Summer Staycation: Will I ever Catch up?

Sunday July 4th

Sunday morning, my dad, Linda, and Christian got back on the road and headed to Michigan. Glenn and Kelly drove Jeff to Milwaukee to catch his flight back to Utah, and the rest of us went to church.

I bore my testimony for the first time since Alyssa was blessed. That sounds really bad, but I feel like I talk all the time. I have been asked to talk a lot, in a lot of different settings since we have lived here. I feel like the people in my ward hear from me way too often. I have had my turn, so I like to just sit back and drink in other people's testimonies on Fast Sunday. This month I felt like I should go up. I quickly remembered why I usually don't. I talk too much, and I cry. I remember very little of what I said. I know I talked about raising children in the gospel, and shared one cute Alex story so I will share it here too so I don't ever forget it.

Recently I was talking to the kids about the Holy Ghost and how you can tell when you are feeling the Holy Ghost. How do you teach that to someone? That was our theme in Primary last month and it is HARD. Anyhow, Alyssa knows all the right answers when we talk about church. Alex knows none of them, but he a spiritual person. I have talked before about Alex's radiant little spirit. While Alyssa and I were talking, Alex volunteered, "I know the Holy Ghost." I was a little afraid to ask him to expound. Remember that he once said he would call the Ghostbusters if he saw the Holy Ghost, and even more recently told me he learned about "Halloween and Butts" in church. I decided to venture into the unknown and ask him to elaborate. He said, "The Holy Ghost is there when we sing in primary. I feel good with Him." I was blown away. Singing time in Primary is the place where I feel the Holy Ghost most freely as well, and I was so happy to hear that he could identify that feeling.

Anyhow, I am sure I talked too long, but don't worry, I didn't say the "Halloween and butts" part. And now I will go back to being the silent participant on Fast Sundays for another 8 years.

After some Sunday afternoon lounging, we headed over to The Hawleys house for fireworks. They had just rolled in from Utah that afternoon, but Mike and Seth were not going to miss the opportunity to light stuff on fire. They put on quite a show. The wind added to the excitement by blowing the overhead fireworks at us and scaring the tar out of us.

It was a fun evening, and I hope lighting fireworks was not irreverent?

The Hawleys often have a backyard fire burning when we go over, and my kids have gotten used to having s'mores whenever they are there. Since it was rainy on Sunday, there was no fire in the pit. Luckily, the Hawleys have a s'more maker which could be pulled when the requests for s'mores started.

Gettin' Smoky

Gotta have bomb pops!

Sunday night, Kelly moved from the hotel, over to my house and we had a nice long late night chat. You've always gotta get in at least one super late sister chat. I love talking to my siblings. Even though I am a really open person, my siblings understand me in a way that most people can not. They know Julie Johnson, behind the blog. If I ever write an autobiography, I think I will call it that.

Monday July 5th

Unfortunately, since Grandpa Bob overlapped with both my mom and my dad, he didn't get much one on one time with the kids. Luckily we had just stayed with him a month ago in Utah. We wanted to make sure he got to hang out with them before he left, so on Monday morning he took the kids to Apple Holler for breakfast. I instructed Seth to take lots of pictures. He took one. Even without pictures, I know the kids were happy to get away with Grandpa for a minute. After their early morning date, Bob flew off to Utah.

The rest of us swam at my mom's hotel and then fell over and took a nice afternoon nap.

Story time with Grandma Susie

We took it pretty easy, because we knew the next few days were going to get real busy again.