Made by Memilyrae

I know, I’m shocked too. I actually woke up early enough to go to the hot air balloon festival thing on the 4th. I woke up at 530 and got to the h.a.b. thing by 630.  We went with our friends Anthony & Christy Miller and their sons Derrick and Sean. Spencer and Evie really liked looking around and pointing at the fun balloons.

We were right next to a blue balloon and every time they pulled

the string for the fire, we felt a heat wave.

Once they got in the air, we had a great time seeing where they

all headed. Our favorite to find was the pig.

Sean and his daddy sharing a sweet moment…I just thought

it was so sweet.

The sun rising over the mountains.

Anthony and Christy

Balloons and Sunrise

By the way, Steve stayed in bed! 😉

We had a good time at the Stadium of Fire. Glenn Beck was awesome…and of course, made me cry. He always seems to do that. The presentation of the soldiers over seas also made me cry – it’s always great to see them in high spirits even though they go through more than we’ll ever know. The Blue Man Group was VERY entertaining…I never knew pipes could make such great instruments! And, other than the high pitch shrills of the girls in the stadium, Miley Syrus wasn’t half bad. She had one song that I knew from the radio, and another 2 that I enjoyed the music/words of. The fireworks were very pretty and I really enjoyed spending time with my family. Here are a few pics:

4th of July Family Picture

The rest of the gang

During the Stadium of Fire dancers, a big sheet of white

came over our heads. It was a lot of fun but we didn’t get to

hear what Glenn Beck was saying. 🙁

Evie and Spencer didn’t seem too worried about the sheet over

our heads.

The soldiers brought out a HUGE flag.

I think there were about 1350 kids out there as Stadium of

Fire dancers. Holy  Cow!

Spencer enjoyed the show

Evie wasn’t always impressed.

Evie loves her daddy…so do I! Also, look how cute

her hair is!

For some odd reason, Evie kept pulling my arms around her

in such a weird way. If I tried dropping my arms, she’d pull

them right back in. What an odd child.

My “Reverent Child” – always finds odd times to

fold her arms.

So…the fireworks….yeah, Evie was nervous.

She enjoyed it better when I covered her ears.

She warmed up eventually. She’d say “See mommy! See Daddy!”

and pointed at the fireworks.

Not the best picture but hey, it works.

Here are pics of Mike’s ankle (see I Had A Rough Day ~ Spencer) after playing volleyball with me. Like  how swollen and pretty colored it is? 🙂

Okay, so PLEASE do not look closely at me in a swim suit – YIKES! The Lehi pool was AWESOME! They had a ton of fun things to do… the one we stuck closest to had tons of dripping water, water guns, a slide, a tunnel and a HUGE (and I mean HUGE!) bucket on the very top that filled up every 3 or so minutes. After it filled up, it tipped over and dumped onto a “roof” of sorts and sprayed all over the place. Kids would just sit in the ‘dump spot’ and wait to be sprayed. We went with practically our whole neighborhood, or at least those who could make it, plus a few other friends.

Derrik (Spencer’s buddy) had a blast on the slide.

(above – heading up; below – getting off)

The tunnel

The group

Yikes…Don’t Pay any attention to this picture.

He said it alright! It’s been a rough day. This morning I was exhausted and both the kids woke up before I did. The previous post shows what happens when Evie’s running the place. We got ready, drove to Springville to pick up mail from a PO Box that has no reason for being in Springville…it should be in Orem or more north… and pictures and flowers from Walmart. We then drove to Novell to get Steve but ended up waiting for a half an hour since his boss came in and they needed to work on something together.

We then traveled up to Sandy and visited Mom Shaw in the hospital. She was very tired and the incision hurts but all in all she was doing okay. The had her walking around I think 5 hours after her surgery and every few hours after that. She’s rooming with a woman who keeps the tv on all night and swears at everything until the nurses come in where she turns into an angel. I’m sure she’ll be ready to come home soon…if she’s not past that point already!

Since we were in Sandy we took Spencer and Evie, plus Bri and Jadyn, to the Living Aquarium. The kids enjoyed running around, touching the water, and playing in the tunnels but it was definitely time to go at the end.

Steve had to be in Sandy at 7 and since that was only 2 hours after we were done with the Aquarium, me and the kids stayed up there to hang out with daddy. We went to the Fashion Place Mall for ice cream and took a stroll looking at the different stores. Steve headed to his meeting and we headed south.

We got to Orem and went to the Scera Park to play volleyball with Mikey and Coley. I sure do suck some^most of the time. It took me a while to ‘get in the swing of things’ where I sucked less. One of the guys hurt his ankle so we took a break to let him rest and get some tylenal in him. We started up shortly after and I set the ball to Mike. He went up, hit it in, but came down wrong. His ankle got twisted and already started to swell. 🙁 I feel really bad for him…I know it was an accident but I was the one who set the ball to him. 🙁 SORRY MIKEY! I hope you feel better soon.

Everyone left so I took the kids to the playground and let them play for about 45 minutes.  When I made Spencer and Evie get off the swing so we could leave, Spencer started walking funny and that’s when I noticed he was leaking through his diaper. 🙁 Not cool. I guess he was stinky when we were at the mall although I didn’t hear Steve tell me that and I didn’t smell it either. Evie was stinky at the mall and I changed her before we played volleyball. We got home and Spencer’s bum was red and very sore! 🙁 Poor little man. I put him in the bath to let him soak and then when to put Evie in and BAM! She was stinky again (3rd time today). They were both pretty…well, runny…and not stinky… and they both ended up with red and sore rumps. I feel so bad for them! It hurts them to run since the diaper or shorts rub against it.

I decided it was such a long day that I needed my dairy fix and we were out of milk. Spencer said he wanted to go to the store with me so pjs went on and off we went to the store. They were great until the check out stand where Evie found one of those pusher things with a dome on the bottom that pops the balls up as you push it…you know, the really loud, annoying ones. I told her she couldn’t do it in the middle of the store and she threw a HUGE fit. I was proud of myself for talking to her calmly even though I had a headache and just wanted to be at home or away from the kids. I put both kids in the cart since they like helping put the items on the moving belt and Evie decides to SIT on the edge of the cart. Well, I ‘catch’ her from falling over by ‘pushing’ her into the cart where she hit her head on the side. 🙁 I hugged her and kissed her and said I was sorry but she just wanted the popper noise maker thing and when I said ‘no’ again she threw another fit. Luckily the cashier lady was SUPER nice and said she really enjoys her job because she meets so many different people so  that was pretty cool.

We came home and as we were unloading, Evie came back outside and stood on the back porch and cried…very loudly.  Then it was drama about the sippy cups. And, can I just say,

I HAVE A ROUGH DAY…AND I’M DONE WITH EVERYTHING/ONE. Ugh.

Hey everyone! Just in case you were wondering, my MIL (Mother-in-Law) had her surgery today. We went up to visit (hospital is in Sandy) and made it to American Fork and Alec (FIL) called to tell us she was still groggy and wasn’t ready for company. That’s probably for the best so the little kids wouldn’t think Grandma wasn’t paying attention to them or something! 🙂  From what we hear she is doing well, the surgery went well, and she is still pretty drugged up. They will get her walking tomorrow morning and I guess they said the more walking she does, the fast she’ll get home. They told her she’d have to stay there for a week to recover. Prayers are definitely welcomed so please remember her in your prayers. Thanks everyone!

Last Saturday we went down to Annette and Joel’s for dinner and a family hike. We ate first and decided we had at least an hour’s (plus or minus) worth of sun light left so we headed up Maplewood…Maplecreek… a canyon in Mapleton. My camera’s batteries were dying so I only got a few pictures (none of me or Steve…I think we were the only ones not in the pictures).

Joel, Luke, Kayley and Evan jumping over the stream

Spencer with Twitch and Addy

Joel, Luke, Kayley, Twitch, and Mike

Lauren and Coley

Don’t you just love the look Lauren’s giving her?

Lauren and Coley

This is AFTER Lauren figures out why Coley’s hanging on to her

the bunch of them, plus Evie and Annette’s backside

do you see how shiny Netty’s bum is? It has a double glare on it! 😉

Triana, my photographer friend, might use the ‘sassy’ picture of Evie as a business card. If you go to:

Anything but Ord’inary

tell her which group you like the best…the difference is really the font and what’s easiest to read. If Evie is picked, I’ll totally get a few business cards for family and friends…but make sure you use that number and have her take your family photos soon! She rocks!

I’m LOVING THESE PICTURES! Here’s a few more:

I love this last one…I think it’d make a REALLY cute picture for their wall or something!