July 2016

On July 1st we attended Joy and Jordan's cul-de-sac of fire!

On the 2nd we rode the train to Salt Lake,

 

ate at Tucanos at the Gateway, then took Trax and walked several blocks to the Gourmandise Bakery where Tony had ordered me this beautiful birthday tiramisu!

Bud got this cool choco porcupine and Faith got an apple turnover.

July 4th we enjoyed a BBQ at grandma & grandpa Braegger's house and then lit off some fireworks.

 

On July 5th I went with Jenn, Darcy, Belinda Belliston and Belinda's sister (in from out of town) to lay out blankets to save a spot for the Kaysville parade. I hate parades, but wanted to hang out with friends, so I tagged along. They were having a street party down main street, so we stopped by.

 

On July 8th Bud went to Cub Scout day camp and had a great time.

On the 9th we stopped by PetCo and Bud was able to hold a lizard.

I caught the kids on the 10th taking selfies with the Snapchat filter :)

 

Here's the result: 

 So cute!!!

 

We headed up to the condo Monday night and on the 12th walked with grandpa.

Joy came up with her family and put on a darling "under the sea" themed birthday party for Evie's third birthday. There were croissant sandwiches that looked like crabs, hot dog octopuses, goldfish crackers, and oyster cookies with a pearl inside.

There were games of toss the fish,

wrap your teammate in seaweed,

and toss to knock over the dinglehoppers (what the Little Mermaid called forks).

The girls then stuck jewels onto swim cover-up mermaid tails.

 

The strong light coming in from the window kind of ruined my shot, so I played around with a stained glass filter :)

Of course there was lots of swimming!

 

More fun on the 13th. Christian loves to dangle and drop things out from the loft overlook.

I saw this cute picture on Facebook of mom's cousin Bruce McKinstry, wife Margo and their girls. She lived in our ward until they left on a mission and have been traveling and in their St. George condo since.

My friend Jenn is hilarious and I loved this Instagram post!

 

On July 21st we did some pioneer activities of baking wheat bread, making blackberry freezer jam and making butter in a jar.

A rod started knocking in our Jeep Liberty, so on the 23rd we went car shopping and somehow ended up with this monster vehicle instead of the tiny electric car I liked.

Not as much spank bum being played these days, but every once in awhile things still get crazy!

On the 24th Bud and I assembled these paper crafts I found online for the actual Pioneer Day.

Loved this family picture of my cousin Fish:

Tammy took the kids on the 30th for a sleepover and on the 31st did the aquarium and bought them ice creams at Thanksgiving Point.

My Riot trainers challenged us to be FEARLESS this summer and take a picture of ourselves doing things that scare us. Here I am driving our new car: (I'm pointing to the shirt they gave us that says fearless on it)

June 2016

Not any pictures from the first few weeks of June, I guess due to my not doing a whole lot and just recovering from my surgery. Did really well at first, but then had some pain. Just took a bit of time to feel myself again.

June 18th was Chelsea's baby shower for Lex!

 

 

We wrote messages on diapers for her & were treated to delicious salads from HugHes.

Afterward, we went to Smith & Edwards where the kids got their favorite penny candies and gummy "meals."

 

While Faith and I were at the shower, Christian went on a shopping trip with dad at Grandma Peterson's favorite store (D.I.). He picked up this Bop-It game and had fun playing with his sister that evening. It was fun for awhile to watch them, until we went crazy from the wacky, repetitive noises it makes!!

 

On the evening of the 22nd, I hopped a flight to Boston with my friend & JetBlue coworker Brandi! It was a confirmed flight since it was to attend the Community Connection Dinner which honors employees who volunteer at least 150 hours in a calendar year.

 

Arrived on the morning of the 23rd and went out on foot with friends to see some sights on the Freedom Trail. This is the Robert Gould Shaw memorial of the 54th Volunteer Infantry depicted in the movie Glory.

We toured Paul Revere's house.

 

Stopped by a few little museums, but mostly just walked around until we were exhausted.

 

That evening was our special dinner. Pictured from the left, Shelly Franklin (who is in my Riot group!), me, Brandi Johnson, Alison Hales and Julia Tinker.

It was a fancy schmancy event with hors d'oeuvres and an open bar. There was a JetBlue signature blue cocktail (the "voluntini"), but it was alcoholic so my friends just ordered Shirley Temples. I just had water with lime because Faith and I were doing a year without soda :)

We even got our picture taken with JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes!

 

We did some crazy props for the photo booth,

 

and enjoyed the dinner of filet mignon, salmon, a tiny zucchini and regular & blue potatoes. There was a program honoring certain airports and volunteers. Shelly was even nominated for one of the awards! Tried a few of the treats on the dessert bar and got glow necklaces. Tried to enjoy the live music but it was SO LOUD!

Got to sleep that night in a room paid for by JetBlue and it was super nice! King bed all to myself.

On the 24th we went out with MariJo Holley (and minus Shelly whose husband had tagged along on the trip) to do a Duck tour we had purchased with Groupon. It came with a harbor cruise which we decided to do first thing before it got busy.

Got to see Old Ironside.

Back to land and we did the "jump on, jump off" tour busses to see the rest of the Freedom Trail.

Got to actually board and tour the battleship Massachusetts.

MariJo said we couldn't visit Boston without a trip to Mike's Pastries!

We even rode a swan boat in Boston Commons! This is a pic of one we passed,

 

and this is us on our ride.

 

That evening I rode the subway for the first time!

We ate dinner at an Irish pub.

On the 25th, we saw this one man band in Boston Commons,

then tried to make our way to Salem. The train schedule didn't work out for us with our return flight time, so we went to Cambridge instead. Here I am, attending Harvard ;)

Such a fun trip and so nice of my work to make it possible!

On June 30th we picked our first produce from this year's garden.

And I loved this quote: