4th of July

Our holiday celebration started a day early. Brent and Dayna had arranged for the whole adult family to go see Les Miserables. I was so excited. I haven't seen this since I was 16. We first had a yummy dutch oven dinner and then watched the play. It was so inspiring. At intermission, I said to Heidi, "I need a cause to go and fight for." Thanks Brent and Dayna for a fun night!

The next day we headed up the mountain for our annual Hillyard-Hunter 4th celebration. This year was a little different because Dayna had us all lined out to work on the cabin. We had people painting 3 different rooms and laying tile in the bathrooms and kitchen. It was actually quite fun. Much more fun than doing it all by ourselves on our house. The work detail didn't begin until Saturday am. So we had all Friday to play.

Grandma Dayna had planned a treasure hunt for all the grandkids. They sure loved it. Kaylee was always leading the pack. Dayna had also planned a compass course for Justin and Drayton. This was to help pass off a task in scouts. All the kids found great treasures. Thanks Dayna for thinking of fun activities for our kids.

Later that night, we piled onto the four wheelers and headed to the ice hole. I didn't go down, but Tyler and all the kids took a turn. We lowered a tall ladder down the hole and everyone climbed down. From what they told me, there was too much ice to really go anywhere. Isn't it crazy that there was still ice there on the 4th of July. Brent tells us, that was how people had refridgeration way back when.

What a fun weekend!

Bugs, YIKES!!

Tyler and I were arranging the garage (well at least started to) when we came across this enormous bug. Neither of us knew what it was. Nor did I care to know. This was our first encounter with the son of a gun.

Next, Courtney complained of a big bug in her room. Oh Courtney, I'm sure it was an exaggeration. Then 3 days ago, I was hanging curtains in Courtney's room when I noticed in her window well there were 2 more of these creatures. She told me then, that was the bug in her room. So I was a little more scared for her.

Two days ago, Courtney, Kaylee and Rebecca Cram came screaming hysterically up the stairs. You could barely understand Courtney as she was terrified and crying. So being the brave mom, I headed downstairs with my friend Sara. I stopped in the bathroom to get some toilet paper thinking I could pick it up. Then I got to the bed.......and this is what I saw.

Sara began jumping around. I was still calm. I picked up a miniature play dust pan. I used this to get the creature into the bag. Once I got it into the bag, I let out a scream of terror. That scared everyone more than the bug. But I couldn't act brave anymore. Tyler didn't respond to my first cry for help. But he came running after the high pitched scream. But that's all he did. He just laughed. What a strong, brave, protective husband.

It was then upstairs and to the dumpster. Sara wanted to look at it again. So on the front porch, I handed her the bag. She looked inside, and as she did, I screamed and grabbed her. She dropped the bag and out he ran. The best part about the scare on the porch was the reaction of the workers across the street at Abby's house. They all stopped in their tracks to see what was going on. By that point, Sara and I were lucky that we didn't pee our pants. What a fun memory of our new house.

Have no fear, the bug men are on their way and will be here on Tuesday.

House Update

The day finally arrived......moving day. It was so much work and who knew where the camera was. So I didn't get any pictures. We moved into our new house on Saturday, June 28th. The house was not totally finished, but the minor things that needed to be done didn't impact code. So we loaded up the snowmobile trailer 3 times and all our junk was here. We were lucky we didn't have much furniture to move because it was already delivered and NEW!! It was also a good thing we didn't have the furniture because we had next to no help moving. One other brother, Clay, was all the testosterone that arrived. The next Tuesday, we had 4 brothers from our new ward help with the last load. We really appreciated these strangers helping us. You gotta love the church!!

I am posting just a few pictures of some of the new house. Once we are fully decorated, I'll add some more.

We finally have a driveway and sidewalk. The driveway is big enough to park 6 cars on it out

front.

Here is Tyler and Michelle's new bedroom set. We have a matching armoire and dresser. The bed is sooooo high off the ground. Michelle still hasn't judged the corners of the bedframe well yet. The sides of her legs have the bruises to prove it.

This is the family room with all new furniture. Notice the new kitchen table in the background. We love the dark brown carpet. No more stains for us!!

The girls' rooms sure are bright. Kaylee is the pink polka dot and Courtney is purple butterflies. As you can see, it is still a work in progress.

Justin's room is a sports/baseball room. He has a new bed too. The one picture I left off was of a 3 foot baseball player on the wall. I am really happy with how all the kids rooms turned out. They love them too.

At the last minute, Tyler decided to add a deck off the back of our room. I thought we were just going to run a set of stairs. Well, here is the partially completed deck. It is now done. Someday, it will be the best hot tub spot.

Cotton Candy Summer

Our summer is always busy thanks to Michelle's cotton candy business, Tasty Treats. Sometimes the fairs are pretty boring. But this one was really fun for the kids and the pocketbook. This is Orem Summerfest. We played at the park, learned about fire safety, watched High School Musical performances, and sold a ton of cotton candy.

Thanks Jill and Durrant for taking them on Saturday afternoon. The kids went to Chuckie Cheese and swam for 5 hours. They all fell in love with Uncle Durrant. He played catch with them for hours on end. Thanks again.

The kids came back just in time to be put to work. Who knew how busy we would get. We had a line for over 5 hours. So each person had a station. Mom made the cotton candy, Dad made the carmel apples, Kaylee got the drinks, and Justin was the money man. We couldn't have done it without the kids help. We ran out of everything, soda, water, sugar, apples. If we didn't we would have made even more $. As it was, we made a profit of $2000.

The kids actually like to help, "work". We pay them some money (or buy them toys at the fair). In a few more years, they will be the full time workers.

Since then, we have done 2 other fairs. Not nearly as successful. Oh well, you win some you lose some.