Festivals, Friends, and Wild flowers

Unusually high numbers of thunderstorms in the last two weeks have meant seeing something like this outside our house almost every day (I can't find exact data, but I'm pretty sure we've gotten more than the .8 inches we usually get for July):

However, even the damp weather couldn't dampen our enthusiasm for the visit of some very good friends. (Sorry! I couldn't resist the bad play on words).

One of my best friends came to visit this week. Hooray! I've known Karin since we were both 11. We were roommates together for two years at BYU, and she moved out to Philadelphia shortly before I moved to State College after we graduated. I haven't seen her for almost three years, so it was particularly nice to see her again. She brought her kids with her, two boys who were born the same years as my two oldest kids.

We took everyone up to Cedar Breaks (again), which the kids seemed to enjoy because they had partners in crime. They were also committed to filling out their junior ranger books and getting their junior ranger badges at the end of our visit.

The weather was perfect. Beautiful, a little cool. Thunderstorms massing behind us.

Andrew with his old/new friend Ezra. (They played together when they were younger, but I don't think either of them remembers that). It's a peculiar kind of pleasure to see your kids play so nicely with a good friends' kids, watching the friendship get passed down into another generation. These two little boys had enough similar interests (er, obsessions) that they really got along well.

We took a short hike down to a nearby lake. You can see from recent rainfall how lush and green everything was.

And the wildflowers! (These pictures are for my mom, who loved the wildflowers up at Cedar Breaks).

Wild columbines--one of my favorite.

Taking a break mid-hike. You can see the spectacular cliffs in the background.

The lake was our destination; we stopped here and ate lunch. The picture doesn't convey quite how buggy the area around the lake was, though. My kids insisted on leaving the picnic grounds as soon as possible; Andrew hit the low point of the hike and cried because he dropped his pretzels. He insisted he was having *no* fun and he just wanted to be back in the car. Oddly enough, as soon as Karin and her boys caught up with us (they were finishing their lunch in a more leisurely fashion), Andrew perked right up and was just fine.

We got back to the car and went back to the visitor's center to get junior ranger badges for the kids--just in time. The thunderclouds burst just before we got to the visitor's center, so we sprinted to get out of the worst of the rain.

That night, we went to the green show for the Shakespeare festival. The theme for the night was "Music Hall," and they sang several rousing songs, including the classic, "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" (which has been playing on repeat in my head for the last several days--so if it's now playing in yours, you're welcome!).

Evelyn--that child is almost never shy--jumped up as soon as the performers got down in the crowd dancing, and got a private lesson from one of the performers.

We were all sad to see them leave the next morning. But we're planning a road trip to visit them in Washington in another year or two . . .

Later in the week, another friend from PA, Steph Asalone, came on her annual visit with her roommate, Tiffany, to see the festival plays. It was good to see her again, even if they spent most of their time at the plays (understandably!)

This is what we did instead: we cleaned the kids room. It may never be this clean again (this took two hours to accomplish), so we had to document it.

Plus, Andrew really wanted Bubby to see his nicely-made bed.

This is what we do while Dad mows the lawn.