FOURTH OF JULY ST. CHARLES, ID

We drove up on Saturday and found the grass was about 2 - 3 feet high. There is plenty of moisture around because of the heavy snows of winter and there has also been much rain.

The lake is very high and I have not seen it so high ever. It is unusually green.

We went to church in the St. Charles ward and half of Salt Lake must have been there also. There were two full sets of meetings with at least 1000 in each service. There was wall to wall patriotism here as all celebrated the Fourth of July. We sang the Star Spangled Banner in Sacrament meeting and America the Beautiful in Priesthood, there were talks about the unusual nature of our country and it felt so good. It was an America that I grew up in. We saw many friends there up from Salt Lake.

Sunday evening, Doug and his boys and Roy and some of his boys along with Scotty who flew out from Michigan They gathered here before going off on a backpack trip in Wyoming.

On Monday, the fourth, we cut the grass; Roy and Doug did a great job and the place looked great.

we erected a flagpole. Roy, Doug and the gang dug the hole and made sure it was perpendicular. We added a solar lighting so when lit, the flag may stay up. There were flags everywhere in this valley. Christina drove up for a day and you can see little Izzie checking out the flag.

We had a great 4th breakfast with pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns, pork chops and juice much like the breakfast that is served in the Paris community on the 4th. We took the little kids on rides around the field. They explored all the old buildings and had a great time

One of the afternoon activities of course was a shooting gallery off the deck at targets, water filled pop cans, reactive targets that bounce around when hit. There were contests and it went on for seven hours and was a blast. I did not have my little cannon but we managed to make a lot of noise particularly with the Tannerite.

Here you see the range complete with spotters. That is Roy in the prone position taking out clementines at 185 yards. We had fireworks in the evening and the little kids up the road layed on their lawns and watched the show.

After a great barbecue, the boys settled down to watch Mr. Bean videos. We had such a good time. Mom, Emily, Rayanne and the girls did crafts. We had a little Family Home evening as well.

We felt good about our country and its history and pray for the future. One nice thing about our little farm house in St. Charles is that there is no active TV and we did not have to listen to the news. It is very peaceful here and I love it.

More Later, Love Dad and Mom