Utah's Birthday

Friday night we enjoyed fireworks as the Rauhala's, and then, as usual, we spent our 24th of July weekend at Wellington Pioneer days. Rory and I were over the parade again this year and it happened to be very eventful.  It started out with Derk lining up the back of our parade the wrong way.  Once we got that all straightened out we started the parade and everything was going great until a little boy fell off his float and got his legs ran over!  It was super scary.  Luckily he was ok, but it was a very traumatizing thing for him and the kids on his float (Kadee was on the float with him and said he just leaned over too far and fell forward).  Because of all the chaos of that, the highway patrol accidentally started letting traffic through on the eastbound lanes, so Rory and I had to stop a few huge diesels from plowing through the middle of the parade.  I was so relieved when that parade was finally over! The kids had a blast in the parade though, Matthew was on our ward float, Kinlee was with Dance Technica, Kadee was with the Rising Raptors float, and Connor rode with Laurie and Don on their Christmas Vacation RV float.

After the eventful parade, the girls danced at the park.  They both did great and Kinlee is getting so good at doing facial expressions.  The kids love all the free activities at Wellington and stayed all day.  Sunday we went to my mom and Gary's for their annual fireworks show.  It was a great show!  The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins, eating s'mores, giggling, and watching fireworks.

We also did a little family history lesson this weekend.  We dug up a flag pole that has stood at grandma Archie's house for 56 years and put it in our front yard. Rory shared this on Facebook: "Any of my family recognize this?? For a lot of the grandkids and neighborhood kids this was "base". This flag pole stood tall and proud since 1960 in my Grandma Azella Bradley's yard. I wanted it to be proud in my yard, so I transplanted it to my yard. I cleaned it up and fixed the old hardware on it and proudly erected it in my front yard. The flagpole was put up by my Grandpa Archie in 1960 in his yard and dedicated to my Grandma Azella's father Azell Thayn. He served proudly in WWI and the American Flag he gave my Grandpa flew proudly for many years. I'm so happy it is flying a new flag that can be enjoyed by all!"   

This is a really long post, but there is a lot to post about!  Our community is doing a Back the Blue parade this weekend at International days, as a tribute to our law enforcement.  Although we are headed camping, Rory and I wanted to be involved so we bought the kids and ourselves Back the Blue t-shirts and I made a few signs for the fallen officers of Utah.  I only made 3 signs, but I wanted to share one on here to remember the law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.  Our cub scout troop wanted to get involved as well, so we made  Law enforcement survival kits to deliver to our Wellington Police and our Sheriff's deputies.  Of course Matthew and Kinlee are mini scouts, so they wanted to help too!  So proud of them!

Rick, Justin, Rory, Brandon, Jeff, Cletis, & Vickie

July happenings

Summer is seriously the best and is seriously going by way too fast!  This past week Connor had his crossover ceremony in scouts, even though he's been in scouts for a year, he isn't technically considered a boy scout until he turns 12.  It was the same ceremony they did when he left cub scouts and got his arrow of light, but it was really nice and the scout leader read a list of attributes Connor has that make him a good scout.  Just a few things she said is that he is kind, loyal, a good friend, hard worker, and good example.  Since I've been in the cub scouts for over a year now Matthew knows all about the scouting program and had to help with the flag ceremony, it was so cute.  

 

These past 2 weeks the kids have been doing swim lessons...  Connor and Kadee were in Shark, the highest level of swim lessons they offer.  They both passed this level last year but wanted to do it again.  This is actually Connor's 3rd time passing this level so I told him this was his last year of swim lessons.  I told Kadee she can do it one more year, and of course Matthew and Kinlee have lots of years ahead of them.  All the kids did so well this year.  I was so impressed with Matthew.  He listened to his teacher and worked really hard and passed his level.  What a difference a year makes.  Last year he was a mess and I really didn't think he would be interested in lessons at all this year, but he certainly proved me wrong.  The Miller family had lessons the same time as us, so it was fun to see them everyday.  Kinlee and Kaydree got to be in the same class so they were very happy about that.  

On Friday and Saturday we had the Clark Family Reunion up 9 mile canyon.  As always we had lots of fun and made lots of memories.  Friday night we had dinner with individual families and were able to visit with everyone.  Saturday morning we had breakfast, played minute to win it games, made family flags, played life size jenga, and a really fun dice game called Liar's dice.  We did a lot of visiting, a lot of eating, drank a lot of homemade root beer and did a lot of laughing.  So grateful for my wonderful family and all my blessings.  My favorite part was cuddling Ashlee's baby Aubree and visiting with grandma and grandpa.  The cloth they are holding in the picture below is the family flag we made, complete with Curtis written by Derrick in Japanese.  Love these people of mine.    

 

He's a Deacon!

Sunday Connor was set apart and ordained a Deacon. A deacon is an office in the priesthood in our church.  A boy is normally ordained a deacon when he turns 12 and is then able to pass the sacrament and collect fast offerings.  He also worked really hard to receive his Faith in God award. This award consists of a variety of activities they do from the time they are 8 until they are 11, including memorizing all the Articles of Faith.  He has been very excited for this day and has had a countdown going for quite awhile now for when he will leave primary and go to Young Men's.  He also worked super hard in scouts and will be receiving his Second Class award and several merit badges at the next court of honor.

    

Happy birthday Connor!

I can't believe this kid is 12! He had a very easy birthday party this year, basketball and wiffle ball at the church. It was funny watching him and his friends interact, they are at a really fun age.   After his party we took him to dinner at Dairy Queen and then he had an interview with the bishop to get the priesthood.  He has grown into such an awesome kid and I am so proud of him.  He loves basketball, the X Box and his Ipad.  He loves playing croquet with the neighbor kids and is always polite.  He is an awesome big brother and very seldom gives me any attitude.  This is his last year of swim lessons (although he's already passed the level he's on 2 times) and is registering for middle school in a couple weeks.  I'm so grateful to have this kid in my life and am so impressed by the example he is to his little sisters and brother. 

4th of July Fun!

I love camping!  It is so relaxing (not getting ready or coming home, but the in between) and there are no electronics, or distractions.  The kids are forced to play with one another and we are able to spend good, quality time together.  This past weekend we had our annual 4th of July family camping trip.  We camped up Trough Springs, just above Scofield, and had an amazing time.  Derk and Debbie and Chris and Myles and all their kids stayed the entire weekend with us, but we had lots of visitors throughout the weekend.  Matthew and Kinlee loved playing with Candra's twins and absolutely enjoyed rolling around in the dirt, they were filthy!  Saturday was Pleasant Valley days in Scofield so we drove down to Scofield and watched the parade.  That evening we watched a magician and juggler perform then went to the dance to wait for the fireworks.  The kids had a blast at the dance, they danced until they were all worn out.  The fireworks were supposed to start at dark, but we waited until 11 and they still hadn't started so we went back to camp.  We found out later they had some problems and didn't set the fireworks off until midnight.  Sunday we visited the Scofield cemetery to see all the old graves from the mine disaster.  Monday we left early, but not before the annual Branch family parade.  This is when the family marches around with pots and pans, in all sorts of patriotic attire to celebrate grandpa Denny's birthday and the 4th of July.  It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to go camping again in a couple weeks.