July

I heard in June that I passed the CHES exam--it's official, I am CHES-certified again!  That made me feel a little more of a professional, working with the SFU Advisory Board, helping with the curriculum changes and creating a CHES Review course for them.

Our garden got happy, once we switched the soaker lines to drip lines.  The soaker hoses were a joke--too much water in some areas and not enough in others.  Drip lines were perfect--the right amount of water, dripping at a steady rate right down to the roots.

July had a number of festivities!  The boys were in seventh heaven with all the fireworks.  First was the 4th of July celebration.  The entire neighborhood got together for a huge firework collaboration/BBQ potluck.  Such a fun hangout!

Max and Elle did not like all the loud noises, they hid up in our garage.

This was one day when I had spent 10 hours writing three different assessments...David thankfully got home from work and pulled us all outside for fresh air and a quick family ride.  

We picked up Bishka from visiting new cousin Evie and we made cow masks to get some free Chick Fila.

Celebration #2 was the Firework show set to music.  This was an amazing performance--there was a band, food trucks, a fireworks show choreographed to music--and all free.  We really love our community.  We live close enough to the sports park that we walked there with everyone loaded up in the wagon instead of driving.  It was definitely better than waiting an hour or more after the show to get home in a line of cars.  We loaded up on food truck treats and sat down with some friends for the music, dancing, and the show.  It was so amazing, better than anything we'd seen for the 4th!

Celebration #3, the Fiesta Days Fair and Parade!  It's a family tradition to go to the deathtrap fair, the boys look forward to it every year.  We get tickets half off ahead of time, and the boys can pick out 3 or so rides to do.  Max and David went on the Ferris Wheel first, and Max thought it was pretty cool! 

They both wanted to do the fun house--pretty sure our boys are the only ones who stop before going down the slide and read the warning/caution signs.  The signs were saying "Warning, slide hot", if it's in the sun, but the it was evening so the slide was fine.  Pace went down, but Max was really concerned about following the rules.  He started hyperventilating and crying, and wouldn't come down because "It's hot!"  The line of kids was building up behind him; a girl finally offered to go down with him, and he was happy for the help. 

And then we rode a few more rides that were more his speed.

The boys also went fishing and got little prize.

We sat with friends of ours at the parade the next day, and then went to their house for a picnic lunch afterwards.

Walmart had a free lego activity day--we called our friends and they met us there to get in line and build a mini batman lego car.

We had some fun pool days with friends, too, although not as many as last summer.  

Kristine and Drew invited us to a free weekend up near Pineview Reservoir.  Kristine's sister already had a time share condo but couldn't keep the weekend, so we got to have a little getaway!  We'd had a few weeks of smoke from fires in California blowing our way, as well as one in Utah, so it was nice to head up north and get out of the smoke.  David came up for dinner and spent the night Sunday and then drove to work Monday morning.  We played in the lake and the pool, had some game nights, dance parties, and went through the Ogden Dinosaur Museum before heading home.  Kristine and I were both doing school, so we had a quiet morning to do some schoolwork while Drew took the kids to play ball.  

The kids found a huge moth and decided he needed a home built for him.

The last day they spent the morning finding snails while the adults packed up the cars.

I got a couple nice runs in around the lake, too.  A little smoke in northern Utah, but not as much as where we live. 

Pizza with daddy when we got home.  They had a fun time catching up with daddy when we got home.

David's not too sure how this happened, but seemed like he sprained his ankle.  And got a great ride in!

A daughter of friends of ours worked at a shave ice hut over the summer and we went and visited her one night.  David's really good at getting brain freezes.

We also broke out the telescope when the moon and Mars (or Venus?) were right next to each other.

Our ward boundaries changed in March, and we are now with a neighborhood that has a few pools...every Tuesday one family opened up their pool to the ward members, and we checked it out one afternoon.  The boys thought it was great!

Running adventures!  We did the hot pots one early morning, Spanish Fork peak, the Slide to Slate Canyon loop, and some little morning runs on the river trail.