Pioneer Day in adorable and historic Pine Valley!

It's pretty much become a tradition for our family to gather in Pine Valley at my parents cabin on Pioneer Day (July 24th). It's such a fun, historic place to celebrate the holiday. First thing in the morning, a little band drives all around the streets playing music to wake everyone up. Then there's a morning patriotic program at the historic Pine Valley Chapel, complete with a few more numbers by the band.
Along with that, there's a breakfast and a morning full of games on the lawn. It's all the classics -- running races for every age group, water balloon toss, licorice eating contests, pie eating contests, the works. Great, all-american fun! Grandpa gave the mop-pony race a try, and Spencer enjoyed a little ride on the wagon pulled by Craig Booth and his tractor.

Scott and Vasu pretty much win the balloon toss every year -- they've got it down to a science! Check out the video above of the END of this year's balloon toss!

Chelsea tried the water balloon toss with her friend Jordan Hammer, but I don't think they lasted too long. Spencer's preparing for a big catch here.


But the best part of all is at the end, when it just turns into a big water balloon fight! We especially enjoyed watching Nathan and his friend McKenna Labrum running all over trying to get each other with water balloons. McKenna lucked out -- Scott was all-too-willing to help her soak Nathan!

July 2008 - The end of the EXIT Hummer

Well, after four years of paying money every month just to have a business that didn't ever MAKE any money, we decided that we'd had enough fun. We decided it was time to close down EXIT Red Rock Realty. We'd certainly given it a good go, but between the state of the current economy, combined with the disaster that Real Estate is in, we realized that we just couldn't keep waiting for things to turn around.

With that decision came another big step . . . removing the EXIT wrap off the Hummer! As with most things, when we launched into the project, we thought we could get through it pretty quickly. And if we only had to do the sides and the back, it would have been great. The problem was once we hit the hood. That wrap was BAKED on! Absolutely just cracked, discolored, and NOT willing to let go.

We tried everything, including pulling our hair out for a few hours, then I turned to the place where we always know we can find all the answers ... GOOGLE! I typed in "how to remove a vehicle wrap," and sure enough, it came right back with the secrets we'd been dying to know.

The boys were thrilled when they learned that blow torches were involved. So, we worked with the blow torch for awhile, but found that the heat was a bit too much at times. Next, we pulled out the blow dryers, and the magic started to happen. With just the right amount of heat, the wrap just peeled off, yea!! The one casualty was Chelsea's blow dryer, which had to be retired toward the end. It served us well, but it just couldn't handle the pressure and died.

It's sad to see the exciting EXIT Hummer go, and all the crazy stares that went along with it. But underneath we discovered a beautiful Silver vehicle! It actually looks really great. We've found that everyone just thinks Scott got a NEW Hummer. Which is kind-of true, in a way! Unfortunately, now that we no longer need to use the Hummer to advertise for EXIT, we realize that we really don't need the Hummer anymore. Although Scott loves it so much, and would prefer to keep it, we are putting it up for sale. However, with gas prices at over $4 a gallon, it's going to be a tough sell to try and give away a gas guzzler that gets about 11 miles per gallon!