Wait - I forgot to tell you the best part of my last 2 days.....PUZZLES! The first one we did was called "What TV show is that?". Totally fun. On one piece it gives a clue about a TV show or character of a show and then the 2nd piece is the answer. Then when you get all of those together you still have to figure out how the puzzle goes together - Take a look:

Enlarge this 2 times to see the questions....

Apparently there are 7 more: Who Said that? What word is that? Which golfer did that? What animal is that? What movie is that? Who sang that? and Which sports star did that? I'm putting all of you on a quest to look for them next time you are at a local thrift store or a used book store. I'll pay you a shipping charge - just not an outlandish one.

So after Katie and I finished it in about an hour, we decided to leave it up for the rest of the night and the next morning we started this one. Dentist's Delight. We sped right through all the colored stuff but the chocolate brown, although it looks different in the picture, is VERY close in color to all the browns. And the 'black' background is really a dark chocolate brown black. BUT I LOVE IT!!!!!

Two full days of monsoon activity! I love it! I remember as a young girl living on 36th Drive in Phoenix, that we could see this huge dust cloud rolling our way and knowing that that usually meant a monsoon storm would soon hit our home, but I don't see that any more. I don't know if that is because there are so many subdivisions built out east or whatever, but I miss them. It looked something like this. But we could see it coming for miles.

I can't believe it but my laundry is done. I can tell that my family is shrinking and that those who are here, seem to do batches on their own. It's nice. I remember having to do at least 2-3 batches EACH DAY for me to stay on top of things.

Also, this summer the kids haven't been swimming as much as usual so there are less towels to wash. They say the pool water is warm and it's not even refreshing.

What have I been up to? Not much. Trying to keep my foot up as much as possible. Letting it heal. The kids school starts in 2 weeks and I know things will start being busy again. Then my foot will be hitting the ground hard. I'm thinking of taking some classes when they are back in school. I'd like to hear from you all about that.......have any of you taken online courses? Do you recommend them? Or is in classroom classes better? I'm nervous about on campus because of my age. I'd be the oldest in all of them I'm sure of that. I guess I'm scared! So, that's why I'm thinking online is my better choice.

I think we are home for good. At least for a while. I think Doug pre-bought a trip to Las Vegas and we have to use it up soon. Okay, so Friday Shannon, Allan and I (and Christal -Shannon's friend) headed up to Sawmill Flats campground for our ward outing. We made it to Miami about 1 hour east of the valley and 45 minutes until the campground and saw the dark black clouds just to the north of the city......right where we were headed. As we were in Safeway buying marshmallows and rootbeer the electricity went out. The lightning/thunder had been going on for a while but right as she hit my total button, the store went completely black. The store managers raced to guard the doors and after a minute or so the generators kicked in and the lights came back on. It took over five minutes though for the registers to reboot. We didn't need pop and marshmallows that bad but we did wait it out. We decided to get Subway for dinner/lunch and by then it was raining. We had to dash into the store, wait for a break in the rain and run back out. I told the kids to eat half of their footlong and to save the last half for dinner later. Of course that didn't happen and they were hungry later. I had NOT brought any extra food because we were planning on heading up to Snowflake for the 24th Pioneer Day Celebration right after the ward campfire program. It was 11pm before we left. Oh, when we first got to the campsite there were several families and it was misty sprinkling, but within an hour the blue sky was coming out and there was not a drop the rest of the time I was there. The only bummer was that it was slightly muddy.

Indian ? Allan Shan & Christal Allan & Heber
By the time we did get to Snowflake it was 2:15am and we were all tired and just crashed on couches. The next day was the parade, then volleyball, eating, games, eating, sleeping, eating again and whatever else came along. As mentioned in a previous blog I had hurt my ankle and so volleyball wasn't even in my choices of things to do. But I did have fun watching. Do you see that ice chest in front of Brian? Yeah, it's not filled with what you might think......This is what we wait for every year.....the firetruck. Take a close look at Brian, yep, he's throwing balloons AT the truck. Then of course they shoot us even more. That's why I'm across the street taking pictures. Although they squirt both sides of the street.
Doug serving, Brian doing some amazing move.
Later Doug's brother Alan took me down to his office and x-rayed my ankle. I hadn't ever gone here in the valley because you're worried that you'll look like a ditsy old lady who stupidly stood on a stool and fell. Anyway, my ankle was fractured and along with the bad sprain it was bad enough that I should have had it looked at. However, because it had been over 2 weeks since it happened it was starting to mend, so he put me in this like lace up sock type thing. It has helped the swelling tremendously and helps me walk without turning my ankle too much. Yeah! I think I know the difference now between a break and a fracture - one completely breaks through the whole bone/the other can just be a small chip or fraction of the bone braking off. Something like that anyways.
And of course the trip wouldn't be complete without finding a heart. Peeling potatoes for Sundays meal I found a bad spot and I was using the peeler trying to get it out and wah-laa - there it was. Keep your eyes open for me! Hearts are always welcome.

Game Night Wednesday - July 21

I love, love, love puzzles, but with having kids and grandkids, I haven't had much of an opportunity these past 20 years to do them as nearly as much as I'd like. I still have my collection of puzzles, probably 20 or more out in the garage and after we cleaned the garage last Saturday I am now craving a puzzle party. I can handle a loner party too, if need be. I now have an empty bedroom upstairs - at least until Kevin comes home- that has been suggested to change into a toy room for the little ones. Um...I'm thinking......NO! It's a perfect puzzle room. It has a lock on the door, pretty good lighting and a fairly large window that gets good afternoon sunlight. I will need to get a good card table and few good stools to stay in there, but, yeah, that's what I'm using it for. So now my dilemma....do I do an old puzzle that I've already done or do I take a chance to find good puzzles at the thrift stores and hope they have all their pieces. I'll give that a few days thought: at least until I have my table and stools set up.
I also have this ridiculous love and need for playing games. As you all know I have an addiction to thrift store shopping. I have a Goodwill less than 1 mile (possibly only 1/2 mile) away. I love it. However, I think I find better things, not necessarily clothes, at Deseret Industries. And usually for less money. That is with the exception of $Dollar Day Thursday at Goodwill. Games are particularly a good find at DI. When you can buy a game for $2 or $3 then you don't feel so bad if you play it once or twice, find out that you don't care for it or that it might be missing essential items and then you have to donate it back again in your next bag for pickup at the end of your driveway in the next months donations drive. On Tuesday I had signed up to work at our Bishops Storehouse and after my shift I drove right by DI, or nearly by, and decided to check it out. I found several cute shirts for the girls and then found the game and puzzle section. OH MY GOODNESS!!!. I was so excited that I texted (?) my family and let them know that we needed a game night before Brian and Celynda had to head back home and before Carolyn and Jeff left on their trip. Wednesday night worked for us all and here are the games we played:

Kind of like a Where's Waldo - but funner. Or more fun. Hmm. $2.

In Talkin' Tango, you and your partner try to make sentences using only one word from each player at a time. The others players try to guess what you two are describing. $3.

$1.50. Yep, 6 quarters. This one has a bazillion cards with categories on each side and you have to go around the circle and everyone has to give an answer related to the category. If you duplicate or can't think of one, you lose a point. Fun also.

1.50, again. Deseret Industries.

These 3 are from Goodwill and respectively: $3.99, $2.99 and .99 cents.

We didn't get to the last game because of time but I found three more and I will be taking them up to Snowflake to try them out. So far all the games we've played are keepers. Anyone out there that's up for a game night - just let us know. We'll always be ready and willing.

During the game night, I don't even know how it started, but Katie and Jason were at the end of the table trying to do horse lip noises. Here's a few pictures of us all trying it. Brian struggled and then Celynda got the laughs so bad she couldn't do it any more. I think we finally got one good picture of them doing it together.

Jason by far was the winner. Allan and Brian tied for second place.

Little Brook wanted to get a laugh too.

I am out of vacation things. Bummer. I know you all were riveted to my stories. Sadly now, I have to return to my everyday events and although I know you LOVE everything I write, I might not have as many pictures and videos to share. On Saturday, Doug and I cleaned the garage with some help from Allan, a little from Katie and even a littler-bit from Shannon. Yeah, I know that's not a dictionary word, but it is a DeWitt word. Shannon has a dear friend whom we love named Christal. I think I mentioned this before, but she has stayed with us straight for a whopping 5 days! This was in the past month or so. She has now been with us 4 days (this is why Shan didn't do too much in the garage) and I think she is heading for a new record. Yes, she did have to leave once for a orthodontist appointment or two (but Shannon went with her) and then we had a birthday party for Griffin on Monday that she did not come to - however her house is 5 house away from Carolyn's new home and so she was near-by. We will see how long she, we, us, them, anyone, will be able to withstand these living conditions. Maybe she'll just have to move in before the school year begins. Oh, wait, she already kinda lives here.

Monday or Tuesday my mom and I went to Costco for a new phone for her. She was unhappy with her old plan and company so she switched to Verizon and joined our happy little family plan. Now she can text all she wants. Right mom? Remember, practice makes perfect. We would love to receive a Billie picture any time. While we were there I got talked into an upgrade. I'll say that I was NOT really wanting to do this because I was used to my relic phone, but when he couldn't charge it because they no longer carried anything that even was usable on mine I had to resign to giving it up. But after playing with it for a while and having a text-a-thon with my friend Vayla, I am loving the full keyboard thing. The only problem I'm forseeing is that the keyboard is quite small. I will need to have my fingers go on a diet to only hit one key at a time or I could get fake fingernails and have them pretty pointy. We'll have to think about that.

The only thing I can add for pictures is my new phone and then these three hearts:

My ice bag for my ankle leaked.

A slice of tomato in the trash bag.

A heart found in a rock in my daughter and son-in-laws yard.(modeling done by Christal Estes)

I promised Jeff I would give him credit for this one ONLY because he owns the rock yard in which I found the rock. He actually has been featured on my heart wall before - a french fry. But it has been a while so he needed little pat on the back.

I forgot to add these onto the Monday blog. These are my amazing yellow shells. When I was taking the pictures they looked like little type shells, but these were big and so I had to add the ones with my shoes in.

A few fun video's from Rocky Point....

Allan fighting the waves.

Grandpa getting sand in his face.

Allan coming out of the sand.

Brian on skimming board.

Picking little Brookie up.

Monday July 12

Uh, oh. It's been over a week. I'm forgetting what we've done, but pictures make the blog anyway. All I know is that Katie and Jason had to head home last night (Sunday) for work and volleyball training. Katie has a full scholarship this year for her spot on the team, so she doesn't want to take a chance and miss a practice. Her coach doesn't take too lightly to 'slackers'. So here were our Monday pictures.

Okay, now that I downloaded some pictures I remembered a few fun things we did. Early in the morning we went out to the 'pools' of water from the tide being out - and it was way out and we found a few things:

Doug- an octopus

Becky - a seahorse

Shannon - two starfishes (?) and a sand dollar! What a hall!

Because we were not by the condo we found a milk jug and cut off the top to store our finds so we could show Luke and Brook when we went to their place later. We have never seen a seahorse at Rocky Point before, so that was cool. We had seen an octopus that someone had caught once and was taking home for his own fishtank. Shame on him! We wanted to show the little kids and then let them help us release them, so no shame on us. Octopus - top leftish, Seahorse top middleish, and the sand dollar is on the bottom and I'm hoping you can find the two starfish on your own. We used the shell to help us scoop them out of the bucket to hold, so we aren't keeping that , but this year we found some really pretty yellow ones. Crazy gorgeous.

Before we released them we needed a few pictures! Also, the boys had fun on the beach with digging deep holes, then sitting in them and being covered with sand. They paid too much attention to his 'package' We actually had to censor one of the processes. You all know what I mean..... Brian was involved. Need I say more?

Brookie too!! But then she got thirsty....

I tried to get a good picture of Lukas, but he had a hard time holding his eyes open, so the last time I asked for a picture here is what happened.... It was much funnier in real life.....

One final rinse off. This pelican came and landed so close to us, I know this doesn't look like it was close, but it was. Last time at the ocean before we left.....

Adios Rocky Point! We'll be back soon.

Oh, wait, I have to tell you about releasing the octopus: I struggled to take it out of the jug, but wanted to let Lukas hold it to let it go. I finally scooped it out with this shell and as I brought it up it was squirting water at us and it just went over the side of the shell into the water and then it actually did the little ink squirt thing!! Three times!! We lost it right away in the water, and of course I wasn't taping it, dang, but it was the funniest thing. We girls were all screaming.