Happy 24th

Our neighborhood is great. We have a fun parade and party to celebrate the 24th of July, Pioneer Day. The boys loved the idea of being in a parade and even though it was fun, I think that it didn't quite do it for them! It didn't help that it was like 100 degrees and everyone was so grumpy in the sun!
After "parading" down the street we all met up to grill and play. The party gets better and better each year as more money is raised.
We didn't stay long, I was done after walking those few blocks in the heat, but we did have fun and are glad that we have great neighbors to organize such things!

MY Day

It was my birthday and I had a great day. It was very relaxed and I was surrounded by family. We went to McDonald's for lunch, which totally made the day for the boys. That's their idea of a good meal on a birthday.
My parents were in town house hunting so it was a treat to have them be able to be with us. I requested my favorite meal from my Dad, "Guac". And my mom of course whipped together a cute cake for me and had lots of help licking spoons and sampling frosting from Sam and James.

We had a fun time decorating. The boys were way into it, so I just went with it. He had to make birthday Mr. Potato Heads for the occasion and hang fireworks for the party.

I felt lots of love from my friends and neighbors. It was sweet to see all the cards and goodies come in. I didn't know so many people were aware of me and cared. It was very touching. I must admit my favorite was a Lemon Pie from my friend Melanie. SOOOOO sweet!

Kennecott Mine

I was looking through our mail this last week and found a coupon to go see the mine for free this week (by the way, anyone can go, you don't need the coupon). I was so excited. It's only $5, but hey, it just is so much more fun when you know you go in for free. So I was telling Seth about it and he said, you know we can go anytime for free because I work for them?! -Well, no actually, after 4 years I still didn't know! Figures!
So we went. It was so AMAZING. Who knew going and seeing that huge 2 mile wide whole and those trucks that are as big as my house could be so fun?!
The boys loved it too. We toured through the Visitor Center and the Gift Shop too. It is amazing the things I learned.
Clay gazing off into the "pit of despair".

I love this shot. See how tiny that "big" school bus looks next to those trucks!

Sam (and some random guy) by one of those huge tires.

Cutie Sam in an old mining car.

James enjoyed things from the "stroller point of view". (I wish someone would have pushed me around all morning so I didn't have to walk!)

Some of my favorite things that I learned were the following two:
They find so many elements while mining. I loved seeing all the different rocks and how beautiful and colorful they were.

And I learned that all the medals from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake were donated from the metals they found in the mine. That's amazing. Over $100,000worth. And it was "scraps" they found in their copper!

We had such a fun time and the teacher in me could help but think that this was what it was like when my mom was home schooling me and would take me on field trips. You just learn so much more by going and doing. I could see years ahead when my boys are older and we would go and then they would put together little PowerPoint presentations of the things they'd learned. It got me so excited! :)

Toilet Papered

So my brother Mark came over to grab Clay for dinner and family night last night. It was fun to him to go and have some time with their family. When they came back they came through our back door. I thought it was a little weird, but, hey, that's how Mark rolls.
They hung out for a while and the kids played while Mark did our dishes (so nice!). Our door bell rang and I sent the kids to get it since I wasn't feeling so well and didn't want to get up. It was some boys in our neighborhood coming to tell us that we had been toilet papered!
I was so mad. I couldn't believe someone would toilet paper us. I yelled to Seth that someone had toilet papered us and to come see. He wasn't interested at all and I couldn't tell why. I yelled to the boys down the street and said that if they found out who it was to let me know.
Mark and the kids were laughing at me....duh, of course they had done it! I can't believe how dumb I was. It was pretty funny how clueless I was to the whole thing. Seth even laughed. He couldn't believe that I really didn't know it was them.
Yes, yes, the jokes on me...again! :)

Seth's Family Reunion

This last weekend we had a fun time with Seth's Mom's side of the family. I really haven't had the opportunity to get to know many of them before, so it was fun.
We got to spend a fun night at Seth's parent's house just hanging out and eating great food.
We were going to go camp out at Lagoon but poor Sammy woke up from his nap with a bad ear ache. We took him in and found that he had a bad ear infection, so we canceled our camping trip. No harm done, just a bit of a waste of packing all day!
We spent all day Saturday at Lagoon with his whole family. It was so fun.
Clay especially had a good time being able to go with some of the older kids to the big rides while we took it easy with Sam and James.
We ended the weekend with a nice "day of rest" on Sunday with his family. I mainly hung out at home and rested. I was pretty wiped out from Saturday and all the "fun" pregnancy issues I've had the pleasure of going through! :)

Grandpa's Birthday

The boys had one of their funnest days ever. I told them it was Grandpa's birthday and they were do excited to make him a card, cake, and wrap his presents.
We decided to have a little fun with his cake and use an idea I got from my friend. We made a cupcake tower. It was fun to see Sam's eyes light up when he learned we could make a tower out of cupcakes.
We had a fun little party for him and then went out to eat at Village Inn. Little did we know it was free pie day. We got introduced to their Lemon Deluxe. It was SOOOO good. (I made Seth go pick one up later!)
We sure do love Grandpa at this house and were glad to be able to do a little something for him for all he does for us.

Happy 3rd and 4th of July

We had a fun 4th weekend with my side of the family. We had 7 out of the 10 families here and it was a blast. My parents came up and brought Clay with them. He will be staying with us for at least a month. Jon, Andy, Joy, Mark, Matt, Mine, and Nate's families were all here too!
We started it off with a fun and yummy breakfast with our ward. It was the first really fun ward activity that we've been too. It was fun and I was glad to spend some time with my neighbors.

We had a great time Saturday swimming at Joy's community pool and then hanging out, eating great food and playing around. We didn't make it long enough to watch the fireworks, the poor boys were so tired from so much family fun.

We of course had a traditional family scavenger hunt for the kids while they had to run around with the cameras doing and finding crazy things.


We went back down Sunday for more good times and food.

We did set fireworks off Sunday night and I learned that my boys are little pyros! :) It was fun to see them stay up late and ooooohhh and aaaaahhhhh.



I love holidays, especially the 4th. I love summer fun, swimming, eating BBQ, and especially the fireworks.