"Can We Stay For Another Week?"

 Steve and Angela and their kids stayed another day, and Amy and Susan stayed for a couple of days longer after the Investiture.  Cody and Christian had to leave right after Independence Day to get back to work.  The girls wanted to stay a little longer.  Steve's crew was heading over to Farmington to spend a night with Brian's family.  Doug and I were going to drive Amy, Eli, Calvin and Susan to Flagstaff where we would grab lunch together before they all left to go home with their families.  Eli came and asked if  they could stay another week.  I asked Amy if the boys could stay, and she said, "Yes!

We decided that we and the boys would meet Amy and Cody the following weekend near Flagstaff for a campout, and the boys would go back home with them.

One of Micah's goals while he was here was to scooter down the hill in front of our house!

Eli decided that would be a great idea, too!

While they were scootering, Kelly Aikeson, our neighbor, started practicing the bagpipes in his garage.  Bagpipes are loud.  The sound carried all up and down the block.  The kids had never seen anyone playing bagpipes before, so we knocked on Kelly's garage door and asked if the kids could watch him play.

He gave them a private (and loud) private concert!

Eating lunch at El Diablos in Flagstaff.

We picked and ate artichokes.  The boys liked dipping the leaves in butter.

Playing musical instruments.

Playing with pinwheels and the fan!

Watching TV with Grandad.

Tinkertoy contraptions.

Picking our entire harvest of 8 apricots!

That's twice as many as last year!

Playing in our backyard splashpad.

We tie-dyed shirts!

We read "Cook-a-Doodle-Doo," (probably a dozen or more times) about some animals that made strawberry shortcake.  There's a recipe in the back of the book, and we decided to make one.  It was delicious!

On our way to the campground on Friday, Eli threw up in the bathroom in Winslow.  He threw up probably every 20 minutes or so all the way to the campground.  (We stop and bought a good supply of Ziplock bags, and he made it in the bag every time!)  We made him a bed on a picnic table so he could rest until his parents came.  (He still was throwing up every half-hour or so, poor baby.)

We ate a dinner of crackers, fruit and cheese.  By this time I wasn't feeling very well.  I started throwing up (thank heavens for Ziploc bags), and threw up off and on until about 2:00 in the morning.  Then the dad started throwing up off and on the rest of the night.  Hence, no pictures.

In the morning, the Pederson car woke up with a flat tire.

That garbage bag is full of Ziploc bags of puke.

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Changing the tire was a trick, because of the gravel the car was parked on.

Packing up to go home.  We were planning on having lunch in Flagstaff, but instead, Amy and Cody got their tire fixed, and we just went home.  We still felt sicky.

This was clearly not a fun camping trip for Eli.