What's More American....

Than flags in our front yard and red, white, and blue outfits on the Fourth of July. After the parade the clouds looked a little ominous so we headed to the movie. Wendell, Tyler, Emily, and Grandpa Tom went and saw Earth (or World as Emily calls it) and Megan and I saw went to another theater. I think Wendell suggested the movie knowing it would be dark and cool---perfect nap conditions. Tyler and I were the only diehards who saw the ending of our movies.

Nothing is more American than a bar-b-que and sparklers on the 4th. In the evening we headed to Pleasant View for yummy food and our own fireworks spectacular.

We lit boxes and boxes of sparklers. I loved how far away from his body Tyler held his sparklers.

Emily liked to stay pretty much in one spot while her sparklers burned. After the sparklers we watched a few of the fountains and then ended the night watching the "real" fireworks of Pleasant View. We all had a great day and night!

What's More American.....

Than a parade on the Fourth of July. Emily's dance studio entered a float in the Riverdale parade on the morning of the 4th. It's a great parade---not too long and good seats can be found easily. Tyler loved all the candy that was thrown. We had never been to this parade and didn't bring bags for the loot. We ended up filling our chair bags with tons of candy. Megan and Emily are on this float on the top row near the middle. Megan rode along as the chaperone because (much to Emily's dismay) any dancer 5 and under couldn't ride alone. They had a great time throwing candy and waving to everyone.

The dance float was near the first of the parade so Emily and Megan were able to get in on some of the candy action. I think everyone must buy pounds and pounds of taffy and Tootsie rolls for these parades. We had a great time and will definitely come to this parade again!

Disneyland

While we were visiting the Fields in California we had to visit Disneyland. Natalie checked us into the Disneyland Hotel (there was nothing left in their house by then) and told the front desk how she was moving out of California. The "cast member" took compassion on her and upgraded us to the penthouse suite. The kids were in heaven. A giant suite on the top floor with views of Disneyland and the amazing pool. We all spent a lot of time at the "Neverland" pool. There were waterslides and the water was actually warm---a plus for Emily. We then spent one day at Disneyland. We couldn't be that close to Disneyland and not go--even though walking around Downtown Disney is quite entertaining. Emily loved the characters, Tyler loved Indiana Jones and the Matterhorn, and Megan enjoyed all the "mountain" rides and California Screamin'. We had a great time celebrating James' birthday as well as a great farewell to California with the Fields. I think we are definitely going to have some withdrawals from Long Beach Bed & Breakfast.

California Here We Come!

Wendell went to Youth Conference the last weekend in June, and so the kids and I headed to Long Beach one last time to help Natalie. Besides saying good-bye to the Long Beach house, we also ran the kids ragged. We swam a lot in the hotel pool, went to a Pirate Festival on the beach (imagine a Star Trek convention for anyone wanting to dress as a pirate), visited the Adventure Playground (yes, they give hammers, nails, and saws to small children and tell them to pound away as well as lots of mud), rode in a hot air balloon for free, and of course visited the Balboa beach via ferry. And to think we did all of this in 2 days.

Happy Birthday Tyler-Again!

The day after we got back from our National Park tour, Tyler had his friends over for a party. (He was a little upset that we were gone on his actual birthday of June 11th). Wendell got a screen and projector and we set up a movie theater for the party. Of course there were presents, and...

....lots of pizza. Boys can really eat.

Games were played to earn tickets for the "Rich Snack Bar."

Megan and her friend Rylee ran the snack bar. There was candy, nachos, popcorn, and soda. Even after all that pizza, the boys still managed to eat what I thought was pounds of candy. I guess that is why most of them said they had a stomach ache when they left.

This was the Rich Theater for the showing of "National Treasure 2". We started out real well, but about an hour in some of the boys went outside to play. I figured as long as they were having fun it didn't really matter what they were doing. Tyler of course stayed and watched the entire movie. He has a really long attention span.

This was Tyler's favorite part of the evening. He opened all of his presents and went to town. Most of them were Lego sets so he was in heaven putting them together---after the majority of the party left of course. Another year done and another year older. I can hardly wait to see what he wants to do next year.

Bryce Canyon

On our tour of the National Parks we stopped in Bryce Canyon on our way back home. The views there are amazing also.

Tyler, Megan, & Emily loved all the arches and rock formations.

There were also lots of fun hikes. This is the top of the "millions" of switchbacks to the bottom---millions was the number from Emily when she finally reached the top again. I must say I was very proud of the kids for making it to the bottom and even more excited when they made it to the top again.

Also I need to mention all this hiking was done in flip flops by all 3 kids. We love this sign at the top of the hike (which we didn't see going down) that says boots recommended. Yes, there were many comments-especially from the foreign visitors-on the idiot family in flip flops trying to hike.

After the switchback hike, Megan did change her shoes for this hike to a cave and waterfall. Emily and Tyler stuck it out in there flip flops. I think Emily did it knowing she would get a piggyback ride from me on the way back.

We always have to have a picture by the river. Emily and Tyler sent lots of rocks, twigs, and leaves down this one. Emily was making sure the fish down the waterfall had plenty to eat. We loved Bryce Canyon probably the most of all the parks we saw. Definitely worth the drive.

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Old West!

While traveling through Kanab on our way back from the Grand Canyon, Wendell wanted to stop and see some old Western movie sets. The kids didn't want to drive through desert to try and find something. So we were lucky enough to find some of the sets had been brought to downtown Kanab for everyone's viewing pleasure. I had never heard of half the movies that these buildings came from, but then again I'm not a real Western movie fan.
Megan found the noose right away and had to have a picture.

No old-fashioned dress-up pictures in this town. This is as good as it gets.

Every Western movie has to have a jail. This one even had creepy looking stuffed jailbirds. My favorite was that the bars are actually pvc pipe. No wonder there were so many breaking out of jail.