Tuesday, July 3

On the first full day of our family reunion we headed down to the beach and spent the day swimming in Bear Lake. Well . . . Carter swam in the lake, the rest of us didn’t make it much past our knees in that chilly water.

Shortly after we arrived at the beach, Carter and I were in the water while Daddy and Raine were playing in the sand, when someone started talking to Daddy. We didn’t even have to look up to know who it was . . . Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He and his wife were out for a walk along the beach and just stopped to chat for a minute. It was a fun little “celebrity encounter”!

That evening the kids customized their Dora/Diego backpacks. Aunt Sara made the faces, then the kids added their name along with buttons, foam shapes, and sparkley pom-poms. I made eight of these backpacks, one for each grandkid, for our birthday party adventure on Thursday. They were cut from the infamous blue fabric that has become a running joke in our family. My dad “rescued” this bolt of blue fabric when he was working a temp job in California, long before any of us kids were born. The fabric has been used for everything: tablecloths, temporary walls, clothing, aprons, and who knows what else. Now each of the grandkids has a little piece of it to carry with them!

Afterward, we enjoyed some juicy watermelon on the front lawn.

Mmmm…