Gondola

The gondola ride at The Canyons is free on Wednesdays during the farmer's market located in their lower parking lot.

July 3rd

Papa Alan doing a flip off the diving board with Jonah watching captivated.

Watching our little fireworks in the driveway.

My Day So Far

hot cereal
online research
pool

refried beans
woodchuck/groundhog in our window well
naptime

More Colorado

Alisha, so glad you have a good camera since I left mine at the in-laws and only had my camera phone on our trip.  Lacey, thanks for taking some great pictures.

Colorado

I've been saying to Alisha that we should come visit them since they were here visiting in March (really since they moved to the Denver area over two years ago).  Suddenly I really had to pick a time to go.  Jamon graduates at the end of November and they'll be moving out here to Utah after that.  Alisha's baby is due on Tuesday so it was either go out there when she's about to give birth or when she's got a newborn.  I felt that we'd be less of a burden now.  So basically, one Thursday I decided to take the kids on a trip to Colorado and three days later we were on a 9 hour roadtrip.

I brought SO much to entertain them in the car, you wouldn't believe it.  I was so nervous to take a long roadtrip with the kids without Brandon.  I've never driven longer than 6 hours by myself and the kids have never been in the car in the daytime for more than 4 hours and they are not good car sleepers.  But everything turned out alright in the end.

We spent a lot of our time just hanging out in Alisha's backyard.  It was always shady back there and the kids loved the pool, the swing, and the sandbox.  We gave up on trying to keep Scarlett and Elora in clothes.

Tuesday morning Lacey (one of my dearest friends, who also lives in a suburb of Denver) accompanied Alisha, the four kids, and I to the greatest park.

It had a train and a great petting zoo.

We had a picnic there.

And played in the man-made river.  It was about a foot and a half deep everywhere and there were kids all over enjoying the water.  We basically had to drag the kids out when it was time to go home for naps.

Even though Joselyn is a year and a half older than Jonah, they got along just great.

Lacey took us out to lunch on Thursday up a gorgeous canyon to a fantastic little cafe.

After that her husband Ryan came with us to go swimming at the kids' pool in their rec center.  It was awesome with it's pirate ship in the middle and the warm water.

We had a great time hanging out with Jamon every evening and going to the park in their neighborhood after dinner one night.  After the kids were in bed Jay, Alisha, and I watched Invictus, which was fantastic.  Alisha and I talked, talked, disciplined kids, talked, cooked, talked, fed kids, talked, cooked, cleaned, talked, and talked and had the greatest time together.  We both married into the J. family and we love laughing about all its quirks and wonderfulness.

The End of June

In photos:

Elora and neighbor Damon hanging out in his stroller:)

New scooter (also, Elora picked out her own shoes to go with this outfit and Brandon said it was her best ensemble ever)

Jonah finding new things to do with the butterfly cage after the cocoons have hatched and the butterflies have been released.

New toys at Grammy & Papa's house

Jonah poking at his anxiously anticipated new cousin

Linda's birthday / Father's Day dinner party

The kids love peeling their own boiled eggs

Elora loves to "get fancy"

Enjoying City Park in Park City

Playing in the rain

Four Things

I haven't done a survey in quite a long time and I liked this one I found on my friend Sheryl's blog today.

4 Things I like to watch:

1.  My kids

2.  So You Think You Can Dance

3.  Fires

4.  Animals

4 Things I’m passionate about:

1. My faith

2. Friendship & Families

3. Food

4. Good writing (in books, movies, etc.)

4 Words or phrases I say a lot:

1.  Special (I discovered this because Jonah says so many things are "new, special" and then I noticed where he got it from.)

2.  Go pee pee in the potty & wash your hands

3.  Stop doing that!

4. If I could give that woman a makeover I'd...

4 Places I'd like to go:

1. Italy - all of it

2.  Europe - Switzerland, England, Greece, Germany, Czech Republic...

3.  Buenos Aires, Argentina (with Jen)

4. New Zealand (with Brandon)

4 Things I am looking forward to:

1.  My trip to the Pacific Northwest in August

2.  My trip to Connecticut in October

3.  Disneyland with the kids next year

4. Being able to actually afford these vacations (no guilt, no debt)

4 Things I love about this season:

1. Spending lots of time outside in the sunshine

2. Boating/Watersports

3. Great, fresh, local produce (tomatoes, cherries, apricots...), including stuff from my own garden:)

4. Daytime babysitters (teenage girls out of school:)

4 Things on my wish list:

1. Health for my families

2. Being debt-free

3. Traveling more

4. Selling a screenplay