The Big Weekend Celebration!

The following weekend everyone came home to celebrate all sorts of things. We were happy to have Jamie return home from her summer in Washington on Thursday. Then the rest of teh kids came on Friday. We started out with our annual luau and bonfire party and celebrated TJ, mine and Jamie's birthdays. Kait loved all the things to see and made a lot of funny faces for all of her family to see. She always has some new cute thing she does and it is so fun to watch her.
Here is the whole group at the luau. What a lot of fun we had doing the limbo and then the high jump. I believe Cory was pretty close to being the winner in both events although Marcus was very close and Dani dominated in the limbo because of her size. It was amazing how low nad how high everyone could go.


We then all moved out to the backyard for the highly anticipated bonfire. We have been filling the pit for three years now. The last bonfire we had was just before TJ and Shauna's wedding 3 years ago. So there was a lot of really dry and flamable stuff in there. TJ sprinkled some gas around the outside and a little in the middle. Marcus and TJ lit it using a gas soaked rag on a long stick and that was a very good idea since it didn't take but about 30 seconds for the flame to circle the pit, and then BOOM the center just exploded! We even felt the ground shake! A neighbor must have heard it also, because in about 2 minutes we had a police car and fire trucks show up to put it out. Jay had called the fire department, but apparently we needed to call the sheriff's office also in case a 911 call came in they would know what it was. We had a good laugh about it although it may take Jay a few weeks before he laughs about it!
After the fire died down thanks in part to Tyler's help, we roasted marshmallows and made s'more's. Grandpa was the champion marshmallow roaster and just kept us supplied with all we needed. A VERY memorable bonfire it was. The best ever we all agreed.

The next day, Saturday the 28th, we continued with the celebrations by going to the Finlinson reunion in OakCity. They had a lot of fun activities for the kids. They even had a snow cone machine and all the free snow cones you wanted! It was great and we had a fun time with the cousins and relatives.


Grandma helped Kait with her snow cone and had a lot of fun hanging out with her for part of the afternoon. I was trying to earn favorite Grandma points with her!
They had some fun sport craft big balls and equipment for the kids that kept everyone entertained for a long time.
We ended the day with the dance and everyone had a great time. We were all very pooped by the time it ended and were glad to go to bed.
On Sunday we continued to celebrated more, first with Marcus being ordained an elder. We are very proud of him and what a great young man he is. He and Cory received their Duty to God awards also today and that was really awesome. Cory got his teacher one and Marcus the priest one. He is only the 2nd young man in our ward to get it since the new program came out about 5 years ago. It takes a lot of work and dedication. Way to go Marcus and Cory! Jina and family and Grandma and Grandpa Fin were also here to celebrated with us. So was had quite the crowd.
Jay had ordered one of Marcia Mecham's famous ice cream cakes for the celebration to honor all 4 of us, the 3 birthday's and Marcus. After dinner Jamie, TJ and I opened presents. The grand finale present was mine. I was led blindfolded throughout the house and into the playroom where I was presented with a new computer!!!!! It was such a HUGE shock and surprise (especially the big wide screen monitor that I screamed. Much thanks especially to TJ and Derek for putting it together. It is awesome and I have to really try hard to not spend too much time at it. I can't believe how speedy it is, just the best. And most of all thanks to Jay for getting it for me.
The next day Jay and I took off for Park City to celebrate even more. We first dropped Cory off at BYU for EFY. He was so excited he even had butterflies. We took advantage of a time share presentation offer to stay in a nice Marriot resort hotel/condo place. All was had to do was attend a advertisement presentation for 90 minutes. It was so pretty up there and we had a great time driving around and seeing some of the ski resorts and the Olympic Park. We decided it would be a great idea if you had the money to buy a time share and have a couple of weeks each year to go to places like Park City with your family. Maybe someday we will have to look into it more.
As we were driving around we saw this awesome nursery and so stopped and walked around it for a few minutes. I got a lot of cool ideas for planters, and garden decorations.
Here are the ski jumps at the Olympic Park
Old main street in Park City
On Wed August 1, Abby and Gichin moved and it worked out great to go help them, then go to TJs afterwards and celebrate his birthday with cake and icecream.

It was quite the moving project and a day we won't forget. Cory was at EFY so wasn't with us, but Jamie, Marcus, Brooke, Dani, and I went and drove the Camry. When Jay and I went to Park City, on our way home we went to Layton and picked up the Honda that had been repaired. Jay drove it to TJ's where we left it for Jamie to bring home. It was very lucky that we had left the HOnda there because as we pulled into Abby's and turned the Camry off, the radiator on it cracked with a huge bang. Luckily Tyler was helping to move and so he towed our Camry to the Japanese Auto Repair and we were able to get home in the Honda. Unbelievable isn't it? Then as we were moving the stuff out to the trucks and trailers, a big thunderstorm hit and we had to wait till that stopped. They had already gotten Abby's piano on the trailer, but luckily someone had a tarp to put over it so it wouldn't get wet. We finally got all there stuff ( and there was a LOT of it) loaded up in 4 trucks, 2 trailers, 2 cars and headed out with Tyler towing our car. It was quite a sight!
Abby, Brooke, Dani and I stayed at the old apartment to clean while everyone else unloaded at their new apartment. After TJ's party we went to the new apartment to unload the Honda that was full of stuff also. It is such a nice apartment. Here they are surrounded by a lot of boxes and work to do!