Marshmallows, Travelling Music, and City Council -- Another Great Day in La Verkin

Chloe Cookin' A Marshmallow On The Fire In LaVerkin in July - Can't Beat It!

We'll go backwards today.  We ended with the marshmallows.  Earlier in the evening I was driving after City Council, tuning up and down the radio dial, and came up with classic travelling music from 44 years ago.  Click on the underlined link, I promise you'll smile even if you've never heard these guys before... 

Why do I call it travelling music?  Because we used to listen to it in the car when going for drives when I was a child.  Drives were just better with it!  Now if I could just find Put-Put-Charlie's theme song on the Internet, life would be a little more complete ... :)

So what did we talk about in City Council tonight?  

• Doug Gubler was named Employee of the Month.
• Wal-Mart came and awarded the city $2,000 for playground equipment in Vintage Park -- thanks!
• We heard reports from the Water Board and the Sewer Board
• We had a public hearing on the 2010-11 Budget, after which we unanimously approved it.  Yea to our great staff, we get so much done with about half as many staff relative to our population as similar size towns around the state -- less than 4 full-time staff per 1000 residents.
• We reviewed the current level of fire danger and voted to keep the level 1 fireworks restictions in place for the time being.  This is the most basic level, allows reasonable family use of fireworks on their own property when allowed by state law (3 days before and after July 4, July 24, and New Years.  We also got a report on what is being done to enforce the laws against illegal burning of weeds during fire season (after April 30), particularly timely after the tragic loss of a family home when their neighbors illegal burn got out of control recently.
• Approved project documents on an irrigation filter project to go out to bid.
• Received reports on public safety, solid waste, recycling, beautification, economic development, mosquito abatement, and the great Independence Day activities -- enjoyed by a record number of people this year!
• All of this was done in less than 2 hours.  Got to love that!

Doug and Rachel, that was for you -- thanks for your interest in the good things we are doing!

Terry and Emma

So glad our whole family was able to come to the reunion this year, today let's enjoy this sweet picture!

A Restful Day

Most have headed home now, tonight we have 9 here, yesterday afternoon it was 21!We cleaned some and I walked 6 blocks with Maggie and Cbloe in a stroller.Very nice!

Hurricane's fireworks were less than past years but nice all the same.

Celebrating Our Declaration of Independence

The writers and signers of our Declaration of Independence sacrificed dearly so that all generations following them, including us, would be able to live with the supreme blessing “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter (it) . . .”

We do not read this remarkable Declaration often enough. We take it for granted. We allow career politicians and others more interested in maintaining power than ensuring the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness to maintain their power over us.

This wonderful gift is ours to read, celebrate, discuss often, and protect always . . .

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, (click to see the full Declaration of Independence from the National Archives website)

Our government works best if we are informed, if we participate, and if we hold our representatives responsible for their actions in our behalf.

Happy Birthday, America!

Family Fun on the Third!

We had a great day, I'll let some pictures do most of the talking!

We walked as a family in our city's Independence Day parade today

Later in the day we played water kickball, had an ice cream making competition (yum!), and shot off fireworks.  Mostly we just enjoyed being together at home!

The Greatest Host of the Jacob Beecher Game

We had two fabulous surprises from Jacob this evening.  We had the rare treat of playing the Jacob Beecher game, with two new twists -- the DOUBLE daily double, and "Steal the Limelight".   There was no hope of the grandchildren sleeping, we had so much fun laughing and being together.

The other was the premier of his new short film, "The 500 Dollar Funeral".  Great satirical humor, we laughed and laughed!  Jacob will be posting it soon on You Tube, and as soon as he does, I'll do a feature on it -- you definitely want to see this!

It's Really Fun Watching Your Grandchildren Make New Friends . . . With Each Other

Maggie and Chloe