Distraction

This morning was overcast and a bit on the chilly side (for July), and Tysen called and asked if we wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese.  Desperately I suggested Kangaroo Zoo instead.  All the little people were in agreement, so we went to Kangaroo Zoo for several hours today.  Brandt and Blythe had a marvelous time with their cousins, running around wildly, climbing, jumping, and sliding.  I tried to get a picture of all of them in the mouth of a monster.  Their combined weight deflated the bouncer, but they sure looked cute all piled on each other.

Behind: Crew, Brandt, Makenna, Blythe, and Collin's bum

Front: Luke, Griffin, Ava, Lyla

Collin

Chill Brick getting ready to go.

Morning Face

Brandt took this picture of me this morning.

I am eating a bowl of whinny meats (that's Mini Wheats at our house).

I think I look pretty scary.

Obviously not my best time of day.

South Fork Run Around

We needed a run around, get the energy spent activity, and so we went up to South Fork again today.  We have been up there several times already this summer, and I imagine we might go again, but we have so much fun when we go and the children need to be out running, that I just love to go.  Today we took three of the Elder's kids too.  They are going on vacation tomorrow and I thought Elizabeth might be able to use a break from everyone so she could get last minute stuff finished.  We packed a lunch, we brought along Mikayla, Brick and Kila, plus we invited cousins and Eugene and Sharae came with their kids.  I got a call from Grandma Dawn as I was making lunch, so we invited them to come too.  It was a party!  A party in the mountains with water, sun, and fun.

Apart from Brick who isn't really getting around yet, this is all the kids who were with us today.

Blythe, Ashlyn, Shaylee, Makenna, Brandt, Collin, Crew (who came with E&S), Luke, Blake, and Collin

 

A moth Brandt rescued from the water.

 

 

We were watching Brick work at rolling over.  

He did it twice.

July 24th Primary Parade

For several years now (as long as I have been the Primary president and Heidi has been my secretary), the Primary has hosted a July 24th Pioneer Day Parade.  Last year we added a pancake breakfast and decided it is a wonderfully fun activity and we need to do it every year.  This is likely the last year I will be the Primary president, but I will encourage the next one to keep it up.

We have all the children come dressed in costume--pioneer, patriotic, western cowboy, Nephite/Lamanite, superhero--then we parade around the ward, beginning in the condos, going across the park and up through Wilsonville, then down through Normandy and ending at the pavilion in the park between the schools.  We are able to have everyone together at the beginning and at the end, and in between, we sort of get strung out.  But I think children and adults alike enjoy the march, and we try and be mildly entertaining to the few people who line the parade route to watch.  We need more watchers, but I haven't quite figured out how to get people to come out of their houses and stand at the curb as we go by, shouting encouraging words.  We mostly march for ourselves.

We had a great pancake breakfast following the parade.  While the Primary presidency was responsible for that last year (the Morgans and the Jensens, my counselors families, did all the cooking), this year we had a separate committee comprised of high priests who did all the food prep and the clean up.  I got no pictures of breakfast, but we had lots of people join us who were unaffiliated with the Primary, and that made us happy.  We wanted it to be a ward social event, and I was glad we had nearly 175 people eating breakfast.

A significant portion of the Primary.  

Blythe in on the top row (less the four really tall kids in the very back), third from the right, in a blue dress.

I had a little apron for her, but she didn't want to wear it.

Brandt is on the same row in the middle, wearing Grandpa Droubay's hat and a Lone Ranger mask

He has his holsters and guns, plus a rope he carried around.

Getting ready to and then parading.

We all had to stop and gather so that we could cross a busy street all at the same time.

Kent and Brian Bradford held up traffic for us so we got across safely.

I invited Grandma Sue to come watch the parade and join us for breakfast.

She brought Donovan who marched with Blythe and then got carried by Guy.

Heidi Moreland, Ella and Anne Madsen, Kayla Howell, and Abby Davis

Pansy Chan in the cowboy hat, then Emma and Lilly Bradford.

That's their dad Brian with the phone.  

Then Donovan walking with Blythe, Abbie Drake, Ashlyn and Shaylee Elder, and Everett Bushman.

Brady and Ainsley Matsu

Donovan and Blythe

Donovan is crouching down because I am crouching down to take his picture

 

One of the Primary teachers in our ward likes to do tightrope walking in his spare time.  He brought a rope and strung it up between two trees and let the kids take turns trying to walk across.  Brandt was totally uninterested, but Blythe gave it a go and made it all the way across as I held her hand.  It is tougher than it looks and she was pretty good.