Jackson turns 4!

Jackson had a birthday!  He's 4 years old!  We had a family barbecue at our house.  His grandpa and grandma from Springville came, Randy and LynAnn Gonzales.  Our niece and her husband and daughter were here visiting from Washington DC, Aimee, Andrew and Lilyanne.  She is a cutie!  And of course all of Eric and Randa's family and us.  It was the perfect evening for a BBQ and Andrew even grilled some salmon they had brought from Alaska (they visited there first before they came to Utah).  I passed on the salmon but several others had it and loved it.  Jackson loved opening his presents and had many eager people ready to help him!  His transformer cake (really cupcakes) was very cool and I think he had a fun time!  The hammocks were a hit as always.  Aimee is always so good to entertain the littles.  It was fun having them here!  Happy Birthday Jackson!

Farnsworth Firestorm 2015...

I can verify that this was Eric's biggest and best fireworks production to date!  He always does a show in his cul-de-sac 3 days after Pioneer Day.  The last legal day to shoot fireworks. The show was amazing!  Words don't do it justice.  Stadium of Fire has NOTHING on Eric's show!  Of course Uncle Bobby's food truck was there too so we got good eats and shaved ice.  We actually got a little cool and Randa had to bring us a blanket!  We were wishing we could trade our shaved ice in for a hot chocolate! Jeanine came with us again this year, and Clif, and of course Nate and Lilly joined us as well.  It was fun night!  He really lit up the sky!!  20 plus minutes of non-stop fireworks!

Dave supervising the pre-production.  ha.

Beautiful and Beautiful...

Sunday afternoon we decided to take a few of the McKinney clan to see the Payson Temple and then to walk the Grotto trail which is close by.  It is a lovely walk through the woods and ends at a grotto.  We were hoping for more water, but were a little disappointed.  The temple was a little disappointing too as the gates were closed!  We couldn't walk around it.  Only got some pictures from the front.  It was still beautiful, we just wanted to walk the grounds a little more.  The grotto was beautiful too, just not enough water!  But enough for little boys to splash and get wet!  Even though it looks like people are on their phones, they are really just getting them out to take pictures.  There's not much phone signal up in the canyon.  It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon with our loved ones who will all be leaving to go home soon.  

McKinney cousins and a fun surprise!

Saturday we had a fun BBQ with all the McKinney cousins that were in town.  John and April's family (most of them) were here and of course Dave's mom Barbara.  It was fun having her stay with us!  And of course Clif was here too! We enjoyed our BBQ and visiting.  S'mores were a hit as were the hammocks.  Collin was here with his two boys, Kirsten and Dave with their three kids (baby Mae is just the cutest!) and John and April had one of Katy's boys and two of Aaron's girls with them.  The cousins had great fun playing together.  John and April took a cute picture with "most" of their grandkids.  They had bought shirts for each family.  Too bad they weren't all here.  There were 6 of them missing I think. Anyway, later after the BBQ, Nate and Amanda went on a date to star gaze up in Provo Canyon. He used glow sticks for his proposal.  Cute! When they got back late that night, she had a lovely ring on her finger!  It was a great day all around!