JULY - Cabin Time with family and friends; boys camp

     The morning after our Chilean Mission reunion we found a Sacrament Meeting (never hard to do in a Utah town) and then immediately afterwards left for the cabin.  Becky had just finished one group of HER guests.  We were hosting another group just before the 4th of July and then Becky was hosting her Bishop and his family from Vegas over the 4th of July.

The first to come were Rob & Sarah Peel Parry - Victor's cousin from his Rasmussen side.  They came to also enjoy some Shakespeare down in Cedar City, but we managed to get in some relaxing, good eating and ATVing!  Fun kids, fairly recently married.  We are always so pleased when the younger generation actually likes hanging out with us!

 This, of course, is a big cabin appeal:  The relaxing part!

Not a great picture because I was laughing so hard, but this is the typical look after 2-3 hrs on an ATV when the season has not been very rainy!!

 Sarah and Rob with their share of dirt, too.

 Rob's feet after sandals are kicked off.

This is my favorite photo.  The morning they were leaving to go on to Mt. Pleasant to join her family for Independence Day celebrations Sarah and Rob said they had something they needed to tell us.  They wanted us to know they are expecting their first child (due Jan. 1st!) but made us hold off posting anything on Facebook or the blog because they hadn't had time to even tell their own parents.  I was excited to be first notified and thought their concern that WE would feel bad if we heard later and hadn't known while we were together was a wonderfully amazing thing.  This will be one lucky child to have such good parents! 

Here are two more really lucky children!  These are the cute kids of Sarah's sister Andrea who was able to get away from Richfield for a day and join us up on the mountain.  Maren Peel, Andrea's mom, was pregnant with Andrea when she & her husband lived with us briefly in the Verona house not long after we were married.  So we have loved the Peels a very long time!!  Fun when relatives can also be some of your best friends! 

Days were still dry and pretty hot.  The little people found a way to cool off.  Aria was in heaven in this little wading pool!  (Her diaper soaked up so much water that we weren't sure there would be anything left to play in!)

Just get enough of these dimples and smiles

 Sometimes you just NEED watermelon and a simple, summer meal.

Exit Peels;  Enter Warners   Fourth of July

     And switching "hosts."   Becky's turn again - this time to welcome HER friends and time for us to recede into the background.  

      I felt like a fly on the wall watching a well-oiled machine roll into the driveway and just take over with precision and charm!  The Warners have 7 children, expecting their 8th.  Sometimes you just need to sit back and watch an amazing, committed, loving (and very NORMAL) LDS family in action.  Ginger and her husband spoke, children obeyed.  They cooked, they cleaned, they watched out for one another, they squabbled, a few even cried, they even tried their hand at resisting authority.  They read scriptures, they prayed, they thanked, they hugged, they shared knowledge of things we needed to learn.  They shared deep Gospel feelings.  They put up with cramped quarters (our cabin isn't THAT big), but enjoyed the adventure of sleeping outdoors or on floors and did just fine.  

The ultimate moment was when we were cleaning up to ready the cabin for departure.  I walked into the kitchen to find Hannah on her knees damp mopping my kitchen floor!   I almost cried I was so astounded and so grateful!  My first thought was "Cinderella" but this little lady was not distressed or "put upon" because she was doing something so "menial."  I will never forget how I felt and how much their service enriched our lives that week.    Thank you, Bishop and Sister Warner!

Taryn, proud to get down and dirty on a good ATV ride!

The best gift of all was a thunderous downpour on the 4th of July!!!  Oh, how we have needed the rain.  And watching a summer rain storm from our front deck is by far the favorite past time of cabin dwelling!

The kids love it!   

Amazingly, Brianhead fireworks show went ahead as planned.  I guess you can't rain out a modern firework.  I was especially festive.  I opted to stay at the cabin and catch up on some computer work.  Instead I felt very tired and was in bed by 9 p.m.!!!  There is a lot to be said for just letting the body systems rest, too!

July 8-13.  Victor was off to camp with the Young Men of MonteBello Ward.  I guess you could say it was a vacation for me too, because when you are home alone you can get a lot done and you can do it any time of day or night that you want to.  And you can be lazy some days.  And productive other days!  At the end of the week we got to have Carol Mills Barber and her family back for a couple of days when they were en route from Utah to their family reunion in California.   We know some really nice people!  These are "2nd generation friends.  Carol's mom, Cindy, and I were genealogy teaching buds in Los Angeles before I was married and before Carol was very old!  We've stayed close to Cindy and Rick over a LOT of years and have hosted most of their children as they have grown older, married and begun families of their own.

While it was raining daily in Utah at home in Las Vegas firefighters were still battling the Mt. Charleston fire which had already been burning several weeks.  The constant cloud of smoke from across the valley made for some really bizarre-colored skies & sunset.  Hauntingly beautiful.

While sitting in the chair reading one afternoon I noticed the orange colored shaft of light shine across my floor!  Jumped up immediately to catch all these photos

 The reflection of the setting sun in our swimming pool

My camera could not capture how red the sun really was.  Brought to mind a latter-days scripture!