We spent our Independence Day up in Soda Springs. I have nothing but fond memories of visiting Soda Springs growing up and it was so much going back and visiting with my little family.
We drove up from Bear Lake and headed straight to the parade. We met up with my Grandpa and Grandma Clegg, aunts and uncles, and cousins and had so much fun. It was the first time any of them had met Sarah - and some Jacob! - and we had a great time. Jacob quickly learned to love parades when he was showered with candy! He loved running out with all of my little cousins and picking up candy and putting it in his bag. It was adorable - and we also have about ten pounds of candy if anybody wants some :)
After the parade we headed over to my Grandma Dixie's (whom we had just seen earlier in the week when she had come home from her mission) and caught up with how her first week home had gone. It was great to see her and hear how she was settling in. She also got out some toys for Jacob and Sarah to play with which brought back TONS of memories for all of us girls. They were the exact same toys that we had played with when we were young and it was, once again, so fun to now watch my kids playing with them.
We then headed over to my Grandpa and Grandma Clegg's house for a family barbecue. It was great to have the family together and catch up with people. We didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked because the little kidlets were pretty tired but we still took some great big family pictures and got to enjoy our time with one another.
We also made an unexpected stop at my Uncle Dan and Aunt Debbie's home because before the parade we ran into Mark's sister, Teresa, who happened to be in town with her family and staying there. So we decided to make just a quick stop there and say hi before we headed back to Bear Lake. It was great to see her and some of her awesome kids and it definitely got us excited to spend more time with them in a couple of weeks at the Berning reunion.
After that the kiddos fell asleep really fast in the car again and we made the drive back to Bear Lake. We stopped and drove around Georgetown for a little bit to look at where Mark grew up and see how things have changed. I love seeing the places that are important to him and bring back lots of memories for him too.
We got back quite a bit sooner than my family and so we just relaxed and watched Swiss Family Robinson and had some down time. Once they got back we drove down to La Beau's and had dinner. My Mom had gotten some glow sticks for Jacob and we played with those for awhile and then the kiddos went to sleep. The rest of us went out on the back porch and watched the lake and the different fireworks going off. I am so grateful for this beautiful country that we live in, for the freedoms we enjoy and the people I get to share it with.
We then came inside to play and Megan, Mark and I started to play another round of Shake 'N Take. And yet again another mouse came to play. Honestly, I think we were all just expecting it. Except for what we didn't expect was that we would have several mice! We saw one mouse it pretty quickly fell down the stairs which made me really nervous because Jacob was sleeping in a room all by himself at the base of the stairs. But then more came. There ended up being at least three or four mice that we saw that night. Another fell down the stairs and the others just kept going back and forth along the wall. It was disgusting. We knew there was nothing we could do about it and Mark picked me up once again and took me to our room.
It was the year of the mice. We hope that we never have them again!
The next morning we woke up to rain, picked up and headed out!
The reunion was so much fun! We came back with fun stories and memories and got to spend a lot of really great family time together. I can't wait for the tradition to continue and see how our family continues to grow.
