24th of July Bountiful Parade

Saturday was the annual Bountiful Parade for the 24th of July. We had lots of fun, as usual, with 'Trice and Ted supplying tons of candy and pizza, water guns, and Shauna's famous "parade chex mix". Shauna and some of her friends slept over to save our spot, and it's nice to just show up at 6:00 when it starts, and not have to worry about a thing! We're pretty lucky!

Jace had a blast shooting everyone marching in the parade with his water gun. They loved it too since it was soooooo HOT!

Some of us watching the parade.

Brett and the boys spraying more people.

Somehow, we've figured out how to get all 3 kids in the double stroller. Jace doesn't mind being a little uncomfortable in the middle, as long as it means he doesn't have to walk - heaven forbid!

After the parade, there are fireworks at Mueller Park Junior High. One of Shauna's friends lives right next to it, so we always go to her house to watch. She has snow cones, cookies, brownies, donuts, and root beer floats. Too much fun! She has a fun little pool and hot tub, and we didn't bring swimming suits so the boys just dipped their feet while waiting for the show to start.

Natalie, Kallie, Griffin, and Brett enjoying the show.

Leila was loving it!

Jace was loving his snow cone.

We love July!

Jace Lost His First Tooth!

Jace finally lost his first tooth yesterday, July 15th. It has been loose for quite a while, and has been so close to coming out for days! We'd ask him if he wanted us to pull it out, and he'd shake his head. Then finally one day he said I could! I got a good grip on it, and totally got freaked out and chickened out. I think he was glad. Then yesterday, he went into the bathroom for a while, and when he came out he said, "Mom! Look!" and had his tooth in his hand (and blood on his mouth!) I got so excited and we took a picture and sent it to daddy right away. Brock called as soon as he got it, and Jace was so excited to tell him what he did. Jace is getting so big!





Of course, you can't pull a tooth out and not get a visit from the Tooth Fairy! Jace was so excited (and so were we) to put his tooth under his pillow. He woke up extra early this morning to find money and a card under his pillow instead of his tooth! We were so happy to see him so excited, even if it was only 7:15!

Apparently, the tooth fairy gives big bills for the first tooth! We told Jace not to expect that much on the next 19, or however many he'll lose.

The cute card.

We just love hitting new milestones with our kids! It's so much fun!

Funny Kids

Leila loves to help mommy and daddy with the laundry. There is just something about a laundry basket full of clothes that just lures my kids in. Every one of them did this at this age. Miss Leila loves to take each piece of clothing out and then put them back in, and then start over. It's fine when they're not folded yet, but I have to be FAST if she sees a basket of folded clothes!




Jace loves watching cartoons and movies on my phone. Today, while I was busy cleaning and doing laundry with Leila's help, he fell asleep while watching Phineas and Ferb, one of his very favorite shows right now. The phone is just leaning on his face. When I pulled it away, there was a nice red mark where it had been sitting for a while.

Chris Isaak

Oh, you don't know who that is either??? Well, since Brock works for Spring Mobile, who sponsor the Bee's, and therefore have a suite for all the games and events there, he won some tickets to his concert. We asked Curtis and Becca Hansen to come with us and we had lots of fun. There were a bunch of other people who won tickets too, but I didn't get any pictures. We got to sit back, chat, eat yummy food, and listen to some lovely music.
Most of his big fans are 45 year old women, as he was popular in probably the late 80's/early 90's, and I only recognized one of his songs "Wicked Game". He covered some Elvis and Johnny Cash though, so that was fun.

Anyway, it was a fun night.


Brock was super excited to be there!

The Cabin

As soon as the parade was over, we all headed up to the cabin for the long weekend. We just love it! It was such a cold, long Winter/Spring, and it rained so much that there is still so much snow up there. The river was crazy too! It was so high, and moving so fast. It made us nervous, but that didn't stop us from going down to throw rocks in it. We just made sure to keep a very close eye on all the kids.

On Sunday, we decided to go check out the snow. It was still so deep!


We kept telling them it was dirty and disgusting, but they just didn't seem to care! We made them at least scrape away the first layer!


It was fun to be sliding around in the snow in July!

Leila wasn't too sure about it at first...

She quickly became sure she didn't like it!

Nixon on the other hand, loved everything about it!

Eating it...

Throwing it, and playing in it.

Jace and I went to see the bathroom which was practically covered! We could both reach out and touch the roof! Here we are on our way back.

The boys had to play King of the Mountain.

They all won! It was a tie. (unless you ask Jace)

Then we went to the other side of the street to do some real climbing.

What goes up, must come down! We thought it would be fun to slide!

Brett and Beckett got in on the fun too.

You know I had to try it, and fun it was! It was so fun to be playing in the snow in t-shirts!

My cute Jace. His hair is getting so long! We've asked him if we could cut it about a million times, but he loves it too much.

I wanted a picture with all of us in front of the snow so you can see how deep it was. Leila wasn't a fan of this idea.

Later that day, back at the cabin, Brock thought it would be so fun to do a treasure hunt for the kids like his parents used to do for him when he was little. It was so cute. He wrote out all these clues, and even made them rhyme! When everyone woke up from naps, he told them that a pirate had been there, and left a clue for a treasure hunt for them. They were all so excited! They all just so happen to be HUGE fans of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" right now, so this was right up their alley!

It started at the Teepee.

Since Jace is the only one who can read, he read all the clues.

Then it was off to the swing

Then to the tallest tree. (Nixon wasn't quite sure he wanted to be awake from his nap yet)

Then off to where the squirrels live.

And the place where we play horse shoes.

To the shed where we keep the snow mobiles.

And finally where the little men play soccer.

They found their treasure! How did that pirate know they all love sour patch kids?

Monday (the 4th of July) we headed down to the river. The boys took the bike.

Here is Brock checking out the wild river.

Beckett, Brett, Nixon, and Natalie

Brock and Brett had to have a contest to see if they could throw a big rock in the water and splash the other person.

Nixon's bum got a little dirty from sitting on the bank.

Then the kiddos had to take off their shoes and test the water. Brrrr!

Leila hung out with Grandma. I held her after this, and she fell asleep right away. It was fun to have to hold a sleeping baby the whole way back! Got my work out in!

We found a caterpillar and of course, Nixon had to hold it.

We went back and ate lunch and then headed home. We love having this fun place to go a couple of times a year!