Nix Visit

Scott and Julie needed to head out of town for a baseball tournament for the boys and asked if we would give Kevin and Colleen a break and watch Nix for them. We knew Raven and her got along really well, so we were pretty excited for her to hang out with us. These two were so funny! They had such a great time! It was fun to see them interact and play with each other every minute of every day and then crash really hard at night. They both slept in our room and acted like they'd been sisters their whole lives. So much fun, can't wait until we can play again!

Hard to tell them apart right?

Apparently, I'm a sucker for Nix too and let her on my bed, just like Raven

Buttlerville Days Parade

This year I was on my game! I wanted to go see the Butlerville Days Parade, which is close to Pioneer Day, but not nearly as crowed and usually has the same number and kind of floats. In the past, I have arrived late, had to sit in the sun and barely had enough room to fit the family members that wanted to tag along with our group. This year, Kevin bailed me out (as usual) and went the night before to set up and reserve a spot. I woke up early and got there at the same time as Colleen, Lindsay and PJ and Shaunasee and their kids. We ended up with a primo spot right next to the parade announcer, so we heard all the announcements and got a front row seat to the action. It was another one of those moments that we really missed Kevin since he was working, but Trace and I managed to have a little fun with family anyway. Later that night, when Kevin got off work, we came back to the carnival part of the celebrations and let Trace ride some rides, play some games and eat some junk food.

Braden, James, Becca, Lexi, Trace and Fischer

Hoof & Vine

Since we didn't go out to dinner for a nice meal for our anniversary, when Kevin saw a coupon on Facebook about buy one get one free at a local fine dining restaurant called "Hoof and Vine" we were in! Since it was just going to be the three of us, it would mean "wasting" the other free meal. So, we decided to ask one of Trace's friends to join us. Logan Nichols is a friend of Trace's and in our Primary class. His little brother Wesley is 9 months younger than Trace and Logan is 9 months older than Trace, so he plays with both boys as often as he can. The funny thing is that Logan and Wesley's Mom, Cally Nichols, happens to work at the restaurant, so it was kind of fun to eat there with the boys with his Mom as our server. Logan is also a diabetic, so I felt better having his Mom nearby to monitor his numbers so he didn't get into trouble. It was a fun night with delicious food and great company!

Top Golf Pioneers

This year for Pioneer Day, we didn't really have any plans and wanted to try something new, so we decided to try our local "Top Golf" location. I had heard about how much fun it was from people at my work, but I had never been there myself. Since we thought it would fun with some more people, we decided to invite Nana and Papa to come along. My Dad has only been golfing once or twice in his life and my Mom said she hadn't been ever. It turned out to be so fun! Trace was really good at it since he had taken golf lessons the year before. I did much better than I thought and came in 2nd and of course, Kevin crushed us all. Mom and Dad said they had fun and I thought it was a great way to spend the holiday. The only bad thing was that it was EXPENSIVE! Also, Trace and I had a bet that he wouldn't drink soda for the summer and that I wouldn't eat pizza, but I got distracted having so much fun, I devoured a few pieces of pizza before Trace informed me I had lost the bet. Aagh!

Anniversary

Although it is hard to believe, on the 21st, Kevin and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary! As part of our celebration, we took Trace to the church that has a garden in the back where we had our wedding and reception. It largely looked the same and it was neat to see the place again, this time with our precious boy. The church is located at the corner of  400 South 800 East in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah and I hope we can visit it again at our 50th anniversary!

Swimming

The benefit of having your Aunt Lindsay watch you for the summer is that you get to hang out with your cousins and go swimming at the local swimming pool together. This is the picture that I got while at work, looks like they all had tons of fun.

Lindsay, Jimmy, Kyli, Becca, Boston, Cam, Braden, Julie and Trace

The next day, Trace called me into the backyard so he could show me our own swimming pool was not nearly up to the status of the community one. I guess we'll have to set up a slightly larger pool for our slightly larger boy.

The next weekend, Kevin reminded me that we did have a larger pool that we hadn't gotten out since we moved to this house and Trace was about a year old. With my prompting, he drug it out and set it up. The kids had a great time for about two weeks and then we finally had to take it down since it was ruining the grass. We'll have to revisit it setting it up again next summer. 

Nickelcade

Trace has been really good lately and I've been caught up with my own projects, so I decided to take him to our local Nickelcade to play. We had a great time together and each of us found our favorite game. Trace was really good at playing a football drop game and I had a great time playing "Deal or No Deal", which is essentially a guessing game. We played some games together and separately and afterwards gathered up our tickets and found we had earned over 500 tickets! We were pretty proud of ourselves! Afterward we took our loot to the ice cream shop around the corner and ended a fun time with a delicious treat! We had a great time together and I promised we'd do it again soon.

Independence Day

This year we decided to try to attend the Sandy parade as we have done in the past, but I wanted to be more prepared. Trace and I woke up early and headed out to the parade route armed with caution tape and foldable chairs to block off our spot. Trace was such a trooper and helped me carry the heavy chairs from clear across the parking lot and all along the parade route. We set up our spot and headed home to wait for Kevin to get off work. My parents and Rob decided to join us. When we made it back over to the parade area where we had marked off our spot, we found it all dismantled and torn down. I was disappointed, but we squeezed our group into a tiny spot along the route. The boys played around a bit, we got some food and the parade began. However, before the parade was halfway over, the rain showed up. We tried to bundle up and endure, but then, more rain came. Finally, Ivanna left due to her being cold and pregnant, then, the skies opened up and we got seriously dumped on. We bailed and ran to the car as fast as we could with all our stuff. Here's hoping next year that the sun will shine throughout the whole parade.

Skies are threatening!