Danny designed and landscaped the backyard. The pool has been the only feature in the backyard until now. Here is the before:
I left for 3 weeks and came back to this:
It's so fantastic! It's so nice to relax back here in the evenings. It has also been great for entertaining, and we have maxed out the capacity with a few parties this summer. Thanks Danny for all of your hard work. It was a lot of hours in the hot sun, but sooo worth it.
We took a quick trip to San Diego for the 4th of July to see baby Sasha be blessed. It was fun to hang out with my little brother and his family and to have the parents and Aimes with us too...we all got some sun, and saw a few fireworks too!
We took a trip up to SLC for the open house of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It is of course beautiful inside, but it was great to take the kids, they were so young for the last two open houses we attended. Taylor loved the Celestial room because he said it was the place he felt the most peace (the open house was really crowded and busy, and this was a bit of resting place...plus his sunday shoes were giving him blisters and he didn't want to walk anymore. So not that it was ultra spiritual, but it did provide a bit of reprieve!)
Danny had a mountain biking trip planned for the weekend. Had a great ride on Friday, and ended up doing some emergency bathroom remodeling for my parents the next several days until he flew home Tuesday.
My family humored me by going to the 24th of July parade...the WHOLE thing. My parents, Amy, and the kids and I were big troopers and endured the heat to relive some of my favorite childhood memories of the pioneer parade. Of course when we were little, we would watch it from Dad's office window right on the parade route where it wasn't hot and crowded. Also for some lame reason, they don't throw candy any more, so what is the point for a kid, right? There were some really cool floats, good marching bands, and we waved to Elder Eyring. Even being that close to him, I could feel the spirit witness of his testimony. I have always loved Elder Eyring, and so that brief moment made the parade worth it to me!
We took a fun hike with my sister Kath and fam to Donut Falls. Of course we had to eat Donuts for breakfast on our way up.
These three rascals are Crrrazy, especially the smallest, Noah. He and I ran almost the whole way up the trail.
Isabelle just loves to pose:
A big part of my summer was spent at USA cheerleading camps. I spent 3 weeks at USU in Logan, UT working as Medical staff. I got to take care of all the high school cheerleaders coming to camp to learn routines, pyramids and stunting (oh my).
Amy and Taylon are some of my fave staff, and Cheryl (above) and Wayne Moon (below) are the best part of Utah camps! Also my friend, Miranda joined staff this year as a head counselor and it was so much fun to have her there.
This was our awesome staff for the last week of USU camps.
And this is our really good attempt at instructional staff stunting with support staff!
No major injuries again this summer some stitches and a torn shoulder (later needing surgery) were the only notables. I also went to Carson City, NV and covered one camp there. No photos, but the highlight of that trip was seeing my two sister in laws and their husbands (and the chocolate and almond dipped delight we got for dessert!)
PHEW...no wonder I was EXHAUSTED at the end of August when it was time for school to start again!
