Family is Everything

Last week was the Vere and Winnie Johnson family reunion. We've been having these reunions every two years now since 1993. Of course way back then we were much smaller in number and Grandma and Grandpa were still with us.

This year, everyone in the above picture attended (100) and we were missing 45 others who weren't there for one reason or another. Grandma and Grandpa's posterity has now reached 145 members, plus 6 more on the way (that I know of). We missed Grandma and Grandpa terribly, but I know they were there in spirit and I'm sure they were happy with what they saw and heard.

We had a great time as usual. Oh, how I love this family! It's hard to describe in words the feeling I get when we're all together. Thanks to everyone who made the reunion happen. I know how much work goes into these things.

There were tons of great pictures to choose from, with so many uncles snapping away. I'm going to post a few of my favorite shots (mostly taken by my dad). I think these few pictures capture the flavor of a typical Johnson family gathering.

Before Grandpa passed away last spring his priorities narrowed drastically. His constant mantra was "Family is everything!" Thus the saying on this year's t-shirts. Grandpa meant what he said and he was right, family is what it's all about.

Celebrating One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary of my very first official post on this blog. Since sharing the exciting news that we were the proud owners of not one, but two garbage cans, I have posted 82 other posts about life at the Dickey residence. In in my opinion, none of the other posts could top the excitement of that very first one.

Here I am with my two lovely garbage cans one year later. I want you all to know that our new (old) garbage can has served us well. Just the other day Mike was wondering what we ever did with only one garbage can, since we manage to fill up both of these, to the brim, every week. I remember. We made midnight runs to drop our excess garbage in the big dumpsters at the apartments down the street. (Don't tell anyone).

At this one year anniversary I want to say thank you to all of you who have faithfully read my blog and left such fun, insightful, kind comments. Also thanks to all those who have read and not commented. Comments or no comments, you have all put up with my severe lack of writing and spelling skills and my even bigger lack of interesting things to write about. Thanks for humoring me and reading despite my deficiencies. I love all of you for it.

To all of you who keep a blog for me to read, I thank you as well. I really enjoy all your blogs and love keeping up with your lives on the world wide web.

Here's to another year for all of us in the blogosphere.

Win-Win

We've had a busy week at our house. On Saturday morning I woke to a house that showed it. Laundry spilling out on the floor, bathrooms that were almost unusable, dishes piled high in the sink, toys everywhere, beds that hadn't been made for days, an inch of dust on every surface. Oh boy, a marathon cleaning session was in order. Seeing the mess, I knew what had to be done. I declared it "bonding time." Just dad and the kids. An adventure. Away from the house.

I presented the idea to Mike. No problem. He takes the kids on a mountain adventure, I stay home and clean. This kind of arrangement works out well for Mike and I. He prefers to spend his Saturdays in the mountains with the kids and my favorite thing is to have the whole day to clean without interruption. It's a win-win.

Added benefits: The kids have a great time and the house stays clean for a little more than five minutes.

Man, It's Hot!

The temperature reached the hundreds today. First time this summer. I broke out the popsicles and the kids came crawling out of the wood work. Here are just a few of them enjoying their cool treats. I bought popsicle molds at Target a few years ago. One of my best purchases ever. Nothing like a popsicle on a hot day like this one.

Perfect

Got home yesterday from the most perfect outing. The Crafts invited us to go with them on a four-wheeling weekend up to Daniel's Summit. It couldn't have been better. Great company, fresh mountain air, gorgeous scenery, delicious food, fast machines and bonding time with my husband. Perfect.

Another perk.... I recovered from my fear of ATVs. When Mike and I were first married, we went with some friends on an afternoon four-wheeling ride up Millville canyon. Being the inexperienced driver that I was (it was my first time) and the fact that Milliville canyon is very steep and rocky, I ended up rolling over the side of the path. After falling backwards 25 feet down a mountain side, I landed in a creek with the four-wheeler pinning me down in the water. I was perfectly shaken up and haven't wanted to ride much since, but this trip was different. We went on safe trails and I've decided that ATVs can be fun if used properly. I even drove one myself!

Back to the trip.....
After we arrived at the lodge we had a delicious dinner and then took the four-wheelers up the trails at night. You could see the path perfectly with the head lights. After awhile we stopped in a clearing, cut the machines, and listened to the quiet of the mountains while gazing at the stars. We talked a little about life.

I love being around Stan and Belinda. They have small children at home like we do, but they are grandparents as well. They've had experiences that we haven't. I learn much from talking to them, watching what they do. They inspire me in many ways. They're salt of the earth, service minded, family oriented, good, fun people. Perfect friends.



After a perfectly peaceful, uninterrupted sleep (we even got to sleep in a bit), the Crafts treated us to breakfast. Delicious and hearty. A perfect start for a day in the mountains.

It had rained a bit during the night and the morning was over cast, which was perfect because it was nice and cool. The rain had settled the dust on the roads, and everything looked lush and green in the softer light.

Goodness it was beautiful up there. One of the prettiest places I've been to.

Mike pondering the perfect view



And best of all, I got to spend the whole weekend with the perfect person.

Thanks again Stan and Belinda for such a great time. It's our turn now to take you out on the wave runners. Won't that be perfect.

Cute Toes, End of Woes

My boys have been on the rampage again.

The list of their destructions is long and horrible, starting with the holes they made in our neighbor's above-ground pool using large, jagged blocks of cement, then moving on to stripping the wires of our other neighbor's automatic garage door, then breaking into my friend's van. They rounded out their path of destruction by breaking the trunk latch on my cousin's car!

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that they have been caught many times of late climbing in window wells, spying on innocent neighbors at 6 in the a.m. and incessantly ringing the door bell of the guy down the street who works the swing shift and is trying to get some sleep.

The Larson's, bless their hearts, tried to repair the pool with patches, but the patches aren't holding and the water is slowly leaking out as we speak. When I got the phone call that the pool couldn't be fixed and would need to be replaced, I had a little break down, since I had just spent the morning trying to help Marc get into his broken trunk.

My friend Belinda called just after I'd gotten off the phone with the home owner's insurance people (thank goodness our policy includes liability), and made the mistake of asking how I was doing. Choking back more tears I expressed to her my worries that we would soon be banished from the neighborhood because of our lovely children.

Being the wonderful, insightful friend that she is, Belinda came to the rescue. She took my kids for the afternoon to Kangaroo Zoo and out for ice cream, and as if that weren't enough, paid for me to have a pedicure! How nice was that!!! I can't tell you the gratitude I felt for her as I sat having my feet dipped in warm wax and chatting, uninterrupted, to my friend Danielle, up from St. George, who happened to be getting a pedicure for the same reason as me. She has three crazy boys of her own.

So now I have very cute toes and soft heels, and although my woes are not completely gone, at least they have been soothed quite a bit. Belinda, I love you!

P.S. After crying to my mom as well, she had a good suggestion. She thinks I should sign the boys up for some Taekwando. It would be something for them to put their energies into and something to help teach them more discipline. I think it's a good idea. Maybe the could karate chop some boards instead of the neighbor's flower boxes. What do you think?

Channeling Their Inner Nepoleon Dynamite

Here is the boy's choice of footwear these days. I don't know why. Maybe they're worried they might run into a random patch of snow......in July......when it's 95 degrees out?

When I asked them why they insisted on wearing boots in the summertime they said, "because it's cool." I'm guessing they meant cool as in "fashionable and attractive", not cool as in "refreshingly free from heat."

I'm sorry to break it you boys, but these boots fall under neither definition of cool.



They don't seem to care.

Celebrating the 4th the American way....is there really any other way to celebrate it?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. I love this holiday. Stars and stripes waving everywhere, the smoky smell of BBQ and fireworks in the air, macaroni salad and corn dogs for dinner, salt water taffy dotting the ground, people adorned in red, white, and blue, feeling patriotic, and the fact that we're all celebrating something we love, together, even though our lives and ideas can be so different. It's good. I love America, love to celebrate her.

Mom and Dad came down to join us for the celebrations, so did Andrew and family.


We had a picnic.......


.... so did the ants.



While we waited for it to get dark enough for fireworks to start, the kids made nests out of dried grass left from the lawn mower. Mary Kate built hers and filled it with coconut macaroon eggs. They were yummy eggs.


The kids love Grandpa. I do too.










We parked the trucks across the street from the park and sat in the truck beds on our lawn chairs. This provided a perfect view and a quick, crowd avoiding get away afterwards. My favorite part of the fireworks was the collective ooohhhs and aahhhhs form the crowd when a particularly large or bright firework filled the sky. That and the gold fireworks with all the swirls.

What a great country we live in. I know I mostly take it for granted, not having experienced any other way of living, but each year, as I'm sitting in my lawn chair watching all the colors bursting above me, I feel so grateful, so blessed, to be an American.

God bless America.