24th of July

I love that we have two July holidays in Utah!  Mapleton does a little parade every Pioneer day.  It is pretty small, but the kids love it because they get to be in it with the ward Primary float.  This year, they wanted to ride the donkey, Batman behind the float.  Sawyer and I watched from the side to cheer them on.  Joe and Heidi came with their family too.

Isn't Batman so cute?
The rest of the day was pretty low key.  Mapleton put on a big concert/fireworks in the park that night.  We had a great view from our front porch.  It really was an amazing firework show!  I hope they do it every year.  We are so grateful for the pioneers.  The sacrifices they made and they faith they had amazes me!

Nap time

A few weeks ago we went to the Spanish Fork Reservoir.  It was a fun day to just play on a beach and ride around in the paddle boat.  Even though it was only a 5 minute drive back home, the kids completely crashed.  Usually they wake up as soon as we stop, but Maxwell stayed sound asleep.  I carried him in and just put him on the floor while I went back to get another load from the car.  I couldn't believe he just stayed this way.  He must have been so tired.  Sometimes I wish I could just be carried in from the car and crash like that.

 Sawyer loves his Johnny jumper he borrowed from his cousin.  He will just bounce forever!  One morning while he was bouncing, I went to clean the bathrooms.  I was surprised he was so content for so long, so I went to check on him.  He was completely crashed in it.  It was so funny because every now and then he would snap his head back up, jump up and down a few times, then fall right back to sleep.  Poor kid.

Ode to Mille :)

We miss you Johnson family!

 

Our neighbors moved a few weeks ago, and we were sad to see them go.  I found these pictures of my kids playing with their buddy, Millie.  Hope you guys are loving Boston!

Independence Day!

It's pretty rare for me to want to go anywhere bad enough to deal with a crowd.  It's not that I don't like people, I just don't like lots of them in one place.  This year, that all changed.  I was really excited to get up super early and do all of the fun things everyone else does.  We started off with cinnamon rolls for Savannah's birthday breakfast, then headed to the park for the hot-air balloons. 

Poor Sawyer was so tired.

 I guess it was a bad year to finally do this.  The balloons didn't even fly.  The winds were to high, so they just inflated them for us to see.  It was still pretty cool.

 Savannah got to go touch them as the filled with air.

 Darth Vader and the Piggy were the big hits!

We hadn't planned on staying for the parade, but Matt's Aunt and Uncle were there with their family.  They were nice enough to share their spot and snacks with us.

 Savannah's 9am cotton candy.  Oh well, it was her birthday!

 I loved how everyone stands and cheers for the missionaries!  We love the missionaries!

I honestly don't remember what we did during the day.  I'm pretty sure there was a nap and a donkey ride involved.  That evening we got together with family and friends for a BBQ and fireworks.  We had the best of both worlds this year with the fireworks.  We got to set off all of our own in front of my brother's house, but we also had a great view of all of the neighbor's aerial ones.

I love the 4th of July!  Really, who doesn't?

Camping trip

I'm going to make an effort to catch up on my blogging.  It has been a crazy summer!  Back in June we went camping up Oak City canyon with my family.  My parents and 5 of the 7 siblings were there with their families.  It was a lot of fun!

         Grandma and Papa hanging out with the babies.

                    Sawyer's first camping trip.  He did great!

                        Taking a million kids on a little hike.

        Our little family.  Sawyer is there too.  See his little leg from behind my back.

 The mighty hunters with their baby turkey.  I wish I had pictures of the boys thinking they could sneak up on a deer and jump on it.

Maxwell found a little stick gun to shoot the bears.