24th of July FHE

It has been our tradition over the past 8 years to host an annual dinner of some sort. In Provo and St. Louis we did a yearly luau. While in Rochester; however, we simplified our life by simply holding a neighborhood BBQ--usually on the 24th of July. This year, since we spent the month of July in Utah, actually returning on the 24th of July, we simplified even further and did away with hosting a dinner altogether. Instead, we skipped straight to desert. We didn't leave out the traditional pioneer family home evening lesson though--complete with pioneer children games. Here are a few of the children "gathering sticks for wood."






And here are a few shots of the kids eating Nick's yummy fresh blueberry cobbler.





Happy belated 24th of July everyone!! We do so love the pioneers!

Show Low, Arizona

After a long day of driving, we finally arrived at Grandpa McArthur's new house in the small town of Show Low, Arizona. Grandpa moved here last September when he started a new job as a single hospital administrator. Grandma has been living back in their Oklahoma house waiting for it to sell. She has visited the Show Low house several times, but none of the rest of us had checked out the new living quarters as of yet. Consequently, we were all pretty excited when we finally arrived.

The house Grandpa has been living in is actually owned by the hospital and provided to the CEO as a job perk. It is a rustic house, much like those in the surrounding areas, and is right off of the most elite golf course in town. While the house is very nice, without Grandma around to give it a woman's touch, it has remained pretty bare. As a result, one of the first things we did after we arrived was load up and head to the biggest shopping center in town. Yep, you guessed it--that's a Walmart! We picked up all sorts of things while we were there. The kids were especially thrilled since everything they asked to buy got a "Yes" instead of my usual "not today."



After getting the shopping done, we ate lunch with Grandpa at the hospital, and then hung out at the house for the rest of the day. The adults talked and the kids played. Actually, the kids spent hours mixing clay and water in the yard bird bath. They called it their "pottery" and made plans to get rich off of selling it. After some golfers drove by on their carts, however, they were forced to cut down their work force and put someone on guard to watch for flying golf balls. Despite the security burden, they still managed to make quite a large pile of clay balls. Kids are so funny sometimes!

The next day we ate a leisurely breakfast and then took all of the kids for a dip in the club house swimming pool. The water was actually fairly warm, and the pine trees in the back drop made for quite a scenic swim.











Back at the house that afternoon, after cleaning up from the pool, we got a surprise visitor that gave the kids a thrill. Uncle Kyle's good friend is a police officer. Consequently, he thought it would be funny to send him over to "arrest" the kids. They look pretty frightened, don't they?



Actually the kids loved it. The played inside of his car, ran the siren, and of course Spencer admired his gun! Thanks for the fun Uncle Kyle!









That night, after dinner on the patio, Grandma had another surpirse. She had picked up a lego castle at the store and Uncle Eric and the boys went crazy building for hours. Maddi even got in on the lego madness. It made me think maybe we needed a few more legos at our house.



Following lego time, Grandpa read the kids a bedtime story and we tucked them all into bed.



The next day we enrolled all of the kids in the country club's summer camp and spent the day hanging around the club house while they played. Here they are at arts and crafts time,



at recess,



and playing arcade games inside the main part of the club house.







The kids loved it! Actually, they loved the whole visit to Show Low. Unfortunately, however, we only got to stay a few days before climbing into the car yet again. It took us three more days of driving to finally get back to Minnesota, (we took a day layover in Oklahoma too) but we did finally arrive safe and sound back in Rochester after being gone the whole month of July.

McArthur Cousins

In addition to celebrating Grandpa's 60th birthday, we also got the pleasure of spending the weekend with all of our McArthur cousins. McArthur family reunions are few and far between with everyone so spread out and so busy with life, so this was a special treat. We all arrived on Friday, went to the party, and then spent the evening playing with the few toy we happened to have with us. These star wars characters were actually Nick's when he was little and we acquired them while staying with his family. Mikey and Matthew were especially appreciative of this acquisition.





Here's a shot of Maddi with baby Mark. Both of my girls were a bit obsessed with all of the babies around.



And here are all of the kiddos who were sleeping in our condo. They loved their little "sleep-over." And I loved it too--especially since Uncle Kyle came over and supervised the sleep-over so Nick, Jason, and I could sneak out to the late night Harry Potter showing. It was the first time I haven't seen a new Harry Potter movie at midnight on opening night--and waiting those 24 hours nearly killed me--but I survived.



The next day we ate a leisurely breakfast and all wondered over to the resort swimming pools. The kids were simply in heaven, many of them getting their first jump off of an actual diving board. The adults seemed to have a pretty good time too, and their assorted diving boards skills were a show in and of themselves.









(There's that stunning profile again. It hasn't changed much since he was sixteen months.)

























After cleaning up, we all donned our McArthur Family Reunion shirts and met up for Greg's birthday luncheon. It was pretty fancy--as you can tell from the towel on my head--with chips and grilled hot dogs and lots of laughter.





Then the kids played with Spencer's birthday legos while the babies napped and the parents visited.



That night, we all gathered up in Pine Valley for another family dinner. While the birthday dinner at the Pizza Factory brought back memories of eating out with Grandma and Grandpa McArthur, being in Pine Valley with the whole family was ten-fold the reminisce. The family BBQ in Pine Vally is about as McArthur as it comes, though a few things were different this go around. First off, it was my Dad who manned the grill instead of his Dad.



It made me miss Grandpa McArthur, as I am sure my own Dad did. Secondly, Nick and I (and the kids) volunteered to make the traditional Dutch oven potatoes. We weren't sure we would be able to get Grandma Rogers approval when she saw we were adding carrots and some cream of mushroom soup, but I think we won the rest of the crew over. They ate them anyway.







Following dinner we took some family pictures,





caught up with family,





roasted marshmallows,









(Love the finger in the nose!)











and went deer spotlighting. It all brought back so many memories. I doubt we will ever all be in Pine Valley again, but at least we can treasure the memories of this last McArthur Family Round-up.

The next morning we all parted ways, most returning to their homes. Grandma, Grandpa, Eric's family, and our family all stuck together for a few more days. Before leaving St. George we made an emotional visit to baby Byran's grave.





Then we caravanned down to Grandpas' new house in Arizona.