The 24th Celebration!

This year for the 24th my sister Heather, her husband Jacob, and their three kids Brenan, Shaylin and Kyen, came up to Snowflake to help us celebrate!  It was a super fun time together and we all enjoyed it!  They got to our house Friday evening just before the Friday Night Rodeo.  We all headed toward Taylor and ran up the bleachers... 

 The kids made it all the way to the top (DANG, it is high up there!) before being ushered back down to our seat.  Here are Betsy, Kyen, and Emily during the patrotic portion of rodeo.  They looked so sweet all standing together with thier hands on their hearts. 

 Just goofing around during the rodeo with some random beer bottles we found....  J/K!!!  Those are IBC Root Beer bottles that had been yummily consumed by all of us.

 The town had all kids aged 3-8 come out to the arena and chase 6 or 7 chickens around and if you caught one, you got to take them home.  All five of my children fit into that age category (yikes, are we crazy?!?!... yes, yes we are!) and so it was fun watching hundreds of kids chase just a few chickens around...  And Nathan got one!!  Okay, not technically, but the kid that caught it didn't want it, so Nathan was happy to ablige and take "Rodeo" the chicken from him.  In the confusion of the hoards of children and gettting the chicken to the car, two of our kiddos got misplaced....  All is well, and they were quickly found!!  It was tense for a few minutes, but everyone was back together at our seat when I returned from chicken delivery to the car. 

 Here is David carrying the chicken.  I should have just had him take the long hike to the car!! 

 We parted ways and headed home after the rodeo.  Saturday morning we met up again in front of the Main Street Chapel for the Foot Races, and then we hurrried over to our float.  Yes, we got to ride on a float this year.  I was razzed pretty bad at church the next day for riding on a 5th ward float, and being in 2nd ward! 

 Here is me and my beautiful sister Heather.  We were waiting in the hot sun in line at the BBQ.  We got our food, some getting more meat then others =), and found a nice shady spot on the lawn where the kids ran and played and ate, and ran and played!

 After lunch we made our way to the golf course to the car show.  It was not easy keeping 5 + 3 curious little childrens wandering hands and eyes from touching the awesome cars.  And did I mention, it was HOT?!?! 

No more pictures of the festivities, but after the car show we came back to our house for some cooling down and drinks of ice water.  The boys settled into a game of Risk, and a few of us girls headed to the Arts and Crafts fair at the park.  After wandering a bit, we headed back to our house and had a simple hot dog and hamburger BBQ on our back porch.  The kids had a great time with their cousins!  Nathan made a new connection with Brenan as they shot their BB guns all afternoon.  And, of course all the girls just had one big loud party!  The Mayhew crew headed back toward Mesa, due to early church the next day, and work obligations.  Wish they could have stayed longer for the fireworks!

After the Mayhews drove away, David and I decided against the Saturday Rodeo, but not against the fireworks.  We parked in the perfect spot at the Centenial ballfields, watched the end of the championship game, let the kids get filthy playing in the mud and dirt, and enjoyed the weather as it finally cooled down.  The fireworks were wonderful, and the kids had a fun time (so did I!) riding in the back of our truck to and from the fireworks.  It was a great time to spend with my sister and her family!  Love them!  Oh, by the way, in the 10 years I have been attending the 24th celebration, we always get rained out at some point during the day.  Not this year....  It was HOT and miserable all day.  Another fun, yet HOT celebration weekend in the books! 

ps- thank you for the pictures sis!  My battery on my camera was nearly dead so it didn't get pulled out very often.  So all photography posted is due to my wonderful sister Heather. =)