JULY

July was a very busy month for us.  We had three vacations all packed in with lots of other fun.  We started the month out at the Peterson's swimming pool.

I donated blood in July and got a pair of Goodr sunglasses.  When I told Lou I was going to donate blood, she insisted on coming...she knows they have good snacks.  Now we both had red framed glasses...you can also see the evidence of the mini Oreos she snacked on while I was donating.

We took lunch to Seth one day. He spoiled us with special drinks from his work and a few treats.

We also got to play a little pickleball.

We went up for fireworks in North Salt Lake.  It has been a tradition for several years now to join my best friend Amy's family up there. This year we got a photo of the two of us...we will have to make this a tradition going forward too.

I love this picture of Lou eating watermelon in her watermelon dress.

We always love seeing the skydivers.

A few days before we picked out some glow sticks at the Dollar tree. The kids loved their finds...Millie ended up with all blue.

Silas looked a little like an air traffic controller to me.  We bought the noise cancelling headphones for an activity on the 4th and he insisted on testing them out.

On the 4th we headed up to the Monster Jam World Series at Rice Eccles Stadium.  It had rained just before we arrived and we waited for the Pit Party to reopen.  It was really fun to see all the Monster trucks close up.

The girls both loved Sparkle Smash.

We also loved seeing the RC cars being raced.

We headed in for the event but lightning forced us out of the stadium.

We waited out the rain and lightning.

Then we headed back to our seats and crossed our fingers that the Monster Trucks would be able to race.

The event finally started and we had so much fun cheering on the trucks. The Zombie monster truck had fun arm movements to cheer it on.

There were fireworks and pyrotechnics throughout the show. 

Phin was looking so grown up...

We moved over to some comfy seats for the last event...which was also our favorite the freestyle.

Silas was tuckered out a this point and ended up falling asleep.

For the grand finale all the trucks came out and there were fireworks.

Watching the relationship between my oldest and youngest is so sweet.

We had Nona over for dinner on her birthday and invited JB and Scott's families to join us for cake after.  I made the "Tom Cruise" White Chocolate Coconut Bundt cake.  It didn't come out of the bundt pan well...but it still tasted good.

The kids bought some small fireworks and we set them off.  Silas picked out some smoke bombs.

The kids raced to catch the parachutes.

The sparklers were a favorite for 3 out of 4 kids.

The Sunday after the 4th of July we dressed up in coordinating Red, White and Blue.

Lou has the best Sunbeam teachers.  Here she is sporting her "rings."

We visited Chomper's Cove in Kearns.  The pool was a lot of fun.

We also took a trip up to Flynn's Retrocade.  The nostalgia hit pretty hard.  I grew up with several arcade games and a pinball machine in my basement.

Silas and Conrad loved playing Tetris.

I had no idea there was actually a "Fix it Felix" game. 

We also headed up to Ogden for some laser tag.

We couldn't go to Ogden and miss Farr Better Ice Cream.

Millie reading Lou a Pinkalicious book.

Seth's work had their annual party at Cowabunga Bay.

We woke up very early the morning after the party and drove up to join my side of the family in Picabo, Idaho.  My parents have very kind neighbors that offered to let us stay at their working ranch.

Soon after we arrived we all loaded up for a Hayride through the ranch.

 

The kids were delighted to hop on a 4-Wheeler with their cousins back to the Main house.

Then we hit the pool hard.  Andrew is so good to Lou.

 

JB threw a football and the kids lined up to jump off the diving board and try to catch it.

That night we headed to the rodeo in Carey.  It was such a fun local Rodeo.

Lou looked so cute in the pink hat we borrowed from the Ranch House.

The kids volunteered for several fun activities between events.  The first time they ran out and tried to catch the Rodeo clown.  Here they are hopping the fence to get back to their seats.

Millie was kind enough to share her lollipop with Lou.

The kids also headed out for a 3-legged race.

Here I am wearing Lou's pink hat on top of my hat near the end of the night.

The next day the same town was doing a car show.

They also had a little parade.

The kind of parade that throws out lots of candy.

They also had a "Splash Zone" where the kids could be sprayed by the fire trucks.

Conrad was so kind to trade Millie for her favorite...a Reece's

We went back to the car show and bought some mini-doughnuts that had tempted us the night before.

We spent the afternoon playing at the river by the Fish House.

These boys hooped and hollered when they caught a tiny fish. 

 

We took a big group photo down at the Fish House.   We were just missing Max, Emily, Kristi and Alice.

 

 

 

  

 

What a beautiful place to be together.

The next day we went to Sacrament in Carey.  The we watched the Priesthood broadcast back at the Ranch House.  Then we drove Seth up to the airport in Hailey.  He had to get home for work on Monday.  We went to the Draper Wood River Preserve for a quick picnic.

We also found the "heart" tree.  There were heart rocks pounded into the truck of the tree but all of the rocks at the base of the tree were also heart shaped.

After dropping Seth off we headed back to the Ranch House.  The kids found out that the new Zombies movie had come out on Disney...so they snuggled up to watch with cousins.

 

Meanwhile Phin was out and about playing with cousins.

 

JB and Ben made us the most delicious Smash Burgers that we ate down by the river.

I had a pretty full 4-Wheeler when we headed back to the Ranch House.

 

We celebrated cousin Millie's and cousin Rachel's birthdays that were happening later in the week.

 

Phin slept on a couch in the main room.  I often find him with his feet up in the air like this when he sleeps.

I took Nona, Papa, Collette, Jane and Aaron on a Thrift Store Shopping adventure on Monday.  When we got back, Phin went out with Bart's family and Kim and the boys to float the river.

 

 

While they were floating we hit the pool again.  This time Papa got in too.

 

We went on a little adventure to Carey Hot Springs that evening.  There was a ton of algae that kind of grossed us all out...but the hot springs were the perfect temperature.

 

 Here Lou is sleeping in our our last morning at the Ranch House.

 

Before we left, we took carrots down to feed the horses/donkeys.

 

We had a pretty busy couple of days before or next adventure.  The kids loved the stop at Costco for lunch.

 

Our next adventure was hiking in the Uintas.  The YM and YW from our ward were going.  I had some serious FOMO...so I tagged along too.  Here is our before picture.

This was our hiking group.  We actually had over 60 people from our Ward  that went on the trip.

This was about five miles in when we stopped for lunch.

Just as we were leaving from lunch it started to rain...so we pulled out our ponchos.

It was so beautiful but at this point we were all pretty tired.  We had heard camp was about 5 miles in...it ended up being about 8 miles.

This was about a mile out from camp.  Phin has no arches...and his ankles were killing him as a result.  We had some of the older boys that were in the first group run back to help us get to camp.  Phin was very determined to carry his own pack.  He was a rockstar.

We finally made it to camp and it was beautiful.

The next morning we were up by 5:00 to hit the trail to King's Peak. 

We got about 1.5 miles up the trail before we decided to turn back.  Phin had the greatest desire to make it to the peak...but his body was not cooperating.  It was really special to have this two on one time with Phn.

We were very happy to make it back to camp and have the rest of the day to relax.

Phin had picked some Brownie Bites as a freeze-dried treat. 

Seth went fishing...but lost several lures and caught no fish.

Phin hung out with some of the other kids that stayed at base camp.  They played lots of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.

The also played lots of Mafia.

The next morning we were up and out of camp by 8:30 AM.  I am so impressed with Phin for doing hard things.  I am pretty confident that when I was 12...I wasn't hiking 8 miles with a heavy pack.

Here is some of our hiking group back at the trail head.

Here is our after picture.

Seth and I celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary in July.  Here is a little peek back to our Wedding Day.  What a beautiful life we have created in those 15 years.

 We went to the Float Preview Party.  The kids loved the Minecraft themed float...

The also loved the Quick Quack Carwash float...

And of course the Chick-Fil-A float.

Our next stop was Uptown Jungle for some indoor play.

I have seen tons of advertisements for Macey's King Kong cones so we made a stop for a twist cone.

Our final stop of the day was at Scheels to ride the Ferris Wheel.  Lou was so scared and was crying so the ride attendant gave her a little stuffed animal dog to held onto.  By the time we made it one full way around she had settled down.  She ended up getting to keep the stuffed animal...and the ride attendant gave us tokens to get a free ice cream.

We also took a trip to Lagoon in July.

I found out that Pizza Hut does personal pan pizzas for $2 on Tuesdays.  My kids had never had one.  I was a little disappointed they didn't come in the little pizza box that they used to come in for reading rewards when I was a kid.

The kids love the teeter totter at this park.

We also said our final goodbyes to Carver and Conrad who are headed back to Arizona.  We had so much fun making memories with these two.

Our next adventure was a family reunion celebrating Seth's Swiss ancestors in Cache Valley.

Silas was the s'mores king our first night and made at least 5 s'mores to share.

Our brother-in-law's brother owns a laser tag business and brought laser tag up for us to play.

We also did a craft rotation.

More laser tag.

 

Seth's sister also did a cheese tasting station with a variety of cheeses and fondue.  I made the sourdough for this station.

 

They also had archery and ax throwing at the campground.

 

The only downside to the campground was the dusty dirt.  Here Phin is "soaking" his feet in a fire bucket.

 

Seth's cousin was able to get a group photo with his drone.

 

 

  We were also able to get a family photo.

 

The kids loved playing with their extended cousins. They made lots of rainbow loom bracelets.

 

 

I slept on a big foam mattress with Millie and Lou.  These two sisters are the cutest.

 

We spent a day at Hyrum State Park.

 

We treated ourselves to an Icee on the way back to camp.

 

 

Our niece Hannah had her reception at this campground about a year ago.  They had planned to do a May Pole but it got rained out...so we did a May Pole this time.

 

Here is a picture of Silas chilling in the treat cart one night.

 

There were lots of fun group activities each night.  Here is Seth's group performing part of a song.

 

 

 

Seth brought lots of games and this game of PIT was pretty lively. 

 

 

Someone shared this photo of Cache Valley the morning we packed up to come home.

 

 

Here is a final reunion picture of Seth with five of his siblings.

 

 

We met cousins at Tracy Aviary.  Here Phin is making fun of Lou's cute poses. 

 

We showed cousins how we play the grass is lava at this section of the Aviary.

 

We also invited cousins to come feed the ducks out at Liberty Park with us.  There weren't many ducks just a couple of Mom's with their ducklings.

 

Then we went on our annual scooter ride around the park...it was HOT!

 

Phin has been working very hard this summer on a summer math course.  He did Math 7 so he can skip ahead to Math 8 this Fall.  We rewarded all his hard work with a trip to Pizza Pie Cafe.

 

Millie, Silas and Lou started swim lessons at our favorite private pool.  This is probably the last year Millie will need lessons.  It has been so fun to see her growth in the pool.

 

 

 

We visited Waffle Love to claim a reading reward for the kids.

We also made a trip to Lagoon-A-Beach.

Millie's best friend was able to join us.

We also ran into cousins.

We finished the month by celebrating Harry Potter's birthday.  I made Cake by Courtney's Butterbeer cake and we watched one of the Harry Potter movies."Happee Birthdae Harry!"