Meyring Merriment

While in Utah we had a sort of Meyring Family reunion. Most of the cousins live down here but it was still fun to get together and see Ryan's family

The neighbor kids were really friendly and let ours play on the jungle-gym...

...trampoline,
Jump for joy

Collin was showing off a bit for his cousins
...and play with their chickens
Karissa was absolutely fascinated with the chickens and held them every chance she got.

Jason and me

Even cuter, Jason and Chad

There's just something about a big strong man and a little boy...

Chad was showing J how to crawl on the grass - not one of his favorite things

Beth and Ellie looked so relaxed hanging out on the grass

Ellie is great with the little ones
I was laughing watching Karissa's body language as she was talking to one of the neighbors. Kayley came up and backed her up. (Something about who's dad was bigger/better/best...) Kelsey came up and after standing there for about 10 seconds...

...declared she was going to go roll down hills (My little pacifist :)

Kayley and Karissa playing some of the games

The guys got into a cut-throat game of crochet

It was supposed to be adults only but Chad let Kelsey sneak in a few hits

After all the fun the kids decided they needed to stretch out a bit - with Uncle Matt's help

Ellie's bat imitation

Kayley probably would have been the most bat-like but she was too busy trying to hold her pj's up ;)

After Parade Party

Part of getting good seats and parking for the parade was staying at a hotel right across the street. While Kristy was trying to pack up Chad was teaching her kids what they like to do in hotels (when Mom's not there)

Crazy Kelsey

The trick is to jump across the hot lava, avoiding the furniture (nothing stops the fun faster than a trip to the ER) and the projectiles (pillows)

Kelsey was throwing some great bending moves while she was at it... probably because the dads stared throwing pillows at them as they crossed - nothing like a moving target

Independence Day Parade

Everyone loves a parade!

Actually I normally don't bother going - too many people, too much traffic... but Dennis and Ryan have this thing down to a science. I've seen military campaigns that were not this well organized and executed! We had great seats, room to spread out and even shade for half of it.

And the kids were adorable!

Here's Breann, Ellie, Kelsey and Karissa

I love the look of excitement and anticipation

They all had a great time

For some reason I loved these old-timers :) It wasn't until I got home ad was looking at my pictures that I noticed the patch on this soldiers arm, Andy has one just like it! Its from his Tank Destroyer Squadron in WWII. I'll have to show him and see if he recognizes them.

It was fun for the kids being right up front. They got to Hi-5 cheerleaders, Tongans, prophets and pirates...

Jason had a great time too, mostly hanging with Uncle Ryan and Chad

How many parades have about 5 floats with temples, Joseph Smith and a singing Moses???

BYU!

Addie's so cute!

Breann & Kelsey were playing along with the band

"Look Mom, I'm Darth Maul!"

More Temples :)

Wow! I actually got in a picture too! When I show up everyone knows they can pretty much put their camera away and relax and they'll still get shots of their kids

Karissa and Kaylee had to say goodbye early to head back to Cali - but had to make sure to give Grandy a big hug first!

Stadium of Fire

We went to see the fireworks at Cougar Stadium this year...

Matt, showing his thoughts on getting to the show 2 hours early :)

Ellie & Kayley

The Color Guard looked so cool going past all the scouts. Now that Collin is in scouting I'm much more moved by them all.

The color guard again with the 4 branches of the military behind them.

Mother nature didn't disappoint at the Stadium of Fire! What a beautiful sunset

This shot is more to show you just how awesome my new camera is!!! This shot is a little magnified (you'll have to see some of the fireworks to see just how faraway I was from the stage...)

I can't believe the great shots I got!

Oh, yeah. It was a pretty good concert too. Carrie Underwood was the main attraction (well, not counting the fireworks) The name was familiar and I thought I would recognize one or two of her songs...

Nope, not a single one! Still, I could tell she was a very good singer.
After listening to the little boys behind us Chad made me a promise that he wouldn't let his boys sing along with girl-power/boyfriend-cheating songs :)
Dang, what a great shot - you can see that the drum set is a DW set, made locally in Oxnard

Lou Diamond Phillips was the MC - He did a great job, even though I kept picturing him in his role as a FBI agent on Psych

Ka-boom!

I think the fireworks were supposed to just go striaght up, like the ones on the left... We saw many a boy scout trying to brush the smoldering ash off their pants after this one

Again, this is how far away we really were - past the 50 yd line

What a great show

Very impressive!
Chad and I parked really far away but we got home about 20 minutes before everyone else since we walked past much of the traffic (a good thing too since we decided to leave the baby home with the sitter (there were 3) and we got a fretful phone call when we were almost there that he was awake and wouldn't stop crying...

We had a really fun time. It was weird being back at BYU and I found myself reverting back to my college persona... and Chad found that he really liked it :) Imagine what it would have been like if we had met then...