The Days Surrounding Independence Day!

 I love Independence Day.  I always have!  It's one of my favorite days of the year.  I loved it when I was a child growing up.  I loved it when we had all our kids living at home, and I love it now that our crew has grown up!  This year didn't disappoint me one bit.  It was a good day!  (I also want to add that I love being able to snag pictures from other people's blogs!  I updated my blog after theirs were posted!)

We broke out the Washoos!  The dad added two new colors of washers this year!

Brian skunked us all!

Guess who lost...  again.

The dad wasn't too far behind Brian.

David was really cute.  He only wanted to use 3 washers.

We tried playing Bocce, but we all (women-folk) kept getting distrated, so we didn't actually even finish a game.

David is showing Susan how to play "Oh, Rats!"  He took liberties with the rules at first.

Lots of swinging at Grandma's house!

I love this picture!

We pulled out our kids' Play-Doh toys.  I can't even remember the last time these toys were used.

The ribs are ready!   (They were delicious.  I think Susan ate 10 of them.)

Peter's first rib bone.  He liked it!

A good time to update teir family picture!

Grandma bought all her grandboys Independence Day outfits!  David and Peter are sporting their new duds!

Steve, Angela and Micah celebrated Independence Day in Provo.  Here's Micah wearing his new duds!

This is Eli in the 0-3 month outfit I got for him.  Clearly it is still to big.  He can celebrate sometime, maybe in September.

Since his matching clothes didn't fit yet, he celbrated by being swaddled in this patriotic blankie!

Amy and Eli at home watching 1776!  Amy said Cody watched it for the first time this year.  Yay, Cody!

Our Independence Day parade!

Brian giving Peter his first tastes of Lemon Ice Cream during the fireworks!

It was delicious!

Susan was the Pyrotechnic this year!

Getting ready to shoot off fireworks in the driveway.  It was actually darker than it looks here.

David loved the firework show!

Brian left to go back to work on Thursday early in the morning.  The girls all went geocaching in the Vanderwagen area.

Don't you love the name of the road?

I didn't actually find this one, but Chelsea wanted me in one of the pictures.

This was a really cool one!  David got to pull this one out!

We had lots of fun in the sandbox (sandtent?).

Playing with the Waffle Village!

More fun with Oh, Rats!

We did some backyard fishing.  I forgot to take pictures of the rest of us fishing.

Brian got back Friday afternoon.  Boy, was Peter happy to see his Daddy!

We played some Frisbee Golf.  We used actual Frisbee brand discs, and they really did work better!

Sleeping babies are precious!

"The Spoiler"  is giving Peter some tastes of Root Beer Bars!

We played Clue!  Chelsea won both games.  Notice the big grin!

We ate lots of Root Beer Bars.  (I love Root Beer Bars!)

I bought this baby jail from the Sanchez's Yard Sale to keep Petey Pie from eating the grass.  Clearly I didn't think it through very well.  He ate the Baby Jail, and then he knocked it over and escaped!

Susan and I went to the Bike Park and replaced the full log on the geocache there.

Lots of swinging for the boys!

We went and replaced the geocache at the train station!

Susan and I went to see The Wizard of Oz on the big screen at The El Morro.  Wow!  It totally made a huge difference in the colors, etc.

The Dad made us delicious Dutch Babies for breakfast!

This is Baby Eli chilling while we were video chatting with his mama!

We hiked the Quaking Aspen Trail in McGaffee.  Can you see the little tadpoles in the water?

After Susan left to go back to Las Vegas, we went to La Mantanita Coop.  We were looking for Kimchi and Kefir.  As we left, we entered a drawing that would take place during the Arts Crawl that night.  We went to the Arts Crawl, and when we got home...

...we got a phone call saying we won the drawing!n  We went back and claimed our prize!

Baby Eli is Here!

Amy's and Cody's new son, Eli, Douglas Pederson, made his earthly debut on June 20, 2018.  (That's my dad's birthday! He was born on that same date in 1924!)  He was born in Phoenix.  We are thrilled to have him here!  He is a sweet, beautiful child, and we are blessed to have him in our family!  He's one lucky little guy to have the parents he has.  I love being a grandma!

I wasn't able to go to Phoenix right away when Amy and Cody brought Eli home from the hospital.  We knew they would need help then, but I wasn't able to find someone to sub for me for my temple shift.  Susan stepped right up and volunteered to to and help them out for those first few days!  Amy and Cody told me they really appreciated having her there.  She gave them all the help they needed!  I love that girl!

Amy holding her new son in the hospital.

Baby Eli in teh hospital.

The Pederson Family - I drove over to Phoenix on Sunday morning.  I got there just as Amy and Cody were getting ready to go to church long enough to take the Sacrament.  (I was planning on finding a ward that met at 1:00 and going to church there, but I got there in time to go with Amy and Cody.)I finally got to hold and meet my new grandson.

  I love being a Grandma!

Amy is a cute little mama!  On Tuesday, I drove back to Gallup.  Cody was on Paternity Leave, so Amy was in good hands!

On Thursday after work, the grandad and I drove back to Phoenix so he could meet Eli!  The grandad singing to his new grandboy!

Eli pulls the cutest faces when he wants to eat, and no one seems to notice.

"Someone.  Anyone.  I'm hungry here!"

On Friday morning, we got up early before Amy and Cody were up, and we went to the Phoenix Temple.

Look what I found on my camera.  Boo.

On Friday afternoon, we left Phoenix and went to spend some time with Papa and Carlene in Mesa.  We were going to head home on Saturday morning, but we decided we needed to see Amy's family again before we left, so we drove to Phoenix and spent a few more hours with them before we headed home!

We even got to babysit our grandbaby for a little while so his parents could go out for a breakfast date!

Extra Fun on our Temple Weekend!

During the summer, we can leave for our temple shift any time of the day on Fridays since the dad doesn't work on Fridays, and I don't have school.  Yay!  This month, we were able to go early on Friday and hang out with David and Peter while Brian and Chelsea did an endowment session!  We had lots of fun together.  We had planned to take the boys to the Aquarium and Botanical Park while their parents were at the temple, but David said he wanted to go to play at a park.  So we did.  It was fun for Grandma and Grandad, too!

Touching the temple!

We spent quite awhile just walking around the temple grounds!

Peter kept trying to eat the flowers!

At the park, Peter wanted to get down to play.  I couldn't let him down on the woodchips because he kept eating them, so I let him down here!

David liked the climbing rock until it started getting to high for his comfort.  

Peter and me up high.  David wouldn't go up that high.  I think he's got a little fear of heights.  I understand that.

When Chelsea and Brian were finished, we met up with Carol and Mark at Souper Salad!

That evening, we went on a walk from our hotel and found a geocache!  This was a fun one!