Trip to Salt Lake City, July 2012

We had a great time visiting with the Miner family in Utah over the Pioneer Day celebration. It was tons of fun watching the Days of '47 Parade, the new natural history museum at the U, seeing the new polar bear exhibit at Hogle Zoo, and spending a day at Lagoon. We also had the chance to attend Melissa Peck's wedding in the Bountiful temple, which was absolutely beautiful. While all the places we stopped to see were great, our very favorite part was of course the people. It was good to see all of the cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents for a cookout up in the Canyon and for a delicious dinner Sunday evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We were also very pleased that Grammie and Papa were able to join us for our day at Lagoon. We had an absolute party every day we were there, and it was hard for Tyson to want to go home! We always look forward to planning the next trip up to see everyone again!

Church Basketball is all Fun and Games until...

So while our pictures of Brad with an injured leg are few in number, I think it is an important story to relate to those who may not have been aware of this great calamity. So towards the end of April our stake held a basketball final on Friday night in a three game tournament. Brad was feeling great and playing hard when in the last game of the night, he felt a shooting pain in the back of his foot and fell down on the court. As he hobbled off, ward members' first impressions were that he had sprained his ankle. Sadly, it was more than just a sprain. He had ruptured his achilles tendon and would have to undergo an hour long surgery and months of being in a cast and physical therapy to heal the wounded tendon. We are happy to report that he is walking on his own now without a crutch or brace of any sort. While he is not quite up to running ability yet, he has definitely come a long way in a relatively short time. I am grateful to have my awesome helper back and glad to see he is able to get around on his own again!

Elise's 4th Birthday...Luau Style!

I had a little too much fun planning Elise's 4th birthday party this year. We went with a Hawaiian luau theme and enjoyed face painting, candy lei necklaces, "Don't Eat Pete" and the limbo to name a few of our activities. This was Elise's first ever official friend birthday party, and we definitely went all out. My brother Scott's family was in town for that week and we were excited to have our cousins from Michigan in attendance for the special occasion. I could tell all the kids were "hula"d out by the end of the party, but we sure had fun doing it!

Dinosaur Adventures...

We have been loving our Pogo Pass we picked up through a groupon deal this year. It gets you into all sorts of events throughout the year and is a super good deal for all it includes. One of the places we have used it for is the Mesa Southwest museum. The kids enjoyed checking out dinosaur skeletons, doing some hands on activities and panning for fools gold. It was a great way to have fun while staying out of the heat!

Fun in the Sun!

We had an awesome summer this year. We were able to make it down for a couple of trips to Rocky Point with all the Salmon fam and got to watch the slow but exciting process of having a pool built. We have truly enjoyed the fun and relaxation that a pool provides. It has been our own little oasis in the desert! Here are some of the before and after photos taken throughout the process...

Spring Break in Rocky Point

The news of the century for Rocky Point is they just got a Walmart down there and they will be building a Sam's Club this coming summer! Wow! I didn't see that one coming. We had a great time as usual at the beach house. The weather was perfect and we had lots of good playtime in the sand. The water was still a little chilly for us, but we didn't mind getting our feet wet. It was march of the caterpillars while we were down there and you had to watch out on your walk down to the beach so that you wouldn't step on any caterpillars. Tiff went down the following week and said there were a migration of monarch butterflies that flew through the city. I wish I could have seen it. The funny story of the week was when we went to eat at Julio's restaurant one night in town and as we were driving I felt a tingling sensation on my foot. At first I thought my foot was falling asleep and tried to shake it awake. I continued to feel tingling moving up my leg and looked down to find a large, long and hairy black caterpillar crawling up my leg. I screamed with shock and dislodged the critter with my jerky movements. Everyone else thought it was hilarious and teased me about it that night. We sure do love our trips to the beach!

Field Trip to the Dairy Farm

We had the chance to go to the Superstition Farms Dairy to see where our local milk comes from and all the things that happen there. The kids had a great time and we enjoyed slightly cooler, but still nice weather. Tyson and Isabelle were a little hesitant to feed and pet the animals at first, but they warmed up to the idea as they watched their braver classmates give it a try. We finished the trip with some yummy flavored milk and homemade ice cream from the dairy.