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!

First Month of summer update!

It would be much easier if I had done this in little increments throughout the month, but here is a quick update of our first month of summer!

ST GEORGE

School was out the Friday before Memorial Day, so we kicked off the summer with a little trip to St. George.

Hiking in Snow Canyon

Swimming at the pool

Mia under the water

Mia's Huge pancakes!

Breakfast!

DANCE RECITAL!

They all looked great up on the stage.  They had a very fun year with their dance classes.  

All dressed up and ready to dance!

Washington Trip!

We were able to drive up to Washington to spend a week at Mom and Dad's condo at Lake Chelan.  We had fun seeing  Kurt, Shannon, Paul, Joe, Becky and Bob.  We were also lucky enough to see David, Tiffany and the adorable Sean and Audrey while we were there.  

Chicken Wars!

Pool time!

Visiting the beach!

Lakeview Drive in

My models in their new suits!

Becky and I.

Evening mini-golf

 

Yard work!

This picture is out of place. . . .but We continue to do yard work.  I have already posted this picture, but just using it to represent all the hours we've spent in the yard.  We put seed in the front about a week ago, and are waiting to see if it takes. I'll post some updated pics soon. 

Placing the Sod in back

Heading into Seattle

After our week in Chelan, we drove over to Seattle for a day.  We stopped at Snoqualmie Falls and then ate at the Spaghetti Factory downtown and caught a Mariners Game.  They actually won!  It was a great way to end our fun week. 

ok, it's blurry, but I was there too!

love that Seattle skyline in the background!

Go Mariners!

 

Kennedy turns 12!

Kennedy is now in Young Womens!  She is loving every minute of it.  She had a fun birthday on the 18th, and celebrated with some friends at Jump on It ( a giant trampoline park).  I didn't get any photos at the park, but did at least get a group photo.  She is such a sweet daughter!  

My big 12 year old!

The whole party group!

Summer Ball!

We have also been attending summer baseball games with Luke.  His team is playing in a summer league and have been playing 3 times a week.  It's always fun hanging out at the ball park!  

David and Luke eating at THE PHILADELPHIAN after one of Luke's games.
This sandwich shop is a bit of a hole in the wall, but David LOVES the sandwiches!!  See how HUGE they are??

 SEGWAY!

Riding our Segways on our tour!
David and I were lucky to get invited by some friends to go on a Segway tour for FREE!  We had a blast touring around town!  

ACTIVITY DAYS 

 I am one of the activity days leaders in our ward.  We had a bike ride activity last week.  Only one of our girls showed up, but we took our own kids with us and had a fun time riding on the trail by they river.

Ready to head out on our bike ride!

Manti Pageant

I drove the kids out to Manti last week and attended the Manti Pageant.  It is a pretty spectacular setting.  The pageant is pretty fun and is done right on the lawn in front of the temple.  Mia curled up on a blanket and slept through the whole thing!  

What a beautiful Temple!

You can see a few "Lamanites" in the background

before she fell asleep :)

Almost starting time.  It doesn't start until dark

So that is our first month of summer highlights.  There is always more going on, but I won't bore you with more details! 

But it includes early morning football for Luke (including getting a concussion at practice ), soccer practice for the girls, a lot of umping and reffing for david, early morning runs for me to avoid the heat of the day, etc etc.

 Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!

Happy times!

Kennedy graduates from 6th grade!

Luke's team - 9th grade champions!

I am back-tracking to before school got out here.  Had to note a couple fun things that happened!  First, Kennedy graduated from 6th grade!  You can read her full report here.  I do have to defend myself a little. . . no, I didn't cry like some parents were, but that doesn't mean I am not touched by my childrens' milestones.  I did get teary eyed.  Kennedy just didn't see it!  Kennedy is growing up to be a fine Young Women.
Also had to make note of Luke's team accomplishments.  They had a great season.  Went 23-1 (or something like that).  They easily won the tournament at the end of the season.  It was fun to watch!  Now summer ball will be starting up in the next week.  Luke hopes to start hitting like we all know he can!

One small spot of "green happiness!"

My little spot of green joy!

I decided with all the yard work going on that I needed a little bit of "instant gratification".  So now that our sprinklers are in and working, David, the kids, and I went out and bought some sod for the one patch in the back yard that we won't be re-seeding.  You can see here the girls helping carry the sod together. . . so cute!  Luke is doing his part as well.  Tonight before I go to bed, I think I might just go take a little peek at my little spot of green joy!!

What's been happening here. . .

Of course, things around here have continued to be busy, busy busy!  I was lucky enough to have Mom come to visit me for a few days last week.  I cannot say enough how nice it was to have her around for a little while.  We had a variety of activities while she was here.  .

 The first night, I took her to see the musical "The Secret Garden" for my early Mother's Day gift.  It was performed at The Hale Center Theatre in Orem.  It is a very small community theatre.  The Theatre itself is "in the round". . .which means that the little stage is in the middle, and the few rows of seats are all around.  The production was absolutely fantastic!  I have always had a special spot in my heart for the book, because I remember Mom reading it to me as a girl.  But now I can appreciate the music as well.  The actors were as talented as any I've seen in any other production.  We both really loved it.  I have now got my book out and have started reading it to my girls!  Maybe I can continue the tradition!

 I also put mom to work with a few yard projects.  We will be working in the yard all summer.  There is so much to do.  But I have to celebrate every accomplishment.  We went and got a load of dirt to fill up my garden boxes.  We also got a load of rocks to put around the boxes.  I am absolutely delighted with the result!  The soil was great quality and will hopefully make up for my lack of a "green thumb" this year!  It will definitely be trial and error as I learn to garden.  I am so excited to go pick out my plants to garden!

 We also went up to Salt Lake on day and spent a few hours at the new City Creek Center by Temple Square.  It was so nice there!  They have done a great job making a beautiful shopping center.  We met mom's sister, Sherry as well.  We had a nice lunch and enjoyed walking around all the shops.

We also saw the girls in several soccer games and watched Luke play baseball.  It is always busy with something to do!

This what I am tackling this week.. . . 

I have this mound of dirt that needs to be spread around the front yard so we can get some new grass put in.    It is a bit overwhelming.  I am also tackling some other things that feel like this huge mound of dirt. . . so I could use a few extra prayers.  Love and miss you all.  Wish you were all here to help me shovel my way out of this!!  One shovelful at a time I'll get it done. . .