Balloon Fest

Julia and I woke up early one morning to see the hot air balloons the weekend of the 4th of July.

It's not easy getting up really early, but when they send this balloon up and lower the stars and stripes and everyone stops to put their hand over their hearts and listen to the National Anthem and say the Pledge of Allegiance together, tears well up in my eyes and I feel proud to be an American. I feel priviledged to live in this country and enjoy the freedoms we enjoy each day. This alone makes dragging myself out of bed before the sun, after a late night, worth it.

The Darth Vadar balloon was pretty cool. It came all the way from The Netherlands.





Julia and I both liked this yellow balloon with big flowers so we got as close as possible to take a picture, but as we were standing there a big wind came up and the balloon started attacking us.

They didn't end up getting this one off the ground. The whole balloon fest was over early because of thunder and lightning. Kind of sad, but I'm still glad we went!

I love Rainbows!

We got a lot of rain through May and June, but I don't remember seeing a lot of rainbows so I took the opportunity to capture this one with my camera. I'm not much of a photographer, but you get the idea.
Rainbows always make me happy!

North Park Fountains - Again

Eldon took an afternoon off work the end of June. We had no plans but we ended up with a picnic lunch down at North Park.


Emma was much happier this time since she had on her swimsuit.

AJ took a break to eat more snacks.
Julia fell while she was carrying AJ. Luckily he didn't get hurt, but her knee was pretty scraped up.


She was not happy about me taking this photo. Can you tell :)

Grotto Hike

We do the Grotto Hike at least once every summer! It is so fun and kid-friendly with log bridges that cross over a stream, it is short and not too steep and ends at a beautiful waterfall. I thought it would be fun to put a few flashback pictures on this week since this is something we do every summer.
Above: Andrew at the Grotto in 2008. He was 2, now AJ wears this outfit!
Below: Emma and Julia sitting on a rock, 2008. Similar to the picture below of Emma and AJ on the same rock. These pictures are of our Grotto hike June 2011. We went with a big group of friends and Julia was happy as can be to be with so many of her friends.

Chloe and Andrew
Holly, Val and Lisa surrounded by children. Lisa was so sweet to come with me and help with kids even though her own kids couldn't come this year.


Julia always likes to hike to the top of the waterfall.
Julia and her friends attempted going behind the waterfall, but this is as far as they made it.
Emma was a little nervous about crossing the bridges since she fell off one of them.







Emma all wet but still happy!

Liberty Park

Liberty Park in Salt Lake is one of our favorite summer spots so we were very excited as we made the 1 hour trek to the city one Tuesday morning in June. But we were disappointed to find out that our favorite part of the park, The Seven Canyons Replica, is closed Tuesdays for maintenance :( We stopped at this little slimy pond to eat our lunch on our walk over to the playground.

The playground is fun...
with big slides,


a splash pad and cute little boys with big hairdos that AJ couldn't stop staring at,

and girls in bikinis.
It also has plenty of shade for the grown-ups to sit under.

But next time we go to Liberty Park we will be sure it is NOT on a Tuesday!!!!!

Team Awards and Dinner

After the last game of the season Emma's T-ball League has an awards ceremony and family dinner. During the season each participant has a buddy who helps them play ball. This year Emma had two wonderful buddies. Abbey was Emma's buddy last year and she requested to be with Emma again. But when her own softball schedule conflicted with Emma's we got a different buddy. Emily was an amazing youth that volunteered with a group doing an eagle scout project. Emma with her two best buddies!


Emma receiving her trophy and picture from her coach.
This is one of the best parts of the season for Emma. She loves having a trophy to look at anytime she wants.

More summer fun

I can't remember why we didn't wear swimsuits to North Park on this particular day, it may have been because Mommy was feeling too lazy to put them on. But of course the kids could not resist getting wet in the fountains.













AJ LOVES WATER!!!

Emma didn't really want to get wet with her clothes on. She kept trying to take them off, but eventually she was okay with it, kind of.

Julia in Action

Jules did so good this year in softball. She improved a lot since last year and started getting at least one hit every game. It was really fun to watch her play. She usually played 1st or 3rd base and sometimes had a chance to pitch!

This is what AJ does during Julia's softball games. He raids peoples purses. Usually they are people he knows like his grandmas and aunts, but he digs through them until he finds something interesting. Gum is the first thing he seeks and then 'lip' he calls anything that you put on your lips. You have to watch him though because once he gets a hold of your stuff you never know where it could end up, but it's usually on the field via the ball drop.

Our loved ones started leaving their purses at home when they would come to watch Julia's games :)




It was also fun to be on a winning team! Go Cougars!