A Little Trip to the Park

With all the kids running around at Grandma Penny's it can get a little crazy.  One afternoon we loaded them all up and went to park close to Grandma's house.  We had fun exploring and wandering around the path.  Afterward we went to 7-11 and got Slurpees!

Ogden Temple Open House

On Monday August 4 we were able to drive up to Ogden and see the newly remodeled Ogden Temple during the open house.  It was a little rainy when we first go there but it dried out while we were in the temple.  After the open house we went to Brick Oven in Layton.  

Summer in Utah By the Numbers

36 days spent collectively in Provo.
3 trips back and forth for me and Cayden and Kyle.
4 trips back and forth for Don and Caleb
2 trips up and back for Connor
10 hours it took to go back to Provo before the 4th of July because we took the very very circuitous route through Cedar Canyon and Panguitch
2 birthdays celebrated-Grandma Penny's and Abby's
3 trips to Sonic-now that is very very strange as we usually live there all summer.
2 trips to the park.  Bonnevill Park by where Aunt Anne and Uncle Chris used to live and Sherwood Park by Grandma and Granddaddy's house.
2 trips to Seven peaks
4 trips to JCW
10 milkshakes from JCW's-that is the whole family not just me.
34 episodes of Longmire I watched.  All 3 seasons.
9 books I read while I was up there.
12 movies that we watched whilst sitting on the couch with Anne and Suzanna while the kids played.  Watched on various days though
3 Lego sets Cayden got and built
30 Disney Cars toy cars spread out all over the house all day every day.
1 trip to Toys R Us for some extra Cars toys because you can never have enough cars.
1 trip to the Ogden Temple Open House
1 trip to Brick oven after the open house
10+ hours Connor spent on the swing in Grandma's backyard.
6 deer sightings near Grandma's house.
10 slurpees from 7-11
4 trips to Target
3 trips to Walmart
4 Geocaches found
200+ cans of soda consumed at my parents house with all the company they had all summer.
0 trips to the mall and I can't hardly believe that one!
1 trip to the temple with my friend Steph from high school
2 movies at the theater.  Cayden, Kyle and I and Aunt Suey and her kids went to Rio 2 and Don and Caleb went to Guardians of the Galaxy
1 trip to Los Hermanos with the kids
1 trip to Texas RoadHouse-me and Don for a quick date
1 trip to PF Changs-me and Don for a quick date on a different trip
1 trip the aquarium
2 trips to Seven peaks
1 trip to the splash pad in Springville
2 attempts at family pictures-1 at Camera Shy and 1 and in Grandma's backyard
5 BBQ's in the backyard  Grilled chicken, chicken sandwiches and hamburgers and hotdogs
36 people in my mom's house and mainly in the kitchen for 4th of July
1 trip to Chic Fil A-surprisingly
4 bags of pebble ice
4 batches of home made ice cream
1 meltdown from Connor which was right at the beginning of his second trip and only lasted about 30 minutes
3 nails I have let grow back since I bit them off while stressing about Caleb being on his bike ride
1 night of Kyle up all night long crying because his legs hurt
30 nights Kyle slept all night on his big boy cot
5+ pounds I gained sitting around eating and watching movies
Too many to count-hours played with cuzzies
100's of memories from the summer of 2014

Abby's Baptism

Abigail Grace Pitts was baptized on August 2, 2014.  We got to be there for her special day.  Her baptism was held at their stake center in Pleasant Grove and then we had a nice lunch afterward.  I played the piano for the baptism and did a rotten job even though I practiced my guts out!  Grandma Penny gave a really nice talk on the Holy Ghost and Abby's other Grandma Deb gave the talk on baptism.  It is so nice to live close enough that we are able to go to Provo and be at these great family events.  

Laura's Wedding

What a wild weekend!  We spent the weekend at the JW Marriot in Las Vegas because of all the wedding festivities.  On Friday there was the family dinner that was held at the Palm's casino up in the Ghost Bar.  It was for the adults and older kids.  We had a babysitter stay at the hotel with Kyle and Cayden.  They were quite happy with their room service!  For dinner at the Ghost Bar we had several really yummy appetizers and then steak and lobster!  It was a fun night and not an evening that we will be repeating any time soon!  The Ghost Bar is a big club with a large balcony that looks out over Las Vegas.  

Because it was just easier we got a lot of room service!  We had to be at the temple by 12 but we had time to eat breakfast and play at the pool for about an hour or so in the morning.  Caleb took care of Kyle and Cayden while Don and I went to the sealing at the temple.

Cayden was thoroughly enjoying the comfy robe from the hotel.  

The wedding dinner and the reception were held at Canon's house.  They took down the tennis courts and had a huge tent brought in complete with air conditioning-it was 110 of course because it was July!  Dinner was salmon, pasta and some salads.  The tables were all beautifully decorated and there was even seating assignments.  After the wedding dinner we all went outside into the shade and did a bunch of pictures while the catering company cleaned up the dinner and got ready for the reception.  

Kyle and Sofia played at the kids table and had a good time together. 

This is the food table for the reception.  There was cocnut shrimp skewers, salad, a spinach dip and I can't remember what else.  The dessert table was AWESOME!  There were little creme brulees, tarts, a chocolate mousse and wedding cookies.  There was also a drink station where they would make you any soda you wanted with any flavor you wanted and you could just keep going back as many times as you wanted!  Needless to say we ate and ate and ate!

After the hour or so of the bride and groom in the receiving line it was time to dance!  There was a small dance floor in the middle of the room so that's where they had their first dance and then any one could join in!

Canon's family had a big fireworks display toward the end of the evening right before Canon and Laura left.  It was such a big fireworks show they had the fire department there.  This display was almost as big as the display we saw at the Orem Owl's baseball game around the 4th of July.  

Look who we ran into!  The reception was getting close to being over and I was outside of the big tent.  I saw a group of white shirts walking down this path in the backyard and as they got closer I realized it was the missionaries and with them was one of our favorite elders-Elder Lane.  He knew the Smith's from his time in Vegas on his mission before he came out to Logandale.  

Connor was noticeably absent from the festivities.  We tried to figure out several ways to get him in for various parts of the weekend but it was just giving him major anxiety especially considering what happened at Ashley's wedding so we just let him be.  The joy of aspbergers!

Orem Owls

After we got back into town from the Aquarium we stopped at UVU to get tickets to the Orem Owls baseball game that night.  It didn't start for a few hours so we went back to grandma's for a bit.  We met the Pitts family at the field and sat almost behind home plate.  It was a fun game and the Owls smoked the other team.  There was even a player named Caleb Adams that we cheered extra loud for.  Suzanna and I spent a long time in the food lines and Kyle and Ella and Abby decided about the 6th inning that they were done so I gave them my Iphone and they watched Barbie on Netflix. We didn't want to leave because they were going to fireworks after the game even though Suzanna and I thought that we would only go for a few innings because the little ones were not going to like it.  We all loved the fireworks and it was a very good fireworks show that we were very close to.  I had to plug my ears it was so loud!  It was a fun way to spend the evening and with our Pass of All Passes we got 5 dollars off per ticket so the tickets were only $20 for awesome seats.

Living Planet Aquarium

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium on Thursday July 3.  We took Caleb to Salt Lake to Cody's house where we dropped him off so he and Cody and Cody's friend Andrew could go to Comicon at the Delta Center.  The aquarium was on our way back to Utah County so we thought we would try it out.  We had a good time even though it was a little pricey.  We watched the 4D movie about coral reefs and then wandered the exhibits.  We saw birds and tree frogs in the Amazon exhibit, lizards, snakes, trout and otters in the Utah exhibit and our favorite was the penguins.  They had a walk through part where we saw turtles and some sharks-like the one at Mandalay Bay.  We barely spent 2 hours there but now we can say we went and not go back!  After the aquarium we went to Los Hermanos in Lindon.