What a 4th of July!

How exciting it was to have David and Shawni, Seth and Julie and 10 beautiful, delightful grandchildren with us for the holiday. It was such a fun weekend with lots of things to do, great visits and a pile of hugs and kisses. It's hard to send them off again without tears, but there's also a real sense of satisfaction. The two families love each other dearly. They pair up and have a best friend the whole time. We spent most of the week in Utah visiting my brothers and going to meetings for the school, attended a play with the Layton families.
Then we met up with the crew coming to Rexburg. Thursday night we took a walk in this beautiful, peaceful farmland, ending up with a visit to Sam and Nancy's new home. The 4th was filled with a fun parade (even found a shady spot), park time, spray feature and carousel, BBQ, rodeo and fireworks. Micah was recounting all the things we had done that day with a grateful heart on the way home and declared it "the best 4th of July in his whole life." - all six years. It was fun to hear.

The next day we took Shawni and the 6 oldest kids to Mesa Falls for more experience with nature while the others watched Wimpleton women's finals. Then the parents took the 8 oldest to lunch and a movie while we enjoyed the two
babies. What little dolls they are. We then had a perfect evening at a park behind the rodeo grounds.
There's a lake with ducks and lots of grass, just right for a rousing game of wuffle ball. We even saw a nest of eggs and baby ducklings. After roasting hot dogs we made s'mores until every last bit of chocoate was gone - two full packages. After baths that evening with littlest ones in bed, we set off a bunch of fireworks of our own on the car port. The marks will most likely remind us of that evening forever. The bottle rockets and some surprising multiplying fireworks were the greatest hit. The wind made it difficult if not impossible to get them lighted but the men managed and everyone was quite delighted.

How fun it was this morning to have 4 of our children and 10 grandchildren along with my darling husband accompany me to church. What a delight! I usually go alone. I was sustained in my new calling as 2nd Counselor in a newly formed Relief Society Presidency - More fun things to anticipate. After dinner the children had ice cream sundaes while some of the adults enjoyed a pineapple sherbet with fresh berries and bananas - yum! We visited around the table for some time and again in the basement (after seeing the very finals of Whimpleton again).


What a delightful time together. We are truly overwhelmed with how very blessed we are to have such great people in our families. Truly life could not be sweeter than with the blessings brought to us this past week. We experienced wonderful evenings with my brothers, either out to dinner or visiting in homes, then had our children and grandchildren in our home to make memories and liven it up a while, and now the anticipation of new people to come to know, love and serve in the ward. There is always much to anticipate and even more to bring an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.