There's no place like Ely, Nevada to celebrate the 4th of July!

Once again, Eric and I spent another fabulous July 4th in Ely with family and friends! This year, we were also lucky enough to have Eric's grandparents and little brother, Will and Collin's sister McKenzie join us for the festivities along with Pat and Grandma and Grandpa Bohn. The unfortunate part about the weekend was that since the 4th was on Sunday we missed the parade, the traditional ward breakfast was canceled, and we didn't make it to the live music and dance in the park the night before, which is alway pretty interesting to go to. However, regardless of missing the usual July 4th activities the weekend was still a huge hit with lots and lots of food and good company. Almost everyone arrived on Friday evening, when the party officially began. That night we took McKenzie to the train tunnel, a traditional Ely experience for visitors. (Those of you who have not had the pleasure of the train tunnel along with the rest of the "Ely experience" please join us for the ride down sometime!)

Saturday morning we were all up and crowed around the table (like savages as Grandma Bohn says) enjoying her famous plucking breads, which we continued to enjoy throughout the day because she made around 10! Later we went up to Cave Lake and took the patel boat and little raft that we had and took turns going out on the lake. Because we were up there later in the afternoon the fish started jumping and it really made Eric wish he had brought his fishing pole. (He has really enjoyed going fishing a least once a week this summer and has even brought some fish home to eat once.) Later I went to go see my friend, Leah's house that her family has been building and recently moved into. It looked fabulous and very unique, plus it was good to see her family again! Will have a fun time chasing their new puppy, Eddy and also being chase by it. Eric is still trying to convince me that we need pets because he say's every child needs a pet. I still have to disagree and am trying to really hold me ground on this one! :)

Once it got dark we went back up to Cave Lake to take Will crawdad catching. Usually if you waiting until 9 or 10 the crawdads will start coming up closer to the edge of the water

and we can just take a net and scoop them up. Will fell asleep on the ride up to the lake so it took him awhile to wake up to enjoy catching and looking at the crawdads, but once he did wake up he was really excited.

On Sunday we all went to church and made up more then half of the Relief Society and Priesthood. Regardless of there not being many people at church that day it was still a really good meeting. Afterwards, we had the annual July 4th BBQ with just about every side dish you would find at a BBQ (Potato salad, dip delicious, deviled eggs, pistachio salad, macaroni salad, and bean). It's funny how most American's celebrate the 4th and the free country we live in by gorging themselves with way too much food or in most of Ely's case...Beer. So being the faithful American's that we are we all ate ourselves sick and had to all take a nap afterwards. The fireworks were the usual guessing game of which 2 or 3 fireworks being shot off

at

the same time was the finale, but at least Eric and I actually got to go this time. Last year we were the last to leave with Seth, but Seth is afraid of fireworks so he hid and we never could find him

so we just had to stay home. The minute the fireworks ended he magically appeared again. Funny how that works. :)

Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun and we were glad to get to see everyone that we did! As for life in general, we are now Uncle Eric and Aunt Hanna and loving every minute of it (I am at least)! Tyler and Annelise had Sophia Saturday, June 18th and she is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I have to go over every other day to get my "dose" of Sophia. Also we are all set to go to Germany on August 3rd for two weeks with Eric's grandparents! I even have my passport now already to go as well! Other than that, we are all moved into our new apartment and love all the space (still no pictures, sorry) and I also finished my Spring Semester with an A- in my first art class and now I'm just enjoying not having anything that I "have" to do after work. I've already finished 7 books this summer and am looking for some more to read.

The conclusion here...life is great!