Fly By July!

 After July 4th...

the month just kept on coming with good times!

When your popsicle is so good...

You can't wait to dream about it!

And speaking of dreams,

I bet Cora is dreaming 

about the ground splitting beneath her feet!

We learned about the vision of the Celestial Kingdom

in the Doctrine and Covenants.

So then we made our own suns 

while we discussed what we think it will be like there.

Genevieve was here to join in the fun!
Then Britta realized they both had the same shirt!

Sterling is into his usual cuteness.

Not grasping the proper scooping technique 

for guacamole.

Then somebody got into someone else's diary!!

That's not all the secrets he is keeping either,

the UV light is revealing some pretty

gnarly germs right where that binky goes!

But when Sterling learned how to spray the hose...

I learned to stay out of his way.

Plus he looks super fly in his bow tie!

  

The youth had their annual boating trip at church,

and Bishop offered to take our whole family 

out on his boat!

Tagg was really patient trying to teach Britta how to surf!

Eleven tries later,

she opted to watch from the boat!

So proud of her for trying!

Colette has several years experience,

so she makes it look super easy!

And Parker makes everything look good!

Being on the boat made some of us anxious,

but don't worry, I didn't throw-up.

He had such a concerned look on his face the entire ride!

Back safely on land, we let loose!

Throwing rocks,

Skipping rocks,

And other non-rock related activities.

Later in July, 

for another church youth trip,

we went to UTAH!

We kind of invited ourselves.

And bathed in the temple fountains...

while we waited for the older kids 

in the Brigham City Temple.

And Richard found a dragon fly!

What a lovely group of young people!

The future looks good!

Next, Richard took a group to tour the Conference Center.

And he found quite the array of artwork 

at the Conference Center,

at the church museum

and other places around temple square.

Les Misérables!

Tree of Life

Prodigal Son in Japanese

If you look closely,

this is actually a painting of the Savior!

And the titles he uses throughout the scriptures

are scribbled around the details of the painting.

Then he drove the kids 

(our 3 oldest included)

to this island in the Great Salt Lake 

to spend the night.

And while they were doing all those things...

we went to...

LAGOON-A-BEACH!

Watch out ahead!!!

SPLASHED!

Cora is always so much happier when she can be soaking wet!

Lots of smiles and slides!

Britta had her turn too!

There's the smiles!

And there's the slides!

Mama and Sterling loved watching

and getting splashed in our turn!

We worked up quite an appetite for fried chicken and fries.

We booked a spot in the RV park next to Lagoon.

So convenient when it's so blasted hot.

We wore ourselves out,

and Daddy met up with us after he dropped

off the kids.

(he prefers glamping with us!)

The next morning it was BACK TO LAGOON

but this time,

we tried to stay dry!

I love all my kids,

but it was really special to have so much fun

with Britta, Cora and Sterling

while the older kids ran around

with their church friends.

The older kids have been to lots of amusements parks

in our travels,

but this was our first time to LAGOON!

And I can tell these girls LOVED IT!

I even drug them on some big rides,

that they were FINALLY big enough to ride!

And although they were scared at first,

they always begged to ride "AGAIN, AGAIN!"

Cora never gets tires of being the Red Baron.

Daddy's favorite is always the ski lifts.

You can see EVERYTHING!

We even found a Mitchell!

(Good thing too, because he dropped one of his crocs,

and we had to rescue it for him.)

Mom and Dad got to snuggle into one together too,

while the girls rode on ahead.

While the girls were very obviously having

the best time of their lives,

Sterling's expressions were a little harder 

to interpret.

No matter what we were doing...

...or what ride he was on...

...or how fast he was going...

...his face just stayed...

Like this.

Completely deadpan.

# of times he wanted to ride this ride: 3

# of times he smiled on this ride: 0

Now it's time to leave,

but this car is harder to drive than the ride!

After we got home from Lagoon,

we made it just in time for my friend's

BOOK SIGNING!

She made an adorable kid's book about Bigfoot

and a lost sheep.

She does all the artwork herself!

At her signing party,

she had cute scenes from the book set up

all over her yard!

She even let us take off our shoes and kick back!

Whether we actually saw Bigfoot or not,

July was absolutely full of adventure!