Our July 4th and other adventures

What better way to spend the 4th of July than to celebrate a 50 year marriage of the two people who made the most important thing in my life? Nate's parents' actual anniversary is in December, but it is kind of hard to get everyone together. We could all make it to Casper on the 4th, so we celebrated then. 50 years is a LONG time! We started the day at Nate's brother Cliff's house. We ate waffles and ice cream (a Whitlock favorite) let the kids play in the water and let the bigger kids set off rockets. This was my very first Whitlock rocket launch session and it was impressive. Those rockets go far! Well most of them, some fizzle at the launch pad and others don't open in the air, and still others fall fast and furiously towards my mini-van. When that rocket hit the van all I could think was, "thank goodness it was Nate's family who did it!" And maybe it was because he is the baby and there wasn't any damage, but Nate was totally cool about it. Didn't want to pick fights with his older siblings... smart man!



Water fun. Abby is getting some help from cousin, Ben, with the water rocket.
Iris is playing in the "kiddie" pool with more cousins.



This is Will. He is big! His rocket was bigger! It was fun to watch!
The kids were too mezmerized with the rocket launch to keep playing in the water!

The night of the fourth, Nate's parents, siblings and spouses only were invited to a nice dinner at the Paisley Shawl in Glenrock, WY. My sister took the girls and we headed out for one of the best dinners I've ever had. After dinner we headed back to Cliff's to sing a song dedicated to Homer and Adele. That was fun and cute, especially listening to Homer talk about first meeting Adele. It went something like this:

They were cruising State St in Salt Lake. Homer and friends saw a car full of cute girls and decided to "bump" them. When the girls looked back the boys waved. Homer asked the driver of the girl's car (Adele) what they were doing. Adele said, "looking for beer". Homer said, "Just call me Brigham Young, this is the place!" About four weeks later they eloped to Nevada and 50 years later, they are still together. True love stories... you can't make this stuff up! (Should mention they no longer look for beer on State Street, they serve a mission at Martin's Cove) So the evening was a lot of fun. Good food, good laughs and no kids makes Amy a happy girl!

When singing time was over, we headed over to my step-dad's shop to watch Casper's fireworks show. One word... LAME!! Abby was in tears because my sister got there five minutes late and they missed half of the fireworks.

Sunday the 5th we headed back to Salt Lake with my sister, Molly and her brood right behind us. We spent two fun-filled days with Molly and her kids. We introduced them to the glory and splendor of Costco pizza and polish dogs, This is the Place Heritage Park and a fabulous temple open house. I was sad to see Molly leave so soon, but we will see them again soon... hopefully.


My infamous and beautiful sister, Molly! She gets her good looks from me;)


Molly and kids outside the Oquirrh Mountain Temple


The cousins outside of Wheeler Farm!
Molly is being brave and hand-feeding the ducks!


The cousins squinting in the sun to get a picture.
The mini-train at This is the Place is a big hit!

The rest of this week was spent at a birthday party in Ogden on Wednesday. Abby had so much fun reuniting with Ellis and McDonalds and a Dinosaur Park is a great birthday plan, if you ask me! Thursday we cleaned the house to get ready for Nate's sister and family to come visit and today we went to the Sandy, UT aquarium. That was pretty fun. After we went to McDonalds for lunch and saw a near cat fight between two women in the Playland. That was interesting. Apparently one little girl was being pretty brutal to other kids in the playland and the "victim's" mom went OFF on the grandmother of the "bully". The police were called, it was quite entertaining! We left unharmed and prepared Abby's talk for primary this Sunday (they love Abby in the ward we are visiting. She volunteered to do a talk, they accepted... that's my Abby).


Ellis and Abby together again!



Abby and Iris at the Sandy, UT aquarium. This was a good idea!
And yes, that is a smile from Iris.


So you are, once again caught up. Three more weeks and we are going to make our way back to NC. So much to do...