Megan invited us over to the Sheppard's home to attend a birthday party for Beckham who turned 8 years old today. Several members of her family were there, and we had a chance to visit with them. Beckham opened gifts and cards, and then they sang 'Happy Birthday" and served birthday donuts. It was a nice evening.
We spent the day in Utah today. Wendy had been wanting to go down to visit and Jeffrey drove her halfway down on Saturday and met up with Ashley who took her the rest of the way. She spent the day with Ashley and Camden and spent the night at their home. Jeffrey and I drove down this morning, and we had a breakfast of Crepes in a variety of flavors from The Crepery Syracuse. Then we drove down to Saratoga Springs and met up with Tyler, Jaylen, Baylor, and Murphy at Fat Cats to go bowling and play some games. In the afternoon we enjoyed the community pool near their home, and then we went to Texas Roadhouse for an early dinner. Jeffrey drove us home after dinner, but the car kept overheating on the way home, so we had to stop a couple of times to let the car cool off. We also stopped at Edson Fichter Pond to give Cooper his birthday card and gift. He and Beckham have been going fishing at the pond nearly every day since they arrived in Idaho.
Jeffrey organized a birthday party with several of his friends. He set up all of the lawn games including the badminton net. He had about ten people over. While it was too windy for badminton, they did use the net and played volleyball for a couple of hours. Then they came inside and played indoor games for the rest of the night. We cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. We also served cake and ice cream and sang Happy Birthday to him. Some of the kids stayed until midnight while Wendy and I just tried to stay out of the way.
Ashley, Caz, Tyler, and I visited the Grand Canyon and hiked from the South Rim to the North Rim over a three day period from Tuesday, June 11th to Thursday, June 13th. We had been planning this trip for several months, and we were anxious about the hike due to the extreme heat inside the canyon. I was very challenged by it, and I probably wouldn't do it again unless I could avoid temperatures over a hundred degrees. I decided to write down the whole experience in detail so I could remember it, and I will attach a link to my document, rather than writing it all in this blog. The Grand Canyon is amazing, but not very forgiving.
This afternoon, Wendy, Jeffrey and I drove to North Ogden to have dinner with Mom and family at The Lodge. We arrived at 4:45 p.m. along with Ashley and Camden and Tyler, Jaylen, Baylor, and Murphy. Caz had flown to Boston on a business trip. We went inside to the dining room and met up with Blaine and Stacy who had driven down from Washington a couple days before to spend time with Mom and David. We were then joined by Ben and Gayle and Renee who introduced us to her boyfriend, Eric. It was great to see everyone again. Mom sat at the head of the table, and it was good to see her feeling a little better. David wasn't feeling well, so he wasn't able to join us. We enjoyed our dinner, and we had a nice visit with everyone. We returned home right after dinner.
