Hi all,

Here's the latest from Arizona. 
Sunday 6 July 2008
Fourth of July week meant a nice, short week.  It's too bad every weekend can't be 3 days long. 

Friday Rachel took the girls to Target to buy clothes for a Stake service project.  Troy stayed home and tried to keep Zach out of trouble, which is easier said than done.  We met Martin, Ann, Bob and Sarah Z. at our favorite Carls Jr. with a playground for dinner.

Later that night we went down to the local park with Nate and family and Julie Gist and Jared to watch the fireworks.  The show was scheduled to shoot from the Gilbert town party at Mesquite High School.  Rachel bought 12 packs of glowing necklaces and bracelets at the dollar store for the event.  Once we got there, we started handing them out to our kids.  Suddenly there was a swarm of kids asking for handouts for themselves and their cousins and their brothers, etc…  Next year I think we'll setup a stand and sell some for 4x what we bought them for to recoup our expenses.

The kids had a good time running around the park and watching the fireworks.  Fortunately a bit of a Thunderstorm was blowing nearby and blew some slightly cooler air in.  The daytime high was 113, so it would have been over 100 at 9:30 show time.  The storm cooled it down to around 95.  Still hot, but bearable.

Saturday was spent picking and slicing apples from our apple tree.  There were still more to go on Sunday.  Troy took the girls over to a friends pool for a couple hours.  Troy and Rachel had date night out while uncle Bobby watched the kids. 

The holiday weekend also meant that there were not many people in church.  We were working with a skeleton crew.  Troy even had to sit up on the stand because the Bishop and his second counselor were both out.  Zach came up to visit him during the last testimony, but stayed quiet, and then went back down for the closing song.  Katie forgot that she had to give a talk in church until this morning, so we made her write it during Sacrament meetings.  Teaching her important life skills like that is one is what we get paid to do as parents.  She did a good job

This week instead of swimming classes, the kids went to a city-sponsored summer rec class every morning.  Due to the short, holiday week, the class had fewer than normal attendees.  Far from being a bad thing, this meant they got to do a few extra crafts and games. 

Zach's word of the week is Diego, which he says more like "Hego".   He has added "my turn" and "my seat" as well.  He tried to tell me a couple extended stories this week, but I had no idea what he was trying to say, and I didn't have Claire there to make up a translation for me. 

Next week is swim class again and preparation for our trip to Idaho for vacation.  Take care until next time.