July

Full, fun month. Here we go...

Amy invited everyone to Riverton, Utah for the 4th of July. She offered activities and food and the Laws came out in droves. The festivities started with a parade.

This was the beginning - Kassie is getting a high five from a motorcycle cop - before Krista got beaned in the forehead with a taffy. I think most of us ended up getting hit in the face during the parade.

This is pretty Rheanna, my oldest niece. Not sure when it happened, but she grew up and just graduated from high school. In the background you can see Lee's Kubb game that he made that day.

Playing Citadels.

Sweet Cari took the Under-5 crowd upon herself. She helped them down the slide and refereed several spats. They wore her out.

Somewhere in there was kiddie pools, bingo at the park, lots of food, and a random trip to RC Willey. We ended the trip with the city fireworks, which were impressive and loud. Good times.

The party then moved up to Idaho (at least for a few families), and we spent a day at Black Canyon again. Ed and the girls got in some early ski runs.

You can't tell from this picture, but this may have been the trip when Krista got up for the first time (for a few seconds anyway). I can't be sure - the summer is all blurring together.

Waiting for the boat to come back and take them for a ride.

We have a 2nd teenager in the house! Keira turned 13 and celebrated for a whole week. She started by having friends over for a trip to the mall and night games. On her actual birthday she flew (first class) to Minneapolis with Grandma Anderson and Kimberlee and hung out at the Mall of America all day. So spoiled!

We finally celebrated as a family the next day. Keira picked out her own presents too - the girl knows what she wants and didn't want me to mess it up.

She's a good girl. She's sassy and materialistic and a little spastic, but she's also always cheerful and a hard worker and caring and fun. She has a good heart. Welcome to the teen years Keira! They look good on you!

Ed took the little girls to the mall to check out the traveling Lego exhibit.

Then to Drew's for "motorcycle" rides

The last week of July we stayed at a cabin on Cascade Lake. Heaven on earth.

One morning we went on a forever-long "hike" thanks to an inaccurate map. The mosquitos had a feast.

Mostly, though, we relaxed and enjoyed the lake-front property.

After a couple nights by ourselves the rest of the family joined us for the Anderson reunion.

Even more fun to be had:

Spencer took some really nice pictures for everyone. He let Kimberlee use his super nice camera for a little while and look what she did:

It was wonderful. Just what we needed to refresh and rejuvenate - we knew August would be busy. We came home to lots of paperwork to sign to close on our house. It was officially sold on July 31st. Goodbye Arkansas. Kimberlee also started work in the corn fields again. Long hours in the hot, hot sun, but she sure likes the piles of money in her bank account. Keira came home to babysitting and neighborhood dogs to feed. And we all came home to a cat anxious for attention and spoiling.

Even from the alpha.