Puphi's Postings: 4th of July

We had a nice vacation in Newcastle, Wyoming for the 4th of July weekend. Kyle's high school has an all-class reunion every five years. Some events are planned for everyone, and some are planned by individual classes.

We left Thursday night after my class. We drove through the night. I did most of the driving. I felt like if Kyle could sleep on the drive then he'd be awake and available for the activities his class had planned for Friday and the weekend. I on the other hand could sleep away.

We all stayed with his parents, Jim & Mary. Kyle and I had the guest room. His brother Kellen and wife Trista had a room set up in the garage. (It looked like a triage unit with all the tarps.) The boys slept in a tent outside. Kyle's sister Candy, her children Sadie, Cruz, and Caysen, and Kyle's high school sweetheart Shelli slept in the spare bedroom.

Yes, I said Kyle's high school sweetheart. They dated off and on during high school, went to prom and such. We keep in contact through Christmas letters and are Facebook friends. And no, it wasn't weird having her there. It felt like she was a cousin, or a friend from church.

Friday night Kyle went to a restaurant, the Flying V, where they had a band playing. He visited with lots of people there. I stayed behind at the house, visited and slept.

Grandpa Jim had some fun activities for the kids. They were divided into teams and sent on a treasure hunt on the property. Each kids ended up with $13 in gold coins. Also, Jim has a 3-hole golf course that he is setting up. Cooper and Cruz helped out to earn some more money.

They are manly men with their shirts off.

Saturday there was a parade. Zac, Zane & Sadie were fighting for candy that was thrown from the floats. Tootsie rolls seemed to be the candy of choice to be thrown. For lunch we went to Taco John's which is a restaurant that Kyle frequented as a teenager. You know he was a frequent customer when the owner recognizes him and calls him by name. Later that night, Kellen and his friend Tim set up a fire pit and we roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

Kyle went to the Antlers Hotel to meet his classmates and then on to a street dance. He again caught up with old friends.

Sunday we all went to church. There were quite a bit of adults, who were teenagers in that ward, that bore their testimonies. Again, it was picture time after the meetings.

Here are Shelli and Carma. Carma came up to the house for a visit, but I slept through that. Bummer.

We set off fireworks that evening. In Utah you can only set off flowers, fountains, snakes, poppers, smokebombs, and flashers. But in Wyoming you can also set off some bottle rockets and aerials. That was cool. Then later that night we went to the fairgrounds and watched the firework display.