The Fourth of July

Band Performing at Tropic's
4th of July Celebration

The Fourth was a great time, as usual. We left the Henderson heat only to jump right into the Utah heat, though it is admittedly much less stifling in Utah than Henderson. We first stopped and spent a few days in Glendale with Kurt and Vivian. Mike, Ryan and Wes were all there as well at varying times, and we had a good time visiting their families. The kids love seeing their cousins, and always keep busy hiking on the side-hill just outside the house and getting into all kinds of stuff.

Rhett Boarding the Fire Truck

As things are just starting to come up in their garden, we took a little time to go up the creek and cut bean poles. They are basically narrow sticks which grow along creek banks which you push into the soil next to the bean plants so that they can grow up the sticks. It makes harvesting the beans much easier, and gives them room to grow. Kurt ran the chainsaw while Ryan, Wes and I worked with pruners cutting off the excess branches. I will tell you one thing. When you are next to a creek on a hot summer day where it is muggy, DON'T have both hands committed to a pair of pruners. The deer flies were out in force, and I mean FORCE! They were everywhere, and would land on you in droves. At one point I heard Soleil screaming and looked over. She had one on her ankle, and rather than swatting it, she just jumped up and down, getting bitten the entire time. I've mentioned before that she is terrified of flies (and I mean the house kind), so to have these biting deer files landing on her just about sent her into a tizzy. She locked herself in the truck after than and let us brave the flies. After getting back to the house, we all went to work putting the beanpoles in place in the garden, and then went in to cool down. Some other chores we helped do were to plant Grandma Vivian's flowers out in her new flower bed that had just recently been redone with new, stackable pavers and we also helped Grandpa, a very little, with his current project of rebuilding an old work truck. The man can fix anything. He's akin to McGyver.

Jesse Racing at Tropic's
4th of July Celebration

Jesse & Soleil Race Down the Slide at
Tropic's 4th of July Celebration

After a fun few days in Glendale, we reloaded the van and headed to Tropic. Francine and her family were there, so it was nice to see nearly everyone. We had a great time on Monday, the Fourth of July. They always have a nice celebration. Tropic has a well kept, large park for a town that size. They give kids rides on the fire-engine, several large, inflatable slides and jump houses, and other things for the kids to do. There are races, home-baked goods, cotton candy, and everything else you'd expect. They even had some live entertainment from a band who works locally for Ruby's Inn and a local dance teacher who teaches kids of various ages. It's a very patriotic place with people who love the USA.

One funny thing that happened in Tropic was when Jesse needed to go to the bathroom while someone else was in there.  I told him to go in the backyard (expecting him to go out back by the corrals where the livestock is kept), which is not that big of a deal in Tropic.  Not only did he not go the backyard by the livestock, but he didn't go in the backyard at all!  He went in the front yard!!   And, as luck would have it, the Sheriff was parked out front!!