4th of July Holiday Celebration!

As tradition follows, we attended the Eaglewood fireworks on the 3rd of July.  Although the fireworks were nice, as always, the night itself wasn't anything spectacular.  My mom had come into town but preferred to stay at my Grandma Bingham's house.  Levi and Michelle went to the fireworks as well but they had other parties to join.  We met with Levi long enough to say hi and sign some paperwork for our life insurance.  The redeeming factor of the night was seeing Kash and the Wood family.  It's always a pleasure to talk with Kash and Kacee was kind enough to let us join her family for the firework show.  It was fun to catch up with her seeing as they were living in Washington. She was close to having her baby girl and still looked so cute even with her pregnant belly.

Don't worry we were able to still make the holiday eventful by going into the mountains.  On the fourth, my grandma gathered the family in Mueller Park canyon.  Jake, one of Mike's college roommates, joined us as well.  His wife, a nurse, was on duty for the day and so he was looking for some company for the holiday.  My Grandpa loved to hear that he was a biology teacher.  In his typical fashion, he brought to attention that he got to teach about the birds and the bees.  However, my favorite was when Jason thought he was Mac's boyfriend.  Unfortunately, they were unaware of the misunderstanding and we could have really played it up.

After filling our bellies and spending some time around the family, a group of us decided to bike up to Elephant rock.  Mike Brose took the lead with my mom, Mac, Jake, Mike, and I following his lead.  It was a pleasant ride up as we enjoyed the scenery, the company, and biking of course.  Jake's bike didn't make his journey any easier, nevertheless, he was a great sport.  We spent some time up top enjoying the view, trail mix, and re-hydrating.  One of my favorite moments, as always, was coming down the mountain.  I was ahead of Mac and would periodically turn to check on her.  One time as I did so, she nearly did an endo over her front handlebars of her bike.  Luckily she was able to get back on track without eating the dirt.  Knowing she was OK, we had a good laugh.  It was a great bike ride and one we vowed we would do again in the future.

On Saturday, the 7th, my mom had lined up Mt. Timpanagos with the Brose's and the Matt and Val Baldwin.  It was a good hour or so hike up to the top of the mountain.  Val and Matt are always very good at keeping conversations going.  In fact, Mike and I decided after the hike we want to be more like them when it comes to this area.  They are very good at making you feel important by learning more about you.  Plus Val is very good at bringing up interesting conversations.  By profession she is   a relationship coach and thus posed three questions to Mike and I.  She wanted to know what the best part of marriage is, the hardest part, and what was the most surprising thing we learned.  Though she didn't just want quick answers, so she gave us the hike to think about it.  Sheree was also curious to hear the answers as well.  Sheree and I also had great conversations about kids.  She told me about her first time finding out she was a mom and how she was not really a "kid" person herself.  Yet, here she was with 5 boys and she loves it.

It took us about an hour or so to get to the top.  The cave was really neat.  Mike and I were feeling pretty good about our cave knowledge seeing we had just done the Minnetonka cave the previous month.  Everybody really seemed to like it.  Val was super impressed.  One of Sheree's boys was told it was his cave- he like any boy- thought that was pretty neat.  The tour guide was trying to illustrate the point that it is a public cave and so it is all of ours and as such we should treat it well.  We had more conversation on the way down.  We then decided it was time to go to JCW's and get some food.  On the drive over, we revealed our answers to Val and Matt.  We both thought it was great just having a best friend, confidant, and somebody to be with all the time.  I remember conversing was, and is, one of my hardest parts of marriage.  Mike's most surprising thing was the amount of hair that girls shed.  We then went in to JCW's to enjoy some awesome hamburgers and shakes.  Happy Day.