4th of July

I love 4th of July pictures.

The colors are always crisp.

Red. White. Blue.

Then the grass is always green.

The sky is always blue.

At the Burgess park in Alpine for food and fun.

Watching the Alpine fire.  

This is when we were hopeful that it was calming down.

But then it hit the canyon.

The Alpine Volcano.

Cousins, food, dogs.

I always love watching single guys play with babies.  

They'll be daddies soon and they have no idea what's about to hit 'em!

"cheese"

Meili and Seppe

Some of the flames were HUGE!!!

More of watching the fire.

And more of watching the fire.

This girl LOVED all the open space!!

Beach babes.

Me, Cristy, and Maryanne by the pool.

Another successful Independence Day.

Las Vegas Baby!

I've been through Vegas 3 times.

Still haven't done anything there.  

We went to Henderson, NV last weekend but didn't have enough time to do anything in Vegas.  One of these days I'll actually get out of the car.  

We stayed in St. George at Derek's family's house overnight.

Enjoyed the pool (but not the 106 degree weather)

We went to baby Samuel's blessing in Henderson.

The kids loved playing together!

Tayah is a freaking rockstar!

Getting ready to feed a crew.

It will be so fun to look at these pictures when they're teenagers!

So darling!

All 8 grandkids!  Sadly, out of like 8 pictures, this was the best...

Poor baby Sam thought he was being tortured.

Timpooneke

First things first.  Can someone tell me why Timpooneke has turned into "Timpanookee"?  Clearly, we're all saying it wrong.

We got to join the fam up at Timpooneke this month.  I LOVE AF canyon!  It's so beautiful!  And it was nice to get out of the smokey air out here by the Saratoga fire.  We didn't stay over night but it was a nice break to spend the day and evening there! 

There was a nice little family of moose in our camp...

(moose are extremely frightening)

We always get this nice spot where there is a creek so the kids can play, and hopefully not drown.

Props to whoever thought to bring the hammock!

"exploring"

So much shade.  ahhhhhhh

I turned around for 2 seconds...

Every child, and even one dog was soooo happy that Dylan brought out the iPad.

Doesn't matter how far away you go, there's always something nerdy.

Strawberry Days

I've been meaning to get to Strawberry Days for years!  But every year something else comes up.  Finally this year we made it!

Meimei, Sofie, and Sierra in the children's parade.

It was a nice day for a parade.  Unfortunately most of PG was IN the parade, not WATCHING the parade.

I haven't been to the carni since I was a kid!!

Sofie's favorite was the "horsey ride"

Thank goodness for my sister who would rather stay at home with the baby than endure the carnival.

Can you tell which one is mine?  Sofie surrounded by a sea of white hair.

Hopefully we can make it again next year!

Friends with Benefits

In High School the term "Friends with Benefits" meant one thing.

Now, as a married, stay-at-home mom, it has a whole new meaning :)

Last week I was able to spend the day with my Chinese friend, and her friend (also Chinese), making Zongzi.  Glutenous rice and whatever delicious filling you can find (we used pork, shrimp, meng bean, and mushrooms) and wrap it all up in a bamboo leaf.

(The friend that joined us ended up being one of my Chinese teachers from BYU, Kayla Lam, or Lin Laoshi.  So weird to be having a "playdate" with her!!  It was incredibly refreshing to be surrounded by Chinese again, I forgot how much I love it!  The best part was when Sofie came home, after 6 hours of playing with their kids, speaking gibberish that sounded pretty dang close to Mandarin!!)

Here's the inside.

YUM!

Today my wonderful Guatemalan friend brought me some homemade Chuchitos.

Corn meal with a pork and tomato based sauce filling, all wrapped up in a corn husk.

AMAZING!

The best kind of friends come with edible benefits :)

I also love that these two treats are so incredibly similar in technique yet so different in flavor!!

Now I've got to get myself some Indian friends!!  I was spoiled as a child with a best friend from India that invited me for dinner often.  Wish she lived around here!

Oh What Do You Do In the Summertime?

I love camping, and I love taking lots of pictures :)

Last weekend we went camping up at Jordanelle Reservoir.  We've gone camping lots of times with extended family, but this was our first trip with just the 4 of us.  It definitely had it's ups and downs, but overall it was great!

It was hot, but perfect that night!

The girlies helping get the tent all ready.

The tent was their favorite part, even if it was hot and sweaty in there.

Collecting rocks in an empty water bottle.

Playing in the water (too cold to swim!)

Sofie took this great picture!

Fishin' with Daddy.  Too windy to catch anything.

Lots of room to play!

Wishin' I had a high chair!

Desperate to entertain the 3 year old... using a rock to play hopscotch!

(I was saying, man I wish we had some chalk, and my smarty pants husband used a rock!)

My favorite part, the fire, watching stars, and roasting things!!

(Sofie pretending to sleep)

It was a windy windy weekend, thank goodness I brought a kite!

Meili's favorite part was chomping on rocks.

Pretty sure I have a similar picture when I was her age.

I took this picture and was SHOCKED to see all 3 smiling and looking at the camera!!

Trying to fish again, too windy :(

Meili is always snuggling.  If there's a blanket, there's a snuggle waiting to happen.

Trying to get a picture of mommy and Meili, not gonna happen!