--On July 3rd we had our annual Brown family get together/reunion. It was such a great turn out this year. All of my mom's brother's and sisters and their spouses were in attendance. It was so fun to see aunts, uncles and cousins from out of state that we don't get to see that often.
--After a long three weeks, Matt finally came home, yay. Two days after Matt got back from Denver, we left to go rafting in Jackson with the singles ward my dad was recently release as bishop from. I had never been rafting before and was so nervous. Luckily, Matt has ridden the river several times and was the guide for our raft. Rafting was so much fun. I don't know if everyone that was in our boat would share my enthusiasm since half of them got thrown out on our second run down lunch counter, but I definitely would love to go again.
Later that evening after the river runs, Matt, Ethan and I had dinner at a little restaurant in downtown Jackson. We decided not to go to the Bar-J with the rest of the group since Ethan would not be able to sit through the program. Ethan charmed everyone sitting around us at the restaurant and afterwards when we went to the park. At the city center park, there were several gophers that have burrowed holes under the boardwalks. Ethan would giggle and laugh and chase the gophers into their holes, then hold his hands up as to say, "Where did they go?" People got a kick out of watching Ethan chase the gophers.
My sister Krista and her husband Taylor also came on the rafting trip and were nice enough to do some family photos for us up in Star Valley. They turned out so good. Krista is getting to be such a great photographer. Thanks again Krista and Taylor.
Below are some photos Krista took:
--We celebrated Pioneer Day up in Newton at their annual festivities. I decided to run in the Newton dam run after all these years. The dam run is a 5k race from Newton dam down to the center of town. My brother Justin and his wife Shelly also ran. I was surprised at the turn out apparently a lot of people who grew up in Newton come back to run, who knew? There were about 90 or so people that participated in either the 5k or 1 mile run/walk. Justin was beat out in the last few yards and came in second. I didn't do too bad, I came in 24th overall with a time of 26:22.
After the race, we watched the parade from my parents front lawn. Thanks to Ethan and Ava, we were pelted with tons of candy. Ava even got a whole case of strawberry milk from Benson Trucking. Score!
We just hung out the rest of the day and had delicious BBQ chicken and dutch oven potatoes on the patio for dinner. Great end to a great day.
