July 2016 (part 2)

The day after the baby shower I felt particularly bad so I sat on the couch all morning (being entertained by this girl)

and then my mom, Bekah and the boys stopped by and offered to take Alta and Ellie to the aquarium with them while Olive napped. They saw a 3D movie:

and the new Expedition Asia exhibit. I find it very strange that they have a leopard in an aquarium. Alta brought her camera of course:

They had a blast and I was happy they got out of the house!

One morning that week I was meeting Malorie at the trail for an early morning bike ride and saw this family of deer:

Biking in the mornings actually helped me feel a little better, although I could tell my energy level was a lot lower than normal and I felt so slow. I either went with Anna (and sometimes Cheryl), Malorie, or by myself occasionally.

Saturday the 16th was Draper Days. Alta and Ellie both signed up for the kids' 1k this year. We had all three girls sleep at the Brower's that night and left one car there. Dan and I slept at home, but got up extra early and rode our bikes back to the Brower's to avoid trying to get through traffic. We got the girls all ready to go:

I ran with Alta and Ellie ran with Dan. Alta says next year she wants to run the 5k!

We all rode our bikes to the parade later in the morning. The Maughan family from our ward came as well since they knew we had a spot staked out in front of Brower Timing. I actually can't remember if anyone else showed up. Olive was slightly overwhelmed but loved the candy:

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the Brower family, eating lots of ice cream from the soft-serve machine Lorna rented, watching the boys fly their planes, and finally watching the fireworks at night with lots of family and friends. We put Olive to bed but Alta and Ellie stayed up and watched and they finally seem to be getting used to fireworks!

For Family Home Evening on Monday we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to hike Donut Falls. It turns out this is a very popular thing to do on Monday evenings, oops. But it was a perfect night for it and the girls loved getting to hike with Dan. Alta and Ellie walked through the river soaking their shoes and enjoyed every minute of that freezing water, even though Ellie slipped and fell:

Our neighbors, the Olsens, always let us pick their apricots and this year their tree just exploded with them! This was my first huge bowl of many. I made fruit leather and freezer jam, and Lorna and Malorie came to pick boxes full as well.

We spent a lot of time with Bekah and Sawyer and Wyatt. We would either drive to Provo or they'd drive here. It didn't take me long to tell Bekah that I was pregnant. Seeing her almost every day made it impossible to hide how tired and sick I felt! We didn't go out and do as much as she probably wanted to, but the kids had fun no matter what. Spying against Dr. Evil Squirrel (these kids and their imaginations crack me up) at Grandma's was a favorite:

One day we explored the short paved nature trail at Snowbird. Wyatt was in the worst mood and was angry at everyone, poor Bekah! But the rest of us had fun:

That weekend we went to a going-away part for our friends the Cases (no pictures). They actually moved a few weeks before but we missed our neighbors so much! They were one of the few families with young kids on our street so now our neighborhood is even quieter.

That Sunday was Pioneer Day, Wyatt's birthday, and Jim had come to join Bekah and the boys, so we spent the afternoon in Provo. Wyatt has his party a few days later.

Brian and Colleen invited all of us over to swim and bbq pizza with them the next night:

Tuesday afternoon was Wyatt's party at Funtopia. I had never heard of this place but somehow Bekah found it - it's a little climbing center for kids and it was a blast! Rather than just a simple climbing wall there were several different climbing structures for the kids to climb up and down and jump around on. I took videos but only a couple pictures:

The Blankinships left a few days later to head back to New Mexico. I love that our kids get along so well and get to play for a whole month every summer!

We spent the last few days of July in Lake Powell, which will be a separate post.