Fourthed Away

I know the fourth of July was last weekend, but when you make all your food from scratch and there's no food in the house but a freezer full of berries the blog takes a back seat. Sorry Henster. So, for the 4th of July we went to CT to visit the grandparents. It was a really quick weekend. We stayed only 48 hours total which wasn't enough time to even stop by NYC and get anything from our favorite restaurants. It killed us to just drive by without indulging in GROM, Dinosaur BBQ or Saigon Grill.

In CT we spent time with almost the entire family, minus Stef the sickling prego mama and Meg who was in Utah. Gammies sister, Gail, was the special visitor of the weekend and she helped out with the babies and with cooking and cleaning which made the weekend so relaxing and enjoyable. Grandpa took Henry and the rest of the kids fishing in the pond where they caught a nice little fish. Go Gramps! The kids also spent a good deal of time jumping on the trampoline, catching fireflies or flierflies as Henry calls them and even took the boat out on the pond. Roasting marshmallows on a nice big campfire was a nice treat as well. Too bad everyone went in by 10pm to put their kids to bed and never returned back out to socialize. Times aren't like they used to be, that's for sure!

On the morning of the fourth Justin and ran a 5K race where he basically tied Garrett so I think there's going to have to be a rematch sometime in the future. I was left in the dust and ended up slowing down at the end because of many lame excuses and didn't do as well as I had hoped. It was fun though. We headed over to the ward for the ward picnic and Henry got to hit a pinata and collected some candy. When I asked him on the way home what his favorite part of our trip was he said enthusiastically, "getting candy!" I really hope that wasn't true! We then went home, made food for the bbq lunch that was skillfully prepared on a tinfoil covered grill(not sure why)and lynn's famous fruit salad. Delicious! Then it was off to the Saunder's place where they have a swing that is hooked to a branch 50 meters up on a tree. The swing literally goes out over the whole entire yard and it takes at least 15 seconds to do one rotation. After eating many yummy deserts we went to Waveny park for more food and to stake our spot for fireworks. Henry really enjoyed the fireworks and still mentions them now and again. The display was incredibly good and lasted for a long time. I don't know about you but I'm constantly impressed by how good the fireworks are getting. They have shapes, coordinating colors, ones that float down to the ground, and supernova ones that cover the entire planet. Amazing. We had a blast and so did the kids.

Sunday we went to church and during a very tearful testimony meeting hearing about our good friends the Humphreys woes about losing his business, house, reputation, and life and having to move to Utah, we found a deer tick in Henry's tushy. I wonder how it got there? Running around naked perhaps? Taking every opportunity to pee in the woods only following in the footsteps of your daddy? We took him home, researched how to get the little bugger out and successfully removed it. So far there has been no bulls-eye mark so I think there's no lyme disease for now. I HATE ticks and that's on the top of my list of why I don't want to settle in the East Coast. I don't want to worry about running into poison ivy and deer ticks every time I want to venture out into the woods with my kids. The west is a lot safer in that respect as far as I know.

At the end of our trip we went to say goodbye to a wonderful and darling man, Axle Ohrn, who was almost 98 years old when he died 24 hours after we saw him. He finally passed because of esophageal cancer which swiftly blocked his ability to nourish his body and he died. He and I would talk about tomato plants all the time and we had such a sweet connection. He hugged me and kissed me like I was his own granddaughter and I always heard about him asking about me and commenting on how wonderful he thought I was. I will miss him so much!

Then we passed by the city again on our way home and made the long drive home with screaming children in the back. Afternoons are NOT good times for my kids to travel. We made it back in one piece and life is good.