July

4th: 

We just wanted to hang out at home and not do much today or entertain any guests. Still unwinding from a long vacation. We had a fire pit at 6pm and made hot dogs. It rained about 7pm-8pm. We put the deck umbrella over the fire and we were fine. Jared and family came over around 8:45pm to pop his fireworks off. We didn't buy any fireworks. Already spent enough money. Mum and Scott and kids came over too after dropping Heather off at the airport. She is going to NY. So much for not entertaining any guests. 

7/5 to 7/11: 

Not much happened this week. Shaun and Lawson came over Tuesday at 8pm to watch the All Blacks play Samoa. ABs won but was a close game. They were pretty rusty and the Samoans were fired up since it was the first time they ever played in Samoa.

7/12 to 7/18: 

Monday I met the Candi, Jaxon, Leila and Erana at the Natural history museum at 11am. It was free ticket day and we got some. I took a few hours off from work. It was fun. They had a temporary extreme mammals exhibit that had some things I'd never seen before such as a life size model of the largest land mammal to ever live. We ate Cafe Rio after before I went back to work. Mina went to Young Women camp Tues to Fri. Candi went the last night. I went to kapahaka for the first time in ages to practice a haka taiaha we are learning for a welcome for Jonah Lomu in a few weeks. It's called Whaia - Kii Mai. Tyrell is learning it too. Friday morning I went and helped Kendra Garcia in her yard and the missionaries came too for a bit. We dug up old wood and stuff from a where a shed used to be. Tyrell helped. Jaxon went on an over night fishing camp to Strawberry Reservoir Friday night. He's getting his fishing badge and went to Willow pond a few times this week. He likes fishing. He came home Saturday morning with 3 good sized rainbow trouts. We baked them Sunday but not very many of us ate them. Leila liked them the most. They have too many little bones, have to get the fleshy bits on the outside.

7/8/15
Erana doing her writing and I said why'd you write an L she goes L is for eLephant!

7/19 to 7/25: 

I had the 23rd off for Pioneer day so we went to Pineview for the night. We ended up at the Magpie camp site down sr 39 because Jefferson Hunt was full. It had a tent area up near the fire pit then another tucked back under the trees nearer the stream. Tyrell setup the smaller tent in that area and he and Mina stayed there. We spent the afternoon at the lake swimming and relaxing. Didn't rent a jet ski this time. Didn't feel like paying for one. It was a nice day. We had hot dogs and marshmallows and stuff and sat around the fire until dark. We had some kind of animal under our tent at night that would bump and poke the floor of the tent. I whacked it a couple times when it woke me up. We went to the park in Huntsville to see if they are doing anything for Pioneer day but there wasn't anything. Just a soccer game. The kids played and we hit the volleyball for a bit at the net. It got hot. We got some shakes before driving home as usual.

 

7/26 to 7/31: 

I had Monday off so ended up with a 5 day weekend which was very nice. But I worked Tues to Fri to cover for my co-worker who is taking Fri off. Can't remember what I did Mon. Must have been nothing much at all. 

California Vacation Day 8

There is construction that has the Virgin river gorge down to one lane so we left at around 6am to beat the traffic. We heard it could backup for a few hours during the weekend traffic. We went through no problem this early. We stopped at Beaver to fill up and get breakfast at Burger King. We ate at the tables at the Cheese factory then went in and got an ice cream. We got home about 12 noon. What a nice vacation. Always seems so fast. It could be the last with all the kids for a while. Tyrell is all grown up and could be off on a mission soon. We relaxed the rest of the day after unpacking. We went on the roof at night to watch people's fireworks.

California Vacation Day 7

We woke early enough to go to breakfast this time. We had cereal, doughnuts, bananas and waffles. We packed up our stuff and prepared for the long drive to Mesquite. I drove first. We left around 10 something. We stopped in Primm and stretched our legs walking around the mall and eating some cajun and chinese food in the food court. It is still hot in Primm. Candi drove us to Mesquite. I slept some during the drive. We stayed in the Virgin River Hotel. We opened one room then Candi and I surprised the kids by going to the room next door and opened the door that joins the rooms. They were surprised and excited to have 2 rooms and 4 beds. The rooms were only $27 so we got 2. They are nice rooms. We got there around 5pm so we had time to swim in the pool which was right out our room. It was nice and warm. Candi swam under water to see how many widths she can do while holding her breath. She came up one time and had a major nip slip. It was funny. Good thing no one else saw but me. There were other people and the kids but they were not looking her way. I told her and she pulls up her top and laughs. Tyrell and Mina stayed in the room.  We went and got dinner from Jack-in-the-box for me and Dominoes pizza for the rest. They got a yummy philly cheese steak pizza. I thought they were going to have pepperoni otherwise I wouldn't have got a burger. We were first going to try a chinese buffet (Candi said it looked scabby), then a 50's diner (expensive) then KFC (missed the turn off). We took it back to our rooms to eat and watch tv then went to sleep early to get up early.

California Vacation Day 6

We slept in today. The longest sleep of the vacation. Woke up around 10:15am. We missed the free breakfast. We got ready to go to Huntington beach and got there around 12pm'ish. We stopped at Burger king for some food first. It was a bit of an overcast day with temps cooler in the 70's I think. Beach wasn't too crowded but had a lot of people. The kids played in the sand and surf. They found lots of sand crabs which don't look like usual crabs. They don't have pincers. Mina and Jaxon got used to the cold water and body surfed and made a friend named Amber.  Jaxon said he saw her bum when the wave pulled her togs down lol. Mina saw a sting ray. Candi and I walked down the beach a bit then I had a little nap on the beach towel. We only stayed until 4:30pm. We had to go back and get ready for our Pirate Dinner Adventure. On the way home we saw a little dachshund dog running through our traffic lanes and the cars ahead stopped. I looked away to keep driving and also knowing it was going to get hit. Candi kept watching and saw it get run over. I heard the thump. Now Candi has a traumatic image in her head and I don't. I asked why she kept looking? I knew it was going to get hit. The kids didn't know where we were going for dinner. It was just across the street from our Hotel. It is for Tyrell's b-day dinner. He got some beads, flag and bandanna, and velvet cake piece for his b-day. We looked around and had snacks they brought around on trays as we waited to get seated. We sat in the green section. Dinner was a chicken leg with thigh attached, steak and veges on a skewer, mashed potatoes, ice cream and brownie. It filled me up. Tyrell's velvet cake slice had a candle in it. The show was good and had some funny parts in it. The kids enjoyed themselves. We went back to the hotel and watched tv until bed time.