4th of July Fun Part 2

I have been so busy with work and life that I didn't get part 2 of the 4th of July posted. So I can do that here and give you an update of what is happening with the Cole Family.

To start, some pictures and comments.

 Here are my sisters and my Mother who made fantastic scones to start the day, a little butter some sugar and maybe some raspberry jam on top, wow nothing better in the world.  They made 300 scones and they are all gone... no kidding.... Don't Let Melinda fool you, she did not eat that watermelon, just scones...

 This is the pool party of the year. My dear Cousins Mike and Kristen are so kind and open their home to the entire family for a swim party and BBQ. It is quite a place, like going to a Disney Theme Park, really it is.  We love it.

 The cousins at the pool, they are not happy this is posted on line....

Adam and Rachel take the leap... it is really high, and the splash down wedgie is legit.

So what have we been up to all week. Well lets see, Aaron came down and we cleaned out the back yard at the house. 2 heaping full truckloads to the dump later we are actually getting ahead of the back yard.  The new automated sprinklers are in and working well.  I am trying to over-seed and recover the grass back there, the birds keep eating all the seeds.

The Girls are getting everything set up for college this fall. All 3 daughters will be there living and going to school. We are empty nesters.  Really.  We are working on how to cook for just 2 but it is not working very well, we eat out a lot.

Aaron is working as a waiter, and playing gigs at night with a group in clubs and bars around Ogden, he is a pretty good musician on the guitar.

Rachel is working and did summer school, she is getting close to graduation maybe even in a year. She is still seeing Anthony and she is very happy that summer school is over and bear lake is finally here.

Becca, new job at Deseret Book, living in Orem saving money for school.  Dating boys and hanging out at home whenever she can get back to Bountiful.

Jenna, cleaning houses making money to go to school this fall.  Living at home and not cleaning here. :-)

Christine and I are both working hard, trying to keep ahead of the cash game. We are struggling with the Kia Sorrento, it is approaching 200K miles and as Christine says, we are slowly replacing the car 1 part at a time at 4 times the cost.  But it is paid for and we don't want to get into another car payment just yet.  It is now overheating a little, I had it pressure checked and there was a small hole in the radiator hose, it is repaired and we hope that was it!!!  We need to work out a plan to come up with another car this fall when we send one down with the daughters to college. Depressing I know.

I have been playing in the Bountiful Ridge Mens association. We had our weekly event which I scored well and was in the money on both the front and back 9 for the day.  We also had the Randal Derby. This is a great event, it starts with 8 teams flighted by handicap. so there are like 3-4 tournament flights going on at once. It is alternate shot, and the high score at the end of each hole is eliminated until there is only one team left.  We started out on #4 which is the #1 handicap hole on the course (hardest) I was # 6 to tee off, the pressure is intense as you can imagine with 16 people watching you hoping secretly that you don't do well. I am not bragging here, just stating what happened at the event. That first tee shot I was shaking so hard I could hardly get the ball on the tee.  Well I just keep breathing and smashed my drive with a slight draw right down the middle about 305 yards.  My partner said 14 heads just dropped and the intimidation factor was in our favor. We played well together, and on number 8 we tied for the last spot and had to have a chip off against another team. I hit my chip to about 3 feet and we advanced!  The golf gods always pay you back, so on the #1 hole with 3 teams left I pulled my drive down the road out of bounds. I was sure we were sunk,  my partner had to re-tee for our team and hit 3, into the trees. I popped it up and out back on the fairway and the partner hit a killer 3 wood to about 12 feet but 4 inches in the rough. We were there in 5, one of the other teams struggled through the trees on the left, and a bad pitch and a sand trap later where just in front of us in the fringe, would you believe it, laying 5 as well.  I did a chop putt out of the rough and almost made it, running right over the edge of the hole stopping at 4 feet.  They putt on the same line, hit the hole hard and end up 3 feet left.  My partner stepped up and drilled the putt, and the other team pushed the 3 footer to the right. Remember the pressure is intense.  We lost on the final hole when the last team still in it with us made a great put to save par.  So out of 8 two man teams in our flight we took 2nd place and were very proud of ourselves for lasting to the final hole in the tournament.  Great fun.

I warned you about the golf, it is my competitive outlet.  I love to play and especially love to hit it in tournaments or with some pressure involved. I can tell you that golf under tournament conditions is a completely different game than a casual round on the weekends or vacation with family and friends.

We are getting ready to leave to Bear Lake for our summer vacation, so expect to see some great pictures next time and I will have a lot to write about then.

Until next time!

ABC and Family