June 2014 Highlights

Even though it is nice to visit family, it is good to be home again. As soon as we got home from California and Washington, Diane had a Relief Society dinner in the back yard of  our Relief Society president's home. It is the final activity until next fall for which she has responsibility. It was an enjoyable evening with 27 sisters in attendance.

Summer is in full swing. We are volunteering at AWHC again this summer. We are both working at the pioneer site, since they have made other arrangements for train drivers. Alyssa dressed up as a pioneer girl and had a lot of fun showing guests how to play pioneer games.

Our pioneer ladies

Every year, Logan holds Summer Fest on the grounds of the Logan Tabernacle. Many artists of all sorts come to display their wares. This year we split up (2 kids per adult) and Paul had a lot of fun walking around with Kamary and Alyssa, listening to their comments about the art work.

Sisters at the Summer Fest

Why can't we take this hammock home with us?

Music continues in the summer with Diane giving piano lessons to each of her six grandchildren, Andrea and Alyssa playing in the summer youth orchestra, attending free Sunday evening concerts with the Cache Valley Symphony Orchestra, attending musicals at the Lyric Theater, and attending the premiere of a new rock group in town - The Toxic Fumes.

For Jason's birthday, Kamary, Alyssa, and Kohler got together to create a performance he should never forget. Kamary made up a song, Alyssa played drums (boxes and pan lids), and Kohler played lead guitar (a toy electric guitar). They spent weeks practicing outside our bedroom window while Jason was away. We all looked forward to the performance of Toxic Fumes. It was very creative and a lot of fun. (Don't give up your day job kids).

Toxic Fumes' premere performance

The Stars!

One of the fun activities during the summer is to go up the canyon for Family Home Evening and have a campfire. We went to 2nd dam and had tinfoil dinners and roasted marshmallows. It was a lot of fun to wander around nature for an evening.

Alyssa is out on a limb again

Brynlie helps Dad with the fire

At least we have good water!

Kohler returning from "the Island"

We decided to make a couple of additions to the yard. the first was to hang a swing from a branch of our tree in the back yard. Alyssa went with us to Lowes to select the swing and helped Paul put it up. It makes a nice addition to the yard.

Alyssa in the swing

After being without a van to hold their whole family, Andrea and Jason finally got a 12-passenger van. they got a real good price for it because it had a wild "wrap" advertising a nightclub. Jason was able to remove the ads and found a white van underneath.

Even Grandpa & Grandma fit with all the family

Andrea and Jason have been renting a storage unit for everything they brought from Arizona. They finally got rid of enough things that we decided to get a shed for the back yard where they can store their things without paying rent. We got the idea from Diane's parents in Washington where they were storing many things before moving to Spokane. We finally found a small shed that would fit in the yard, but had to get it home and assemble it. We took the van down and it barely fit. After getting it loaded we noticed a nail in a rear tire. Fortunately the tire shop was just across the street and we got a new replacement tire for the van under warrantee. The gas was low so we filled up the tank (the first time it has had a full tank since they got the van). Yes, it was expensive!

As we started to put the shed together we found out that there were missing parts (of course). We were able to get it mostly together and call for part replacement. It has been a lot of effort, but the shed is finally in and full of "stuff". It actually looks nice in the southwest corner of our yard.

Our new shed