossible to keep clean in the summer!), go to some place cool and just have nothing to do but being together w/o distraction.  I love how simply the children are amazed--w/ sticks w/ rocks, w/ any trail or hike or view or star ("I can't believe I'm seeing the REAL Big Dipper!).  We added an ax and shovel to our tools before this trip (after our roughing it efforts last time), and Spencer CRACKED us up always calling it an ox.  "I'm a great ox man, huh Mom? ("Ax, and I think it's 'woodcutter' Spence") "Yes, but it could also be ax man" --Look at this mark I made w/ the ox!" (yes, I let him use an ax--we had a huge felled tree on the edge of our site, and firewood was scarce and expensive, so I figured w/ me watching there, it couldn't be too catastrophic!) Except for the fact that it takes 4 days to get ready for 2 days of camping, I really do love it--AND I love our house all the more when we come home!  We are so lucky to be surrounded by so much beauty, and I love having so many people to hang out with.  For holidays like the 4th when it seems like you should be gathered w/ family, I'm so glad we have such a crowd here gathering w/ each other!