Domestic Tranquility, General Welfare, and Blessings of Liberty

This weekend we celebrated Independence Day! We watched "A More Perfect Union," a BYU made movie about the writing of the Constitution. How wonderful it is that through study, prayer, discussion, diligence and compromise leaders were able to establish a system that works as well as it does to enable happiness for its people and influenced other countries to create similar systems.

The events of our past week or so are examples of that very type of happiness.

We went with Grandma Fletcher and Uncle Sam to the funeral of Dad's cousin Cory. We enjoyed meeting Aunt Lucille and Aunt Roselle (in the above picture)--Aunt Lucille is still very energetic and cheerful. We also met Dad's cousin Wendy who said she was with him in the library when he asked Mom on their first date.

Aaron's BYU grounds crew, along with other crews, has been fixing paths around the duck pond and cleaning it out. You can now see through the water to the bottom (in some areas). They also took the ducks away but they are back, and there are at least 10 turtles.

We went on a little camping trip a couple weeks ago. We found a campground in the Hobble Creek canyon close to home. It was a bit chilly in the evening and morning so we tucked Rosie in our sweatshirts. She was a nice little warm packet for us too! I like my little teddy bear.
Our next adventure was last Saturday, when we woke up early to drive down to the Manti Temple and go hiking!

The temple was wonderful. It is beautiful inside, and less modern than most temples which is a neat experience.
Then we drove into the mountains, made hot dogs over a fire, and went for a little hike. For this picture Aaron told me to call Rosie and make a noise so she would look at the camera, but it looks like the buzz I made got the same reaction from him as it did from Rosie.
What do you suppose we found at the end of our trail? The Hollow Tree! Not just any hollow tree, but the home of the famous Keebler Elves. See them waving through the window?Here is the oven where they bake all their delicious cookies. They invited us in for some, and the cookies are even better fresh than from the packages in the grocery store.
We continued our drive up the mountains but at the top came to a snowdrift, so we got out for a walk.
Nope, can't go any farther.
On the way we saw these mysterious ruins. Definitely 20th century.
On the fourth of July we watched a hot air balloon event in Provo, ate lunch at a pirate restaurant with Matthew and Nicole and did fireworks with Matthew, Nicole, and some friends from our ward.

Those are some of the exciting things we have done with our summer time. Most of the time, though, we just play with our little bunny rabbit.


Now Rosie is 13 weeks old and she can come, sit, lie down, and play fetch. Playing fetch is especially fun. She likes it when you sit on one side of the living room and throw the ball all the way to the opposite side of the kitchen. She gets excited when it bounces off of walls or cupboards, but if it bounces off the oven she won't touch it.

Over all, we are very happy.