A little bit of Billy

Growing up my Dad and I didn't see eye to eye many times. Some of my best memories, though, are of playing music with him. He went through a Billy Joel phase when I was in my teens. Especially the "River of Dreams" music. He would turn it up loud and play along on his keyboard. It was awesome.

One of my favorite songs from the CD is called Lullaby. I downloaded to my IPod this week. Last night as I was winding down from my day I decided to listen to my IPod, which I hardly ever do when getting ready for bed. As I went to lie down this song came on. It was kind of like getting a goodnight hug from my Dad.

(The music is off a bit in the video...not really cued up correctly, but you get the idea.)

4th of July Gathering

On the evening of July 4th we all gathered at Janet (Nicole's mom) and Kirk's house for Navajo Tacos, which have become quite the tradition at family dinners. We had just under 100 show up. The yard was full..what a great sight to see. We also provided pinatas for the kids, which have also become a tradition. Many of them had been asking their parents all week when they would get to hit the pinatas. Of course we blindfolded the older kids to make it more difficult for them. Mike also moved the pinatas around to make it harder. We only have a few mishaps that evening, which is amazing considering all the kids running around. All in all, it was a fun evening.

Richard, Neil, Norald, Gilbert, and Loraine

Whitney taking a swing at a pinata.

The little ones gathering candy.

Hans, Lloyd and Adrin

Jacob and McKay

Richard and Neil

Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Loraine

Wilson taking his swing

Eli, Ava, Kristin

Ethan

Daniel, Heidi, Hannah H., Sariah, and Maren

Whitney and her cute bows.

Wilson enjoying his taco.

Seth, Sam, Mark, and Erik

BrookLyn, Elle, Manda, and Nellie

Nathan taking a moment to rest before the festivities.

Ella, Patricia, and Leslie

Neil and Steve

Horseshoe Bend

On the afternoon of the 4th, we decided to get out of the house and head to Horseshoe Bend, which is a lake about 30 minutes from Lovell. (One of the main reasons for going was so that Mom could make the scones for dinner without children in her kitchen.) We loaded up the vehicles and headed out. It was kind of overcast, but it made it perfect for sitting out because it wasn't so hot. The kids said the lake was freezing. I'm sure it was because there had been a lot of runoff from the snow pack that week. Ella told me that the lake has risen about 10 feet in just over a week. Craziness! I just watched as everyone else swam and played. I didn't feel like getting wet. It was fun to watch everyone else. Here are a few pictures to highlight:

Whitney wasn't too sure about getting all wet. It was pretty cold.

Most of the group hanging out in the water.

Jaelen making one of her many trips back and forth.
(Stinkin' cute girl!)

Aden trying to act cool.
(Actually, he was pretty cold from the lake.)

Amanda being cute.

Kaleb being a dork.
(He wore his hat while swimming. I gave him a hard time and this is the look I got.)

Alea being the princess while drying off.
(She was even eating grapes.)

Hangin' with Aunt Shawnee

I was able to spend some time with Whitney and Wilson during the day of July 2nd. We had fun filling some pinatas with candy and then headed to the kiddie pool at the park. Here are some pictures of our fun-filled day.

'Filling' the pinatas. They were more interested in eating the candy than putting it into the pinatas.

Wilson at the pool.

Whitney had a blast.

Wilson cheesing it out for me.

With their floaties having fun.

One more of Wilson 'riding' one of the pinatas.

The Haggen Dinner

Saturday, July 2nd we had a 'Haggen' dinner. Really, it was just the descendants of Deloy and Nellie Mayes. Mom meant to invite those invited on the Haggen side, but forgot. (They were later invited to the dinner on the 4th). We were supposed to go up to Five Springs, but heard the creak was a raging river. Since there were many little kids to consider, we decided to meet at Armory Park instead. I think it ended up pretty nice because the kids could play while the adults sat and talked. Mike brought his grill and made some yummy hotdogs, pork chops, and chicken. Everyone else brought potluck items. It was a satisfying evening, both because of the company and the food. Here are some of the pictures I captured that evening.

Uncle Robert and Uncle Steve
I was so excited to see both of them at the dinner. Robert felt well enough to attend both gatherings that day. Steve drove down from Washington with Leslie for the reunion.

Brooklyn
She had broken her foot the day before (rolled a heavy TV onto it). She was all smiles, though, at the dinner.

Linda and Richard

Mark and Shayla

Kirk happy to eat his dinner.

Nate and Hans

Juanita with a few of her grandchildren: Levi, Shae, and Taylor.

Tyler Garner, Alea Mayes, and Maren Reynolds

Uncle Richard and I (with my pretty face)

Memories: July 4th

Growing up we didn't do much different for the 4th than any other day of the year. In my later teenage years, as cousins and I began to have money, we would mostly buy bottle rockets. We would then have bottle rocket wars out at Lloyd's in the field between their place and Richard's. Since bottle rockets were cheap, we had lots to shoot at each other. We often got bored before the end of the war. We would put hundreds into a can and light them all at once. It was actually pretty cool when lighting that many.

The bottle rocket wars became pretty dangerous. One year there was a rocket that blew up pretty close to Spencer's head. The next year he wore a helmet. Didn't help because the bottle rocket went into the helmet and blew up. He was without hearing for a while. Since then we really haven't done much in the way of bottle rocket wars. Now I think they do tank wars. Hopefully, no one will get hurt that way.

Annual July 4th Mayes' Breakfast

The morning of July 2nd we had our annual Mayes' breakfast where the extended family usually gets together. LeRoy, Clarence, Lloyd and Isaac made a wonderful breakfast, with the help of Claudia and my mom. I'm not sure how many people were there, but it was pretty full with all the kids running to the park and back to the pavilion. I've noticed in the past, but it was really apparent at this breakfast, too. It seems that each family prefers their own people over mixing with the others. We all sat in our family units, even though there were others to visit with. Often, we even sit in our smaller family units. I think it's a bit ironic that we have these large gatherings to see each other but we often don't visit with those outside of our own family. Here are some pictures from the breakfast.

Isaac, Lloyd, Clarence, Leroy

Kirk

Whitney and Wilson
Wilson was pretty solemn that morning. He's usually a happy pretty kid. Not sure why he was like that, but I kind of enjoyed him cuddling with me.

Don and I

"The Singles"
Don, me, Seth, Karren, and McKay

Sadie Reynolds

I just thought this was too cute.