July 2: PARADE DAY! Parade + Cousin Picnic/Water Fight
We forgot our camera this year, but Rich took this smart phone pic of James, aka Ed Grimley. James wanted a mohawk for the parade, but his hair is really shaggy. He and Addie created this kooky 'do...so cute, I must say.
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| The Pipers, our favorite. |
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| After the parade we had a picnic at Grandma's house and all the cousins played in the water. |
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| Boys against Girls! |
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| Danny, TJay, and James playing in the hose. |
July 4th: Independence Day Trip up Old Chico
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| We went four-wheeling up the old mine road to our secret creek, but there was a tree across the road. The Melin men jumped out of their car and went to town on the tree... |
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| Mike took a hatchet to it, Jess broke off limbs and started sawing, Rich got some cords from the back of our Cruiser and yanked it in half. Soon the obstacle was history! |
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| Meanwhile, I sat in the car and read with my nerd herd. I had a huge selection of rich, patriotic reading material for the day to combat the brain drain of the regular celebrations (I have this thing with Independence Day and Thanksgiving in that they are really sacred days to me and most of the traditional celebrations are kind of soul-crushing to me). Regnery did not disappoint, and I LOOOOVED reading President Benson's talk about the constitution. |
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Addie read to Niles about managing emotions...he still screams a lot.
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We made it up to the creek and the kids immediately started wading & throwing rocks. It was so beautiful and cool there.
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| Niles finally figured out how to work a straw & he is so cute drinking his CapriSuns! |
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| Heidi & TJay at the creek. |
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| The kids went on a hike and found a sand bed to turn into a "fairy village." |
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| James & Hannah in the sand |
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| Cousins building fairy village. |
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| Niles & Lexi having a drink in the shade. |
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| Rosalie & Angie on the rocks |
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| Me with Niles & Lexi |
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| Simon & Kelli |
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| Rich & Heidi |
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| Rosalie & Angie |
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| Sweet Heidi Lynners, Little Miss Fourth of July |
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| Danny (the Digger), Summer (the Secretary to the Mayor) and Addie (the Mayor) of Fairy Land. |
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| James digging |
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| Heidi & Matthew |
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| Lexi & Hannah |
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| Kelli, Rich, Simon & Jess having a photography lesson |
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| Niles ADORES his Uncle Mike! |
Later on Independence Day Evening we met at the park and had a barbecue.
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| Niles loves to swing! |
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Addie loves watermelon ("rolymennon")
*** |
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| The next day our little honey badger slept in for the first time ever. A beautiful sight! |
2 comments:
Maj,
What was on your reading list? I'm always a sucker for good, patriotic stuff.
Well, this year I am trying to finish "UPSTREAM" by Alfred Regnery to educate myself on the real conservative movement. I also just followed a bunch of links from ourrepubliconline.com and uploaded a handful of pdfs of Ezra Taft Benson's talks. He is a great example of understanding why Heavenly Father gave us the Book of Mormon, why it is for our day, for our country, and how the Nephites and other American civilizations serve as a blatant warning to us. I have been thinking a lot lately about the condemnation of the church because we don't use the BOM, and I really think we are beginning to reap what we've sown the past 30 years in church culture, the way we've moved with the world and with politics from cherishing independence and agency, confusing those principles with greed, hoarding, entitlement, pride,equating worldly success ("costly apparel", anyone?) with righteousness, etc. I get bummed with politics and it's nice to read inspired documents and know that the purpose of this choice land transcends ALL governments, and that the presidential election is pretty much like arranging deck chairs on the titanic.
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