We kicked off the holiday weekend by cooking out with Kevin' s sister, Tara, and her husband and family on Friday night. Kevin is expanding his grilling repertoire to include steak, and the rib eye's he and John cooked were wonderful-thanks also to Carl who accidentally left his steak rub here on Father's Day! Saturday, we took a picnic to Thanksgiving Point to wait for the fireworks. I bought the sandwiches and fixings so I could concentrate on the desserts- a peach cobbler, with some raspberries from the backyard thrown in, and a fresh raspberry pie, a la Diana O'Conner. It was a good thing that the food was good, because the wind was terrible and the fireworks were low-budget. I am not complaining because I really appreciate that Lehi city does a free, public show-just as it should be on the 4th of July- but it wasn't as well done as in years past. Sunday we sang patriotic hymns in church and had another spiffy dessert, a 'red, white, and blueberry' trifle.

I don't own a real trifle dish, so we made do with this baking dish.

Friday, the boys had friends over in the day to sell lemonade and popsicles. The competition for the few customers was intense and the little boys were soon out of business.

Monday, the boys and I took Kevin and Griffin back to Ghost Falls. We got a pretty late start since we had to get India packed off to EFY first thing. This of course required last minute runs to the store, etc. The sun was high over us before we arrived at the falls and we had to share the trail with many, many cyclists-not my favorite way to do it. Niall and Griffin climbed this rock face to get a better look at a cactus plant at the top. I brought some really big band aids, but didn't end up using them, thankfully.

We finished the weekend swimming, putting tired kids to bed, and doing a little evening gardening. The weather has been unseasonably cool-so unusual for Independence Day, but so nice.
The garden is struggling in spots. Our squirrel has wrecked my carrots and beets, which I have now replanted. The okra is slow, about which everyone but me is happy. In fact, everything is slow. On the bright side, we are eating some raspberries, the deer have not been around yet this summer, and we have a colony of wild honey bees living in the rock wall. We feel pretty special about the bees. And, we continue to enjoy the hummingbirds and finches at our feeders. Kevin has reconciled himself to the fact that the prettiest birds only come when he buys the pricey food.