July

July 1st started with an exciting run! It was another quite busy month for us. 

Last April after my sister and I did our Tulip Festival 5k run, we started discussing with my cousin Beth how we should all do a run together. We were really excited about it and convinced Katie to do it too, and then we got our mom's in on it! It was a total blast! 

 My parents picked up Melinda and I around 6 and we made our way into Salt Lake and waited for our wave to begin. 

 Melinda & Katie ended up doing quite a bit of running and did awesome! I tried to run some but was horrible out of shape. I was somewhere in between them and the others. Little Kensley joined us on the run so they went slower and took their time enjoying the foam! (As a result, they were much more beautifully colored than the rest of us by the end!)

We stuck around for some playing in the foam at the end before deciding we'd had enough. 

If you've never done a bubble run, you should try it! It's a ton of fun! 

After my parents dropped Melinda and I back off, we got cleaned up and took our families to the Aquatic center down the road from us.  I think the kids all had a ton of fun! It was nice because we got an awesome groupon deal and didn't have to feel bad about not staying all day and getting our money's worth. 

That night was my last workshop for my Practicum class! 

Melinda & Mitchell went to it, and my cousins Beth and Katie& Chizm came as well. It was nice to have such great family support and a relief to have it over with! 

 My sister's family came to church with me and the kids Sunday morning before heading to spend time with the rest of their family. 

These little ones were not exactly thrilled about the pictures, but I was glad we managed one with everyone's faces showing! 

 The 4th of July fell on a Tuesday and we woke up ready for a fun day! First, we went to the North Ogden Cherry Days parade just down the road from us. We had a pretty nice setup with shade and chairs. We'd HAD a nice parking spot until a certain little girl needed her daddy to take her home to go potty and it was snatched.  

The kids picked some flowers for me while we waited for the parade to reach us (we were close to the end). 

 After a quick lunch we headed down to Bluffdale to meet up with my cousin's family at an awesome splashpad. 

 These animations might show just how excited my kids were about this!

 It was HOT and crowded but we stayed a whole 2 hours and wore everyone out. Thankfully we had brought the canopy so we had some shade!

Caleb and I had to run to the store (and then to get a snowcone after a meltdown of a certain little girl), and while we were at Walmart we ran into someone we know from Arizona! It was crazy to run into them in little Saratoga Springs, but we did.

We were getting ready for a delicious BBQ dinner when Connor came over to me really solemn and told me a bee bit him. I told him "what are you talking about bud, a bee didn't bite you!" then saw that one had infact, stung him. It was a wasp. 

We put baking soda on it and went back outside. My Aunt went to spray the nest over near the slide, and I went to grab Liam who he wasn't near it. Right as I picked him up he started shaking his arm and crying. The poor little guy got stung, too! Thankfully they hardly swelled. I don't know if it was the baking soda or just good genetics, but they definitely avoided my swelling tendencies! 

After dinner some of us took the litle ones out front to do pop-its. 

After rootbeer floats (cuz who doesn't do the 4th with rootbeer floats?!) we headed to Thanksgiving Point for  fireworks. 

We got great parking spots and only had to walk a couple minutes. Once we found ourselves a great spot, the kids all got to get out their glow-in-the-dark things.

 We really enjoyed the fireworks! 

 Some of us (*ahem, CALEB!) did not enjoy the flash photography as much though. 

 Getting out of the parking lot was NOT fun though. It took us an hour to get our of the parking lot, and another hour and some to get home. 

On the 6th we met up with cousins at a nearby park on their way home.

We decided to take them to the "Treehouse Park", as our children have dubbed it. 

 My little one was quite worn out afterwards. 

This kid has been obsessed with babies lately and has started doing baby things (it's kept me laughing, folks, which I need!!!)

On the 7th this kid fell asleep for bed on his floor... and I couldn't help but laugh! 

He'd stolen a baby of his sister's. 

 On the 8th we went to a Despain family reunion (my Grandma West's family)

When I was getting Liam ready, my girl demanded "take a picture of me, Mommy! Look at me!"

Don't ask me what this girl was doing, but I seriously laugh every time I see this. 

Crazy kid. 

The reunion was at a nearby park. It was fun to see so many familiar faces! My parents had driven down for it as well so we got to briefly visit with them, and the kiddos favorite Olivia and Cooper! 

Later that evening Evelynn was having a rough time. I decided to take her for a girls treat, and she wanted a snow cone. 

The 11th was another day of dance/tumbling. This girly was really getting the hang of things! 

As i mentioned before, this littlest of ours has really been attached to babies lately. He's been taking care of sister's baby dolls and acting like a baby himself, and it's kept us giggling. 

On the 13th we headed up to Idaho for a weekend of fun with my parents. 

Last Christmas we gave each of the parents a "gift" that lets them choose a time for us to come up to Idaho specifically for them, and they don't have to share that time with the other families. It gets tough sometimes when all 3 of the parental units live in the same town and we have to split time 3 different ways, so we had thought that it might make them feel loved if they got us all to themselves for once. 

My parents had chosen to cash in their gift the same weekend that my little sister's family was in town, so they had all their grandkids together and all their daughters. 

We woke up on the 14th and it was our little Liam's 2nd birthday! 

My parents had been so kind to let us do a little party and invite the family that was in the area. 

You can read more about it here, since there's a lot of pictures. 

On the 15th we had a jam-packed day. We went to a lunch at my Aunt & Uncle's house, and the kids had a blast playing. They have a pond and a paddle boat, and the kids kept lining up waiting for turns. 

Evelynn asked if she could hold her cousin Emma. Aunt Jessie said it was ok as long as I made sure she had any help she needed, so we did it AND grabbed pictures! 

While I was busy chatting and playing, Caleb was relaxing with the boys. At one point Connor nearly fell headfirst into the pond, and my panicked scream woke him up. He was napping (of course!). 

After the party/lunch, we went back to my parents, helped make dinner, and then got ready for Roaring Springs! My kids were soooo excited.

We invited my mother-in-law and sister-in-law to come a long. They were quite willing to provide helping hands and hang out with everyone!

We stayed until just before closing and had a blast! We're considering making it a tradition. This made two years in a row that we did a family night at Roaring Springs with everyone! 

The next morning we all went to Sacrament meeting before us out-of-towners had to hit the road and get back home. 

On the 19th I met up with a friend from a mommy group. We both have daughters the same age and realized we don't actually live very far from one another. It was fun to meet in person! 

On the 21st we had Liam's 2-year well-visit. 

He's still teeny-tiny, but he's the biggest percentile he's ever been, so we're seeing some great, healthy growth! 

On the 22nd we had some errands to run. We took the kids to see Despicable M3 and to pick up my ring that had been sent to get a stone tightened. While we were there, Caleb and the kids took a little train ride. 

After the movie, the kids got to each take a little ride. 

On the 23rd I got to see one of my best friends! She was in town with her boys and stopped by to see me on their way home. 

The 24th was the first day of SWIM LESSONS!

If you can't tell, there was a lot of excitement over it. 

Later that afternoon, we met up with a dance friend at the splashpad for a playdate. 

It was Pioneer Day, so of course that meant we were going to do some celebrating (we do live in Utah, afterall, and we do come laregely from Pioneer ancestry!)

I took it as an oppourtunity to look into pioneers of the family and learned Caleb had a 4th (or maybe it was a 5th) grandfather who was in the Martin Handcart company, and on my side of the family there were siblings of my great-something-th grandparents that were in the party that rescued them that day. It was cool to tell the kids about it, why the early Latterday Saints came to Utah, and how much so many of them sacrificed for it. 

Then we did sparklers! Some neighbors were lighting off fireworks so we sat and watched those, too. 

The next day, swim lessons continued on. The kids were pretty excited again. 

They always say that it's cold after, though! 

Swim lessons was a little more dramatic the next day, however. 

2 out of 3 were screaming until I promised we'd go get snowcones if they'd just stop.

The snowcones cheered them up right away. 

On the 29th we had some more errands to run and I asked Caleb to take us to Cold Stone for Icecream. He loves me, so he agreed, although he doesn't typically like icecream. 

I usually try to do better about the picture taking at swim lessons, but I seriously slacked this year. 

However, I did grab pictures on the 31st. 

My daughter is such a sass... and can you tell from that 1st pic she loves dancing? 

Although it goes into August and technically belongs with that month, I'm going to add the last day of swim lessons here. 

August 3rd, swim lessons finished up! All three kids are leveling up next year and we are so proud of all the progress they made with their swimming!

 

The last half of the final day of swim lessons is always free day, so the kids get to play. Liam was ticked at me though because he got dunked at the end of wheels on the bus. He always starts shivering uncontrollably after he's dunked, so he was not a happy camper. 

 At the very end I put Liam in the water for a quick picture of all 3 and had to laugh when a judgy lady turned and said "um... I think your kid is cold!" and glared at me like I was the worst mother ever. Yeah, I knew he was cold, which was why I was still holding his towel the whole minute the picture taking took.