4th of July Happenings (in Utah)

Pictures coming soon...

Brandon had a crazy week trying to get of of town.  At work one night, he practically pulled an all nighter - his only time home that day/night was to go be "security" for some Relief Society meeting (that I didn't attend btw, and am I the only one confused at this whole "security" thing?).  I think Brandon was supposed to walk around the perimeter of the building or something, but he wasn't told any specifics and so he just went and sat in the lobby.  Ha ha!  But anyway, right after that meeting, he came home to change his clothes and then went back to work.  Yuck!  He used to pull all nighters with ease and finesse in college studying all night, but now he is getting smart and realizing he needs some sleep and food (and some candy helps a little bit!).  He gets to the point where he's no longer writing in complete sentences, and that's his clue that he needs some sleep and he's realizing he's getting older!!  (And I don't doubt I'm getting old too, I can feel it!  We're also in that awkward month and a half when I am older than Brandon for a short time and he reminds me lots.)  Also, since it was the end of the month right before we could get on the road, it coincided with a ward goal of getting 100% home teaching for the month of June, so Brandon was valiant in his efforts and visited something like 20 families in the evenings before we left for Utah in order to hit the goal.

After Brandon caught up on some sleep and got all the ward home teaching done :) we were able to leave first thing Saturday morning and made it in our usual - about 10.5 hours - where we were greeted by a poster welcoming us on Grandma Nancy's porch (the cute poster was made by our cute Murray cousins).

We did lots and lots of visiting and catching up with family, like usual.  Rachel loved playing with her cousins and friends, and absolutely loves all the festivities around the 4th of July.  Andrew was shy with everyone for a minute, but then quickly warmed up and showed his silly self.  The kids really were good on the trip, and we didn't get sick (bonus!).  This is how I find myself describing our trips to Utah lately .... My kids absolutely love seeing all of our family in one week's time - we are SO lucky!  It just completely and totally is overstimulating for them.  All the cousins and grandma time, staying up late, non-stop fun and action, running from place to place, family dinners, etc.  It is exhausting to me, but is SO worth it, and is exactly what we signed up for.

We had the traditional Hale family dinner on Sunday night with all the cousins, and they had a ton of fun and played very hard together outside.  I got to spend a little time with our nephew, Miles, who was so happy and smiley and giggly (6.5 months old).  Rachel Faye brought in her brand new Brave doll that Nana gave her (literally just hours before), and of course she left it at Kacie & Chris' house somewhere and we were already half way home when we realized it.  Brandon had the sense to keep driving and not turn around, but when the Hale's didn't see it anywhere around their house, I knew she'd probably left it outside somewhere.  Hard lessons to learn - didn't we already learn this with Baby Simba at the airport?  Grrr.  We put the kids to bed, and later heard that Uncle Chris had gone out back into the large field and found her doll using a lantern since it was dark out.  What a good uncle - good thing he loves our kids!!  I kept it from Rachel for 2 days since she had been irresponsible with it.

We have lots of 4th of July traditions - hot air balloons and breakfast on the day before at 6a, camping out for our parade spot, kid's 1 mile race, the parade, water-fight Hale BBQ around lunch, Parker family BBQ around dinner, then fireworks.  Every year, I question myself and think it's crazy to get the kids up for the balloons and race, but they are completely worthwhile traditions that we all love (and Brandon has learned to love).

Rachel and Brandon ran the kid's mile race, and they ran so fast.  Last year, Rachel finished in 17+ minutes and this year, they finished in 12:07.  Brandon encouraged her not to walk, and held her hand some of the way.  The medal and water bottle she gets at the finish line is quite the motivation for her and she loves all the cheering fans and her new running shirt.  Pretty fun stuff.  Plus we do it with the Murray's and the grandparents come watch, which makes it extra fun.  Andrew will get to run it next year.

The other highlights included Brandon being the secret service agent and assistant candy dropper to the celebrity candy dropper, Val as Mitt Romney.  I ditched the water fight since my hair was all pretty and straight, and Andrew desperately needed a nap.  At the next BBQ, Rachel got in big trouble when we found out her and cousin Liam had thrown rocks and dirt all over Uncle Jared's truck windshield and hood.  I'll be honest, I was pissed.  Especially since I had already gotten on her case and put her in timeout when she put dirt on the trampoline.  There were lots of factors into play here (including us irresponsible parents not keeping a closer eye on those two), but she got in big trouble for it.  I was so mad, Brandon had to take care of things.  Later that night, Andrew was falling asleep at the fireworks in my parent's neighborhood, so Brandon took him home and Rachel and I stayed for the show.  Rachel made a new BFF and she had the most amazing time, and said she never wanted to leave.

If you want to really do the parade thing in Provo, you have to be committed and it's pretty hardcore.  Nana and Papa are always in charge of getting the spot at 3p on the day before (although I think they are looking to retire if anyone else wants the job).  They bring chairs, tarps and a canopy and then everyone who wants to sit in the spot with our family takes a shift guarding the spot - covering times slots all the way until the next morning.  Brandon & Scott's shift was from 5:30-7:30p, but they were having so much fun playing nintendo on Brandon's iPad that they stayed until 10:30p.  Too funny.  My younger brother, Kyle and cousin Lauren with their significant others covered the worst of it, and took midnight on.  The parade isn't even worth it for all this hassle, but it's in the name of tradition.  BUT there was something extra special about the parade this year - Gpa Val & Gma Nancy were in the parade and got to drive a Shelby Cobra!  Val just got a new job as the President/CEO of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce (leaving his VP job at UVU), so they wanted him to be in the parade.  Nancy was being a supportive wife, as this was never her dream to be in the parade - quite the opposite in fact - but she put on a brave face and they looked great!!  Andrew's favorite part was the motorcycles, police cars, and firetrucks all at the very beginning.  We should have left then - just only sorta kidding.

We got together for Parker family dinner at Chad's house in Eagle Mountain (like two days before their induction date), and the boys played ping pong while the girls took the kids to the park.  Unfortunately, we just barely missed our new niece's arrival but I've seen lots of cute pictures and we can FaceTime, so we'll survive.  Originally, she was going to get induced while we were there, but it got rescheduled due to a couple factors (confirmed by Cindy) - one was that Chad didn't want it to interfere with the holiday and number two was that he was due for a phone upgrade on the original induction date, and that just wasn't going to work.  Priorities, people!  So they moved it to July 9th, which worked out wonderfully for everyone - Hailey was 7 lb 14 oz around 10p and she is such a cutie!!  Brandon had to be back for a full day of work that day, so we left on Sunday.  

Other exciting news in the Parker family - Kyle & Katherine Gledhill went ring shopping together and they are making plans to get married next May after she finishes school down in St. George.  Eeek!  And Kyle let me go ring shopping with him before they went, so that we could scope everything out and help him figure out what was within his budget.  He was totally fine on budget - I was pleasantly surprised at the costs.  Ok, but can I just say that it was SO DANG fun to ring shop and try on a bunch of different rings!  Kyle was slightly concerned that someone would think him and I were ring shopping together - and with me being pregnant and all, that could be awkward, but I assured him that I would make it clear that we weren't together.  :)  Funny brother.  The crazy part about ring shopping was that even with all the new "pave" style of rings that are popular right now, it made me fall in love with my ring all over again - I absolutely love the classic style.  Good job with all that, Brandon!  I also got the white gold on my wedding rings re-plated and they look brand new!!  In love - with both my ring and my honey!

Nana & Papa took Rachel and I to see "Brave", and they even bought us our own popcorn and drinks from the movie theater (a real treat!), not snuck in (ziploc-bag style) like I usually do.  The movie theater was pretty empty, but Rachel was talking to Nana too loudly and too often, so we decided it would be best to move to the top of the theater where we wouldn't disrupt anyone!

I pampered myself a little bit this trip (i.e., rings re-plated), and I also got a haircut with my fave hair dresser, Hayley, who is a friend from high school.  She thins out and straightens my hair so well, which means I don't have to touch it for the rest of the week, and she's so fun to talk to.  I also took Rachel with me to get our toes painted one day.  I thought she would love to get some red, white and blue with designs for the 4th.  I was laughing at the conversation between her and the lady doing her toes.  They were having a hard time communicating with one another and Rachel wanted a certain pattern of colors, but the lady didn't quite understand so they kept going back and forth.  They turned out darling with little stars and it was a special treat for Rachel.

We got to catch up with some good friends on this trip too!  We went and visited new baby, Etta - Kyle & Annie's first, and it was fun to hold a brand new baby and get her all swaddled and have her fall asleep in my arms.  I admit it was slightly funner especially since we didn't have to bring our 2 kids on this visit.  It made me think back to when I just had Rachel, and how I was completely overwhelmed with just one.  But then once I had two, I looked back at having only one and wondered what I did with all my time or wondered why I didn't get out more.  Now that we're looming close to three, I'm sure I will look back on two kids and think that I had it so easy with just two.  Isn't it ironic how that works?

I also got to have a visit with Shalauna and Sheena without my kids - I really do like my kids, it's just fun to leave them at home sometimes!  Shalauna and Jason just bought a home at Traverse Mountain, and after lots of hard work, it turned out beautiful.  Sheena has two now - Kate (4 almost 5) and Cannon (under 1).

I took the kids up to Salt Lake one day for a playdate with Natalie and kids at City Creek Mall.  She has an amazing place right in downtown SL - they're hip like that - and it looks like a lot of fun.  She took us to a super fun playground near the food court at City Creek and then we had lunch.  My kids were not at their best...  Andrew is in a running-away-as-fast-as-he-can-and-not-looking-back stage, so I had to be on guard at all times.  Nat kindly made us PB & honey sandwiches to eat there, but once my kids saw Chick-Fil-A on our way to the bathrooms, I knew it was over and they'd never eat a PB&H.  So I gave it a good shot, and then crumbled (cuz I was on vacation mode too) and we got chicken nuggets to share.  They know the only reason we go to the mall is to go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch so I kinda couldn't blame them.  Then I thought a quick walk to Nordstrom's would work out - I wanted to try on some Toms to see how they fit.  After a brief stop at kid's shoes and a bathroom stop, the kids were done, and so was I.  I think I'm a 9.5 but am now rethinking my toms decision since the 2 seconds I saw them on me, I think that they aren't as flattering to a girl with large feet.

Whenever we go home, we always do our best to squeeze a little time with besties, Brock & Nicole and their fun kids Lily, Paisley & Henry.  They had us over to their home in Lehi, and it is just so easy with them - easy to have a great time, our kids get along great, easy to catch up and converse and tease like we always do with them.

Yet another playdate ... this one with Morgan & Leslie, who are expecting a little boy in just a couple weeks, in addition to their sweet, Allie.  Rachel Murray offered to do it at her place, and can I just say that it was the easiest playdate I have EVER been too?!  I have no idea what the children did in the basement while the adults talked and laughed our heads off upstairs.  We didn't hear from them, and it was amazing!  I'm sounding like I don't love my kids, but you know I do.

Lindon Pool is the bomb.  Note to self, we should go there with all the cousins.  Only thing is that we ran into way too many people that we knew (not sure if that's a good or bad thing depending on who they are and what I look like at the time - ha!).  We never get used to that (running into people we know from high school or EFY or college) seeing that we've lived away from our hometown for almost 6 years now.

Brandon went golfing with his dad three times and had a blast.  When I asked if he felt like he got a vacation from work, he wasn't sure.  I know that work was on his mind all week, even if he wasn't working very much, his phone was still buzzing all week at him in his pocket and he had a few phone calls and small projects to do.  I wish he could turn his phone/email off, but I know that's not realistic.  This one Australian client always seem to call at the most inopportune times - like right in the middle of one of the 4th of July BBQ's, which got a little stressful, but Brandon handled it all really well and he did good to enjoy the rest of the day.  We loved getting to spend lots of quality time with daddy while we were in Utah!

Shockingly, Andrew (who is now much too big for a pack n' play) slept wonderfully on a small toddler bed on the floor.  Hmmmm, is it time for a big boy bed?  Not sure I'm ready for that yet, but he really did awesome.  After girl's camp is OVER, I can't wait to make all sorts of new baby plans and move around rooms and get things all set up for little girl.  No name progress yet, people.  What is our problem!?