Is It Really Only July?

Boy, have we been busy the last few weeks. We had a 2 week vacation down in Utah, and got back last week. I have been cleaning ever since, but let's face it, when all the kids are home the best you can do is current damage control. Getting ahead has to come later.
So what have we done on this wild and wacky 2 week adventure? Well, to start, we stayed in Santaquin with Cliff's bro and his family. We left I.F. after Brandon's morning T-ball game. He got all three outs during the inning he played catcher, by the way. He has really enjoyed playing. Cliff helped his bro put up some dry wall in their unfinished basement, and we let the kids play. Later on, we went up the canyon by their house and roasted hot dogs and Smore's over a fire. They hiked around and threw things in the little river, and then it was time to head home. We went to church with them, except for Cliff, who sang with his mother in Delta. He headed back up to I.F. with his dad and the dog, and they all came back down that Wednesday evening.
While Cliff was working for a living, we had fun with the cousins. We broke out the Slip and Slide, went to the Red Barn for ice cream, made crafts, and had a picnic and swam at Spanish Fork Reservoir until Aunt Jennie cursed us with thunderstorms. Thanks, Jennie. No, really, it was a lot of fun to be there, and thank you for keeping us for a whole week.
Wednesday afternoon the kids and I drove over to Delta to wait for everyone else. Cliff and his Dad arrived around 11:30, and the next day cousins started to show up. We were pretty busy riding bikes, especially Brandon, who had to learn to ride a bike without training wheels in order to be in the bike parade.
He made it, and on Friday night Brandon and all the others took their decorated bikes and rode in the Children's Bike Parade. They were all so excited to participate!
Saturday came, and with it, all the 4th of July festivities. Cliff sang the National Anthem after the parade and before all the talks, and then he sang again that afternoon in the talent show.
My batteries died after the first pic of the parade, so no videos of Joe dancing to the marching bands or of the kids riding on horses. They had a lot of fun going to all the different booths and playing games. They went to see the fireworks that evening after we did our own perfectly legal small show with lots of water and supervision. My bro who works in the Sheriff's dept. in CA reads this blog.
Oh, the food, the food! We had carne asada, grilled by the grill master himself, shish kebabs, a great BBQ with Cliff's other bro, a flag cake, and I better stop now before I ruin all the hard work I've had to put in since then to make sure I still fit in my britches.
So why haven't I posted about any of this earlier? I have been exhausted. While on vacation, I had a nephew and then a niece born. I am still recovering. Whew!
Here's what's up next on the list of summer fun: the kids are going to take swim lessons, Ben is getting potty trained (we've already started and it's going MUCH better than I thought) and then at the end of the month, I am flying out to see my sis in VA. Yahooo!!!
Below are 2 slide shows to show you all the fun.