Parties and Parades

We celebrated the rest of the July birthdays at a fun party this evening.  Alyse has had a great birthday week starting last Thurs. with a dinner with girl friends.  Then Friday I took her for a birthday lunch and some birthday shopping and she got to have dinner with a mission companion and a woman they worked with in the mission field who is in town visiting.  Sat. she spent the day with her boyfriends family who is in town visiting.  Today was her family party.  Tomorrow her boyfriend has a special day of birthday fun planned for her.  Lucky girl!  Alyse likes theme birthday parties and we have all been princesses, pirates, cowboys, Hawaiians etc.  This year her party theme was Masquerade.  She shared her party with our oldest granddaughter.  She asked everyone to wear black and white and we provided the masks for everyone.  My grand-kids cracked me up they were so excited about the masks.  When they wore them they really thought you couldn't recognize them.  It was so cute!  We had a fun time.

This picture is out of order its me and Alyse at her birthday lunch.

Alyse and Jarom masked.

Alyse and Jarom unmasked.

Her yummy cake.

Our two birthday girls.

The whole group of masqueraders.

We went to the parade that our little town had for Pioneer day.  Below are the spectators.

Some of our favorite entries

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Me with a neighbor who was in the parade advertising for the play Cinderella that she is in. 

Miss Utah

After the parade we went over to the Rec Center where they had all kinds of fun things going on.  That night there was an awesome fireworks display.

The day after Pioneer Day we  had our own neighborhood parade.  It was fun too.

Our little entries in the parade.

After the parade we all met in our neighborhood common area for balloons that a clown made into dogs, flowers etc., a fun bonce house and slide, and lots of good food.  We all had a great time.

We have done a lot of celebrating this past week. It's been fun!

Birthday Week

I just celebrated my birthday on Sunday and we almost had to call the fire department because of the bonfire on my cake.  Lots and lots of candles and I am grateful for each one of them!  Most of my kids were able to join me for church on Sunday and I appreciated their effort to be there with me.  

After church the whole family came over and we took family pictures and had dinner and a party.

I love time with my family!

My cute visiting teachers took me to breakfast for my birthday.  Every year they always take all the ladies they visit out for everyones birthday.  We had such a nice visit.  I appreciate the love and kindness they have  for me.  I also had friends, kids, and sisters take me out to lunch for my birthday.  My husband took me out for a nice dinner.  So I guess I have probably gained ten pounds this week.  Time to start to diet.  Thanks everyone for a really fun week!

Yesterday Alyse and I took two of my granddaughters to a new park not far from our home.  Not only do they have a fabulous playground but they have a really fun splash pad.  They had a ball.  We'll have to go again soon.

 

Lake Powell 2012

We spent most of last week at Lake Powell.  We had a wonderful trip!  It was the first time in six or seven years that I had my whole family (minus one grandchild who was too little) together on a vacation.  So it was really special!   We didn't camp this year but stayed on our friends house boat.  That was really nice too. We arrived the evening of July 3rd.  On the 4th of July I woke up to hear all my kids and grand-kids singing The Star Spanked Banner and I was filled with such gratefulness that we were all together and for our country.  That night we had a wonderful dinner on top of the house boat and watched the fireworks in Page and in the marina.  It was great!  I have a child who has asked that I not post pictures of  their family so I have tried really hard to honor her wishes and apologize for any of  her family who is in the back ground of pictures.

  

We had lots of fun in the water!

Fun on the paddle boards.

Fun on the jet skis.

Fun at the beach.

Fun cliff jumping or showing off doing back flips.

Fun on the slide.

Fun feeding the ducks.

Some of the girls.

Annie, me, Kim, and Alyse. We also had fun tubing, knee boarding, and water skiing.  I'm so grateful for the trip and the time together.  It was great!