Brandon and Whitney

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Things we did - Utah, Part 6

- Took Zoe on walks and chased her around Nana's house
- Played in Nana's fairy garden in one of her backyard flower beds
- 7 Peaks with Andrew & Rachel (Rachel is so brave and will go on anything & Andrew is a big wimp, but he's a cute wimp!)
- Visited some new kitties
- Played with the Worthen's at their house
- Bean museum
- BYU bookstore (brainwash them young!)
- Playdate with some AZ friends who were in town
- Aquarium in Draper
- Museum of Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point (impressive!)
- Discovery Children's Museum in SLC (impressive!) with the Dobson clan
- Visited Temple Square
- Zipline in Nana's backyard
- "Helped" build Papa & Nana's treehouse
- Nana babysat 5 of the grandkids and took them to the movie theater
- We celebrated anniversary #9 with dinner at "Les Miserables" at the Scera Shell outdoor theater (we tracked down Juliette who was working there too!)
- Bridal Veil Falls with Gma & Gpy
- Held baby Luke as much as possible
- Swimming at Riverside & at Aunt Marilyn's
- Firework Show with the Parker clan
- Brandon hiked the Y with Andrew & Rachel
- Enjoyed the weather!!!

Boom. We played hard, and had a great trip!

Zoe, my parent's dog

Nana's teeny fairy garden

Bean Museum

BYU bookstore

Rachel & Fisher (friends from AZ) - they were the only two interested in taking a pic

Aquarium

Zipline

Discovery Museum at Gateway with the Dobson's

Temple Square

Andrew, Conor, Emmi & Rachel

Nana with the grandkids - they were practically the only ones in the theater!

Happy 9th Anniversary!

Bridal Veil

Ready for some fireworks!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

4th of July Festivities - Utah, Part 5

We absolutely love the 4th of July in Utah! Our festivities get spread over two days!!

July 3

- wake up the kids early to go see the balloons

- Kneaders for breakfast

- save parade spot - a SERIOUS task - thanks to Chad for spearheading this and for "sleeping" over

- people took turns camping out at the parade spot starting at noon the day before (although we couldn't technically put stuff down until 3p, you have to be standing there much earlier)

- cul-de-sac of fire party at Grandma's house

July 4

- wake up the kids early again for the 1 mile kids race that starts at 7am

- parade (not worth all the hassle of saving a spot, but it is tradition!)

- bbq #1 - annual Hale candy drop with "celebrity" appearances and waterfight

- attempt to take a nap

- bbq #2 - Parker family

- watch Stadium of Fire fireworks from outside the stadium

Highlights:

- Andrew's first 1 mile race and he did way better than I thought he would - I love this tradition we have started

- Brandon's celebrity impersonations of Donald Sterling and Kate Kelly (wore a crazy wig) at the candy drop

- Kendall was a good sport for the waterfight, but they were relentless to even her, and it was hard for her to understand what was going on (she wasn't the only one that got creamed - when Jade showed up in his wheelchair, he got soaked too, and he can't even fight back, but has a great time with it)

- After Brandon and I saved the parade spot for a few hours, the next shift was Grandpa Thompson and Shalauna & Zac :) - see everyone really does have to pitch in

- Brandon making small bombs out of fireworks and he blew up a tomato and cantaloupe for the Parker families (plus his patriotic sailor outfit was pretty awesome too)

- Mom wanting a picture with Tyson (Chad & Cindy's nephew on her side) and Andrew because Tyson reminds her of Andrew

- Brandon trying to get the kids to not be so silly in the car at 11pm on the way home from fireworks - they had a serious case of the giggles and Brandon wasn't having it :)