I just wanted to write a little note about the 4th of July we had.

We left for Gunnison on Friday right after work. We got to the park in time to have dinner with Cody’s Familily and Mark Bucannan’s family. Faye loved playing on the playground with AO and PO. Mark has a 3.5 year old daughter that Faye took to and followed constantly for about 2 hours. We then got some shakes at Shelly’s and watched the fireworks and listened to a Neil Diamond impersonator with Kim, Cody and the boys. Cassie Brown let us crash at her home, she is so great.

Saturday morning we went to the loins club pancake breakfast at the park. Then we watched the parade. Faye loved the princesses, especially the rodeo and dairy princesses on horses. She got a ton of parade candy, once she figured out that she had to run after it and fend off the little boys that were faster and more aggressive. She called out for Jenny when the Browns walked their oxen up the street and got a big strawberry milk from one of Tanya’s boys! She also like to dance along with the drill team and cheerleaders.

At the carnival I got to meet up with Paul Mogle, Brenten Peterson Joe Mellor and Jared Young. We also got to hang out with Aaron and Tina Pickett, down all the way from Olympia, WA. Tina was a friend of Lori’s in college so they got to hang out. Lori also got to talk some with Nannette, that was good for them both. Faye liked the Dyreng’s mini train and the fish pond the best. She also got a snow cone and cotton candy… combined with some parade sugar she was wound-up pretty good.

We decided to skip the rest of Bro’s-day (sorry Mayfielder’s) and we headed to Cane Beds AZ, by way of highway 89. It was sure pretty going through the winding and green valleys on the way to Kanab. We did introduce Faye to the Ideal Dairy and punch bags!

Floyd was giving a speech on his families involvement with a historic school house in Cane Beds that his grandfather built and taught in during the 1910’s and 20’s. It sure was fun to hear Floyd reminisce about growing up (and liking it) in the sandy homestead (a literal homestead). We had a potluck there with a mixture of Polygamists, homesteaders, hippies, a Greek family, ranchers and some Native Americans. Faye collected rocks and played in the sand.

That night we parked in Paula’s Mexican Food’s parking lot and watched fireworks.

On Sunday David and Kendra’s family drove through town and we had fireworks in the street with them (outlawed in CA, crazy state). Lori’s Aunt Diana stopped by and said “Hi”. Little David’s and friend Alisa stayed the night and they both ate dinner with us on Monday night after a day in Zions NP.

Anyway it was a great weekend to see old friends and catch up with family!

We always seem to have great 4th of July’s.

Bret

Lori's LDS video

Here is Lori's video. Isn't she great?

-Bret

pictures post

These are some pictures from gardening and playing with Marly in the font yard. Lori did a photo-shoot for a head shot she needed. She is trying to get into some more church videos. I included a bunch that she will want me to take off later... We also have some photo's of cody and kim's last visit, but we didn't get any of cody or kim just the boys.

been to long....

Hello all:

I just wanted to drop a quick note about our lives lately. I think I will start with the most current events and move backward.

My mom served divorce papers to my Dad this week. He moved out last weekend. I don’t have a very good vantage point on all of the going’s on, but I do want to thank all you that are in SLC and helping out and such. They both need friends, that’s for sure.

This weekend we are going to SLC to see my Mom graduate from the University of Phoenix with her Bachelors degree. We are very proud and excited about her completion of this big step.

Friday night we will be going to the BEE’s baseball game with a lot of my family (Siblings and Snows mostly). We love the BEE’s. I purchased an online radio package that allows me to listen to every major league game (2434 games) so I have been listening to baseball too much lately.

I started my MBA with the University of Phoenix last month. On Wednesday I will be finishing my first class. It is going pretty good, but it sure is taking up a lot of time.

2 weeks ago, Lori was cast in a MORMON MESSAGE and filmed a 6-8 minute section of an Elder Holland talk. She played the young Pat Holland stranded on the side of the road with a broken car and 2 young children. She loves to ‘practice her craft’ and she especially liked doing some film work. She’s pretty amazing.

Faye is talking and playing a lot. She and I spend most of Saturday outside working on the yard. We are putting in sprinklers in the back and she is my best helper. She especially likes to use the purple PVC primer as paint. She and Marley love to spend time exploring the backyard and getting into trouble.

Our garden is going pretty well. We ate our first radishes this week and hope to get some spinach and other greens before it gets to darn hot. I sure with Grandpa Alan was around for some gardening advice… Our Apricot and Peach trees had beetles pretty bad last year so we poisoned the ground around them in the hope of flushing out any remaining larva after we pruned last fall. So we will not be getting any fruit off the trees this year. We planted a Pear in the fall and Navajo Blackberries this spring. Ohh and my artichoke came back too, surprise, surprise.

We spent Easter and Conference with Grandpa and Grandma Snow in Pine Valley. Jim and Lori, Cody and Kim + boys, Arti, and Holland all came. Bob and Sharon+ Rex were in town too. It is always fun to get up there and just relax.

Our truck died, and now it’s gone. We are going to try to be a one car family until fall. Cody and Kim did it for much longer, so we think we can do it too.

Holland and I played some golf, once with Uncle Bob. I get smoked…

I passed a LEAN certification test with Society of Mechanical Engineers (SME), and had the high in the class. This is a certification that I have been working on since ’08. Now all I have to do is put together my peer reviewed portfolio… Lori has been calling me ‘black-belt’ ever since. Silly Lori… Black belt is SixSigma not LEAN… (I put that in just for you Brian M.)

Well that is enough about us. Remember we always have an extra bed in the guest room open if you are interested.

-Bret