Friends for Life

So last night we got together for a girls night out. This isn't completely out of the ordinary-- we do that fairly regularly but last night was special-- Kira got to join us! She recently moved back to the states from England and is in Utah for a little while! It was fun to see her and catch up with her in person! This group of girls are very special to me! We have been friends along time and they helped me out in my younger days when I went through some tough times. They will forever have an important place in my heart and I love them dearly! In my life friends have been such rocks for me-- and I am blessed to count these girls among them!

Farewell for Now Tyler...

Our two Mexico bound boys!

One of Tylers last meals as a family-- we went to the Outback! (nice choice Tyler)

Well, Tyler is officially in the MTC. He is headed to Tampico, Mexico! We will miss him so much but he will make a great missionary. Also headed to Mexico is our close family friend Dave Heck who is like a brother to us! He signed a basketball contract with a team in Mexico and will be there for 7 months. We are excited for them both!

Fish Tales

Griffin's side jump

Two thumbs up!

The popular run and jump

Caleb also giving the thumbs up!

Love this photo-- Chase about to belly flop in the background! No fear!

So the past few weeks have been swim lessons! They have been having a blast and becoming better and better swimmers by the minute! Chase has graduated to level three and his teachers comment to me was that Chase loves the water and especially loves being underwater! He loves to dive for dive toys and now after discovering the diving board (thanks to cousins Grif and Caleb) he loves to jump off the diving board! This kid has NO FEAR! He is even doing flips off the diving board now! I definitely have mixed feelings about this new obsession because I am so happy to see that he loves it and is not scared, but I am scared for him. But he is becoming quite swimmer. We still have some work ahead but at this rate we may be looking toward the 2020 Summer Olympics!

The Purple Tigers

The Purple Tigers

So proud of his new medal and really wanted to come home and shine it! Then he asked what he should do with it after I said hang it in his room he said-- or I can wear it!

Chase with Cousin Cooper enjoying their last game of the season with one of their favorite parts of the game-- snacks!

Chase played tball this summer and had a blast. He had fun with Cooper and loved hitting his "homeruns". Some of his favorite things about tball was running around the bases, hitting (he is a lefty and all season long we had to remind the coach he was a left handed), and, of course, looking for bugs in the grass when the action had died down-- which was pretty much any time they were in the field! Needless to say it was a fun season and when I told him it was his last game today he asked-- what's next? Good question.

Our Fabulous 4th

This is one of my favorite photos! It is very typical of him to dry off in the sun on the ground because that is the warmest places he can find.

The gang in the pool!

Very blurry photo of Bob Redford entering the Symphony fashionably late.

Some of our great friends-- The Bott's and The Harrison's.

Loving the lake and especially the tube!

Randy and Dave experimenting a new style of surf!

So we had a fabulous Fourth of July! Randy had the 3rd off so it was a long weekend. We started with a game night Thursday where Randy continued his Ticket to Ride dominance. Thanks Chelsey, Heather, Justin, and Brandon for the fun night!

Friday we were invited to go boating with our friends and had a nice, relaxing day on the lake. This time Chase decided he would swim in the cold lake water. Last time he refused saying it was too cold and that it was too deep. (Little does he know that Utah Lake is not that deep!) HE also went tubing which he LOVED! It was a beautiful day and we really enjoy our trips to the lake. Thank you Harrisons for the invite!

Friday night we had plans with the Harrisons and the Bott's to go up to Sundance and watch the Utah Symphony. They were doing a patriotic theme night and it was so fun! We had a great time with our friends listening to the music and sitting outside in the outdoor amphitheater under the stars! It really made us wan to go to the Sundance summer play in the next month or so! I do have to admit though that I found myself doing a lot of star gawking when Robert Redford made his entrance with his posse. He was sitting pretty close to us so I kept looking over at him to see if he was enjoying himself or not-- he was. How could you not? It was a great date night!

The next day was the 4th and Randy and I woke up early to run the Freedom Run 10k. It was the perfect morning for the 10k. Not too hot and not too cold. I love the Freedom Run. It is mostly on the parade route and there are so many people that it makes for a really fun run. I did, however, witness a dog escape his owners grasp from the leash and tear after a baby deer. He was successful in pouncing on the baby deer but once people got ahold of the dog-- the deer took off. It was so sad/ scary to watch but I must admit it took my mind of the run during that leg.

That afternoon we met at the Randy's family to celebrate the America's. Quincy's, and Chelsey's birthdays! It is a fun tradition to meet and bbq. Have red velvet cake ad raspberry ice cream-- and this year Shell brought Chelsey a "Better Then Almost Anything" cake which was a lovely addition to this tradition we have going on!

Later we had plans to light fireworks and go watch the big Stadium of Fire ones but Chase was exhausted and actually begging to go to bed-- despite our pleas to wake him up-- he was done. So I guess we will save the fireworks we purchased for the 24th of July!

We had a crazy fun weekend that went by in a blink! Time just always seem to go so fast! I hate it! But it was fun regardless and it is always fun to take a day out of year to remember, and honor this great country of ours and all those people who have in the past and currently serve our country. What special people it takes to dedicate their lives for us and I am forever grateful. I love this country and am so blessed to live here.

On a side note completely off the subject-- Chase said the darnedest thing yesterday that I wanted to document. I guess in primary yesterday he was asked to watch everyone to see if they were singing or not and if they sung he was supposed to say yes and if they didn't he was supposed to say no they weren't. So when they were done they asked him if everyone was singing and he said-- "my girlfriend wasn't singing." (He has a friend named Gracie that they say they are each others boyfriend/ girlfriend.) Well this upset Gracie because she insists that she was singing and so she was mad at Chase. She wasn't mad he called her his girlfriend just mad that he told on her because she WAS singing! Too funny!