4th of July

We had a great 4th of July!!  Neighborhood breakfast and parade, swimming in the afternoon with friends, family BBQ in the evening, and then a fireworks extravaganza with the whole neighborhood.  Rachel, David and Adam collected donations from all the neighbors and then went to Wyoming to get the fireworks (they are much cheaper there).  Then we had the greatest fireworks show ever!!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

Summer is Almost Over!!

I can't believe that summer is almost over and I haven't posted anything about it.  It's been a pretty regular summer... hot days, yard work, chores, movies, scouts, etc.  I don't take as many pictures as I used to since it seems I like to be the one playing and not taking the pictures.  I found a few that David took and a few I took on my phone.  Here are a some glimpses of our summer.

David and I took Adam to a shooting range for the first time.  When David found out that he had shot at Scout Camp, he said, "It's time to take Adam shooting".  David is really good at teaching the kids about the guns and all the safety rules.  It's a serious matter and Adam took it seriously.  He has a new appreciation for the power of a firearm and he's also a pretty good shot.

 Boston helping Rebecca make little pizzas.

 Boston at the pool.  We sure loved having Jared, Tori and Boston live with us for a month.  Things are rather quiet around here now that they've moved into their apartment in Provo.  We miss them.

 Josh went on a few trips to Mississippi for work and got to visit his Aunt Julie and their family.

David and I went to a baseball game on a warm summer evening and had a great time cheering on the Bees.  They lost but it was still a fun.

David Turned 50!!!

Yes, it's true, David is now 50 years old and he doesn't look a day over 35.  :-)  Really, we looked at the pictures and the kids declared that at about 35 he stopped changing and looks just the same today.  Yay!  He either looks really young or he looked old before his time.   Hahaha.

He loves having friends over for BBQ's so we decided to have a big birthday bash.  When the Powells plan a backyard event, you can pretty much plan on rain.  Sure enough.... it rained, and rained, and rained.  It was beautiful all week before his birthday and it's beautiful the next morning with no rain in sight for 2 weeks.  Needless to say, the BBQ got rained out.  We even had a jumpy house and everything and we really hoped the rain would stop.   But NO!!  It rained and rained.

An hour before the party was supposed to begin, we cancelled the BBQ part and just told everyone to come for cake a little later.  There were a few people coming from further away so we didn't cancel with everyone and just had a small BBQ in the house.  It turned out to be really fun and then more people came for cake.  All in all it worked out pretty well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!!!

50 candles take a lot of people to light.

Grandpa and Boston!!

I thought this was funny because apparently someone didn't want the frosting so they cut just inside the frosting.   Hahahaha

This is the jumpy house in the beautiful weather... the day AFTER the party.

Rachel made a video for Dad's birthday which you can view at this link.  She did a really good job!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTIz_UUgKpc&feature=youtu.be

Rachel Graduated!!

Rachel graduated from Corner Canyon High School on June 2nd.  Jared, Tori and Boston arrived the night before and Grandma Ginia, Grandma Hill and Josh also came to recognize her.  We are so proud of her and I think her smile tells how happy she is to have graduated!!  CONGRATULATIONS RACHEL!!!

Boston had a very long day so his smile was rare.  This was one of his happy moments!!

Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day was filled with activity.... Rachel played in the finals of her soccer tournament and they WON!!!   She was so happy and it's such a nice way for her to end her club soccer career.

Since her tournament was in Layton, we headed north to Ogden to visit dad's grave site.  We arranged to meet Terry and his family there who were bringing mom up.  We spent some moments remembering dad and how much we love and miss him.

Then we headed back home and on the way we stopped at the cemetery in Sandy.  David's grandmother is buried there and it was nice to visit her grave site.

A Great American

Adam received the Great American Award last week in their 5th grade Patriotic Program.  Just a few of the kids earned it and it took a lot of work so we are super proud of Adam.  He had to do the following:

**memorize all the states and capitals and label them on a blank map

**memorize the Preamble

**memorize the 1st and last verse of the Star Spangled Banner

**make an art project reflecting patriotism (he painted a big flag on a canvas)

**do a report on a great American inventor and do an experiment (Adam did Thomas Edison and built his own little flashlight

**make a timeline of 10 great Americans (he included grandpa in his Navy uniform)

**do 3 hours of community service

**do a project of his own (he mapped all the National Parks in the US)

We now have another GREAT AMERICAN in the family!!!

 

Senior Dinner Dance

At the last minute, Rachel decided to go to the Senior Dinner/Dance with a bunch of her friends.  She had a good time and they took some cute pictures.  I'm assuming you will all recognize Rachel, but if not, she is the one on the far left.  :-)