One of the things we wanted to do when Brandon and Charlotte were driving through was to take pictures of the girls in their baptism dresses. I wanted these pictures to turn out so bad because I just love these little girls and their parents so much.
We drove down by the temple, stopped, and took some pictures and went from there. I was so happy to look through my lens and capture their sweet little faces.
It is so much fun to have family come and visit us. We were super excited when Brandon and Charlotte let us know they were coming in town and wanted to stay with us. We took them to play at Kangaroo Zoo for a few hours, ate yummy food, and enjoyed the world's best snow cones in Alpine.
In the afternoon of July 24th, Cindy, Dave and I were sitting on our deck visiting with each other. We were talking about how Grandma Barbie seems to be running herself into the ground and how we are concerned about it. I told Dave and Cindy that when I had dropped off Carson a week before that I had noticed her yard had several more weeds than I had remembered. I told them we ought to get up early in the morning, buy some donuts for the kids, and go do secret service at her home with the kids. Cindy and Dave loved the idea! Dave suggested he call his other siblings to join in and help. We thought it might be nice to do a late night movie at our home too so we included that in the invitation. Before we knew it, our group size had increased.
I arose early from our late night and ran to the store to purchase the ingredients for ice cream and some donuts for the morning service project. We got the kids out of bed and headed over to Grandma's house. Soon after we arrived, Alyssa had to go to the bathroom and couldn't wait, so we had to awaken Grandma. She was so surprised...and overjoyed! We ended up working from 9:15am-4:00pm. Connie came over and cooked for us so that was super nice. We knocked out a lot of work on the yard. It looked amazing when we were finished.
What a great day we enjoyed! Aunt Cindy and Carson had a rare sleepover at our home so there was extra excitement pulsing through the air. Carson wanted to go to Kangaroo Zoo so we spent time there instead of hiking the mountains.
In the evening, we went over to Molly and Caroline's house for the annual 24th of July party. It didn't disappoint. Scrumptious food, the best of friends, fun games, a movie, and fireworks throughout the valley for us to view!
There are endless things I love about summer: being with family and friends, walks at dusk, parades, seeing outdoor plays etc.
Our third annual cousins' retreat took place in Utah County this year. Instead of two days, we only spent one day together. It was so fun! We met at Thanksgiving Point for the morning and afternoon while Jana took the older kids to the outlets for some fun shopping. Then we went to the Lindsay home for pizza, games, and a genealogy quiz that I made. Uncle Doug came for stories and quizzing over our family history. The kids LOVED the day and played so cute together. The way they play together reminds me of the way we played with our Nielsen cousins when I was young.
