Eventful trip home from CA!

So, on our way home from California, 3 eventful things happened all within about an hour of each other. As we got close to the Grapevine, we saw this truck on fire. You can't see all the fire trucks, but they were blocking that entire side of the freeway. Traffic coming the opposite direction was completely stopped and backed up for miles. We commented that we were glad we weren't going north!

Then, a little while later, about half way up the grapevine, we saw this ahead!
And it started coming closer to the road we were on. We were thankful to get through this before they shut down this side of the freeway.

Then just as we were coming off the grapevine, traffic did slow down, but not for long because this accident had just happened - the emergency vehicles had just arrived. We felt so bad for these people and hope everyone was okay.
It all ended well and we actually did make pretty good time. And when we got to Blythe, look at the beautiful clouds we saw. We were thankful to get home safe and sound last night.

Visit to Livermore

We had a fabulous weekend visit to California and loved spending time with Michael, Mallory & Madie. What a little sweetheart she is! It was so much fun watching her and playing with her.

Here is Papa reading her a story - you can tell she's really interested in it!

Cute picture of Michael, Mallory and Madie at the park.

Madie loves to swing!

And she crawled in the grass for a few minutes, but it wasn't her favorite thing to do.

And here's the cute family in downtown Livermore. We fell in love with the downtown area - they have cute shops - sort of the European, outdoor eating and living lifestyle. It's funny because all the years we lived in California, we only drove by Livermore on the freeway, but never stopped to see what a great little city it is. We're glad M,M & M can live in such a beautiful place.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Our Anniversary was last Friday - 34 years! We had the chance to spend the day in one of my most favorite places ever - Monterey and Carmel! I love, love, love it there and had many wonderful times there when we lived in California.We had lunch on the Monterey Wharf - we got our clam chowder bread bowls - ummmm!

And look who joined us for our anniversary dinner - THE BIRTHDAY GIRL! Yes, Madie was born a year ago on our anniversary - what a great present that was (and is)!
It's always a beautiful day in Monterey - even when it's overcast and gray. However, the sun came out for about 2 hours while we were there, which makes it even nicer.
After Monterey, we drove along 17 mile drive into Carmel. We got this picture of the Lone Cyprus, but I didn't get any pictures of Carmel for some reason, but it was beautiful and quaint as always. What a great way to spend our anniversary (and Madie's birthday!).

Family Reunions

We had a fun July with 2 family reunions back to back. The Clark Reunion was on the 24th of July weekend and we stayed at 5 Star Ranch in Birdseye, UT. This was our 3rd time staying there and it was so much fun. Here is a picture of everyone who was at the reunion. We all stayed under the same roof for 2 nights and we all lived to tell about it. Here are Sadie and Sophie at the water balloon toss. They're so cute and just the same size.

We roasted marshmallows and ate smores.

Sorry, Melissa - I couldn't resist - this picture was just too good not to post.....

Took turns going on canoe rides.....

ate blue candy......

ate other yummy food.....

enjoyed visiting....

and played some Rook, of course.....

Okay, and I guess I have bragging rights! I won the Rook championship for the 3rd time in a row. The first 2 years Tyler was my partner and this year my brother, Dave, was my partner. I wish I had a picture of the great prize I won - can anyone send a picture of that along to me?

It was so much fun and I love my family! Thanks, Dave & Ruth for a fun reunion and a HUGE thank you to Mom for making it all possible.

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The next weekend we had Bryan's family reunion. We learned about Bryan's Grandpa and Grandma - Arthur Vivian and Andrea Rich Watkins. We went on a treasure hunt around different parts of Orem - a home they lived in, the cherry farm they owned, the Scera Theater (Bryan's Grandpa was the 1st Stake President in Orem and helped start the SCERA), and we ended up at the cemetery, where Bryan's nephew and wife made an appearance dressed as young Vivian and Andrea. Here is a picture of Chris & Kareena at the cemetery with Bryan's Dad and his 2 sisters. And below that are the pictures they used to find their outfits. Amazing resemblance!

Here's a picture of the whole gang at the cemetery, near Arthur & Andrea's graves. We went back to the Scera Pavilion after this and ate - we also celebrated Bryan's Dad's 94th Birthday!

Bryan and I are so blessed to come from wonderful families and it was fun to see so many of them this summer.

Isn't it over yet?

Friday 110/87

Saturday 111/90

Sunday 114/92

Monday 111/91

Tuesday 110/90

Wednesday 111/90

Thursday 109/86

Friday 108/86

Saturday 107/85

Do I see a cooling trend coming? Probably not quite yet, but at least in September it starts cooling down more at night. I'm counting the days! Where are the monsoons anyway?!?!