July Fun.

I finally took some time off from work and had a fantastic vacation. I was able to see all the people I love at the Shumway Compound. I'm pretty sure my parents keep adding onto their house to accommodate more granbabies. We were 14 adults and 11.5 kids including: a great aunt, second cousin, our unofficially adopted brother Mark, and a baby on the way. All of my nieces and nephews melt my heart. Jake and I were spoiled enough to get one on one time with my older sister and her family for a night before heading up the mountain. Since it was about a million degrees outside, we capitalized on all of the best indoor activities. We visited the Phoenix Art Museum and enjoyed a smorgasbord of fancy imported cheeses. Trying new and exotic cheeses is the part of my job that I love best. I'm glad somebody else in the family has classy taste buds.

I'm pretty sure Grandmother was in heaven, snuggled between and reading to a bunch of grandkids. And the grandkids looked like they were having some fun too. These kids are fearless! Put a 3-year old Shumway behind the wheel of a go-cart and they will stretch their legs as far as they can stretch until their foot hits the gas pedal! Jake always talks me into a 4-wheeler adventure and it's always fun.

We also celebrated one of the nephews birthday. He was lucky enough to be born on July 4th, but that also means that he usually gets stuck with the whole crazy Shumway gang that day. I'm glad he puts up with us because it's always fun to have everyone together. We played a game of capture the flag and I'm not gonna lie... I was sore the next day from running around for about twenty minutes. Haha! We also had a night of dancing and word games and lots and lots of food. It was a good time.