4th of July

I know this is late, but I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. We had the chance to have Bob and Ilia down for the weekend, which was a lot of fun. The first night they were here we had some freak weather though. It was in the 100's and higher most of June. On July 3rd after they got here it started to hail and then down pour. I told one of my YW girls that I would take her to work and driving to her house, then her work and back home was like driving in rivers most of the way there was so much water. Avery, James and Bob happened to be outside when it started coming down. Avery was so excited to show Bob how she rides her new bike. But after the rain and hail started she came in with big crocodile tears. Scared by the thunder, lightening and hail and sad because she couldn't ride her bike anymore; it took us a while to calm her down and console her. Luckily it cleared up just in time for Bob and Ilia to go to the Tuacahn; which is an outdoor theater (amphitheater) here in St George. We spent out evening enduring the intense humidity. :p
For the 4th of July we had mentioned to Bob and Ilia that the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre was close by. So after the boys went to pick up food for a picnic Ilia and I went the outlet mall so she could pick up some cute clothes for her little boy that we will get to meet in December. After shopping we headed out to Mountain Meadows. This place is always so peaceful to visit and it wasn't very hot too which was nice. Avery enjoyed spending time with her uncle Bob and aunt Ilia.

After mountain meadows we headed up to Pine Valley Reservoir for  picnic. We packed our swim suits just in case, but by the time we got up there it was raining slightly and the ranger said that we could fish but no swimming. I was sad I didn't think to bring my pole and fishing tackle. The rain helped to keep everything nice and cool and even though it rained on us a bit; after the heat of St George we really didn't mind. Sitting by the lake and having our picnic and then exploring after wards was so peaceful. I was sad when James said we should get back, but I knew he was right. We still had to go home and make dinner and then there was a rodeo we wanted to try and get to.

For dinner I made BBQ dutch oven chicken, corn on the cob with rosemary butter rolls and a blueberry cobbler for dessert. By the time we ate and was home relaxing no one really wanted to go back out to the rodeo. So we decided to stay home and just light off our own fireworks. between us and our neighbors we had a really fun time and an impressive firework show to watch. We came in about 10PM and our neighbors were still going strong with their fireworks.

 We did have a small mishap. I was watching Avery very closely with her sparklers and we talked about how hot they are and not to touch them. After the sparkler went out I looked away for just a second and that's when Avery dropped her sparkler but then went to pick it back up and picked it up wrong and burnt her pointer finger and thumb. I felt so horrible. My poor little girl. We treated her burn and got her an ice pack; for the rest of the fireworks she sat in my lap and would occasionally whimper. It was so heartbreaking and I felt so horrible that I couldn't do anything more to help her or take her pain away. Despite her burn she really enjoyed watching all the fireworks and was very excited and happy when the aerials would go off.
Bob and Ilia had to leave early Sunday morning to get back in time for their church because they had a lesson to teach. So we said our goodbyes to them that night and by the time we had woken up Sunday morning they were gone. Avery was so sad that they were gone and kept asking where they went. Despite Avery's burn we had a really great 4th of July. We were especially excited to be able to share it with Bob and Ilia.