Thursday, July 29, 2010

4th of July and other Summer fun!


Summer is going by too quickly! Our next trips this summer were home for the 4th of July and then to Cherry Hill last weekend. 4th of July was as magical as ever. There is just something about being home on that holiday that brings back so many great childhood memories. The parade is basically the same as it was growing up, but the fireworks have gotten so much better! I love watching Brighton exprience things that I experienced as a child. Don't let the sweatshirts fool you- It really was 4th of July. So typical in Idaho Falls. :)



















Valley Girls:



















Haydn doing an awesome karate kick:


















Here are some more misc. summer pics that I took with my camera. Aaron takes all the artsy, cool photos and I just document the every day. So mine aren't fancy-schmancy but it's what I have!

At Eagle Island State Park: (That's Aaron and Brighton making a sand castle in the background)




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Brighton got stung by a bee... in the eyelid! (Actually I'm starting to think it was a wasp and it bit her, because it wasn't that bad.)


















The ONE picture we got at Cherry Hill.



















Her new jeep. This is her friend Anila from across the street.


















Riding our bikes to get snow cones.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Ode to Summer!

Oh how I love thee summer? The sun, the heat, the long days, the water.... I think I am soaking up every day of summer because we had such a yucky cold wet Spring. It's already July and it feels like the first week of summer!
We recently got back from our first summer vacation- Aaron's family reunion in Southern Utah. It was the "Jones" reunion- his mom's side and it was so fun to meet all these aunts, uncles and cousins that I've heard so much about. And I love hanging out with Aaron's immediate family because it doesn't happen often enough. What I found really cool was sitting in this A frame cabin singing these songs and listening to songs that his family has grown up singing. The Jones family is SUPER musical. I thought my family was the VonTrapps but everyone in the family sings and plays piano, etc. Aaron's mom made a song book of all the songs Grandpa Jones used to sing and he actually wrote several of them that we now sing to Brighton. I just love long family traditions like that and songs and stories that get passed down generations. Hearing stories about how two siblings joined the Jones family was really touching and made me understand why Aaron's mom is the way she is- very giving and loving. I really married into a great family!
Anyway, mushy stuff aside. We went to KodaChrome, Bryce Canyon and BrianHead summit. The road was closed so the family just decided to hoof it up the mountain. I had Deacon in a sling on my chest and when it got to these huge rocks I was afraid I would eat it and land right on Deac, so I went down but Brighton was determined to get to the top! It wasn't easy either! She's a little mountain goat!

Here are some of the sights we saw. Bryce Canyon was my absolute favorite. So beautiful!








Other highlights of summer have been "The Beach" -Eagle Island State Park and the neighborhood pool...


My computer is taking forever to load pictures, so I'll have to do more later!