Saturday morning Taylor ran in our annual Ward 5K and came in second place overall, and 1st place for his age group! Jeff and Jacob then met him for the Pancake breakfast.
Ashley and I were getting her ready for her parade.
She's been taking a cheer class at the community center and her first performance was the Moreno Valley parade. I timidly dropped her off early with her group with a prayer in my heart that she would be able to keep up with the other girls and be able to make it to the end of the parade (it's hard for her to walk very far).
When I went to park my car I clocked the parade route and it was almost 2 miles! Oh my!
The boys came out to meet us before it started.
We decided to plant ourselves 1/2 way down the route and see if she was too tired to continue and then we could just keep her.
Jacob decided right away that he was going to like this parade because a lot of the cars threw candy.
Taylor commented "this is the only time I've seen kids encouraged to play in the middle of the street with cars coming, taking candy from complete strangers!" Ha ha!
It was like one big pinata party and my purse was starting to look like the pinata.
Jacob said "I like this parade!"
Ashley's group was at about the 1/2 way point. There she was at the front of the group doing great!
We got to see her stop and do one of her dances. So fun!
She loved it and she told Jeff she was fine when he tried to see if she wanted to stop.
We met Ashley at the end of the parade and she was really tired but she did it!! She said it was long and she had to jog the whole time. (she told me her legs hurt the next day:)
We were so proud of her!! Way to go Ashley!
After the parade Jeff and I went sofa shopping. We've had a hard time picking something we like. The set we fell in love with was too big once we measured it so we decided on this one instead. It's a lot darker than the one we have now so it will probably take some getting used to...
Sunday we went to church and then to the Gardner's break the fast (which I always love) and then tried to decide what to do for fireworks. We didn't know anyone close enough to fireworks to hang out at their house so we found the next best thing.
In the paper they advertised the Riverside Philharmonic having a free concert in a little downtown park with fireworks veiwing afterwards. It was a great choice.
The orchestra and chior was housed in a gazebo in the middle of a quaint park and botanical garden. It had a very small town feel and was quiet and polite. No rock music, no crazy people in the crowds and not the "fair" atmosphere that a lot of venues have. It was subdued and reverent, perfect for a Sunday evening.
Were happy to see some other church members there that night including Beth and Ed Ballantyne family. I painted tiles for her for like 13 years and served with her in a Relief Society presidency. It was nice to catch up with her and her family.
Funny story about the icee...
Ashley saw someone with an icee at the beginning and she asked if I had any money. I told her we didn't bring any money because it was Sunday.
A little later on Jeff leaves with a couple of the kids and comes back with icees for all 3 of them. I was suprised he bought them. He told me when they were walking by the icees he asked Ashley if she wanted one and she said "You don't have any money." "Oh yes I do" and bought 3 of them because they were only a dollar.
He didn't know why I was a little shocked he bought them and I said something about it being Sunday and he said "Sunday, why didn't you tell me it was Sunday?" (He bought himself a drink earlier and I didn't say anything because I thought he just wanted a cold drink really bad)
"I didn't know I had to remind you it was Sunday." I said. Ha ha.
The kids like playing frisbee in the grass and checking out the giant tree.
Taylor read his book as we waited for the fireworks to begin.
Normally we go to a place where they pump out the music that goes with the fireworks, this time it was silent. Not quite the same :0)
OK this was our stinky view...the trees were pretty much in the way. It's OK we still enjoyed it.
We got home to hear people in our neighborhood setting off their own fireworks. It got us talking about the fireworks that we bought in Utah probably 3 or 4 years ago that have been kicking around the garage. We've never been brave enough to set them off here and haven't been anywhere that we could set them off legally.
Well...we decided to pull them out and try them :)
Ashley was mortified! We weren't supposed to...we would scare the cat...we would ruin the grass.
We told her it would be OK. The only things we had were the little fireworks that used to be legal and we set off as kids all the time. We showed them snakes and smoke bombs and then they were ready for more.
This represented one of the biggest ones we set off. We didn't have anything that shot off or screamed so I was OK with it. Ashley started out watching from inside the house...but eventually she came out with us and enjoyed them.
Monday Jeff took the day off work and we enjoyed some more fourth of July celebrations.
We went to the Bagley's annual 4th of July party and got to swim and eat some yummy barbeque. I was really bummed that I forgot to bring my camera! Jacob and Ashley especially loved the pool the whole time they didn't want to get out.
This is our favorite summer tradition of the year!! Thanks Bagleys for always hosting the best 4th of July get togethers :)
That night we were invited to the Nelson's for Becca's birthday. (Taylor was invited but his family was invited to tag along too.)
Sister Nelson made the best homemade goodies inclding wonderful homemade pinapple, banana and mango ice cream. Yum.
They pulled out the slip in slide for the kids and they all had fun hanging out together.
I appreciated that they let Jacob be a part of their "group" too. In fact Ashley was right there with them too. They had a lot of fun and our contribution was...
some more fireworks that Becca was allowed to set off herself.
Done. Now all the fireworks are out of our house. No more temptation to set them off :)
Tuesday Jeff was back to work and we were off to the beach for our first trip since school has been out.
This was a birthday/beach day`for Cassidy Cowden. What a cute party idea. I was so glad that Kristin brought food for us because I had a hair appointment in the morning and was running late to the beach.
The air was cold (what is it with this weather this summer!!) but the water wasn't bad at all. I kept my cover up and a sweatshirt on the whole time!
Taylor was happy as a clam in his wet suit digging more holes in the sand. He had some help from Julia. This is when they started digging...
Then here is the finished product. Taylor was at least 6 feet under.
I was eyeing those waves that kept getting closer and closer...
When he jumped out of the hole the side collapsed and that was the end of the hole!
Lisa Rosser and Jacob came down with us to the beach too. It was nice to hang out and talk with Lisa on the way down and at the beach. I think Jacob had fun too. My Jacob always likes playing with him.
Ashley was happy to hang out with Jenna who is moving soon :( :( She's sad about that so we're trying to play with Jenna as much as possible. Ashley calls her her sister. ;)
Wednesday I spent the day packing and getting ready for Jeff's high adventure trip. I also was getting ready for our Relief Society pool party and dinner by making lots of rolls...
Of course no matter how much I bake...
I always remember to leave some for my family so nobody feels neglected :)
We had the pool party at Nadine Fletcher's house this year.
We probably had about 21 people come and it was fun to hang out and talk and laugh with the sisters and eat some yummy food. For some reason we had many more yummy desserts to choose from than anything...must be a woman thing ;)
(Would a man's only potluck only be meat offerings??)
We hit up Mercedes's friend for her salad recipe. It was definately the hit of the night.
Thursday we were up bright and early to help Jeff and Taylor off to Catalina. We're hoping they have fun even though it's cold over there right now!
Good luck guys!
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