Millar Moments: 4TH OF JULY AND A WARD ADULT PROGRESSIVE DINNER BRINGS IN JULY

Happy Birthday, America. We love the celebration of our country's fight for freedom. It's a reminder of the many brave men and women who have lost their lives defending this wonderful country of America.

We celebrated the 4th at Deon and Gary's home along with some of her family members. A barbecue of hamburgers and hot dongs and all the trimmings was the fare for the evening. Just before dark, Kyle (The Fuller's grandson) began setting off fireworks that he had brought. They were beautiful but didn't quite compare to the ones the Fuller's neighbors were setting off. Their fireworks display lasted well over an hour. We could see them from the backyard even though the neighbors were setting them off across the street from the front yard. Quite amazing that someone would spend that kind of money for that amount of fireworks. We enjoyed their display, for sure. Just before 10, we left the Fuller's and drove to a home in our neighborhood to see the fireworks across the valley, including the ones set off in Midway. The Marble's home is on the highest point in our development and they had invited us to come enjoy the fireworks with them. When we got there, we realized they had been enjoying the same fireworks that we had seen in Deon's backyard. They were especially amazing from the Marble's deck, high above the valley floor. We were disappointed in the display in Midway. It seemed shorter than usual this year and the grand finale was non existent. I guess you had to be closer to get the full effect of the Midway display.

Waiting around the firepit for the fireworks to start

Kyle's fireworks in the backyard

The neighbor's firework display

During this time, Paul and I were totally involved in the final preparations of our ward adult progressive dinner party held on Saturday, July 8. That week meant lots of organization in order to pull it all off. We shopped for the food on Wednesday and Thursday, prepared the food Saturday morning, and cooked the food Saturday afternoon. We also hosted the appetizers for one of the groups at our home. We then raced over the the Heiner's home to get everything ready for the main course, while the others were eating salads at three different homes. We were so glad when it was all over but grateful that all went off as planned and that everyone had a great time.

Teriyaki chicken on the skewers ready to be barbecued.
Thank goodness for Deon who came over and helped me
thread the chicken onto 100 skewers.

Paul cooking the chicken outside while I stir fried
the frozen strings beans inside. The potatoes
had been wrapped earlier and taken to
the Heiner's to be baked in her ovens.

Part of the 25 at our home for appetizers

Heiner's backyard ready for the guest to start
arriving for dinner and dessert

Sunday after our party, Todd and Kailee brought their family up for dinner. It had been a little over three weeks since we had seen them so we were excited to have them come up to Heber. The girls were so excited to show us their new mermaid tails, complete with matching swimsuits. Aria and Avery, then, wanted to use their tails in the hot tub after dinner, which they did and loved it.

Of course, the girls wanted to 'swim' in the hot tub
with their mermaid fins.

Loving it in the hot tub despite the
water being 101 degrees.

On Friday, we had the privilege of going to Todd's to be with Jon, Mindi, Carly and Jon's boys. Jon and Mindi and Carly had been to a seminar event for Jon's company in California and made a stop in Utah on their way back home to Florida. Friday morning, we got a call from Jon to see if we could come to Todd's home for a barbecue with his boys. Of course, we made ourselves available as it is so seldom that we can visit with them. Todd smoked his famous ribs, even though he and Kailee and the children would not be there for dinner. All of Jon's boys were able to come. It was so great watching them play together with Jon on the sport court shooting hoops. Jon said he hadn't had that much fun with his boys for years. Jon and Mindi stayed until Saturday afternoon, buying things to help Todd and Kailee decorate their home.

Everyone shooting hoops

Taylor and his girlfriend, Michelle

Mindi, Carly, and Carly's best friend, Dillon

Jon and his boys - a rare photo of them all together

The next Friday after our temple shift, we went to Todd and Kailee's to babysit. Todd and Kailee wanted to go to the temple so we said we'd come babysit while they went. They had not seen the new version of the endowment session so we wanted them to be able to experience that. We loved being with the children. Paul especially loved it when Lincoln came to snuggle him. That made his day.

Real buddies

On the last Friday of the month, after our temple shift, we met Katie, Ryan and Grace at Olive Garden for a late lunch. After lunch, Katie headed back to St. George, Ryan ran some errands. and Grace and Dad and I went to Joann Fabrics to buy fabric for a quilt. We finally found a time to make Grace's quilt. This usually takes place when the granddaughters turn 12 but Grace turned 12 during COVID, hence doing this quilt when she was 14. Grace was real quick in deciding what fabric she wanted so we were home to Heber in enough time to wash and iron the fabric, go to Dairy Keen, and watch a movie.

The next day, Saturday, was spent cutting the quilt squares and sewing them together to form the quilt top. Grace was very patient in her sewing and did a great job. Because of this, the quilt top went together nicely. That night after dinner, we watched another movie. Grace is especially into musical productions so the two movies we watched were Hello Dolly and Phantom of the Opera. She loved them both although she laughed pretty hard at the dancing in Hello Dolly.

Laying out the quilt squares

Sewing the squares together

Sunday was a day of rest from the quilt except for pinning the quilt top, batting, and backing together. Todd and Kailee and family came up to join us for dinner. Todd and Ryan hadn't seen each other for month so it was a good time for them to catch up. Grace played with the girls and Lincoln the whole time after dinner. A good Sunday.

Monday was a press day. We found out that Grace had a 6:30 rehearsal in St. George, so we had to finish the quilt by 1:00. Right after breakfast, we tied it then I proceeded to pin and sew the edges to bind the quilt. All went well until I ran over a pin while sewing and broke my sewing machine. Luckily, it didn't happen until I was on the last square of the quilt. I quickly hand sewed that last 8 inches to complete the quilt. Grace was thrilled that we got it all done so she could take it home with her. Ryan and Grace were able to leave for St. George before 1:00. A little stressful but gratifying to see Grace so happy with her quilt.

Tying the quilt

The finished product
I call it the 'happy quilt' because of
colors of the squares.

Side note: We have already started planning out next ward party. We had a meeting with our committee soon after our progressive dinner party to plan for our 2nd annual End of Summer Party. This will be a barbecue and movie night at the park in our development for which we will invite the whole neighborhood as well as our ward. It should be fun but has involved making assignments and pricing out food items this month. We needed to have everything in order so we can pull this off soon after we get back from our trip to Colorado at the first of August. No rest for the weary.

Just a few memes before I close out this month's post: