4th of July Weekend 2020

Curtis and I started out our 4th of July weekend by waking up early Friday morning to drive to Walmart to grab some stuff to fix our bikes and some food items. My bike has been notorious for getting flat tires this past year but we were planning on going on a bike ride Saturday morning so we needed to get it fixed. Thursday night we had gotten my back tire fixed and then while we were looking at the brakes on Nikki's bike I heard a loud air noise. My front tire just blew out also, and that's why we had to go to Walmart the very next morning since they were already closed.

While Curtis worked on fixing my tire Friday morning I started to work on trimming the yard. Our boys have been mowing the lawn but I do the trimming every other week. Garrett ended up doing the mowing that day. We wanted to get it done early before it got hot. When Curtis finished fixing the bikes he took off to Meridian to help my cousin Charlie with getting things ready to have two washers and dryers. I finished up my yard work, watered the neighbors plants, took Nikki to work, showered and ate lunch. Then the other 4 kids and I drove out to visit Charlie, Chelsea and the kids. We had a good time visiting and I'm glad Curtis was able to help them. Toward the end of our visit our boys played video games with their little boy Michael. I guess Michael was pretty happy to have someone to play games with since his older sisters don't really like to play them.

Jack really loved riding on these tricycles. You can spin around on them.

Playing with water balloons in their backyard.

Water balloons and games.

We went home in the late afternoon and were just content to relax for a bit but later we did make it to Lowe's to pick up some chains to lengthen our swings and then went on a bike ride with Jack and the little girls. Nikki and Garrett opted not to come but I was fine with that because I was making them come the next morning. When it got dark Curtis lit a fire while the kids were watching a movie inside. We roasted some hot dogs over the fire and the kids came out for that.

This morning (4th of July) we woke up around 7:45 to get up and ready to go on a family bike ride to Kingfisher Trailhead. We had previously walked this one and thought that it would be easier on bikes. Well, we were wrong...at least on the way back. Actually, I think my dad and the three oldest kids did alright but Curtis, Laverne and I had a hard time since we are not used to bike riding, and on gravel roads. Curtis was pulling Charlotte in the trailer and I had Alice in the bike seat on my bike so we both were pulling extra weight. There were times where we had to get off and walk our bikes because it was easier to do than riding, especially when we went up a hill. Dad said we went about 8.8 miles round trip. I thought when we got home that we would all crash on a couch and watch a movie or something but Nikki was the only one that did that because when we got home our neighbor friends, the Wallace's, were out front lighting some fireworks. So the four younger kids got distracted by that. I went over and visited with them a bit while Curtis unloaded the bikes from the truck. Then I had to head back and make frog eye salad for our 4th of July BBQ at my grandma Norton's house. Curtis decided to take Jack to go buy some fireworks to light off tonight. I didn't think he was going to buy any this year but it will be fun because several of our neighbors that usually are loud and have tons of fireworks won't be here this year.  They went camping instead.

This was early in the bike ride where we paused to take a little break and get a picture. 

We rode out to Gotts Point at Lake Lowell and took a little break looking out at the scenery. I didn't take these two pictures so I had to get them from Laverne's blog. Glad we got them!

We headed over to my grandma's around 2:45 where we had a nice BBQ dinner with dad and Laverne, Joyce and Bob, Melissa and Nathan and their girls, and Scott and Jill and their two youngest kids.We ate hamburgers, homemade potato salad, frog eye salad, watermelon, chips, baked beans, cookies and ice cream. After eating I set up our ladder ball game in the backyard and played with the kids. Then dad got his corn hole game out where some kids and some adults played.

While I was helping grandma set up for dinner outside the boys came in and played some Rummikub.

I think Nikki played a round with the boys but then she crashed on the couch and took a nap.

Smiling with a mouthful of food.

Dad brought another game for younger kids and played a little with Alice and Charlotte.

Playing ladder ball.

Time for corn hole! Garrett was getting pretty good by the end of our playing. He and I tied for getting the highest score of the day, which was 6 points (for one turn).

Jack had the bean bags stacked on his head but made them fall when he saw I was taking a picture.

The corn hole game looked nice and patriotic so we used them for a backdrop when we took some family pictures.

Charlotte wanted to be in our picture with us. 

The original plan was to go water skiing tonight with Melissa and Nathan on their boat out at Lake Lowell but our family was pretty tired from our bike ride this morning so we changed our minds and came home to relax. Curtis and Jack finished watching their movie "Around the World in 80 Days" while I worked on this blog post. Charlotte played Lego Harry Potter video games after their movie was done. After awhile all of us ended up outside. Nikki's friend Angie came over to join us. Curtis had gone to the store earlier to buy some hot dogs and bratwurst, chips, and soda to have while we did fireworks. He set up a table in the front yard and used our portable gas grill. We invited some of our neighbors to come have some food with us, including Jim and Ashlie Wallace, who we are pretty good friends with.

I finally got her to put on her USA shirt. I am surprised at how well she did with the fireworks. I thought she would have been scared but nope, she wasn't.

This year we let the boys light all of our fireworks. We weren't even planning on buying any until after our bike ride yesterday.

I can't believe how much Garrett has grown and changed. He used to be so scared of fireworks that he would hide in the house. Now he's out there lighting them up!

Nikki and her friend Angie.

Our neighbor friend Jim and his son Luke came over to get some food.

I noticed we had a full moon tonight and then saw fireworks shooting up right by the moon. It looked pretty cool I thought.I had to go over to our neighbors to get a better picture.

It was a great day even though the bike ride was tough. We didn't get to bed until 1:00 am. I was not looking forward to getting up for 9:00 am church. We decided to have Jack stay home with the two little girls since they were really tired and because Curtis said the Covid cases in our county have spiked. As much as I would love to have our whole family at church, I have to say it was nice to be able to go and listen without distraction. I was even asked to give the opening prayer. It would have been so tempting to say yeah I'll say the prayer if I don't have to speak any time soon but of course I didn't, lol. Today was the first time we sang hymns since returning to church and with it being Fast Sunday, they asked 3 people ahead of time to share their testimonies. One was Brother Tuha from our bishopric. Then our relief society president, Donna Fitzen. And then an older sister, Cathie Dixon.