Toni

1. Independence Day bash - well, I was going to head up to Montana on the night of the 2nd, but then work scheduled an important meeting for half a day on the 3rd (how irritating!) so I didn't get to leave until after the boring meeting was over. It turned out to be okay though, because by the time the meeting was over, Matt was back in UT (after a couple days fishing in Montana) and we were able to go to lunch. I hadn't seen him for years so I really enjoyed being able to have lunch with him. Then I drove to ID, picked up Jill & Justin, and we continued on to Montana. Upon arriving in Butte, we immediately proceeded to MT Tech to watch the fireworks (after getting some gas). It was kind of rainy, but I had faith that they'd still light the fireworks anyway--they're Montanans after all--not pantywaists like most people. I WASN'T disappointed in my hopes and sure enough, we got to enjoy another fabulous fireworks display this year. Good work, Butte! On the 4th, we went to the parade as usual. Amber and I cheered for pretty much everything (except the questionable and sketchy ones). They actually had a Republican float in the parade this year and guess who was the only one cheering for them--yep, you guessed it, me! Oh well, ask me if I care what a bunch of Democrats think! I must say that I was HIGHLY disappointed over the fact that there was not one single bagpiper in the entire parade--NOT A SINGLE ONE! Can you believe it? Talk about getting shafted! I did feel a little better, however, because the US Forest Service had a truck in the parade (with Smokey the Bear in the back). So, I at least got to shout, "I love the US Forest Service!!!" at the top of my lungs, which made me feel a little better about the lack of kilt-wearers. If there's one thing that I love as much as I love bagpipers it's park rangers. Well, I hung out with the family for a few days and then I had to go back to work (snore)! For the adventurous, I'll just briefly mention that Amber and I went on a couple of treacherous outings (I won't go into explicit detail for the sake of the faint-hearted). All in all, it was a glorious, incredible, fantastic, super-duper, jolly good time. I think I should do it every weekend. period.

2. Favorite childhood shin-dig: well, I don't know if I'd say it was my FAVORITE--I mean, after all, some of our games are quite legendary--it's hard to pick JUST ONE FAVORITE--but I really enjoyed our homemade Olympics. From long-jumping on old couch cushions (that we also used to put in the van on Saturday nights in glorious preparation for our Sabbath conveyance to church) to the back stroke (crab-walking backwards to the hedge and back) in our "swimming pool" lawn, our Olympics was quite the event for us kids. John seemed to be the one who headed up the festivities, even carving "medals" out of washed meat trays (rather disgusting to think about NOW if you ask me--come on, old used meat trays that had been washed? Ick!). But you don't think of those things as kids. Anyway, we had all sorts of events: high-jump (we got a big long plastic pipe from somewhere to use as our bar), long-jump (already mentioned), floor exercise (Mary & I just reminsced about this the other day) on the rectangle front lawn, swimming races (crawling, crab-walking, etc. to the hedge & back, depending on the "length" of the race), various races (usually around the block), diving (off Mom and Dad's desk onto their bed--while they were otherwise occupied of course!) and we even hung a bar in the garage (remember the old ropes used to hang deer? Yep, those are what we used to hang our bar) to do all sorts of gymnastic routines on. C'mon! Could life be possibly better than this?! ESPECIALLY when you compare it to what children THESE DAYS do for "fun"--sit on their behinds and play video games or watch TV for hours on end. Okay, I'll just say it bluntly--we were some pretty amazing and creative children if you ask me.