4th of July Weekend

This last weekend we made our way up to Lakeside to visit Tevia’s parents. I had an extra day off of work so we were able to leave on Thursday after picking up Risa. The drive up was uneventful, but fun as we got some rain. Since I rarely see rain, it was nice to drive in it and I looked forward to being in a cooler climate for a few days.

Upon arrival we met Tevia’s parents at our favorite restaurant: La Casita. This was a great start to the weekend and I enjoyed my machaca chimichanga. We played “Ticket to Ride” several times while in Lakeside. This game was introduced to us by Jacob Webb while we were in UT last. We have played it a few times online with Jacob Wall and my parents, but we finally bought the game last week and were excited to play it. Jarek loves the game and wanted to play it anytime we had a free moment. I also enjoy the game, but have to admit I am not too good at it.

On the 4th we decided to do a BBQ in the afternoon and had some good burgers and hot dogs in the new gazebo at Maison Webb. In the evening we headed over to Show Low high school to see the fireworks. We had gone here a few years before and Jarek was very young and hated the fireworks and noise. This time it was Enok who didn’t like them. He spent the entire show with his head buried in Risa’s jacket. The show was nice with one exception. A few cars over there was a guy who was either completely drunk or stoned or both. After each big firework he would scream something at the top of his lungs. At times it was just a “yahoo” or something like that. But other times he would drop the F-bomb and say crude things about Iraq. Fortunately our kids were shielded behind a truck and so you couldn’t really hear the guy. It was only near the end (and after hearing the family by us complain about him) that I realized how close the guy was. I am amazed that the people around him just let him go on. This was a family show and this poor guy was so self-absorbed that he didn’t care what was going on around him. I’m glad my kids didn’t see/hear him. But I hope that if we had I would have had courage enough to go talk to him and his group and ask them to take care as there were kids around.

The weather was gorgeous and we spent plenty of time on the lawn playing badminton or golf or volleyball or just sitting around. Tevia’s father shot off rockets which the kids loved. On Saturday we went to a party where they roasted a pig. We didn’t get much of the pig, so afterwards we rewarded ourselves with a nice trip to Dairy Queen. Tevia and I shared a Girl Scout Thin Mint Blizzard; Jarek ordered a banana split. We enjoyed the treat and compared calories as there was a list of nutritional data right by our table. Though we didn’t have Wii Fit with us, it was still always in the back of our minds.

Sunday we went to church and afterwards ate some sandwiches on the homemade bread the boys and grandma had made. The drive home was awful. The usual 3.5 to 4 hours took over 5 due to traffic. The craziest part was I have no idea why traffic was so bad. It took us about 1 hour to go 14 miles or so at one point – and then all of the sudden traffic was great again. There was no wreck, no light, no nothing. Very odd. We dropped Risa off and prepared ourselves for Monday. Yeah Monday!