Scenes from a Holiday

This weekend the we packed the pillows and blankets and headed to Aunt Ali and Brady Lee's house in Idaho Falls for a big Rhodes family sleep over. I think there were about 55 of us all together!

Here is my Grandpa Rhodes with his children. They, their spouses and children, and a few of their children's children made up our big happy group.

We ate good. We played hard. We stayed up late. It was a super 4th of July.

My Uncle Brady put on the biggest 'back-yard' fireworks show I have ever beheld. Here are my girls with their Grandpa Norr on his motorcycle on their way to the spectacle. They love 'gah-pahs bike!'

We visited some natural wonders. (Including a very cool lava tube cave. I forgot my camera for that adventure. Of course we set of fireworks inside, and painted the walls and floors and several cousins with glow stick fluid.) Mesa Falls was really something. The setting is so spectacular. The air smelled like pine and moss and something else completely wonderful. Mint maybe? Heaven on a hot day. Have you ever seen the Tetons from the back? The farm land around them is almost as beautiful as the peaks.

We fed giant fish at Warm River. They LOVE marshmallows. So do little girls. I enjoyed a motorcycle ride with my DJ as pilot. One of my legs got a great tan.

We sang the National Anthem in sacrament meeting on Sunday. Everyone was standing and belting it. I was so moved I could hardly sing. We really should sing all the verses more often. The whole anthem is in praise to God. "To the power that made and preserved us a nation. . . " To me, it also sounded like a prayer for the preservation of his rightous, and a promise that the banner of the Lord will always be raised "between our homes and the wars desolation."

America is no model of perfection. But as long as it's people honor the name is the Lord he will continue to preserve it. In every home is where this is to be done. I will do my part to make sure that God WILL bless America! Happy 4th of July.