Halfway through July!

Well, July is now half over, so here are the highlights (in reverse order) of our couple weeks of July!

Trampoline!

We are still making progress on the yard.  This past week the big news was getting the trampoline mat set back up and ready  to jump on!  We still have some grass seed to plant around the front. .. but as I always say. . . I have to celebrate every little bit of progress we make!  

Finally Have our Trampoline back!

Just a reminder of what this area looked like a couple months ago. . .  just so you can appreciate the progress!  We have a fence on one side of the house now as well!

 Dinner at Cracker Barrell

David's good friend, and old roommate, John was in town and we were able to meet up with him and his kids for a dinner.  It was fun to visit and catch up!

Dinner with our friend John

 Visit with the Ortiz family!

We were lucky to have our good friends, Johnny and Jennifer and their kids come visit and stay with us for a few days.  We haven't seen them for several years, so it was so fun to see them.  David and Johnny have been best friends since they were kids.  Our kids get along great!  We love having them around!  It was sad to see them go, but we are greatful for the time we had together.  

Hiking to the hot spring!

The weather was so hot while they were here!  I am not sure whose crazy idea is was so hike up to the hot springs!  The water fall wasn't even cold when we got there, so it wasn't really very refreshing.. . but all the kids did great, and as always. . . we enjoyed our company!  

Hiking with two of my girls!

Daddy and his little girls

trying to find some cold water to cool off!

 BYU!

We stopped off at Lavell Edwards' stadium to take some photos with the cougar!  

GOOOO Cougars!

 Swimming!

We went one evening to the Payson Pool.  I think this was the highlight of the visit for the kids!  They loved the slide there, and the lazy river!  It was much more refreshing than the hot springs!!  

Finding time to swim

 Creamery and BYU

We spent one day touring the BYU campus, and of course had to hit the creamery!  Again, it was sooo hot! And ice cream was the perfect way to cool off for a while!  

Ice Cream time!

BYU Creamery

The whole gang. . . minus Kennedy

The Ortiz family!  We love them soo much!

Mia loved Johnny

 Girls Camp!

I can't believe that Kennedy is old enough to go to girls camp!  But she spent the week at Heber Valley Camp last week with the stake.  She had a great time.  I have heard from several people how touching her testimony was when she shared it.  

Kennedy is off to Girls camp!

 Kennedy and Maddie (Johnny and Jennifer's daughter just her age) really enjoyed each other.  Kennedy was sad that she left for camp right after they got here.  She did get to spend a Saturday with them up in Salt Lake ( we stayed behind for baseball games of Lukes)

Maddie and Kennedy really hit it off!  New BFFS!

 Our Exciting 4th celebration!

We didn't do anything exciting for the 4th of July.  But David spent the whole day working on our floor.  We are replacing the tile with wood floor.  We finished the entryway and down the hall.  David was working until 11 at night.  The kids did take some chairs outside to the curb and enjoyed the neighbors fireworks!  The big arial fireworks are legal here in Utah, and some one around us must have spent a lot of money, because there were some pretty cool fireworks to see just from our front porch!  

Working on the floor

Making some progress

 Luke turns 15!

We celebrated Luke's 15th birthday on July 3rd.  We had a fun day.  Went and ate a bunch of pizza at the Pizza Pie Cafe ( I think this is my kids' favorite place to eat).  David and Luke went to see the new Amazing Batman movie ( and both really liked it), and I took the girls to see Brave (so cute!!) .  Luke is enjoying preparing for football this summer, and is looking forward to playing this fall.  As his mom, I am a bit nervous!!  

Big # 15!

Brave!

Pizza Pie Cafe is the restaurant of choice for the birthday meal!