The Beginning of a Journey

 The night before we left for our Tour of the American West, the teens had a party.  The house was full of kids, and we loved it.  We especially loved the Scheullers coming over for one last good-bye before both families left on trips at the same time.

 July 24th, a holiday in Utah, we dragged the kids out of bed for the Bowman's breakfast.  Americana at its finest!

 First stop on the tour:  Fountain Green, Utah, at Paul and Rita's beautiful country home.  Victor, Chloe and Olympe were enamored with the American country feel of the place.  We are so grateful to Paul and Rita for their generosity.  They restored the house beautifully and filled it with treasures, so that it would take days to explore all the vignettes places carefully around each room.  All of us had a great time exploring the house from top to bottom and choosing which rooms we wanted to sleep in.  What fun!  It was so comfortable that we opted to stay an extra night, rather than drive further the next day.  Thank you so much, Paul and Rita.

 So many of our meals have come out of the cooler this summer!

 "In town."

 Beautiful, huh!?

Ptolemy loves Olympe. :)

There are a lot of little towns around Fountain Green that are fun to explore.  Since it was the 24th, there were fireworks in several of them.  Luckily, Scott has sent me info on all the celebrations around the state.  I wanted to take the kids to a demolition derby in Fairview, but tickets were $15 each, and I didn't know if it would be any good, so we opted for just the free fireworks.  Our journey was charmed, though, and as it turned out, we sat in the stadium after the demolition derby and watched an amazing fireworks show.  The kids kept saying, "This is SO American!"  Then, after the fireworks, there was not only a marriage proposal on the field, but they also brought out 11 cars for the demolition derby finals!  So we got to see plenty of junkers crashing around in the dirt, for free.  It was SO American, it was almost foreign to me!  I have to admit, I've never been to a demolition derby before.  It was awesome! 

 Victor's first root beer float.

 One of Scott's mission companions owns a gas station in Fountain Green.  I got my oil changed there.  Speaking of Scott, he woke up Friday morning with no plans and threw the kids in the car to come see us.  What a great idea!  All of us had lunch and drove over to Nebo Loop to Devil's Kitchen before Scott's group headed home.  It was fun to have them, and I was sorry to see them go, but this is a teen trip.  Only Ptolemy made the cut because he is so happy about everything, loves road trips, and that only left Scott with 4 kids, just the number that fits in his car.  I was so happy to have Tolly Boy with me on the trip.  He is a good sport, and makes everything fun!  Chloe saw him looking at the ground and exclaiming, "AN ANT!  IT'S AN ANT!  IT'S REALLY AN ANT!"  She said, "Yes, Ruby told me Ptolemy was very enthusiastic."  So true!

Beautiful French model!

 This was the beginning of our adventure, and the kids were already solidified as a group.  Left to their own devices, they laugh, play, talk, listen to music and stay up way too late.  They are the best of friends.  In short, exactly my kind of people.