Water, Wind and Fire and Other Natural Forces.

Isn't this picture epic? This was a week of Wind, Water and Fire (Works) ... keep reading to find out what is happening here.

Well of all the forces of nature I know, your Dad is the most persistent.  After a year and a half of steady weekly work and now he is done.  These pictures represent the redoing of Darby's upstairs, which Dad has been working on for the last 8 months! 

Some before and after pictures:

And the last project, installing a ceiling fan in the small bedroom.

Here another force of nature and she just turned 11 this week.  Look at her go!!

Our most notable force of nature this week the microburst wind storm that blew by our house on Monday.  More than double the branches down as normal storms leave. 

Even blowing large branches onto the porch.  A microburst is defined as wind faster than 70 miles per hour.

and blowing over the balcony furniture, including the rug.

Allison and David Terry from the ward stopped by to help me pull many large branches off the side street. 

When Dad got home he joined the fun.

He posted the excitement on Face Book, so Davin and Bri et al came and brought their truck.  We loaded about 90% of the fall onto their truck.

Lillian, our cellar dweller, even came to help.  She has other talents as well. 

Do you like my painting clothes? I'd been painting a dresser on the back patio when it hit.

Total load in the pickup - 640 pounds!

Andrea Garity, nee Draudt (Who grew up in the Geneva Heights 7th Ward) had a 60 foot pine fall on their house. 

A tree on the Gariety's back property line, which had the back half break off and fell into the Anderson's back yard.  Shown here are Dad, Brent and Jay Best.

On Tuesday we headed out to Saratoga Springs to Celebrate the fourth of July with Fire, another force of nature, errr should I say fire works.

We started with Robin's famous Red, White and Blue breakfast for dinner, a long running family tradition.  

One little cousin, Ginger's sister Denali's son, was fitted up in his Buc'ee Beaver t-shirt, with some Beaver nuggets ... this picture is for you William!!  His grandma is visiting from Texas and brought his mom the nuggets. 

after the late breakfast we moved to the front yard for fireworks.  Tami brought along her cotton candy machine. 

Lucy with her cotton candy. 

And Violet with hers.... Tami's girls have allergies, and cotton candy fits the bill.

Here she is with her new baby Evie, strapped on. 

Denali's husband takes machine in hand.

Here's Dad with Violet.

and here are Craig and Denali and their little boy, Keoki.

Jeff pulled out this set of fireworks his favorite realtor gave him a couple of years ago.

And here's a force of nature well under control to the thrill of everyone. 

On Wednesday I headed to work and Dad headed out to Mosida, because he knows two different families on the trek, this family is the daughter of the Shurtz (Mark & Amy Summers plus sons Richard, Scott &Loran) who we served with in Finland.

The girls are daughters of Amy Hintze nee Coleman (Brooke and Heather), who grew up with you older kids in Salt Lake.

On Thursday Dad headed off to the temple, and I went to work. Afterward we joined forces and headed to Lindon ...

Of course, water is also a force of nature, and has sometimes done us wrong, as in when the sewer needed to be replaced during our first mission, and when our water supply line broke and had to be replaced during our second mission.  This time it was all fun and games at Becca and Brady's Real Estate company's event at the Lindon Water Park. 

Here I am with Brady and Darby.

and I found a little mermaid as well ... how fun in that?

Madi in the water jets.

Titan, Becca and Darby

Mindy and Sarah, my brother Emory's daughters, and both clients of Becca's.  Along with me, Becca, Hannah and Titan.

Dad also ran into Tim DeWitt, his wife and kids, and other DeWitt cousins. 

These three girls in are Sarah and Mindy's daughters.

and last of all is us with the Seamon's Trina Seamon's (nee Moe) in-laws.

And having not had enough of the water force of nature the night before, I headed out to Salem Pond with my Kayak, where I met Ann and her neighbor. 

It was a beautiful day.

Weirdly we found four single shoes, three of them were floating in the pond.

After Kayaking I was off to work for the day.  Here I am with the owner of Brambles and Blossoms in Provo, Lisa. I thought she looked adorable. 

After work I headed to Tadka's for Indian food where I met a couple of friends from the ward, Cynthia and Aubrey, who were actually friends in High School.   Great food and conversation. 

I left a bit early so Dad and I could head up to Highland for a missionary wedding.  Here's Dad with Nicholas Larson and his girlfriend.

Here is dad with Will Stitcher and Alex Dossett

This is Spencer Woolley and his fiance Samantha Elton

Zach Frisch (the groom) and Dad

Here is Zach with his bride, Jill Skousen.

And more former missionaries (R to L) James Phelps, Byatt Stoker, Liam McGrady and Juke Pabst

Here is one of their bridal shots.

After the wedding we went up to see the large flag flying in the United States, just above Trevor and Nell's house.  The dark, driven by the wind, shots are mine ... the tame one is from the internet.  The flag is about a quarter of an acre in size.

First thing Saturday I was off garaging and at the first sale ran into LaVern.

At a later sale I saw this cutie who held the dress up in front of herself and said, "Look mom, it fits perfectly."

Dad had gone running that morning and got to see some more wind in action, this time it was hot wind.

How fun is that?

a small force of nature came to live with Trevor and Nell's family. 

Her name is Rosie (as in the riveter)

and this is an even gentler force of nature, my first morning glory bloomed this week as well.  

Then we combined forces ... hahahaha ... and walked up to the Park for the Scottish Festival.

The two pictures are of a very entertaining Irish Band.  We watched their whole performance, a first for us. 

They had kids come up and dance while they performed. 

3 generations of Scots

The #BacontoPayson, folks were out in force .. building force to encourage Kevin Bacon to come to the final Prom at the current Payson High School, where 40 years will have passed since the filming of the movie, Footloose. The High School will be torn down next summer. 

Here's those running the booth.  Did I mention that it was actually Kevin Bacon's birthday? 

Dad and I checked out our genealogy, 8th cousin for me and 5th cousin for Dad ...

Now this looks like some kind of force... I love the costumes.

We watched a couple of pipe bands compete ... 

Dad with out State Rep, Doug Welton, who lived in the Park Ward with us. 

                                          We love all the different outfits people put together.

Afterwards it was dinner at Cafe Rio 

and last of all, speaking of wind, weren't we?  I found the perfect Wind Vane for my Garden House. and were off to the Concert in the Park, hoping for a pipe band!!