Day 11 - Another Birthday

Today is the 4th of July, our county’s birthday. The day started out early (as most holidays and the cabin do). With Grandpa Mahoney waking everyone up for a flag ceremony. He thought it was great when Allie found a horn in a drawer. They were glad to go around to honk it at everyone who was still sleeping. Amazingly enough, everyone got up and dressed….not that they had much choice.



I love that Grandpa M gets us up for flag ceremonies. Throughout my life he has taught all of us to love our country and the flag. I am grateful that my little family gets to experience that with him too.



Incredibly, we had a huge yummy breakfast and were ready to go to the parade by 9:00am. (The incredibly was for the fact that we were ready to go to the parade by 9, not that we had a huge yummy breakfast...those are cabin tradition.)

The kids wrote their names on sacks that Grandma had for the candy they would gather and we played games while waiting for the parade to start.







Ryan and Jen and their kids (my brother’s family) met us there.



It was a great parade!



We saw lots of horses,



a pink car,



a huge flag,



lots of “princesses” (city royalty)



and other fun floats.









The girls have laughed a lot about the kids who rode in a bight yellow convertible eclipse that stopped every so often so they could hop out and clean up the horse droppings. “Poopper scooper! Ha! Ha! Ha! What a funny name. Pooper scooper!”

After the parade we went back to the cabin for a great feast



and some birthday cake for Ryan whose birthday is tomorrow.



After lots of rides in the swing we went for a walk to the river again. On the way Sarah (my cousin) found a snake. The girls were facinated to see it.





But this time we were a little more prepared (and perhaps a little more brave)…. We took our swimsuits and some inner tubes.



We actually played more in the cold water and even floated under the bridge on the tubes. Brrrrr!

Day 10 - Relaxing

We spent a relaxing day at the cabin. We played games and went on walks. Grandpa and I walked with Allie, Jennie and Anna all the way up the big sledding hill and back down a “secret” trail. The girls kept asking Grandpa if it really was a trail.



After lunch we walked down to throw rocks in the river.





Grandpa kept finding huge rocks to throw in so they would splash Grandma.



Even though the water was really cold we still waded a little bit.





As we walked back to the cabin we picked some wildflowers. They were everywhere. It was really pretty.







That afternoon Grandma and Grandpa Mahoney (my grandparents) came up. Grandma M joined in the traditional games of Rook and Grandpa M even put down his comic book to read the girls some stories.



After the kids went to sleep my uncle Bruce and his kids came up too. And we played games late into the night, including a hilarious game of Apples to Apples.

Day 9 - Packing Again

Today we went to get some pictures taken. Shanna’s sister works for Kiddie Kandids. So went. And after a workout trying to get Anna to smile and a few cameras not working we got some great pictures. Thanks Kristin for giving up your day off! We got a couple of family pictures taken. A few of Anna. Some of the 3 girls and one of Allie and Jennie. (If anyone wants to see them online let me know.)

After that we hurried to get clothes and food packed up to go to the cabin so we could make it up to Logan to my cousin’s wedding reception. (Wow! That whole temple/family theme again.)

We made it just in time to see the couple cut the cake. Everything was decorated with bright colors, so cute! In fact, both the bride and groom were wearing bright colored converse tennis shoes. She had a beautiful dress and daisies in her hair.



It was fun to see family, especially my cousin Amy (who I don’t get to see nearly enough). Although I didn’t get to talk to her or anyone else for very long. But check out this amazing quilt she made for her sister.



It was fun (in an ironic sort of way) to see my cousin Chris, a doctor, bussing tables.



But probably the best part was that we got to eat yummy Aggie Icecream from USU!





Since we were in Logan we stopped to take some pictures in some of my favorite spots.







Allie and Jennie thought it was really cool when we told them that this was where their daddy went to school. (Can you see it Lee...future Aggies right there!)

We stopped to see the Logan temple too.



That is where Dave and I got married.

Then we were off to the cabin.