Cooper with Jackson Young Beating the Summer Heat

Cooper Takes a Dive

Dicey Hates the water, but fell in barking at the boys.

Here is how Cooper and his cousin Jackson cool off after a hot July 31st afternoon riding the motorcycle up and down the street.

I like to think of myself as being a person more interested in substance that in symbolism. I think I'll have to be disappointed in myself today. I've been trying to make my blog cuter and more interesting and it seems like I've spent hours on the look of the blog and no time at all adding anything substantive.

Shelby is at Especially for Youth in Provo at the BYU campus right now. She is rooming with Leslie Clouse and it sounds like they are having a great time. I'm so glad she is enjoying the classes as well as the social atmosphere there. She's so busy that she usually calls around 11pm and I don't get near the details that I would likt to hear. I'm sure she'll fill us in on all of the details when we see her Saturday in San Diego. It's so weird for me to think that I can just turn my daughter over to the care of other people for a whole week. She even gets to fly to San Diego by herself. I hope she'll bring lots of fun pictures and I'll post them.

We've had a low key week. Cooper's been an only child and though I don't think he'll admit it, he misses his sister. He's made sure to invite friends over often. It's so hot out that we're definitely ready to head to San Diego on Saturday. Beach, here we come!!

Parade

Since my sister-in-law, Teresa is such an expert at putting together campaign floats for my Dad's million parade appearances while he was campaign, we thought we'd give her another chance to shine this year in the Pioneer Day's parade. Actually when we were home for the weekend after Dad's funeral Wynn thought it would be a good way to tell the MANY people in the town who helped pay tribute to Dad thank you in the parade this year. Mom loved the idea and a new float was born.

The theme of the parade was Women of Faith, and members of the town council realized what a great example of that my mom is of that principle. Therefor, they asked her to be the Grand Marshall of the parade and to speak at the program following. It worked out just right. She was right at the beginning of the parade, following the stake presidency, etc. We followed behind en masse, wearing Thanks from Jake shirts, riding bikes, waveboards, scooters, Cooper on the Green machine, horses and a big float with a sign very similar to Dad's election posters, but this time it said Jake Flake's family Thanks You.

The 24th Celebration a.k.a. Pioneer Days

When you grow up in Snowflake - at least for the majority of my extended family, the 24th celebration is right up there with Christmas on the excitement meter. I don't really know why we call it the 24th. It is rarely held on the 24th of July, but since we celebrate that day as the day the Mormon Pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley, it's always been the 24th celebration to me. Growing up, the celebration usually fell on the weekend closest to the date, but this year Snowflake decided they would hold it on the 3rd weekend in July every year.

For a small Mormon town with a big Pioneer heritage, such celebrations mean a lot of preparation, parades, barbeques, family reunions, rodeos and a huge load on the town sewer system, or in my families case, the septic tank.

I always felt lucky growing up that my birthday fell so close to the town celebration. My birthday is on July 20th and more often than not, it seemed to fall on one of the celebration days. I always liked to claim that all the family members of all of the town liked to show up to celebrate my birthday. I guess the time I felt really jipped was when my Mom and Dad decided that they would take each child out to eat for their birthday. This was a big deal for someone growing up in a family of 13 kids in a small town. Going out to eat was a big deal (ask me about the famous "MacDonalds" can someday), so that was a great birthday treat. Well, it seemed like with all of the busyness of the celebration, my going "out to eat" ended up being the town barbeque. I think I let it be known that that wasn't really fair once - seeing as the whole family went to that function, and my parents took me out a few weeks after my birthday. Who says that being squeaky wheel doesn't get you anywhere?

This year we had taken our trailer up to Snowflake for my Dad's funeral and left it there for our stay during the celebration (we don't like to push the limits of the septic tank any more than it's already pushed). I thoughtthat maybe we would get up there for a bit, but life happened and we didn't. I knew Jeff wouldn't be able take off anymore time from work to go early and I didn't want to have 2 cars up there (gas is too expensive), so I convinced Amy that we should go up earlier together and have our husbands come up with our truck later that evening after work.

I was able to go to lunch with my former roommate, Amy Larson, my cousin Cindy and Marnie Scott McCauley. Heidi was supposed to join us, but the antibiotics she's been on made her sick.

Jeff and David came up Thursday night and Friday morning the Festivities began. Our Flake rodeo was at 9am. That was always a highlight for me, but my kids don't like to participate yet. Cooper was thinking about barrel racing, but he was a bit unsure about himself on Business, my parent's horse. I think he's competitive enough to think that he doesn't have a good chance of winning he doesn't want to compete also. The other horses were to slow for his liking. He did ride Joy around a bit outside the rodeo grounds.

It was disappointing that the rodeo grounds have fallen into such disrepair. Theycondemned the old "grand stands" that were there for years, so we had to sit on our tailgates to enjoy the rodeo. It made for a lot less visiting and being able to see who was there and not participating. I wish our Flake family would be able to raise funds to help build some more stands for day rodeos.

After the rodeo we had a good potluck dinner and then a program. I always love all the parts of the Flake reunion.

Will I ever figure this out?

I like to think of myself as being pretty tech savy. I'm finding as I try to figure out this blog that I really don't know how much time I want to spend making this thing look good, but that I really do want it to look good. This can all be evidenced by the fact that I began the blog months ago and have yet to send a memo out saying that I have a blog. So - until I figure it out, this will be a work in progress. Now I'll work on posting a video and a picture with this blog.

Busy Summer Time

We've had a very busy summer so far. Some of the busy has been fun, but some has been a bit tough. Shelby and I went to Girl's Camp at Camp Lo Mia June 4th - 7th. We had a great time and enjoyed being Super Heroes and standing Steadfast and Immoveable. It's a different experience being a Stake leader at camp. I love being able to watch the girls enjoy themselves and see how much their leaders care for them.

It's also great to be able to watch Shelby in the camp atmosphere. She has a great time with her friends and I appreciate our ward leaders who take so much time with her. We both had to avoid some of the wonderful food prepared by our "Souper" hero cooks so that we didn't blow all of the hard work we had done losing weight before camp started.

We came home and I helped get our hygiene kits for Pauline Lewis in Phoenix who delivers them to homeless every Sunday. That was a rewarding experience. I got a nap that afternoon, went to church the next morning and heard a wonderful report from Isaac Button who had just returned from a mission in England. Was feeling so wonderful after all of the camp experiences, etc. Then was pulled out of Sunday School by my brother-in-law, Dean telling me that Dad had collapsed and they had rushed him to the hospital and were helping him breathe, but that it didn't look good. What a horrible feeling! I remember having a hard time standing up and breathing. Jeff had been getting ready to teach the Gospel Doctrine lesson, and Dean went and got him, people from our ward stepped in and took over. We went home and threw some things in bags that hadn't been emptied from camp and were gassing up when I talked to Penny on the phone after she hung up with Wynn and found out that he hadn't made it.

I heard awhile ago that we don't have to refer to people who have passed to the other side in the past tense. Elder Scott said that these people are still who they were when they were on earth, so that it's okay to describe them still in the present tense. So ... I won't say that my Dad WAS a great dad! I'll say that my Dad IS a great dad!! I'd been reading a book about Near Death Experiences before Dad passed away and I've been so blessed to be able to picture my dad in the Spirit World. I think of him working with Jed and Darin and Grandma and Grandpa Flake - preaching the gospel and enjoy all the fellowships there.

We had a whirlwind of a week following Dad's death. We stayed in Snowflake until Monday evening. The first few nights after he passed away I had a hard time falling asleep, then I would wake up very early and start thinking, so I would just get up and get going so I didn't lay in bed and cry. The next part of the week I was so exhaused that I was able to fall asleep okay, but mornings were still really tough. I had some good walks in the morning.

I went to work finding pictures for my brother in law David to put in a slideshow and working on putting a Love at Home arrangement by Lenn Shumway into violin and viola parts. I recruited my cousin and my kids piano teacher Rob Solomon to put together a medly of Danny Boy (which Dad had always requested we play at his funeral), Love at Home, Come Thou Fount (which we played at Darin's funeral) and a little tag of "Home on the Range" at the end. Rob did an amazing job. I'm so grateful for his talent and his willingness to do that for my dad and for us. I think it turned out really well.

We've had a busy week. School is finishing up. Shelby's finished her MYS and Cooper begins his last week of baseball this week. Celeste taught the last Art Masterpiece for Cooper's 3rd grade class. May is always a busy month.