4th of July Smiles

I hope that you all had a nice 4th of July…. whether it was a holiday for you or not.

I love my native land.  I am very patriotic  and I love our Independence Day Celebrations.

We are not very original and we celebrated this year exactly the same way we did last year but we still enjoyed every minute of our holiday.

Early Fri. morning, July 4th,  we donned our matching red, white and blue shirts ….

… and headed to our church’s flag ceremony and patriotic program…..

….followed by a nice breakfast.

We enjoyed the good food and being with our friends. It was a nice way to start our holiday.

After the program and breakfast we came home and put the movie Independence Day on TV. I started preparing food for later in the day while we watched the movie.

Making home made ice cream is a 4th tradition at our house…

I put a pot of ham and beans on to simmer in the sun oven for a few hours …( my homemade bean soup is a family favorite recipe  that I learned from my mom.) … Later in the day,  I put some cornbread in to bake. I love using our sun oven instead of our kitchen oven…. especially when it is a sizzling 100 degrees outside!

Then I had fun decorating  for the 4th…. inside and out…

I dressed up my patio plants with flags ,

(they don’t show up very well but I put out about 30 flags in the patio plants) … and…

made it look patriotic and  festive  for our holiday dinner.

The kids got here as fast as they could after Ernie’s band finished marching in the 4th of July parade.  Mindy prepared the chicken while Ernie got the smoker ready.

Claire marched with Ernie’s band’s color guard today. EJ did not play in it because he is at jazz band camp.  Unfortunately I have not been up to attending the parade for the last 3 years since our car accident… but I was cheering them on from here at home.

 

While the tri-tip and chicken cooked a few hours in the smoker….

We had plenty of time to play in the pool….

and have fun together goofing off.

The sun oven bean soup and cornbread made a good lunch…

to tide us over while we waited for dinner to cook in the smoker… and yes… the kids did get to eat in the pool… which is usually against our pool rules.

When the meat was cooked to perfection…

… we chowed down on our delicious dinner with all the traditional 4th of July trimmings.

Of course, we saved enough room to enjoy ice cream and cup cakes for dessert. EJ is not in these pictures because he is at a music camp for 2 weeks. We surely did miss him.

With both our tummies and our hearts full, we went to the Quake’s Stadium….

… to end our holiday with a great fireworks show and patriotic music.

That is how we celebrated the 4th. I would have liked to have invited friends over and had a party but I just wasn’t up to it…. maybe I can do that next year.

I am glad that we could have a nice holiday with family as we counted our blessings and thanked our Heavenly Father for our country and our freedoms.  The long day of celebrating completely wore me out and I’ve had to spend all day down in bed today recuperating…. but it was worth it.

I hope you had a nice 4th of July too. What did you do to celebrate?

Hugs, Grammy Lura

Mother’s Day Smiles 2014

Mother’s Day started early for me when flowers arrived from my 2 Utah daughters, Erin and Lynell, on Friday.

They are beautiful. Looking at them makes my heart smile.

John also spoiled me early by replacing the diamond earring I lost when I had surgery and letting me order 4 pairs of Crocs sandals.

Then a pair of comfy slippers arrived from David. It was only Saturday and I was already totally spoiled by John and our children. Did I mention that a box of yummy chocolates came with the flowers from Lynell?… Yummy.

Sunday morning John and I attended church with Mindy’s family. Claire gave a sweet talk on mothers. She wrote the talk herself and did a good job.

After church we went back home and I stopped by the cemetery to visit my dear mother’s grave. Her birthday is May 12th so Mother’s day and her birthday were always close together and very important to me.

Later that afternoon we went back to Mindy’s for dinner. This year we had to just have a casual dinner because we had a crazy schedule. EJ had to go to orchestra in Clairemont and Claire had to sing in a Mother’s Day concert in LA.

Our daughter, Lynell who lives in Utah was able to drop by with some of her family for a few hours. They were coming from LA where Loni had been in a dance competition…. but… traffic was terrible we were not sure when she would arrive.

With all the coming and goings we could not have a formal sit down dinner like we usually do. We put out the food with paper plates and people ate when they could. It was not as fancy but it was a lot easier and tasted great.

We ended our meal with a delicious dessert buffet….. but the sweetest part of our day was yet to come.

The best part of our day was  getting to Skype with our Grandson, Jalen, who is serving on a mission in Chile for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. He has been there a little over a year and will come home next April.

Missionaries write home every week but they can only call on Christmas and Mother’s Day.

We all gathered around the computer and talked face to face with our dear missionary for an hour. (The empty chair is where I was sitting before I got up to take this picture.) Click on  Mormon.org to learn more about our missionary program.

What a joy to see him so happily serving in Chile and hear him bear his testimony that he knows God lives and guides us…. and that God loves us so much that He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for us and atone for us.

I’m so glad that Lynell and Dathan were here with us and we got to be a part of Jalen’s call home.

After talking with Jalen, our Utah family had to pack up the car and head back home. They had come to CA the previous week for Johnny to compete in the USA National Gymnastics competition and Loni to compete in dance. (I’ll tell about that in my next post)

14 year old EJ, who has grown a foot this year,  teased his 17 year old cousin, Johnny, about being short…. but Johnny reminded him that gymnasts don’t have to be tall to be strong.

With one last goodbye from Grampy, they were off.

Then we said bye to Mindy and family and came home. That ended my  Mother’s Day.

What a wonderful day it was. I am so blessed to have such lovely children and family. I thank God every day for each of them.

I hope your Mother’s Day was special too.

Hugs, Grammy Lura

P.S.  I have to have a surgery procedure Wed. May 14th to remove the stint they put in from my liver to my intestine when I had a bile leak. It is a routine procedure and I will be in and out in one day. It is not a big deal but mine is a bit more complicated because I can not go off of the blood thinner I am taking. They said my blood clot is more of a concern to deal with than the chances of me bleeding excessively. I hope they are right. Wish me luck and please remember me in your prayers. Thanks