Our July was packed! We started off the month celebrating the 4th of July. Most of the friends that we normally celebrate with were out of town so it was a very quiet holiday for us. We did go to the parade in the morning and fireworks at night. Unfortunately, the coolest part of the night was the fireworks some random people at the park did before it got dark. We picked a spot that was a little too far away so the fireworks weren't as amazing as they usually are and Brooklyn especially had no interest in them. I was so sad I let her stay up super late to watch them and then she didn't even care!
The next day, I was on the computer and Brooklyn said, "Mom look at me, I'm sprinkle girl!" I looked up and gasped at how covered she was. How could I get mad though when she was so proud of herself? :)
Richard had a conference in San Diego so not only did we tag along but we convinced Mom, Holly, Chase, Emery and Madeline to join us! It was the best vacation ever. We spent most of our time out on the beach and our gorgeous house was only a two-minute walk from the beach so it was absolutely perfect. This was the first time our kids had seen the ocean and a real beach. The only downside was that it was a colder than we thought it would be. But they had a blast getting buried, finding sand dollars and seashells, starting a collection with enormous bunches of seaweed, running away from the waves, building, digging, and everything else that goes with the fun of sand and sea.
Every time we got to the beach, Brooklyn was full of energy and would go, go, go. But then after a few hours she would almost literally hit a wall and could go no further. She would sit on one of us not moving, just staring at all the other kids having fun. We got a lot of good snuggles in! And she even fell asleep after being buried in the sand and had a good nap wrapped up in a sand blanket. The worst part of the trip was a few minutes when she got lost on the beach. She had walked right past us, not realizing we were there, and kept on walking. Luckily someone spotted her wandering and took her to the lifeguard tower where Chase found her a few minutes later. I don't know how long it actually was, definitely less than 10 minutes, but it was the scariest moment of my life!
One of the days we went to some tide pools to go crab hunting. The crabs were so much faster than I thought they would be! But the kids caught a few small ones. Chase dared Madeline to grab a big one and she got a good pinch from him but other than that, it was so fun to explore the shore and walk down the coast on the rocks.
Another day we met up with Uncle Dave, Jett, and Tye. We explored Old Town (which was mostly stores and exhibits), went to the Mormon Battalion Museum, and ate at the best Mexican restaurant I have ever eaten at!
At night, the adults would take turns walking down the beach or we would sit by the fire and chat. It was honestly magical and I'm so glad my kids got some good, quality time in with the cousins they know the best.
Our next adventure was Arizona! We were so lucky that our trip lined up with Madeline's baptism perfectly. She was BEAMING the whole day and I loved seeing her so excited about being baptized. It was crazy hot so we didn't spend much time anywhere but inside Holly's house but we did go bowling and swimming. Mostly the kids were perfectly content to just play together and drive Mio crazy.
After a very short stay at Holly's, we headed up to Utah! It was a VERY long drive with three little kids but they did great and we made it in about 13 hours! We had so many fun adventures with the family, we really packed a lot into the week that we were there. We got to meet Ariel at Tesslyn's bday party, where Kristi convinced me to wear her Ariel shirt and mermaid leggings. Something I probably wouldn't do for anyone else! Ha ha. Ariel is Brooklyn's favorite princess and she was in awe of her. I don't think she looked away from her the entire time, it was adorable!
We found a fun, new little hike in Draper that we went to with Kristi. My girls could honestly be in the woods all day long! It makes me happy that they love hikes as much as I do.
With Richard's family we went to the Bean Museum, the BYU Museum of Art, went swimming, and had a farewell BBQ at Rob's house
The girls had great memories of working on a play last year with the DuVall kids. So Rachel and Kaylee wrote a play together and I was so impressed with the show they created in just a few short hours. Rachel had made a whole powerpoint presentation, complete with music and sound effects, they had costumes, backgrounds, props, and popcorn for the audience. Kaylee was the narrator, Rachel and Peter were sharks, and Kenna and Emily were monkeys. It was so well done!
One of my favorite things we did was on our last night in Utah. The entire family went to Funtopia which is basically just a rock climbers playground. We had a blast racing up courses, jumping off high platforms, trying to see who could run and jump up to touch the highest point, and laughing and laughing. Being with my family is the best!
We also had many hours of eating dinners, talking, playing games, going on late night walks, and just soaking up every minute we had with the fam. The week passed by way too quickly and we were sad to leave.
The days after we got home were pretty slow and boring as we caught up on everything we needed to. Madeline had given Brooklyn a bunch of new clothes and her and McKenna had so much fun trying them all on. Eventually trying clothes on turned into a silly fashion show. They were hilarious and looked amazing :)
We also went to our favorite train park with some friends a few days after we got home. Our busy, fun, July just flew by but it made for an amazing month in the middle of our summer!
