Happenings

Greg had last week off from school, so we decided to take full advantage. We tried to fit in as much as we could.

The first part of the week, we took a little trip to Branson MO. We met my brother's family there. It was so much fun! The girls were so excited to play with Christain and baby Benson.

Here we are in the Hotel. It was nice because they gave us adjoining rooms. We stayed on my Dad's points, and because he has so many they gave a these yummy chocolate covered strawberry's.

Later in the day we went to a fish hatchery and looked at all the fish. It was pretty fun, but free.

The kiddos eating breakfast.

The next day we rented a boat for a few hours. We had so much fun! I haven't been boating in forever!
The kids had a blast.

 Even if you can't tell by their faces :)

After boating we were walking back to the van and saw turtles in the water.

Eating dinner at the Red Lobster.

On the day we left, Jared and Greg went and did this surfing in the air thing. They got harnessed to a board, and then went on a ride.
Here is Greg. They said it was fun.

Eating lunch at a diner before we left. Crazy kids.

The very next day, Brinley had her first day of her last year of pre school.
She was beyond excited that Daddy got to take her. She has been LOVING school.

Julianne really wanted to stay too.

Brinley actually has a new school. They built it over the last year and she was chosen to cut the ribbon at the open house.

Later in the week went to Missouri's Botanical Gardens. We've been wanting to do this since we moved here, especially because it's free to residents. It was awesome! Right now they are doing a Chinese theme, so everything was decked out with Chinese themed stuff.

They have a really fun kids garden that the girls had a lot of fun in.

 Well almost a lot of fun in. Brinley climbed up a rock and was too scared to come down.

On Sunday Greg and I decided to take the girls to see the St. Louis temple. When we lived in Philly the girls would always come with us to the temple because it was 2 1/2 hours away.They saw the DC temple all the time. Now we lived about 20 min away and because we always get a babysitter when we go, they never have seen it before.

We gave Brinley the camera and this is what she took. Pretty good.

The girls and I skipping.

It was a fun week!

Our Utah Summer

We had a wonderful time in Utah this summer! We were able to do almost everything that we wanted too and for the most part all of us stayed healthy! That's saying a lot for us.
I have a lot of pictures so lets just get started.

First off, meet Nova. While my mom and dad are building their new home, they are living out in the country at my Grandma's and Grandpa's house. My Aunt and Uncle and some of my cousins live out there also and this is my cousins dog. Brinley decided to adopt her for our trip. Everywhere this dog went, Brinley followed. She loved her and she loved living in the country. I don't blame her, I use to go once a week when I was a kid and loved every minute of it. There are so many farm animals that the kids got see and it was fun for me to get to see my girls enjoy doing a lot of the same stuff I did when I was young.

 

Soon after arriving in Utah, we went to one of our favorite places in the world, Bear Lake! We have a cabin up there and all of us LOVE going.

 We pretty much just sit and relax, eat good food and play games!
This time, we also went to the Marina and let the girls feed these giant Carp that are swimming around. They had a lot of fun. You can even stick your feet in the water and have them nibble your toes.( A little weird feeling.)

We also went and checked out the new City Creek center in down town Salt Lake. It was so neat! I'd love to spend more time there sometime. The girls had the most fun playing on the escalators.

Then of course we had to go see beautiful Temple Square.

We also had a lot of fun at Grandma's and Papa's house, playing with all the cousins!

 We love the hot tub!

 Julianne helping Papa clean the windows!

My Mom and Dad took us to the aquarium in Sandy. I didn't even know Utah had one of these! It was actually really neat. I didn't take a lot of pictures inside, because they all turned out dark, but here are a few.

After many years, I was able to get together with some of my roommates from college! I love these girls so much and it was so fun being able to catch up! My girls had a ton of playing with my friend Shalise's little girl Kierra.

This year we were lucky to be in Utah for one of our favorite holidays, the 4th of July! We had a big BBQ on Greg's side on the night of the 3rd and then went to fireworks. Then on the actual 4th , the girls got to go to a parade with cousins, we had a yummy BBQ on my side and then went to our favorite place to watch fireworks!

Another favorite event that we were blessed to be at was the annual Auger river trip! This is always a favorite. 

 The girls all ready to float the river!

 Julianne's first time! She loved it!

 Playing by the fire pit!

We love The River!

After we got back, we headed right to another family reunion on my moms side. It was at a water park. Julianne didn't want to go swimming, so she stayed on the side and watched. Brinley, after a long time of convincing, finally went down her first water slide. She was so scared to do it, but after only one time, she wanted to go again and again!

Then, the last day we were in Utah, Aunt Geri and Yia Yia came over for a last visit. The girls love aunt Geri to read to them.

 All of us with Yia Yia.

 Our last night we got together with the "fab 8" to celebrate Greg's 32nd birthday! Happy Birthday Honey. We had a great time!.