4th of july

we spent the 4th of july at my parent's house.  we barbecued (the missionaries joined us for dinner), roasted marshmallows in the fire pit, had a fireworks show in the front yard and then drove to green valley ranch to watch a beautiful, huge fireworks show that lasted 10-15 minutes.  it was a wonderful evening to celebrate this great country.  

georgie "helping" papa steve grill carne asada...

mia waiting for the fireworks show to begin...

georgie's first ever sparkler...

i couldn't help but include this picture - i laugh every time i see it!

george is a little unsure about these things...

this is the view from my parent's front yard.  i love the sunsets in las vegas.

my dad decided to make his own fireworks show by lighting a firework and then throwing it in the air.  it worked pretty well a couple of times.

mia is our wincer.  i always look forward to the 4th of july because she just winces the night away...

rusty's b-day

russ wanted to celebrate his 32nd birthday by going to town square to let the kids play in the water and then eating at california pizza kitchen.  mia must be his daughter since that's exactly what she wanted to do to celebrate her dance recital!  it was a fun evening...

mia had the most fun of all splashing and running in the water.  when it was time for dinner she protested with a big "why do we have to eat dinner?"

george didn't quite figure out that different jets spray at different times, so he took it in the face more than once.  this picture was taken just after one of those times.

the night before russ's birthday party, mia decided that she wanted to make him a cubs cake.  this is the best i could come up with on such short notice.  

random utah pictures...

these are some random pictures that were taken while we were in utah.  i love the picture of the kids with their grandma dolores.  it reminds me of spending time with each of my grandmas.  dolores spent a lot of time with the kids in the yard letting them pick whatever flowers they wanted.  we were surrounded by fresh bouquets all week.  we were able to spend a lot of time with melinda, paul and eliza (russ's sister, her fiance and our niece), which was super nice since we don't get to see them as often as we'd like.  it is so fun having a new baby in the family!

eliza's baby blessing

russ blessed our niece, eliza dolores, on sunday june 22nd.  after the blessing russ's parents hosted a lunch for all the family.  eliza looked beautiful.

bbq with the perrys

saturday june 21st we went to the perry's for a bbq.  they have a daughter, morgan, who is 2 1/2 and another daughter, alyssa, who is just 2 months old.  we had a great time chillin' in the backyard.

george

i just love this picture of george...he's such a pimp!

mia & caleb

from the time mia and caleb were 9 months old (they are only 10 days apart), they have been best friends.  even though caleb moved away just after they turned 2, they still have a very special bond.  the whole day at the zoo they were inseparable.  they even held hands most of the day.

hogle zoo

on friday, june 20 we met up with our friends jessica, caleb & spencer gordon at the hogle zoo in slc.  our kids haven't seen many real animals, so they were captivated.  we had a great time catching up with our good friends and gawking at all the animals.  mia is already asking when she can go back.

girl's camp

i was able to go to girl's camp with our church young women for 3 days (june 17-19).  we didn't actually camp...we stayed in a cabin in the mountains outside of salt lake city (my  kind of roughing it!).  the theme of our camp was "searching our past, securing our future," so we toured many church history sites including cove fort, welfare square, the humanitarian center, salt lake city cemetery, this is the place monument, the conference center, temple square and the museum of church history and art.  this photo was taken at the church administration building, which was built in 1914.  elder madsen of the 70 gave us a tour, which was very insightful.

the after party

we asked mia what she'd like to do to celebrate her dance recital accomplishment.  she told us that she'd like to play at town square and then eat at california pizza kitchen.  so, that's what we did, and all 13 of us had a great time!