Jumpin' July

July has been soooo busy! In a good way...in a wonderful way. We have had visits from kids and grandkids, Temple service, of course, the family reunion, and even the birth of a new family member. We are so happy to have little Maya, safe and sound, that I have to mention it here. I simply can't wait til the end of the blog, even though she came at the very end of the month. Welcome Maya. Good job, Jenn...oh, and Thomas, too.

As you will see, I started this blog in the regular way ( last events had to be put in first) with pictures lined up in the center of the page. Then Mary showed me how to put them across the page, so the first ones you see (the early events of the month) are done that way. I'm still not sure how to do it correctly, however, so the pics are more scattered across the page than carefully placed. Hopefully, I'll get better at it in future blogs so it will be easier to view.

We had some important birthdays in July, starting with Dad on the 16th, turning 69. Then, Jonathan (8) on the 22nd, and Jeremy on the 23rd. Deveynne and Maya came at the end of the month, Devynne (17) on the 30th, and Maya on the 31st.

On the very first day of July, Isabel had a dance recital. She, of course, was the cutest one.

We went to Mesa after church on Sunday, July 4th, to pick up Hannah, who was flying in that afternoon. We stopped at Jeremy & Erika's, who fed us a veritable feast, with several vegetables...Dad's kind of meal...and picked up Reygan, who was going to go with us to get Hannah.

We met Hannah at the airport. She seemed almost as happy to see us as we were to see her! And surprised to see Reygan. We took them both home with us to Safford where they had plans to play all week with cousins.

Nathan's and Daniel's families had gathered on Saturday, July 3rd for their annual Independence Day extravaganza. They also took the older kids to do baptisms at the Winter Quarters Temple, making it a special occasion all around. Hannah had been able to attend all of those events and still make it to Arizona on the 4th.

We had a 4th of July FHE on the 5th of July. We went swimming and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers and then had a lesson. Tyson brought sparklers over from New Mexico, so we were able to have our own little fireworks show. The kids loved them and though it wasn't a grand show, it was fun for us. Hannah had enjoyed the Biggs/Biggs 4th of July spectacular on Saturday, so we couldn't compare with that, but she seemed to enjoy our little attempts at fireworks.

Lillian got her braces!

We had a girls' night at our house with Hannah, Lillian, Rylie, Polly and Isabel. It was fun and very "girly."

Even big girls like to play dress-up.

Here they are, all ready for bed and ready to watch an old movie. I think we watched "Brigadoon."

The next day, the girls and I went to Mary's to help her get ready to go to Pine. She had just had surgery and wasn't supposed to do anything, but wanted to go to the reunion, so the girls all wanted to help with her house and her kids so she could go.

We had a wonderful reunion in Pine...maybe it was especially wonderful to me because someone else was in charge!

Some Pine pics

Hannah was asked to report about Joshua at our Church service on Sunday. She did a very good job. She is proud of her brother, and he would have been proud of her.

We took Hannah and Reygan to the Temple to wait outside for us while we went in to Andrea's wedding. (Notice her yellow shoes). They were also able to stand in the group picture on the steps of the Temple.

We stayed in Mesa to celebrate Dad's 69th birthday on Saturday, the 16th. We went over to Joel & Steph's where the kids swam in their tropical lagoon, and then we had Mexican food and a birthday party with German chocolate cake that Esther made. All the girls, Hannah, Reygan, Marlie and Ellie, made Dad a huge birthday card, listing 69 reasons why they love their grandpa. It was a hit, not only with Grandpa, but with everyone else, who agreed with all 69 reasons. At the end, Stephanie gave all the girls samples of the neat things she had ready for camp. As YW president, even though she has no girls of her own, she got to go to camp. And you can imagine all the creative things she did for her girls. Wouldn't all of us like to have been at camp with Stephanie? Joel got to go as a Priesthood leader, but I don't think he got to have any of Steph's cool stuff.

After the party, we had to say "Goodbye" to Hannah. It had been so much fun having her here, and we really miss her. She stayed with Reygan for the weekend, and then Jeremy took her to the airport on Monday morning, from which she flew home to her parents who missed her too!

Because we were in Mesa on Dad's birthday, the Safford kids decided to celebrate it on Sunday by dropping by for cake and ice cream. Dad didn't object to having his birthday stretch over two days.

Jeremy and Erika and their family came to celebrate Jeremy's birthday and to join in the Pioneer Day celebration. They got here on Saturday and the kids wanted to swim. Erika was a little apprehensive because she had heard thunder, but I assured her that we had hardly had more than a sprinkle this whole monsoon season and that the thunder was probably on the mountain. So the kids got all ready to swim, but had no more gotten wet than, the skies opened and dumped buckets full of rain on everyone. So they had to get out and we enjoyed the unusual weather from the back porch, being sure that it would all clear up before the parade that evening. Well, you know the rest of the story.

Carson, just lay right under where the roof was dripping and opened his mouth to get a drink!

It rained like crazy on all the floats lined up to start the parade. We (I should say "they," since I stayed in the car) watched the parade from under umbrellas at Peggy Schwallier's front curb and waded in water ankle deep.

Two of the floats were of special interest to us: Kimball 3rd Branch's "Rootbeer Floats," featuring Scott and Rebecca and some of their kids,

And 8th Ward's Cornucopia float, on which the Alder kids rode, which by the way, was the best float in the parade, except, of course, for the Rootbeer floats, which weren't really a float at all.

Rebecca's childhood friend, Shannon Beard, from St. Johns, and her children also came to the celebration and watched the parade with us.

That night, everyone went out to the stake center to watch the amazing fireworks show. Jeremy said they were parked in the closest place to where the fireworks were being shot. They had a "booming" good time. Dad and I, on the other hand, watched them from our back porch and although we could only see the ones that were shot into the air, we were comfortable and dry and enjoyed them too.

On Sunday, Jeremy & Erika's family went to church with us. I had warned him that he probably wouldn't see anyone he knows, but was pleasantly surprised that several former Ward members had come for the 24th, so he was able to meet and greet many old friends.

After church, Jeremy & Erika took their kids to walk around the Temple, enjoying the beautiful, non rainy, weather.

Although Jeremy and Erika didn't get here on his very birthday, we (always ready for a party) had a birthday party in his honor the following Sunday after their Temple visit.

For the week they were here, the little kids enjoyed playing together...dress-up...and seeing their pictures on the TV. The girls got especially excited when the saw Kirtlyn's picture.

We also spent a lot of time in the pool that week.

After Jeremy went home, Erika and the kids stayed at the Beals' house where Erika was able to spend some quality time with her friend, Sherri and her family. On Thursday night, before they went home, Daynen, Reygan, Tayte, Hayden and Ellie came to spend the night at our house, along with Lillian, Rylie, Polly and Isabel. We had rowdy good time. We swam, ate, watched a couple of movies, played dress-up, stayed up late, then slept all over the house.

Joel and Stephanie and Stetson and Levi also dropped in that evening. They had been showing Stetson around the EAC campus and trying to find a suitable place for him to stay next year. We are so excited that he is considering going to school here. He will love it, I am sure. Dallin is also going to EAC, as is Allison. We'll have to have them all over once in a while to play games and eat ice cream.

I am so glad that Devynne sent me these pictures of her and her brothers in their stake dance festival. It looks like so much fun! And it is great to know about what our family is up to in Colorado. Thank you for sending pictures, Devynne. It's a good idea to send pictures so we can keep everyone up to date on your family. Oh, Shadrach tells me he was involved too, as a worker on the stage crew.

I asked Allison to send us pics of her at her tennis camp. These are the ones she had on her phone, so we just have to picture that amazing smile somewhere among those cabins. Looks very "campy," doesn't it? Almost like girls' camp. She has had a wonderful time and has been a good influence on some young girls whose parents sent them across the world all alone. She is ready to come home, though. She'll be home August 22nd.

And, finally, on the very last day of the month, our little July Jewel, Maya put in her appearance. Her middle name is still to be determined for sure, but "Susanna" in recognition of her Grandmothers Susan and Anna is currently the favored possibility. We were worried, naturally, about Jenn and the baby, not being sure what to expect from Mexican hospitals, but after talking to her and Thomas, we are confident that she had a wonderful experience...as wonderful as a c-section can be...and is healing rapidly. She is being very well treated at the hospital and feels that the doctors and staff truly are interested in her baby's and her well-being. Thomas, who had just finished a surgery rotation at school, was allowed to watch Jenn's surgery over the doctors' shoulders and even film it.