Vacation!
We had our annual summer vacation last weekend. We always go visit Ryan's grandpa in Snowflake, AZ for the Pioneer Day Celebration. Ryan's parents and all but one brother came, too. I got everything ready and packed so we could leave the second Ryan got home from work. He even left work 1/2 an hour early so we could make it in time to see the fireworks in Snowflake.
Jared was so excited to be going on a "car trip" that he refused to take a nap Friday. But that worked out well because he slept in the car most of the way. We made it to Snowflake with a few minutes to spare before we all drove up to a lookout to watch the fireworks. But someone hadn't covered the fireworks from that afternoon's thunderstorm and they got wet! So they were cancelled, but they would try again the next night.
That night was awful because Zach woke up lots, unable to breathe through his stuffy nose. The next night, Zach slept sitting up in his car seat and it was much better. Jared slept on the floor.
The next morning we woke up without a little boy on our floor. He'd gotten up on his own to play with his cousin, Kaleb. They had SO much fun together! They ran and hit and screamed and laughed at each other all weekend.
First were the "Diaper Races." They line up all the kids by age on the lawn of the big old chapel, then tell them that if they run to the other side they'll get a piece of candy. Jared did it last year, but he didn't "get it" and Ryan had to hold his hand and walk him to the finish line. This year he understood, and ran. When he got to the finish, he stopped and looked around like, "what now?" He hadn't heard me calling to him. Kaleb didn't "get it," so Ryan held his hand and ran with him.
Back at Grandpa's, we had a nice breakfast outside, then headed to the parade. It starts a block from Grandpa's house, so we sit under the same tree and watch the parade as it begins. Jared was old enough this year to run out and get the candy that people on the floats throw out to the kids. He even got an Otter Pop! He was very slow about going to get the candy, and most of it got snatched by older kids first, but they threw so much candy that even the older kids stopped picking it up and Jared and Kaleb had their chance.
Then we went to the annual barbeque at the neat old chapel on main street. We found a nice shady tree to sit under, but we all got up with sap on our pants. Bad idea, I guess!
We coerced the boys to take naps and enjoyed a lazy afternoon chatting and doing nothing. We found a blackberry bush that had crept through the neighbor's fence and ate every single ripe one. Then Grandpa told us that the owners didn't pick them, so we reached through the fence and picked everything we could reach. Then Ryan and I took Jared up the small hill to the park, but dark clouds were swirling into town and we thought that standing on large metal playground equipment wasn't the best idea. We got home in time to escape the downpour, but of course, then we went out on the porch to watch the lightening. The boys loved it! The guys had to run the barbeque in under the back porch so they could finish cooking our dinner. It was great.
As we were finishing up our dinner, the women suddenly all decided to go see Snowflake High School's production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which started 10 minutes later. We scrambled to get there on time, but we made it. Zach came with me, but didn't like it very well. At first he watched the play, but between scenes (when the lights were out and there was nothing to see) he got fussy. Then he would freak out every time the audience clapped. Poor little guy. But the play was pretty good. When we walked outside to go home, we saw that they had dried off the fireworks. We sat on the tailgate of the Jeep and watched them from the parking lot.
The next morning we went to Ryan's cousin's baby blessing. Blessing him that day meant that they had tons of family there, since lots of us were already in town for the 24th. Jared made friends with his second cousin, Cade.
After church we had yet another meal, then liesurely packed up and reluctancly headed back home. On our way through Payson, we stopped and snapped a few pictures of Grandpa Eagar's old ranch and Grandma's house in town. Both have changed quite a bit, of course.
Much to our displeasure, it got hotter and hotter as we descended from the mountains. We talked about trying to figure out a way to stay in Snowflake forever!!!
We got a shock as we pulled up to our house. There was a "For Sale By Owner" sign on our lawn! Our first thought was that our crazy neighbor was trying to give us a hint. But it turns out that it was a good-hearted prank by Ryan's scouts. Even better, word got around at church on Sunday while we were gone and the Bishop and our home teacher got all worked up about not knowing that we were planning to move. Pretty good prank, huh?
It rained on us that night, but we could hardly stand to go outside to watch the storm. It was still 106 at 10:30 pm, with high humidity. We felt bad for our poor cat and let him sleep in the laundry room.

See more pictures of our vacation in our album!