Slow down, I want to get off!!

The summer is going so fast and I am really enjoying it but I want life to slow down a bit. It seems like I am out of town more often than I am home!! I am excited to head to Montana to visit my favorite aunt but I'll be gone for four more days. I figure it will take my dad and I about seven hours to make the drive - I am hoping to see my cousins and their families that live up there. I think we need to have a Spinder reunion but there just isn't that many of them...

Any way - I am taking my computer and will be able to stay in touch...I am excited to be able to show off our blogs to Aunt Betty - those are the best pictures we have of my darling grandkids.

I'll be back home on Friday.

Oh and by the way - for those of you that we haven't talked to lately your dad and I did another crazy thing - we bought another trailer!! To take up to Boise and put on the property we enjoy so much in the mtns up there. Its a smaller one but in really really good shape. We are excited about it. We bought it over a week ago and I've been too embarrassed to tell anyone!

Videos from the swim park

A day at the water park

I drove down to Lehi today to pick up Melinda and Simon and Benjamin so that we could head into Provo and meet Emma and Kecia at the Veteran's Park. Da wasn't feeling really well so Ben and I went by ourselves and Kecia and Emma met us there. It is a really really fun water park in the middle of Provo. Nice and clean and BIG. It had a beautiful swimming pool, water slides and a fantastic area for little ones to play in the water. Ben and I sat and splashed in the wading pool waiting for cousin Emma to show up and then all four of us had a great time.





Aunt Kecia took Ben over to the deeper water (all of five inches) and let a bucket of water spill over the top of both of them. Benji loved it.
meanwhile Emma is having a great time herself - look at those teeth!!
By the time they closed the pool at 4:45 Ben was soaked head to toe. He didn't give me a minutes trouble all afternoon - never once cried for mama, and just entertained himself either splashing in the water or running under one of the little fountains. It was a special day. Every so often he would run up to me and say "malmo" which is his name for grandma. I loved it.

We went back to Kecia's house for dinner and I returned him to his mom safe and sound about 7:30 that night, a teensy bit sunburned and one little scrape on his toe that I have no idea where it came from. We made some memories this day.

Memories

Memories

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Do we have to come home??

This is a picture of the camping area - or at least it shows the steps up and down the mtn side - they lead up to the club house and swimming pool area. We had a wonderful week there.

Ed and I finally drug in on Sunday afternoon about 3:00 after a week of fun and sun and four wheeling and visiting with fun people - laying around the pool and watching movies. We had a wonderful time and it was so very relaxing.

We went four wheeling almost every day - we discovered a beautiful little valley that we went back to a couple of times. It was just about 2o minutes from our camp and it was totally isolated. The first time we found it we ate our lunch and laid out in the sun and just enjoyed the green beauty. When we went back, we took a blanket and laid it out in the shade and ate our lunch and had a nice nap. And again, enjoyed the quiet serenity. I should have taken my camera but I didn't so I don't have pictures of it.

The day that we went to Placerville was another hot beautiful summer day - blue skies, not a cloud anywhere. We got up and got going early enough that most of the trip was completed before the heat of the afternoon sun got too uncomfortable. It was pretty easy riding most of the way - lots of gorgeous green mountains and tumbling rivers and streams. Alot of the country there have year round homes but it is ALL accessed by dirt roads... Placerville is a little mountain village that had its start in the 1869 gold rush of Idaho and now it is home to probably 150 people - nice village square and old museums that sadly enough were closed (they open for the tourists on weekends). We had lunch in the village square and wandered around looking in the windows. We followed the road signs up to the old cemetery. That is a favorite pasttime of ours - wandering through old cemeteries! They liked to build wrought iron fences around the family plots.


We met lots of new people at the campground this year and lots of old favorites. Some of these same people go to Quartzsite each winter and so we get to renew old acquaintences.This is a view out of my bedroom window of our trailer. I took it early one morning as the sun shone down on the flowers. The mountain is beautiful. You can see Larry's trailer just above where our trailer sat. They have terraced the side of the mountain to allow full access to it for all of the campers. Some of us are visitors, some lease their lots and some own their lots outright. But it is a pleasant and friendly group of people from Washington state, Idaho and Utah.

There are wild turkeys that claim the area as their own. I'm not sure if they can be considered wild anymore...I swear Ed carried on a conversation with one of them over the type of crackers he was tossing out to them. They really liked the whole wheat ritz crackers!! Weren't too impressed with either the popcorn or the cheddar cheese crackers! FUN!! I need to get Ed's pictures and download them onto my computer so I can add them to this post.

They play a movie each saturday night at the club house and both were fun. They set the screen out on the patio and everyone brings their popcorn, their jackets and own chairs. The first weekend was Young Frankenstein...what a hoot. The second week was "The Bucket List" and I would recommend that movie to anyone.

Its good to be back home - now that I have caught up on everything. Monday I did wash all day and cleaned my house. Tuesday I spent it running from Rocky Mtn to Grandpa's house and completing all sorts of things on my to do list. Today I cleaned the front part of the trailer till is shined. The bikes are still in there and so I will have to dust and mop the back out when Ed gets home this weekend and moves them.This is a picture of the view around our trailer. There is a nice redwood deck - the couple that own this individual campsite have built the deck to sit on and enjoy. After breakfast and after supper it is the nicest place to sit and relax and read a book.

It was a great week and I know we will go back again and again - our only complaint is that it is sooooo far away!

4th of July

To all my special blogger friends I want to wish you a Happy and Safe Fourth of July. Its a time of traditions and family, flags and parades, hot days, playing in the water, and lots of love and joy. With Dirk over in Afghanistan it is much more poignant than usual and I expect some tears will be shed along with the laughter and smiles. I love my country - I am so thankful to be an American. It has alot of problems but that is life. We have freedom and prosperity - we are so blessed to live in this great nation. I pray every day for the Lord to watch over and protect our soldiers - and also to help our leaders guide our nation - and most of all, for each an every American to reach out to his fellow man and help him along.

Its our nations birthday...let's celebrate!




Dad was 83 on Wednesday of last week - we had his annual birthday party down at Tonya's house and had a wonderful time. Her yard is big and cool and lovely!! Hey - let's have ALL the parties there!!


The cook was masterful and everyone brought yummy salads for the meal. We visited and talked and visited somemore. It seems that in the months of June and July, family parties are all we do with Cade, Jace and Jace's birthdays, then Father's Day, and then dad's birthday and then the 4th of July celebration and finally the 24th a few weeks later. We got some cute pictures of the activities:



Here we have the girls playing on the tramp! Oh dear, someone needs to get off - too many people on the trampoline at one time. We're breaking the rules!










Looks like the Willdens are really paying attention to the rules!!! tch tch tch!!











Looks like Maizie is having a great time!




Here's a good picture of grandpa Bruce

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!