Leader of the Pack, rum rum rum!!

Alana got a new bike!! Mel brought the bike over so she could use Dad and Kris's tools to put the training wheels on... so we all got to witness the "first ride"!

Of course the biking shoes of choice are white cow-boy boots! A princess must-have! Here's Lana itching her mosquito bites waiting for her bike to be finished.

Thank Heavens for Mom! Mel helping Lana correctly put her helmet on.

Riding like a pro! Mel and Lana. (Notice how Lana has her hair in her eyes? Yah, she LIKES that! Funny girl!)

Crash #1!! Lana is super tough! She flipped over the handle-bars and the bike fell on top of her! We all gasped... Alana didn't even cry! She just picked herself up and said "I got up with my own strength"! Don't mess with this girl! (And not to worry... after this crash and burn Mel fixed Alana's helmet so it no longer comes off when she tips over!)

Battle Scars!

Guess riding bikes looked way too fun for Mel... so Alana taught Mel how to ride her bike through the sprinklers!

Alana helping her mom ride the new bike.
It was pretty hot outside so Alana really enjoyed riding her bike in the neighbor's sprinkers!

I had a fun video of Alana's first ride... I can't quite get it to load though. It was pretty entertaining... none of us remembered to teach Lana how to BRAKE! She sped down the driveway and screamed when she started going into the street and realized she wasn't going to be able to stop. Luckily Mel ran out there and gave Alana a brake demonstration!

Father's Day Fire Pit!

Just a little slow posting pictures from Father's Day... but believe me, they are well worth the wait! :)

What could be better than getting to spend an ENTIRE DAY celebrating the greatest dad EVER?!! I love Father's Day, and I love getting to celebrate how wonderful my dad is!

For Father's Day this year Jake and Sara joined our family (Jake is my cousin)... and brought their new little baby Tycho!! (His name is pronounced Tyco... like the company that makes toys!) Jake picked the name Tycho in honor of an ancient astronomer or scientist! Guess this baby is going to grow up to be yet another brilliant Morrill boy!

Here is baby Tycho... he is just weeks old! Doesn't he look just exactly like Jake???

Jake and Sara and baby Tycho

Apparently Alana had A LOT of fun with the fire we made at the cabin a couple weeks ago... so she and Mel (and the rest of us) all bought Dad his own portable fire-pit!! Now we can have fires at home AND at the cabin!! Here is Dad and Kris putting the fire-pit together... with Alana's help!

Wouldn't you know it... we didn't have ANY wood to burn... but Alana REALLY wanted a fire... so Dad and Kris decided to find some wood around the yard! Who knew the fence is also a 72-hour kit of firewood??!

Not only is the fence a GREAT source of endless firewood... but Alana is also a great barefoot firewood collector!! Can you believe she can carry around (and RUN) those long fence pieces?! I'm pretty sure the neighbors might be petitioning to have our family removed from Kaysville any day now.... who the heck burns their own fence for Sunday AFTERNOON entertainment?!

Not only was the fire extremely exciting... but Alana also loved playing with the box the fire pit came in! :) She could jump through the "portal" into another dimension!

Guess fence wood burns REALLY nicely... because after a couple minutes the lawn started SMOKING also! Dad got out the hose to water it down so it wouldn't catch fire!! Perhaps stores should ID people buying fire pits... it is really quite surprising they sell that sort of stuff to just anyone!! It for sure provided some great entertainment at our house!!

Rocky Mountain Raceway!!

Whoa Dude!! Saturday night I got to experience the wonders of the Rocky Mountain Raceway!! It was like watching "Cars" in REAL LIFE!! It was so fun! Amy, Kris and I got to go watch the car races with Kim and her family! Holy Smokes... I am thinking this should FOR SURE be a new 4th of July tradition (even though we actually went on the 5th of July)! It was fun to watch the cars race around... some of them sounded like bugs racing around and around in circles; you needed ear plugs for other car races! Some cars raced like 24 laps and other races were more like 50 laps! Just when I thought I would be "car sick" from watching cars drive around in circles, the Figure-8 competitions began! Oh mercy me!! Now that was excitement... can you imagine all these RACE cars driving around in Figure-8s?? I'm sure it doesn't take a rocket scientist to point out the fact that a Figure-8 only has ONE middle... and all the cars must pass through that one middle!! There were some really close near-misses!! AND, as if that wasn't exciting and entertaining and nerve-racking enough... after the Figure-8 race there was a TRAIN-RACE!! I've never before heard of train racing... but it was by far my VERY favorite event!! It was like demolition derby Figure-8 racing!! It reminded me a lot of the junk-yard chase on the old Disney movie "North Avenue Irregulars"!!

The Train Race consists of THREE cars CHAINED together... the first car has a HUGE engine and the last car has the brakes. One guy punches the gas in the front car and another guy sits in the back car as the brake-man. What intensity!! The cars were all old... bumpers were falling off, cars were getting creamed left and right, there were even tires flying all over the race track!! As you can imagine the back car would get FLUNG all over the race track! The trains race in a Figure-8 and before the first lap was up there was already a several car "train" wreck!! One car even flipped up-side-down!! What an adventure!!



To top it all off... after the show there were "the best fireworks in Utah"... I think they call them that because you are sitting so close to the fireworks you become a part of them! There were people catching on fire and waving away ashes all around us! Nothing but excitement at the Saturday night race tracks!! It was fun to hear their patriotic music selection... Kaysville City doesn't usually display their fireworks to electric guitar rock out songs! :)

Happy 4th of July!! This is by far my favorite of favorite holidays!! I love that it just gets better and better and better every year!! I love this country we live in! I love Kaysville! We (my family) ran the Kaysville 5K, then watched the adventurous Kaysville Parade/Water Fight (complete with life-flight this year... I have a feeling there will be some more rules and restrictions next year...I hope the poor boy who was injured will be okay), went swimming at Phillip and Diane's (my phone also took a dive and is now dead as a doornail), watched the community play (Joni was in the pit), and then watched the Kaysville fireworks. I love that we get to spend the entire day as a family running around outside enjoying the sunshine and really feeling like we are a part of summer!!