DAY 3 - That morning after hanging out at Ann's house and letting the cousins get to know each other again, we drove back down to Centerville, Utah where some of Tonya's childhood girlfriends got together for lunch. It's amazing that after so many years, this group of girls can get together - and pick up right where we left off . . . many times with another child or two in the mix. It's amazing - I don't even know how many kids there are between us. More than half of the girls weren't there . . . but as you can see - we had a good turn out and lots of fun, too! Poor Dan - his plans fell through so he was a trooper and hung out with all us girls and our children! Reminded me of all the slumber parties (sans the guy), TP'ing, crushes, adventures, etc . . . I love these girls!
Since we were just blocks away, we stopped by the Centerville Cemetery where Grandma and Grandpa Forsberg (Tonya's grandparents) are laid to rest. It was a bit harder this time because my Uncle Gary had passed away since I was here last - and his grave is there just above Grandma & Grandpa's. But I'm glad we got a chance to stop.
That afternoon we headed up to Logan and spent a few hours at Grandma Dorothy's (Dan's mom) - with cousins, aunts, uncles . . . we had dinner and played in the water - well, the kids played in the water, the adults just threatened them to keep us dry. Jack chased ducks that kept coming around. The older kids took care of the younger kids - both in the groups playing in the water and those playing in (or avoiding) the grass. Apparently the maturity in a couple months makes all the difference in the world. Afterward, we went up to USU to watch the fireworks . . . we sprawled out on the lawn by Mountain-view and Valley-view towers . . . when Dan and I were first married, I was a Residence Director at VVT - so it was fun to show the kids our very first "home" as a married couple.
DAY 4 - HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!! We had parked the RV in Logan at Grandma's the night before then drove up to Dayton, Idaho (Dan's home town) for the holiday celebrations. For such a small town (if you've ever seen "Napoleon Dynamite" . . . Dan lived in an even smaller town outside the small town of Preston, Idaho) - they really get the celebration on! The parade was fabulous . . . best parade I've ever been to in fact - excluding the rose parade of course!!! But I don't remember getting candy at the rose parade . . . and any other parade I've been to might as well not have even attempted to give out candy - nothing has ever held a candle to Dayton's candy throwing parade!!! Dayton's level of candy distribution is what I've ALWAYS thought a parade should live up to! I'm highly impressed.
After the parade - there were other festivities at the park - food, fun, games, etc. Some of our favorites were shooting paint-ball guns at the targets, sifting through a pool of sawdust for toys, and this crazy-cool bun-gee powered slip n' slide. No kidding - there were these two boys - strapping boys, that is - this WAS farm country! They'd put this big bun-gee cord around the kids' waist - have them hold on . . . another strapping kid would hold the bun-gee back until just the right moment and then let 'em go!!! Looked so fun I was almost the first adult to do it. Check out Holly's blog for some video footage.
Later on we drove up Dayton's canyon to the "Turkey Shoot" - whatever that means . . . I figured it had to do with the long 4-wheeler trails making talon marks up the dusty mountains, but apparently it does have to do with real turkeys and, well, shooting . . . more than that, I know nothing. We left the RV there and went further up the canyon to Dayton Basin where the Kent clan was camping for the night. We had dinner and hung out - kids playing in the creek (big surprise there) and adults playing bocci ball. We went to "lookout point" to watch fireworks once it was dark enough and I was again impressed with the level of celebratory commitment in these small towns - you could see a few different firework shows in a few different towns from that view.
We left the family and returned to our RV at the Turkey shoot while the rest of the Kents stayed at the Basin to camp . . . . . .
and you're dying to hear what happened next, aren't you???
3 comments:
I'm glad to see pics from your trip. I do have to say though that you have Ann's blog linked to your Holly's blog link instead of mine. Thought that was funny!!
I miss you already! I love that picture you took of all of us. If you have a second, would you email it to me? Thanks!
Hey I'm so glad I found you Tonya! I knew you had to have a blog out there somewhere, I just didnt know where to find you. Your kids are getting SO big, and I didn't know you had four now. Time flies. Did you move into a new house too? My mom said to me a few weeks ago that she went into the store and thought "a friend of yours" was doing classes there. So here you are! Im linking you so I can always catch up with whats happenin. Tell Dan hi for us! -Lisa aksmeds.blogspot.com
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