Health Days, Mother's Day and a Farewell

What a great weekend! It was Smithfield Health Day's -- and if you are a Downs, that means a National Holiday -- I guess kinda like a Jackson and the 4th of July-- but that is a National Holiday! We had breakfast at the fireman's breakfast. I look forward to that each year. There is just something about hash browns, pancakes and scrambled eggs cooked on a grill. Then it was off to the parade. Kody decided to walk the parade route with his school this year. I was grateful that Sidney decided to walk also so he has someone to walk with. I love the small town (although I don't know if Smithfield is still classified as a small town) parades. After the parade, we headed over to Forrester Acres to the fair. Kody met his friend Carson and off they went. Tyler couldn't find anyone to hang with so he stuck pretty close to Todd and I. I walked around the booths but nothing really caught my eye so then we just sat on the lawn and watched all the people. We enjoyed the afternoon just hanging out at home and enjoying the great weather. That night we had a BBQ with Randy, Shonie, Ryan, Shalise, Eric, Jackson, Dawson, and my parents. We build a fire and just enjoyed hanging out and visiting with each other. The Godderidge's family came over to roast marshmellows before the fireworks. I love having such great neighbors who enjoy many of the same things our family does. The fireworks we fun as always. Again, it's great to have them just across the creek at Forrester Acres and we can watch them from our back yard around a fire.

Mother's Day was good. I'll admit Mother's Day is one of my least favorite holidays. Unfortunately, I got that attitude from my mom, who hates Mother's Day. I tried really hard this year not to get my hopes up for anything and not to expect anything either. Maybe that's the secret. My house was a mess from Saturday, and I didn't even let that bother me. When Todd and I went to SLC about a month ago, I found this music stand that I liked. He said that he'd give that to me for Mother's Day. On Saturday morning when we were getting ready to go to breakfast, Kody wanted to ride our bikes. When I got outside and was ready to go, Todd had our bikes side by side. He asked me which bike I wanted to ride. I thought this was an odd question, since my bike is purple - why would he want to ride my bike. Keep in mind, my purple bike was a little small for me but as much as I ride it worked fine. He quickly went to the shed and brought out my new bike ---

Suddenly, I understood Kody's excitement to ride our bikes! I really like it, the handle bars are up high so I don't have to ride hunched over -- sometimes that was too hard on my back. I've actually gone on a few rides and enjoyed it very much. Thanks Todd and boys! It was a great Mother's Day.

Also, on Mother's Day was Jake's (Todd's nephew) mission farewell. He is going to Madagascar -- seriously I didn't even know there was a real place called this! If I was his mother, I'd be a nervous wreck! It was good to spend time with family at the park after the farewell. We wish Jake the best!