Busy July, part 2

We weekend after our 4th of July activities, we headed up to La Platta to do a little camping with Erik's family. Lily had a absolutely awesome time hanging out with Addison. Timothy did a lot better than I expected, honestly, considering he had to be held a good chunk of the time. He got to crawl around a bit in Grandma and Grandpa's trailer and on Patt's porch, but that was about it. There's just not many places for a baby to crawl in the wild. ;)

Laddie had a great time, too. We tied him to a tote bag filled with rocks so he could move around if he had the gumption, but if he got too excited and took off, he'd get tangled fairly quickly and we'd be able to find him. But you should have seen his pathetic little face when he decided he was too exhausted to move that rock. He'd lie down and whine his little heart out until someone had pity on him and picked up the bag so he could find a suitable lap. If a squirrel wandered by, though, you'd think that bag was empty. He also found a certain log to be very interesting.


It wasn't long before we couldn't see him at all.

We did all the things you should do when camping, including smores with HUGE marshmallows, some dutch oven potatoes (that the guys cooked in the down pour that started just as they got them on the coals), some off-roading (in 2-wheel drive...oops!), and getting completely filthy.

That next week was our anniversary, but we didn't actually celebrate until the weekend. We dropped the kids with Nana and Grandpa Len and we headed to Salt Lake for some dinner at the Garden Restaurant. After dinner, Erik was nice enough to indulge my Harry Potter weakness, and we headed to the movie at the IMAX in 3D. It. Was. A. Mazing. Plus, to top it all off, I sat next to Professor Snape of all people. Harry Potter has been a 10-year obsession (although not as much since the final book came out), so it was kind of weird to finally have an end to it. And it was great to have a husband willing to go with me since he's not really into it.

You might have noticed the ankle brace Erik's wearing in that picture. One day that week, he hopped in the bed of his truck to do...something...I don't remember what. But when he hopped out, he twisted his ankle. This is how it looked when he got home that night...

It actually hurt bad enough he went to have it looked at. Not broken, but a nasty sprain. 12 weeks in a brace. Anyway...since we hit the late showing of HP, we stayed the night in Salt Lake before heading to grab the kids (making a pit stop at IKEA, of course) and worked on the 4th (or 5th?) installment of Mission: Fix Allen Sprinklers.

And that wraps up part 2. I think I can close out the rest of the month with one more post that will include a video of Erik tumbling down a big blow up slide. How's that for a teaser?

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Busy July, part 1

The problem with working retail is you usually end up working on holidays and weekends. With Erik's schedule, we end up with three weekends free and then three weekends when he's working. We lucked out that July happened to be a (mostly) weekend-free month. This means we've packed a ton of activities into those weekends. That also means my blogging of those activities has been very sub-par since activities I usually save for the weekend have been smooshed into the rest of the week and blogging is low on the list. In an effort to document our summer fun, I'm finally starting the blogging...

Our 4th of July weekend was jammed packed and super fun. On the 1st, we hit up the Cache Valley Cruise In. I'll be honest: it's gotten to the point we're reluctant to take Lily anywhere in public, especially where there will be lots of people and lots of new things to see. She gets distracted easily and won't listen to us, and it's almost always a fight to get her out of there. But she was soooooo amazingly good that I'm almost starting to believe she might turn out a productive member of society after all. Before we left the house, we told Lily she couldn't touch any of the cars at the car show because they were very expensive. When we met up with Derek and Daxton, she was sure to remind them, too. Several times. But it worked. She was very good about not touching the cars, which was a good thing since several of them had very threatening signs about fingerprints. They had an area with kid games, and she patiently waited her turn (mostly) and left when we said it was time. I almost didn't know how to leave an activity without carrying a flailing toddler. It was very nice!

That night, we grabbed some KFC and headed to our reserved spot for the Cruise In parade. Erik had worked until midnight the night before, so he dropped a blanket off in front of the tabernacle on his way home. He snagged a spot in front of a tall building thinking we would be the first to get shade. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account the angle of the shade...and as the sun was setting, we sadly watched our shade cover the people to the left of us, leaving us squinting and sweltering. He'll know better next year. :) It was still fun and continued our tradition...so that's what matters.

 On the 4th, we woke up to ominous rain clouds, and since our plans included a trip to the aquatic center, we were a little bummed. Lily especially since we'd already told her our plans. But we did a little errand running to keep her distracted and grabbed some do-it-yourself fireworks. We finally decided a few gray clouds weren't going to keep us from going swimming, so we decided to risk it. Good thing we did because apparently everyone else was just as leery of potential rain. The pool wasn't nearly as crowded as we expected and the clouds made it a little cooler. Timothy enjoyed just sitting in the water but held on for dear life most of the time. He decided he'd had enough after one too many splashes. But Lily's our little fish and had a great time showing off the skills she learned from her swimming lessons this year and even went down the slide a couple times. We wrapped up swimming with some ice cream and went home to get ready for fireworks.

We usually head to the Hyrum soccer field for the festivities, but the traffic afterwards is always so bad that we decided to try a different approach this year. Instead, we parked at the high school and just hung out in the bed of the truck with our pizza. We ended up with a great view, and the truck bed kept the kids contained. And we were on the road in no time. It may become our new viewing spot.

Definitely a busy weekend, but so much fun.

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To Erik

You are the cheese to my macaroni. You are the horizon to my sky.You are the bacon to my eggs. You are the laces to my sneakers. You are the jelly to my peanut butter. You are the smile to my face. You are the gravy to my mashed potatoes. You are the bubbles to my bath. You are the milk to my cookie. You are the ink to my pen. You are the ketchup to my fries. You are the water to my ocean. You are the icing on my cupcake. You are the Ron to my Hermione.

Nine years already. Happy Anniversary to my best friend.

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