Welcome Home

 In Utah, we Purcells were always throwing parties. This time, we had a party thrown for us. It was a Welcome Home Party, since we couldn't call it a Welcome-to-the-New-People Party. Fauneil was raised here, and we have come here almost every summer for the past 12 years, so welcome home it is.

We had great food... 

...including my cousin Brian's award-winning pecan pie (man I could use some of that right about now).

Kids played...

and played...

and roasted marshmallows to make s'mores.

We even had quality entertainment: a play with Rapunzel...

a vegetable-eating crazy woman...

and a prince who whisked Rapunzel away to safety. 

We also had great company and conversations.

Here is our new home (Teton Dairy), and we are glad to be back here. 

Raspberry Season Part One: Raspberries On Ice Cream

If you walk outside our kitchen door, you will see this raspberry patch. It was planted by Grandma Gleason and Great Grandma Ely about 25 years ago. We are ever so grateful they did this. Let me show you why. 

Here is Brandon holding a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream. It is ever so simple and boring, but there is a remedy for this. 

Carry, said bowl of ice cream, out to the raspberry patch, pick raspberries, and put them on top of the ice cream.

What you will have is a divine dessert that looks like this. Believe you me, it tastes even better than it looks. 

You can even put chocolate on it, like Brandon has done here, but...

I like mine just like this. Yum, yum! 

The Last Big Party Before Our Move To Montana. Cherry Lane Block Party 2013: A Farewell To the Purcells

We have lived on Cherry Lane for nine years and have had block parties almost every summer. This year's theme was Mad, Mad Science. 

This year, we got permission from the city to close down our street. 

We always have great food. 

We lined up the barbeques in the street and grilled...

grilled...

grilled. 

Then we lined up at the food table and...

ate...

ate...

ate.

Every year, we have a water balloon fight, but this year we just put sprinklers in the middle of the road and played.

We even played in the gutter. 

As I mentioned, this year's theme was Mad, Mad Science, so we experimented with Mentos and Coke. The kids had a blast. 

Check out this fountain of coke. It's taller than the kids. 

Of course come of the kids had to catch the fountain of Coke in their mouths. 

They started drinking the Coke straight out of the bottle, but we put a stop to that pretty fast. No kid should be drinking that much Coke. 

It was fun to visit with friends,

reunite with loved ones, 

and see everyone's smiling faces. 

We will have to come back every year to host more Cherry Lane Block parties.