Summer Time...Summer Time... Fun, Fun Summer Time

Hope you all had a great Fourth. We sure had fun. Kyle did make it back from North Dakota in time to help his dad bale hay for a few days, then we headed to a friend's house for a great BBQ and spectacular fireworks. They live next door to a prominent business owner in town who puts on a fabulous fireworks show each year from his house on the hill. He gives a free meal to all Veterans and anyone can come in and watch the show he pays to have professionally put on. It is rumored this year he spent $50,000! It was great, and we were right underneath it all. It was by far the best show I've seen, and Beckett slept through the whole thing! They didn't start until about 10 pm, so it was a long night and Nattie stayed up for it all. Anyway, I took the kids to a parade in Ten Sleep earlier in the day, and here are some pics...

Daddy and the munchkins...


Natalie and her friend Addison roasting marshmallows. The BBQ was at our friends Cassidy and Travis's house, and it was good so see and visit with so many people.

Natalie and Beckett waiting for the parade to start...

Sorry, this one is out of order. It's from the week before when my cousin Rene and her family came through and visited. She has three fun boys who loved our big dogs and played great with my kiddos. Spencer and Natalie are only a couple of months apart. They live in Washington and were on their way to Yellowstone.

Momma and her good friend Amanda at the fireworks

I tried to get some pics of the fiasco, but of course these don't do the event justice. It really was spectacular.




Here are some swimming pictures from this week. We've been without any rain or thunderstorms for a while now and the hot dog days of summer have set in! We've been spending early mornings at the park, swimming and on the bike path. Natalie rode 2 miles by herself on her trike this week! I had to help push her up one of the bigger hills, but for the most part she did it all on her own. I was so proud of her. I had Beckett in the stroller and did a bit of jogging behind her...she can really put the pedal to the metal on her trike! She gets to start swimming lessons next week. We've also had some fun playdates while Daddy has been gone so much. He got home again last night and is off this weekend, so we are happy about that. We have two weddings to go to tomorrow and will probably head out to Hyattville Sunday. We had more company last weekend when his good buddy Matt from college drove through with his wife Beth and son Samuel. Samuel and Beckett are only a few weeks apart, so they had a lot of fun together. They all spent the night and it was really nice to catch up and visit. Nattie was 9 months old when we went up to Montata for their wedding!

I'm trying to get as much jewelry done this week as I can for a show next Saturday, then I head straight from there (Riverton) to Pinedale to see some old friends I have not visited for a while. It will be my first weekend away from Beckett! I'll be so busy I think it will be fine. I think between Kyle, Jill and Guy they can handle it. I also have a JOB INTERVIEW next week! I hope to work online teaching English to Asian students. It would be part time and I can work late at night when the kids are in bed, which is perfect. MY ideal shift would be 10 pm - 2 am, but we'll see what they give me ( if I even get hired!). It's a great company based here in the Basin that has really expanded a lot over the last couple of years. I remember reporting about it when they first started and I worked at the paper.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell from the Tharp family! We're getting really excited about our Portland trip at the end of the month. Hopefully I will post again before then, but no guarantees!

"The best relief from life was the presence of a friend who seldom asked us for more than we could give." ~Barbara Raskin, American writer