The Palmers

Mom’s big party was on Friday, June 30 and Saturday morning, July 1, I drove Kira and Justin to the airport so they could celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. It was a fun week, but I didn’t get much done on my project.

Alycia and Ben stayed on until Sunday and Landon flew to Calgary to spend a couple of weeks with his cousins, and then it was just Lisa and the remaining Palmer kids.

We filled the week with a lot of very fun activities. Monday we took the kids to the Wild Animal Park. I guess it is now called Safari Park. It was a good day, I haven’t been there is a very long time.

Tuesday was the Fourth of July and we decided to celebrate the holiday at Poway Park and then do fireworks at Poway High School. It was a good decision. We normally go to Del Mar for the fire works but we were worried that the kids would get bored and Poway Park has a lot more going on and as it turned out, they have a ton of stuff at Poway High to keep the kids entertained.

We have lived in San Diego now for thirty years and we have always wanted to ride the train they have in Poway Park but never have. Today we took Kira’s kids on the train and it was quite fun. They even had a car modified to get Evans chair in.

As we were riding around the park Evan saw a guy displaying his antique guns and he really wanted to look at them. I was amazed at how much he knows about them. So was the guy displaying them. He new the names of most of the guns there and was asking about others that weren’t on display. The kid knows his guns.

They also had an old tractor that is just like the tractor I drove as a child. I must have been no older than eight when I started driving this tractor. We had it on our farm but I also drove the same one (or a similar one) in Waterton when we were building our Motel.

After looking around for a while we headed over to Poway High and waited for the fireworks.

The fifth was Lisa’s birthday and we took the kids to Sea World. Sea World is always a great day but this time we focused on the shows which Lisa wanted to see and we didn't go on any rides.

One of the shows was a pirate show and it was rather amazing. A kingdom was celebrating mermaids and then a pirate ship came to kidnap a mermaid. In the final battle a pirate riding a water jet was defeated. Pretty cool.

Zane Andrew had spent much of the day with Evan and he came to Sea World with us. After we got home we had Lisa’s birthday dinner and she opened gifts. I gave her a paving brick from the back yard and some earrings.

Thursday was a lazy day and our last day serving in the temple before it shut down for an unknown period of time. Based on the rumors, probably unfounded, it could be two or three years. I hope not.

Friday I dropped Lisa off at the airport so she could fly to Texas and watch Brandons kids while Serene and the three older girls headed to Iceland for a fun trip. On our way home from the airport I stopped at the Midway museum with the kids. I love the Midway.

I don’t remember exactly what we did on Saturday but I think I mostly worked in the yard and let the kids hang out.

On Sunday I was sustained as the second councillor in the Bishopric, and then Kira and Justin arrived Monday morning. We went on walks and other fun stuff close to home the rest of Monday and then on Tuesday we took the kids back to Sea World for a few hours in the afternoon.

They all headed home early Wednesday morning. As much as I love having my kids (and grandkids) around, it was great to be all alone for a few days.