July 2: His extended family from the Jack Tolman line came over to the house. Janoa and I made homemade ice cream for everyone. They were having their own family reunion up Kirtley Creek, but came out to take showers at our pavilion and hang out for one night. It was really fun visiting with them all--but I was stressed trying to make sure I had enough ice cream and supplies for everyone (I didn't know how many to plan for or when they were coming out exactly and Josh was stressed from work and was not nice to me, which pissed me off and I ended up doing everything alone. I'm really glad Janoa came and made some ice cream too, or I wouldn't have had enough between the two containers I made).
July 3: We had a birthday party for Teddy. It was nice that both Gideon and Malachi and their families came to Salmon to get together the week of July 4th. They came earlier in the week, but unfortunately Tiffany didn't come until the day AFTER July 4th, and she missed being with them. The Entrikin's had made their Air B&B reservations a year in advance, not knowing everyone else's schedule. It was strange not having everyone together all at the same time! The only thing that was scheduled each day was the lunch, which Kathy tried to work around our boys' work schedules and Gideon's dance class schedule (he was teaching at the studio in town every afternoon on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). The hard part about that was the fact that the boys were trying to be home by lunch every day, and then there was absolutely nothing going on the rest of the afternoon/evening/night due to the little ones' nap schedules, so Kathy wanted to have unstructured time for them, but it was rather boring (and sometimes frustrating) for our family since nobody wanted to do anything!
July 4th: This was my happiest day of the week. Josh came home mid-morning, and took me on a jeep ride to Mt. Baldy. We had a fantastic ride--got to oversee Salmon, see a herd of 7 bighorn sheep rams, and we were talking and getting along again after our fight 2 days prior. We got home just in time for Josh to be the grill master at the scheduled lunch. Sadly, Gideon and Alyssa left to go back to Boise to watch the fireworks show there. Malachi and Molly's friends came from Rexburg. We played some board games with them, and then went clay pigeon shooting with the guys at the gravel pit. It was the most we'd hung out with his family so far that week, and was SO enjoyable!! We decided just the night before that we'd go to Idaho Falls to see the big Melaleuca fireworks show with Kimi and Preh. It was a spontaneous trip, but we all LOVED it! We went with them to Kimi's work near Snake River Landing, and sat on the balcony of her work building. We ate, played cornhole, and visited with each other until it got dark. We had a decent view of the half-hour-long show! The fireworks were incredible! The only bad part of the trip was trying to get out of town--they had diversions everywhere in order for traffic to flow, and it took us a half hour just to get back on the freeway. We drove all the way home to Salmon that night, since the boys had to work the next morning.
July 5th: Tiffany's family came to town that afternoon, and a bunch of us floated the river (Josh and I are not in the group photo) from 12 mile to Shoup Bridge. The water levels were great, but Josh was a bit stressed because Emmy & Dallin hadn't floated before, and they kept getting behind the group as we floated, and we had to keep stopping (that way if anything happened to them, we'd know and wouldn't be too far ahead). There was one time where I had them hold onto our tubes, but then we got trapped in a current and went into a tree, but it all worked out, thankfully!! I got all the tubes and boats and kayak inflated that day while everyone was at work, in order to be less stressful for Josh, but I was unsure of how many to do and who wanted to float in what, so when we arrived, and we were all trying to decide, it still created stress for him!! I thought the float went well, but he couldn't relax because he was worried about the little ones. When we got back to the house, Kathy ordered pizza for us, which was nice, and the kids all played in the yard.
July 6th: We went to Salmon's 4th of July Parade. Malachi and Molly left early the night before to catch their flight back to New Mexico, so it was Grandma and Grandpa, the Entrikin's, and our family. Our friends the Judy's also stood by us, as well as Amanda's family and her in-laws the Berube's. We had a great group surrounding us and we had a lot of fun! We had a late lunch together that afternoon with Tiffany's family, and then her two older boys joined our family for the demolition derby--which sadly was the worst one we've ever been to. The Spokes & Chrome organization isn't in charge of it anymore, and it has just gone down hill for the past 3 years ever since the Eagles organization has been running it. There were hardly any cars in it, it was overpriced, disorganized, and short. The Judy's came and sat by us at it (we sat on the west side instead of under the grandstand for the first time, which was actually quite nice and less smelly), and sadly it was their FIRST time ever going to the demo derby!! I liked talking to Jen during the race, though, so I'm glad they came! Since the derby ended earlier than expected, we hosted Tiffany's family for smore's at our fire pit. There was this freak wind storm that blew through unexpectedly, so we all ran inside, but then the power went out. This stressed out Josh, and we had a little fight in front of everyone, but we got the situation under control. We decided to play some board games, and Josh found the propane lantern which provided enough light until it got dark enough outside for us to do fireworks in Kathy's yard together. Thankfully, the wind burst hadn't lasted long, but the damage from it was all over--broken trees, yard furniture blown away, and things strewn all over the yard. Josh and I had each purchased some fireworks, and he'd gotten extra the day before when there was a big sale, so we had lots to light! I particularly loved the mortar shells and the giant sparklers that we all got to use! So fun!
July 7th: I got up that morning and made some side dishes for Josh's family's lunch after church. Josh and I said the prayers at Sacrament Meeting (which stressed him out for whatever reason that morning), so we left a little early to church. I taught the Sunday School lesson for our class. After church, Tiffany's family came to dinner before they left to go back to Pocatello. The Berube's came over later that afternoon and played in the yard for several hours. They had a great time, and really enjoyed taking advantage of everything that was set up in the yard: the ditch, the toys, the yard equipment. I'm so glad! However, I don't have any photos of the day because Josh and I had an argument at church that escalated quickly to a major fight after church, so I told him to take the food to the family meal for me, and I left to a friend's house for the rest of the afternoon. It took nearly two weeks for us to get back to our normal relationship after what had happened. I don't ever want to go through this fight again--so I've learned my lesson: in the future, I plan to either be working or out of town for his family's July 4th get-togethers.
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