Summer Wrap-Up

My desire to stay involved in the blogging world is dwindling with each new day. What was once an obsession has now become a vague interest. What's happening to me? But don't fear! Take a deep breath! I'm not leaving, just explaining my average of one post a month (at best) and lack of commentary on everyone else's fabulous blogs. For the sake of preserving memories, and to appease all my adoring fans (Ha! Who says I'm not good at making jokes?), I am here to jot down just a few highlights of our summer. It's not much, but still worth documenting.

For the month of June... was there a June this year? 'Cause I got nothin'. Quite honestly I don't even remember June... poor June. I do, however, have memories of July. So let's start with July!

I know this makes me sound like a grump, but there are very few holidays that I actually look forward to. Independence Day is one of the lucky few. I love the parades, I love barbecues, I love the fireworks... it's just good fun! Here's what we were up to this last 4th of July.

For the first time this year, we attended the West Jordan parade. Whoo! Ok, in all honesty... I hope I don't offend anyone... it was kind of a lame parade. Sorry. But McKenna was involved in a cheer leading work shop a couple of weeks earlier (Ah, I just remembered ONE thing that happened in June) and as a part of the work shop, she got the opportunity to parade along with her friend Savannah and all the other Fusion cheerleaders. What fun! The boys enjoyed blowing bubbles and throwing snaps. Nathaniel and Felicity enjoyed continually attempting to join the parade and strut their stuff... that is, when they weren't fighting over the same chair (which explains the above picture. Nathaniel's ever a gentleman... we're working on it).

After the parade fun was done, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch funded by my parents (thanks Mom and Dad), we took naps. Sorry, no pictures of this fantastic event. After we were fully rested and ready for more fun, we ventured over to Grandma Susan's house to help her celebrate her birthday (which falls on Independence Day EVERY YEAR... imagine that!)
Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dave have a hot tub! How cool is that? They were nice enough to turn the heat down on it a bit and let the kids swim to their heart's content. After swimming, we all enjoyed a nail-biting round of lawn croquet. I can't remember who won, because I think I forfeited about 10 minutes in. Lawn croquet isn't exactly one of the things I excel in. Let's move on...

Once the family barbecue fun started winding down, we headed over to Murray Park, where we enjoy their impressive display of fireworks every year.



3 seconds into the show, Nathaniel jumped into Brandon's arms and there he remained for the duration - clinging to his daddy for dear life.

The end of July brought an exciting first for me... Alumni Days at Lagoon! As a thanks for all the blood, sweat, and tears I poured into my 6 years of employment at Lagoon, I am given the option of several different days to chose from, in which I receive a bit of a discount, eat cookies, drink soda, and watch a slide show. How could I pass up such an opportunity?
Katie and her cute family joined us for the fun-filled day. We thoroughly enjoyed our refreshments and watched enthusiastically as Katie and I both made an appearance in the infamous slide show. Oh yeah, and we rode rides and ate greasy food until we were sick. I love amusement parks!

This summer, we also had a really exciting trip to The Grand Canyon planned. Hooray! How was it? Oh, well... there's really not much to tell, since we kind of never went. *sigh* Due to complications beyond our control, the trip was cancelled. But we didn't complain too loudly, since we still enjoyed a couple of fun days in the mountains with my awesome family, in which all the fun pictures below were taken.





We hiked to Donut Falls, ate wonderfully delicious dutch oven dinners, roasted marshmallows, sang songs (ok, fine... we didn't sing songs), had picnic lunches at Silver Lake... It was no Grand Canyon, but it was still a grand ol' time.

Somewhere in the middle of all our summer fun, we also managed to go boating with the Poulson family (who we love and worship and don't spend nearly enough time with)...




We attended the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house...



I started my very own book club...


**Note: Only about half of the girls who are actually in my book club were able to make it to the first meeting. But we had a blast, talking until a few minutes before midnight. The conversation may or may not have been strictly about books. I have a feeling I'm in for some LONG (yet highly enjoyable) nights with these wonderful ladies in the future.

Oh, and one more teeny-tiny thing happened this summer...

BRANDON GRADUATED FROM NURSING SCHOOL!! WHOOOO-HOOOOO!



Now everyone... please hold onto your recently consumed lunches while I gush for a moment. I'm so proud of Brandon for all the hard work and late nights that have gone into the last 2 years of school. Nursing school is not for wimps. Brandon has been done with school for a little over a week now, and it's so nice to have him HERE. Not necessarily the at home kind of here, since he's having to work like a dog so we can start getting our lives financially back in order; but having him mentally here. It's so nice to have him not constantly worrying about this test or that project. The next school semester starts up next week, and I didn't even know about it because Brandon doesn't have to go! I'm so happy to have this chapter of our lives done. You know, at least until he goes back to school in a few months to further his career opportunities. Way to go Brandon! We are all so happy and proud and just plain relieved to get rid of that pile of nursing books that sat on the kitchen table for 2 years.

Alright folks, that is all! School started for McKenna last week and Mathew starts Kindergarten on Tuesday (Oi!) But I'll have more to say about all that in another post at later time. Enjoy the last days of summer!