July 2022 Independence Day, nana's house and Charleston, SC AS A COUPLE!

Fourth of July in Blanding is always full of fun.  We started the holiday weekend (Saturday July 2nd) with the reptile show at the library, then headed to the reservoir. 

We bought a couple of inflatable boats. It was fun and exhausting.  

We sat so low in the boats, it was hard to paddle efficiently.  Especially while trying to avoid hitting kids with oars.  We spent a couple of hours, ended up swimming and playing on the beach, and rescued a speedboat which was floating off it's trailer while waiting to be pulled up the ramp. 

After getting home from the reservoir and having quiet time, we went out to take cookies to a friend who had lost her grandmother recently.  We walked out the front door and found a new friend.  This Utah prairie dog was hanging out.  We all looked at him, then borrowed a trap from Tanner Holiday and caught him to be released elsewhere. 

The parade was Monday the 4th. 

The kids were trying the "wave for candy" method. 

Melissa and Chris were trying the "stars and stripes shirts for candy" method.

After the parade we went home to cool down, then headed to the park for snowcones and wandering. 

Grandma made sugar cookies! They were really good. Soft and chewy, lots of brown sugar in the recipe. Something happened with the fireworks, the mayor swears he paid the bill on time, but they ended up delayed until the 9th. 

Juley 7th, Melissa teaching crochet to Erin from across the street. 

It's finally here, July 9th fireworks! We had a fun time sitting on Grandma and Grandpa Workman's front lawn for the show. 

After church on July 10th we went out for a walk and visited the local backyard farms. Enjoyed a beautiful rainbow, in addition to fuzzy noses. 

July 13th we were at the Lindon pool with Josh's kids and nana. 

Ladies and gentleman... the main attraction! July 14th, we are at the SLC airport getting ready to fly to Charleston, SC for a pharmacy conference.  We're using the same company we used in Nashville last year, Getaway Seminars.  Class from 8-1, the rest of the day to play, fun cities and nice hotels. 

Walking the coast and visiting the pineapple fountain. 

This building sits on the site where the Ordinance of Secession was signed in SC. Hence the frowny face.  We had fun walking around this historic town.  Beautiful architecture, cool shops...

and such a romantic city. 

We took a ferry ride to Fort Sumter, with a returning dinner cruise.  We had a nice time at the fort and learned some history we didn't know, the food was totally blah, but we saw lots of dolphins on the way back. 

Melissa looks great!  Too bad there was a container ship as the background.  It was so much fun to have a few days to ourselves.  Melissa was sleeping until 9:30 every morning, we enjoyed great food everywhere (except this boat). Thank you Nana and Granddad for watching our stinkers in Lindon. 

July 16th we went to Boone Hall Plantation for a look into history.  The entrance was a beautiful oak lane. They had some of the original brick slave homes, a history telling, stunning landscaping, and horrifying numbers.  Documentation of how many souls passed through slave ships. 

We took a tour of the plantation house, which wasn't original, built by a Canadian ambassador in the 1900s. The tour ended on the river out back, there was a couple taking photos for their wedding... Melissa kicked them out and took their spot.  

It was hot and muggy in SC, but it was hot back home too.  The humidity was great for our skin, look at us glowing. The Uber home?  Not quite as awesome.  My phone battery was running out, the cell signal was poor, and the app was struggling to match us with a driver.   We ended up meeting a couple of women who were waiting on Lyft, in the same struggle.  So once our Uber was finally assigned we just decided, whoever's car showed up first... we'd share.  Turned out a neat experience and lucky for them... their Lyft never panned out. 

Dinner at Poogan's Porch.  So much southern comfort food: fried okra, fried chicken with hot honey, black eyed peas, rice, corn meal battered fried pimento cheese, and a chef's salad.  We ate EVERYTHING on this table and every bite was awesome. 

Sunday July 17th we went down to Folly Beach. Charleston is called "the Holy City," because of how many churches they have.  None of them LDS.  My classes didn't end until 1, so even the congregations outside the city wouldn't work.  So Folly Beach instead. 

Melissa made this bag, for this trip!  It's cute. 

M+A Charleston 2022.  We started on the southern point of the beach and walked/played 2 miles back to the town. 

The air was 84*, the water was 84*.  Melissa was a 10/10. 

We got back to the hotel, The French Quarter Inn, just in time for the end of the 5 PM wine and cheese.  We'd been out all the other evenings. It was awesome.  Wonderful cheeses, fruit, crackers, pâté, bread, salami, etc. The staff looked at us a little funny when we said we don't drink, but it was the perfect end to relaxing Sunday.  A nice personal justification to say, "we didn't go out and buy food." The evenings were just as warm as the day, but the patio was peaceful and happy.  

Then we went home and apparently Finley was so emotionally scarred by the whole experience that he decided to start a Batman training montage. Not sure what this exercise is, but Batman's super strong... so he probably does this. 

July 25th, Martin and Elida Numbers, grandparent/friends across the street, have been letting the kids drive this old power wheels around their yards since last summer when we were helping take care of the kittens.  Every time Martin would say, "you can have the car, just leave my battery." I guess we weren't taking him serious enough.  So he brought it over.  Homeschool! Art class: sand and paint, Technology: rewire and swap to 18V Milwaukee, Driver's Ed: in the field.  Thank you Numbers!

July 28th, Lily and Dawn Lyman learning at library day. 

July 28th, the replacement wiring kit arrived.  Now we have high, low, forward and reverse. 

Riding off into the sunset, or dust cloud at least.

July 29th we heard about Friday at the Fort (Bluff Fort) hosting Dallin Bayles, so we decided to tour the fort grounds, then have dinner at Twin Rocks, then listen to the concert.  The tour was fun, dinner was awful (the last 2 visits have not been good, that place used to be consistent/decent), the concert was nice, but the kids were exhausted.  We finally snuck out a little before 8 PM.  The missionaries caught us and served us ice cream, the kids went to play one more time on the covered wagons, then we hit the road and bid the month of July a fond adieu.