The Decker Bunch: July 2025

I'm getting in the bad habit of only blogging every two months. I need to get back in the habit of writing every month.

I only get two months of summer break now, so this is the blog of my entire Summer Vacation. It was short, but good.

The old Red Rock Elementary School is being demolished--"Pave Paradise and put up a parking lot."
My room is the one on the left. It's one of the last rooms standing.

We got to have Brian's and Chelsea's kids with us for a few days while they went on a temple jaunt in southern Arizona. Every time the kids stay with us, they want to make and decorate Granola Breakfast Cookies!

It's amazing how sprinkles make everything more like a party!

Doing origami in the tree.

Feeding currents to the girls.

We have a new Children's Museum in Gallup. We spent a few hours there one afternoon.

I ordered these from etsy for my classroom. In my new room, we have a window into the hallway. I put them there. Ms. Arreguin is my new Resident intern this year.

Grandad paid the kids to pick the rocks from our neighbors yard out of our garden area.

We had a backyard water shooter fight!

David discovered the Sonic the Hedgehog recipe book on the shelf. He and Grandad made Sonic Chili Dogs for lunch. They even made the chili from scratch.

Happy Independence Day. Everyone was able to make it home for the celebration. These pictures are all out of order.

Getting ready for the fireworks!

Brian always does a good job as our pyrotechnic!

Mongolian Barbeque has turned into a favorite tradition.

Emily and Erika made me a beautiful Brain Flakes flower for my hair.

Cooking the traditional Flag Waffles!

Steve, the Drum Major, leads the parade!

I bought a box of Buffets Chocolates to share. I used to work at Buffets when I was a senior in high school, and then during summers when I was home from BYU.

This year, the adults did a parade for the kids after the kids' parade. We handed back the candy they threw to us during their parade.

The kids wanted to make Strawberry Shortcake like in the book Cook-a-Doodle-Doo. So we did

Dressing up like the characters in the book while we at the shortcake!

Susan, Micah, and Erika stayed for a few days after everyone else headed back home.

Suzu taught Erika how to whistle through a lilac leaf!

There is now a flight from Gallup to Las Vegas. We took Susan to her plane when it was time for her to go home.

Micah wanted to bake cookies. We kept burning them. That's how we figured out the oven thermostat was no longer working. We realized that as much as we loved that old harvest yellow wall oven, the time had finally come to get a new oven. A new school, a new refrigerator (because ours died and we had to replace it) and a new oven. That's a lot of change for me to eal with al at once.