*** once again I feel the need to post a warning. This post may be incredibly long. Pack a lunch and be prepared to spend the day. ****
My 4th of July weekend started on Friday. Dan and I both had the day off and it was lovely! I did have a doctors appointment in the afternoon which sort of ruined the ability to really get out and do something, but that was alright.
Braydon and Lance were coming to stay with us for the whole weekend and I was getting mentally prepared for that. Beth decided to bring Jadon and Autumn over, and Jason dropped the boys off at about the same time. I offered to pay Lance a penny per cherry if he went outside to pick cherries, and suddenly this became a contest between Jadon and Lance. Of course Dan was right in the middle too. The cherries were so ripe and yummy, but since we don't spray the tree, I had to warn them about checking for worms.
Autumn had her first cherries I think, and she sure liked them! Beth and I helped pick some too, and Dan put some of what he picked in each bowl. Lance actually made me count all his cherries and he got to $5.00. So did Jadon. Fortunately for me, Beth was paying Jadon. LOL. When I weighed the Cherries Lance picked it came to just about 6 pounds. I had taken a bowl to work on Thursday and it was about the same amount. Wow and the tree is still 1/2 full. But now they are starting to rot. :(
Saturday I got the boys up and all 4 of us went to see the parade in West Bountiful. Even though Lorie wasn't there, I felt it was important that we go anyway. By the time we got everything we needed and everyone in the car, I was ready to send them all back into the house to take a nap. Talk about Cranky! But we got on the road and soon found ourselves right where we needed to be.
It was so much fun. Braydon took off for Grandpa's laptop, but Lance hung out on the parade route with Grandma. I was so worried when we got there that no one was there yet. But we parked in the drive way, and waited. Soon enough Anne and Duane were there and right behind them was Grandma and Grandpa. YEA!
Anne was my parade buddy and we sat and talked. I love that girl! Soon the parade got going and Jordan was so excited. He kept saying where are the Frikin' fire trucks?!?! It made us laugh and laugh.
Then he pretended like he was scared of the sirens, but his mom knew better. The different participants threw candy and I helped Jordan get his share. He was really shy about picking it up, but after a while he got the hang of it. I kept cheering for the people throwing candy so they would throw more, and somewhere along the way, someone got in a good toss. One piece hit me right on the temple. It hurt. But we all got a good laugh, because that was funny.
Jaxson was in the parade, but of course no one told me until after the fact. LOL. So I totally missed seeing him. Once the parade was over, we realized that Grandma & Grandpa were planning a BBQ. I felt awkward as I didn't bring anything, but felt better when Anne said she didn't know either, and didn't bring anything. We had Hamburgers and Corn on the cob. Fluff salad and Chips. And for desert we got homemade dutch oven peach cobbler. YUMMY! Jordan was all about spraying the whip cream on his. I think he had more cream than cobbler. It was so nice to sit in the shade of the walnut trees and just relax. I got to spend time with my favorite family ever! 
Lance & Steven went up to the park to play with one of Brian's friends and his little boy. Jaxson was already there. I finally went up and got there just in time to see Lance, Jaxson and Steven, participate in a Watermelon eating contest.
I found out later that Jaxson got 4th place and Lance 6th, but I never did find out what Steven placed. They were so cute and I was just sure that Jaxson was going to win. I kind of think he did better than 4th, but the little guy who won 1st was an animal. HAHAHA
Sunday we got up and lazed about. Of course the boys played on the computers until Dan got them outside for a little exercise. They played with a hackie (sp?) sac and while they weren't good they had fun.
Afterwards I sent Dan off w/the boys to buy some fire works and I went to see Auntie Elaine. She's not doing so well and I really think we're going to lose her soon. I know she's tired and hurting, but I am not ready for her to go just yet. She keeps bouncing back and forth, and each bounce back is slower and not as strong as the last. :(
We called Beth and Bill and asked if they wanted to come over and do fireworks with us. We didn't have a big BBQ, but decided to do hamburgers and such. So I ran to the store to get some BBQ stuffs. I made sure to buy some Corn on the Cob, because it's my absolute favorite. I put it in the pot with some boiling water and well, ignored it. Corn can take such a long time to cook, and I was working on cherries. When Bill, Beth and Jadon showed up, I figured it was almost done. Soon we saw smoke and Beth said something's burning. OOPS! I actually boiled all the water out of the pot. No one would eat the corn but me. It was a bit charred on the ends touching the bottom of the pan, but it was still ok. LOL. Of course my pot is ruined, but I will try to scrub it anyway. Impromptu get-togethers are awesome!
Beth showing off her scared of fireworks look.
The boys, (Lance, Braydon, and Jadon) got to set stuff on fire. The neighbors were out too, and they had bottle rockets. We had to explain to the boys why they were illegal, but I must admit we did enjoy them. Dan bought punks to light the stuff with, but they sucked. I had to override him, which I tried not to do, and allow the boys to use the lighters we use to light our fireplace and grill. Jadon holding his Spakler Pacakge
They got to set off Tanks and fountains and sparklers. They got a bit inventive and set off some of the sparklers while they were in the box. Braydon fell and hurt his wrist and Jadon picked up burning plastic, but no serious casualties were had.
Lance Playing with his sparklers
Braydon and Lance lighting off thier tanks in a battle
Jadon, Lance, Bill and Dan watching Braydon light his Fireworks
On Monday we made the boys pick up the fireworks. Dan wasn't as impressed with their clean up job as I was, but he's a perfectionist. I was just happy that 95% of it was cleaned up. Soon it was time to take the boys back. Dan and I wanted to have Tuesday to ourselves. So we packed the boys up and took them home. As usual stuff got left here, like Lance's parade Candy, and blow up toys he got when he was with his dad. Braydon left his grenade. But he said I could just throw it away.
I think we will do a big Family get-together on the 24th. We can clean out Auntie Elaine's storage and then come back to eat.
Tuesday Dan and I got up and I wanted to go see a movie. But Dan had other plans. He wanted to go see Ghost Towns. I wasn't very keen on this. I don't like to drive long distances. But I felt like I should go because he really wanted to. I told him he needed to find some that weren't far. He picked some that were out Tooele way. We grabbed our cooler, filled it with ice, got some drinks and away we went.
Once we reached Tooele we stopped at the Flying J. For some reason Dan has it in his head that the food there is just wonderful. He was stoked when they have a breakfast that is EXACTLY how he likes it. I have a feeling I will be eating at a lot of Flying J's in my future. I thought the food was alright, but nothing to get excited over. We then bought a map and compared it to the small ones from the Internet, and off we went.
First stop was Jacob City. It is just east of Stockton. We stopped to ask for directions and the guy told us our car wouldn't make it. Dan insisted that we try anyway, so up the canyon he started. Suddenly the pavement stopped and it was a dirt road. With really big rocks. Dan kept going and I was imagining the oil pan being punctured. I finally said to him: "If you get me stranded up here, no one will find the body!"
He decided that we'd gone as far as we could and back up. We had to go aways to get to somewhere he could turn around. Of course it wasn't meant as a turn around for a car. But after the 4 wheeling experience Chuck the car seems OK.
Next we decided to go to Ophir. This one was easy. It's a paved road all the way up the canyon. It's not a true ghost town as far as I am concerned. There were people still living there. They have a few historical looking buildings, but it's been made up for tourists. Of course they were closed as they only open on Saturdays. We did meet some guy who was looking for the person in charge of the town. Seems he's a movie scout of some sort and was looking to see if they could film there. Huh?
In somewhat disappointment we left and decided to follow the pony express trail for a bit. We stopped at Camp Floyd in Fairfield and took the $2.00 tour. It was interested and killed a hour. I had to pee so bad by then I almost went outside the commissary. But they pointed out the tasteful park like restroom next to the little park next to the Stagecoach Inn.
These are the stairs going down from the second floor rooms. This is the sign for the persons touring. I didn't go up. 
As most of you know I am a bath lover. I found it interesting to see the bath tub they used. I would need something bigger. Much Much Bigger.
This is the toilet. Better than an outhouse, but...... Eww.
We finally left and headed home. It was a lovely drive and the stop at the Camp was worth it. After getting home, we ordered pizza and then went to bed. Sigh, it was a good weekend!
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