A carnival, accident, hike, holiday, and a birthday

 We attended the most creative carnival theme party at the Skeens on June 24th to celebrate Jamie's 40th birthday, Daniel's 14th birthday, and the arrival of the Lake's for their summer visit.  There was much to see and do, including cute carnival type games for the little kids, and Minute-to-win it and rifle shooting for the adults.  There were even cotton candy, popcorn and snow cone machines.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with the Skeens, Lakes, Caspersons, Petersens, Searles and Ericksons.

 The next night (Saturday)  Mike and I went back to the Skeens to play some cards and visit with everyone.  We'd only been there about 45 minutes when we get a call from Cam.  He said he thought he broke his arm falling off a rip stick at a friends house.  Mike told him it was probably fine, that we'd look at it when we got home and perhaps take him into the doctor on Monday.  A few minutes later, his friends Dad called  to say that he thought it was broken and we probably should come and take him to the emergency room.  So, that's what we did, arriving there at 10:30.  Our friend and Orthopedic Surgeon Keith Nelson came (along with his son Chase, who is Cam's friend) to take care of it.  Since Keith had to set it back into place, and that wouldn't be pleasant to be awake for, he put Cam under "conscious sedation."  Cam was pretty happy about that.  He has to wear a cast above the elbow for 4 weeks, then hopefully it will be healed enough to wear one below the elbow for another 3-4 weeks.    So baseball season is over a few weeks early, as is early morning football conditioning.   Why do these things always have to happen to Cam??

 I went on a lovely Friday morning hike last week with the "likin hikin" ladies- most of whom live in my stake.  They're a group of gals who get together every Friday morning in the summer to hike, and every Friday in the winter to snow shoe.  I enjoyed going with them, hiking somewhere new, and getting to know women I didn't know. I may have to make this a tradition.

 On Monday, July 4th, we had a great day.  Mike and I started off the day with an awesome bike ride with Cody and Sara to Smithfield Canyon and back. It was a great ride.  They stayed for breakfast along with their boys and Ann, and Ky and Brody.  Brody was in Logan for a little over 24 hours between selling in Oklahoma and going to Africa for school.  Needless to say, Kylee was a happy girl.  We then went to the Skeens to ride on their new Polaris RZR.  Ky and Brody went with the boys, then Mike and I went with the boys for almost 2 hours while they each got to drive.  They were in heaven.

 Ky and Brody hung out with Brody's fam the rest of the day, Jake went to work, so Cam got more driving experience by driving me and Mike up Logan Canyon to Tony Grove so we could check out all the snow that is still on the ground there. It was amazing!  July 4th, and Cam was sledding and having a snowball fight with his parents!  It was incredible.  Half the lake still has ice on it! 

 Today for Ann's birthday, she invited me, Carol, and Jamie to ride over to Liberty with her in the RZR, and have lunch at "Eats of Eden."  The first half of the drive was lovely-  then it started to rain...and it didn't stop until we were 10 minutes from home several hours later. . . Luckily we stopped at the Liberty house and found some sleeping bags and blankets left in the bunk house so we could bundle up.  It's July 5th people!  We shouldn't be playing in the snow and having to wear a sleeping bag to go for a drive!  Maybe it will warm up by August?  I'm really not complaining.  I love the diversity that is Cache Valley!