3rd of July

We didn't have much planned for the holiday weekend, so I started looking online for some fun things to do. We decided to sleep in and enjoy the morning. We went and visited Josh's grandma in the hospital, then stopped at the Ericson's for lunch and to pick up some sod. We then headed home for some good naps. After naptime we all got ready and headed down to Sandy City's parade. While everyone was sleeping I went and found a back way where we could park super close to the parade. Of course when we hopped in the car to go down there, a cop was sitting there blocking it off. He stopped us, but decided to let us go through anyway. So we got to park about 25 yards from the parade and found a sweet spot with the sun at our backs. Here's the kids before we left:

One of our last holidays as a family of 4:
Both kids LOVED the parade and sat through the entire thing. Here's Brayden waving at the floats:

Didn't take long to figure out that they throw candy. We had mostly adults around us so they let Brayden get ALL the candy thrown our way:

Waving the little flag he got:

I was surprised Brooklyn did so well. She loved the floats, but didn't like the loud cars and motorcycles as they passed by. Here she is waving to the princesses:

Getting candy. She was a little timid to run out and pick it up, so Brayden was very nice and always gave her some that he picked up:

With her American Flag:

This is how she spent about 50% of the parade. We had to continuously take her hands down and show her that the noise was gone, only to have it return minutes later. Everyone thought it was really cute:

After the parade we went to Litza's Pizza for dinner and visited with Josh's dad. We then headed back to Sandy, parked at our church, and walked to Jordan High School to watch the fireworks. The kids did ok, but not as well as when we are right under the fireworks like last year. But they loved throwing the snaps that I had brought and ran around and had fun:

Painting the Sidewalk

My mom sent me an email that had a bunch of fun summer things for the kids to do. One of them was painting the sidewalk with water. Since we've been outside swimming almost every other day, I thought it would be a perfect thing to do when they were done with the pool but I wasn't done mowing the lawn yet. So I gave them each a paintbrush and bucket of water. They LOVED it! I couldn't believe it kept them busy for almost an hour, painting everything in sight.

Random Pics/Buttons

After one of Brayden's t-ball games we stayed out front and played on the grass while I took pictures. Here are the kids playing:

I love this expressionm, especially with his ear folded under his hat:

Playing ring-around-the-rosies:

Later that night I was trying to kill time with the kids and was pretty exhausted, so I decided to give them a jar of my scrapbook buttons. It kept them occupied for over 45 min...well worth it even if it took us 10 min to find all the buttons.

Twins' Blessing Day

Justin and Ali blessed their twins a on the 27th. They did it at their house and Justin gave them both beautiful blessings. We had yummy sandwiches and desserts afterwards. Congrats! Here we are holding Ty and Meg:

Brooklyn found these Mardi Gras beads and wouldn't let them out of her sight. She also found her way to the dessert table while we weren't paying attention:

Playing the Piano

The kids LOVE to sit down and play the piano, with me or by themselves. It's so fun to see Brayden sing the primary songs or Mickey Mouse song while he is pounding away. Brooklyn's favorite part is to turn the pages of my music:

Swimming!

I've been super excited this summer to put up our little kiddie pool for the kids. We had no yard last summer so we weren't able to do it. Because we still have no backyard, we've had to put everything in the front yard...which means we can't leave it out :( But we still manage to go out a couple of times each week. Here's Brayden without any hesitation at all:

Brooklyn, on the other hand, wouldn't go near the pool. I hauled 10 gallons of hot water outside so that it was comfortable for them, and she still wouldn't get close. I finally sat on the slide with her in my lap so she could atleast get her feet wet:

Drying off:

The second day we tried getting Brooklyn in the pool it took 45 minutes. I was ready to take the kids in when I finally got her to go down the slide. After that there was no turning back! They stayed out for another hour playing and going down the slide. Here's Brooklyn finally enjoying it:

Brayden loving every minute of it:

And of course the sprinkler...they didn't want to run through it, but Brayden did want to drink from it:

Thanksgiving Point/Camera Story

So...apparently my brother convinced my dad to upgrade his nice digital camera, from a Nikon D200 to a Nikon D300 (whatever that means.) He called me up and asked if I could post his camera on KSL and sell it for him since I've sold a ton of stuff on KSL. I laughed and said that that was ironic b/c I have been on KSL looking for a nice camera. I've been putting away money here and there with intentions of purchasing a nice camera sometime in the next year after I save enough. Well...long story short my dad wanted me to buy his camera from him and "convinced" me that I was getting a good deal. I'm buying it for what he was going to post it on KSL for, he's just going to let me pay it off over the next year since it is MUCH more than I anticipated on spending. That means I have an almost new, photographer's camera!!! I have been SO excited since I got it I've been taking pictures of EVERYTHING, eventhough I really don't know what I'm doing yet.

N-e way, for Father's Day my mom gave my dad a grandparents season pass to Thanksgiving Point. So on Monday I took the kids and met my parents there for the FHE (Josh worked late.) We have never been to the Children's Discovery Gardens before and we absolutely loved it. My dad brought his camera so he gave me my first lesson while we were there. Sorry all the random pics, but I still can't believe how much better the pictures are than from my little camera. Here we are at Noah's Ark in the entrance. I expected the kids to get wet, but I didn't expect Brooklyn to tumble in and get soaked. My mother instincts overpowered the photographer's instincts and I rushed to her aid w/o taking pictures. So here's all the "before" pictures:

I can't believe that I took this picture. I'm SO excited to continue learning how to do all this stuff!

Playing in the bear cave:

Brayden was pretending he was a monkey in the tree. It was really funny:

Playing in the water:

Enjoying a little snack:

Thanks mom and dad for such a great time!!! I'm excited to take advantage of your pass this year!