July 2019

Our neighborhood had a firework show on the night of July 3rd with popsicles for the kids.  It was a chilly evening and even rained a little on us.  Jim and Ezra left July 4th for a short backpacking trip.  Ezra said he didn't mind missing the parade and fireworks on Independence Day.  They hiked into a lake that was just about a half mile in from where they could park.  Unfortunately there is an ATV trail to the lake also, so there were lots of people there on motorized vehicles.  They still had a good time and had pretty good luck with fishing there.  

Elliott and I attended the Independence Day parade at our friends' house along the parade route.  We were only about a mile from our house and it took us 45 minutes to drive home because of traffic...the parade is a big deal here!  We also went and watched some of the fireworks show that night from a good viewing spot that is walking distance from our house.  Elliott was ready to be done about half way through the 30 minute show, so we walked back avoiding the crowds.

We went and watched Toy Story 4 at the theater and got a picture by the shark poster.

The next week was Vacation Bible School at our church.  I helped with the "simple fun" track for 6-7 year olds.  Ezra did an archery track and Elliott did the explore track for 4-5 year olds.  It was every evening from 6-8 and we got there just after 5 each night to eat dinner with the other helpers.  That same week our counter tops in our kitchen and half bathroom got replaced.  It was great timing since Jim had to re-plumb sinks and the kitchen was slightly out of commission.  Each night while we were at VBS he worked on getting sinks and the dishwasher hooked up, new faucets installed, etc.

old laminate counter tops

New granite counter tops

The final night of VBS was basically a party for all the families that participated.  There was a BBQ dinner, huge bounce house water slides, and pony rides.  The church continued to do once a week "family dinners" throughout July and we were able to make it to a couple of these.

Ezra and Elliott did swimming lessons for 4 weeks during July.  They both had a good time and improved their skills.  Ezra also took an art class that was focused on drawing techniques.  He was a little discouraged by kids who already seemed to know a lot as he was one of the youngest in the class.  Hopefully he will continue with his interest in art.  Ezra also had a couple visits to the orthodontist and got his expander put in.  He has a cross bite due to his top palate being too small and we had 3 weeks of turning his expander every night to make it bigger.  We could see the progress by noting an expanding gap between his top front teeth.  He will get braces put on near the beginning of October.  We went to a Chukars baseball game with a group from our church and the boys enjoyed trying to get foul balls and getting a picture with Charlie Chukar. 

We made the most of my days off, getting together with friends, going out to lunch, playing at Kids Town, going to parks, going to the library to get new books and summer reading prizes, etc. I participated in the adult summer reading program through the library and even earned a couple prizes too!

Playing "restaurant" at Kids Town

Playing "doctor" at Kids Town

We went on a camping trip with a group from our church.  We had a large group spot near the South Fork of the Snake River.  It was the most relaxing camping trip I've been on with my kids.  There were great places for the kids to play together and Elliott is old enough now that I didn't feel like I needed to be right with him or worry quite as much about him.  We had some moose walk through camp a few times.  Ezra and Jim went out on a boat with some friends on Palisades Reservoir.  Our family went on a hike up Rainey Creek that included a few creek crossings.  We got some "world famous square ice cream" on our way back to camp from our hike.  There was an osprey nest with 1 or 2 young birds and Jim did some photography of them.  We visited Fall Creek Falls and Jim did some fishing along Fall Creek and Rainey Creek.

Crossing Rainey Creek on our hike

Fishing break along Rainey Creek

Adult osprey returns to nest...look closely to see a young one in the nest

Fall Creek Falls

In all our "free time" we also continued work on our house.  Jim worked on building a cabinet for a sink in our laundry room.  We finished painting all the cabinets in our kitchen except for one small section that we have left.  Jim also built a door that we will use as a sliding "barn door" for our laundry room.  We also took our cat to the vet as he has started having some gross and annoying old cat issues.  He is 14 years old.  They ran some blood tests on him and found that his thyroid is WAY out of the normal range and also may have some heart issues that may be due to the thyroid problems.  We are starting him on thyroid medicine and hoping that this resolves his issues.