July Me to Tell You What We've Been Up To?

How cute is this face? It almost makes up for her dropping her cracker and then running it over until it was nothing but crumbs and spread all over the kitchen.

I pulled all the kids car seats into the house the other day to give them and my car a good cleaning. Erica climbed into her seat and sat there for a good thirty minutes. Then she fell asleep. At 11 am.

Here's a little glimpse of her personality.

Justin found a Wolverine costume for Henry at a garage sale. Henry surprised us all by wearing it nearly every day and then for 3 days straight. He even tried to sleep in it over his pajamas but woke up sweaty and distressed. Anyway, he was wearing it one afternoon looking for someone to play with. I heard him singing this song. Combine the zeal of "I Want to be a Missionary Now" with the angst and indignation of "Let It Go."

For the 24th, we did the traditional Mapleton breakfast, parade, fireworks. I think I will do this until I die. 

 Mapleton has a cemetery now! They even had a float to advertise.

 Just kidding, that was for the fire department. Here's the cemetery float.

Yay cousins! (Pink shirt and red shirt--the ones excited to see us)

Then back to the park for fishing game, duck pond game, Plinko and bounce houses.

 Aww, yeah! Mapleton is attracting all sorts of celebs.

Then we checked out the cool cars. Sarah is off pouting somewhere because her punch balloon popped and "cars are boring." Sounds like someone needs to walk across the plains.

 Wooden spokes!

And then the fireworks, baby. I was thinking how much bigger the crowd gets every year, especially compared to the first year they did fireworks. Always fun, always a pain to get home.

Erica loved snitching everyone's candy.

 I couldn't get a decent picture of her because she was always chewing.

I took this gem of a video before it got too dark.

The pioneers really deserve more than just a day of remembrance and celebration. They joined a new, unknown, and far distant church, sight unseen. Then left nearly everything behind and lost even more on the way to Zion. I have a hard time giving up a Saturday morning to go to the temple. I owe them a big thank you for giving their lives to make my life so easy. I live in the best valley of the best state in the best country during the fullness of times and I didn't sacrifice anything to be here. Sheesh. I drive to church a mile from my home in a temperature controlled car to a temperature controlled building. No one has even said an unkind thing to me because of my faith. I've never known hunger or feared for my life. I have my pioneer ancestors to thank for that.

Although being grateful for the church and place these pioneers selflessly established is important, I bet they really just want me to stop complaining about 1 o'clock church. And go to the temple more, dang it!