Wicked

Jim and I celebrated our anniversary a little late (July 29th) and went downtown.   It was a fabulous evening.  First we went to City Creek and ate at The Blue Lemon.  It was delicious and made me even more excited that they are building one here in Draper to open in August. We ate our dinner out on the patio by some City Creek fountains.  It was a perfect setting.

 

My handsome dinner date

At our table by the fountains

After dinner we headed over to the Capitol Theater to see Wicked.  I thought it was amazing and REALLY liked the story.  It definitely makes you look at The Wizard of Oz in a different way. 

 

 

Right before we went into the gorgeous theater.

At intermission I took a picture of our playbill. 

 It was a great evening out. 
 Anniversary celebrations are now done.
 

 

Twin Lakes

This weeks family hike took us to Twin Lakes.   The kids did awesome on this hike.  I personally could tell I haven't exercised since Ragnar :)  It was beautiful though.  We hiked up, had dinner on a rock by the lake, fished a little and managed to get back to our car  right before it got really dark.

Beginning of the Twin Lakes trailhead



Always important to hydrate :)

Proof why it has the name Twin Lakes

Me with my Lilly Bill

The girls and I took a lot of selfies while Jim fished with Ethan and Lizzie

Food tastes really good after a hike.



Jim and Lish

Perhaps the best "silly face" picture yet from our summer hikes.

I had a few special treats at the end of the hike. 
Here is Afton eating her FIRST Sugar Daddy.
What?  How has she never had one?
What kind of parent am I? :)

Liz being pensive


Until our next hike........

 

Shaving Cream Party

 

For the past 3 summers we have done a shaving cream party with our friends the Spillet's.  

 The kids love it. 

  Afton and Lilly have already asked when the next one is. :)

 

  We had a little BBQ first of hot dogs, chips and lemonade. 

 Then we gave each of the kids a can of shaving cream and let them go at it. 

When all of the cans were empty we rinse them off with a hose and pass out popsicles.

  Easy and fun.

 

 

 

Obviously at the start.
  She is not too messy yet. :)

 

Most of the kids (including Lilly) found it incredibly fun to turn themselves
 all white and smother it around like a moisturizer.

Ethan stopping for a picture.

 

So this girl for some reason totally gets into the shaving cream party. 
What a surprise! (said with sarcasm)

Cute little 6 year olds.

 

 

 

 

Yep, this is the best picture of a group shot. 
When you mix in 8 kids (ages 12 to 2), add shaving cream
then tell them to stop spraying each other  to hold still for a picture......
you get this and just have to know you tried your best :).

12 year old Scout Camp

This was the summer that Ethan left for his first week long Scout Camp.  I tried to be a relaxed mom sending my 12 year old off for a week.  I missed him.  I think it is much harder on the mom.

  Anyways, he left Monday July 14th at 7:00 AM and came back Saturday July 19th at 1:00 P.M.  The dynamics of the house is definitely different with one person gone.   Jim went up Thursday night until Saturday afternoon.  Then the dynamics were really different with a house of girls :)

 

  Here are a few pictures Jim took.

 

 

A little hatchet throwing



Ethan was nominated by his troop to participate in the pancake eating contest. 
 Holy pancake Batman!!!
Here he is right before the start.



Keep eating.......



A little archery

 

He came back dirty, smelly, with tons of mosquito bites and full of camp experiences. 

I gave that dirty, smelly kid a nice big hug and welcomed him home.

Then promptly sent him to take a shower :)

16

16 years ago this morning, these two people got sealed for

time and all eternity.

 

 

 

 We celebrated our 16th Anniversary by being apart :)

  But don't worry we will still celebrate. Just a little later. 

 

 Once Jim gets home from Scout Camp on July 19th

we are going to go out to dinner at Silver Fork Lodge and sit out on the patio. 

 

 Then we are going to celebrate again a little later

on July 29th by going out to dinner

 AND to go see WICKED!!!!

  I am super stoked.



Also because somehow I married a super amazing husband,
 he had these beautiful flowers delivered to our house Friday morning.

Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
When our time has come
We will be as one
God bless our love
God bless our love

 

Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love

 

Spending our lives together
Man and wife together
World without end
World without end

 

Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true

 God bless our love
God bless our love

God bless our love
God bless our love

 

Happy 16th Anniversary Jim. 

As always, thank you for asking me to marry you. 

 I am one lucky girl.

 



Youth Conference

With Jim in the Bishopric he has had a lot of opportunities to go on various camps with the youth of the ward.  This summer he has been gone for Young Women's camp, Youth Conference,  11 year old dinner up in canyon, and Scout Camp. Not to mention all the regular meetings and such.   Plus all of these camps happened in like a 4 week time period so he was a busy guy. Here are some pictures from Youth Conference- July 10th thru 12th.  They all went down to Moab for a few days.   While down there they were able to go river rafting too.   One night they all wore their B.O.O.T. Camp shirts and hiked up to one of the arches and then had a devotional.  Then they hiked down in the dark.  Jim said it was amazing.  The youth of our ward are also pretty darn amazing.

View of Moab

Bishopric of the Crescent Park 6th Ward.
Cameron Duncan, Mike Peterson, Jim Harrison
Jim spends A LOT  of time with these 2 other men.

Beautiful!

Jim with a great view behind him.

 

July 4th Festivities

The 4th of July Holiday always makes for busy fun filled days.

  Here is a little bit of our what we did. 

WARNING:  Long post AND picture overload.

 July 1st
The girls are attending a summer fun school with their old pre-school teacher.  I am so glad they get to hang out with her a little bit more.  She is an amazing teacher.  Anyways, each year she does a 4th of July Parade where the kids get to decorate their own scooter and be in the parade.

The girls were so excited with their decorated scooters that they took them for a test drive the night before in their pajamas.

 

July 2nd

 Summer Fun School 4th of July Parade

 

All decked out in their 4th of July stuff

Such a beauty!!

 

Evening Activities 

 That night we all hung out in the front yard.  The kids did a little patriotic chalk art

 

See, even Lucky got in on the festivities.

In case you were wondering what Ethan was doing during chalk art time...... HE READS. 
 That boy hardly ever DOES NOT have a book in his hand.

 

July 3rd

Jim, Ethan and Lizzie went camping with our friend Cameron Duncan and two of his kids.  They hiked up to Willow Lake (where we went on a family hike a couple weeks ago) and set up tents and camp.  They said they saw lots of moose and were surrounded by the sound of coyotes at night.

 

 

July 4th-

So I decided to splurge some of my very first paycheck and surprised the kids with this....

They have been wanting one for awhile.  Lizzie especially has been wanting one.  Jim and I told them we had to go to the store for about 15 minutes.  After we got back from buying it we told them we needed help unloading the groceries from the back of the car.  When they came to the back of the car they saw this box instead of groceries  :)  Definitely one of those fun parenting moments.

Some assembly required

Lizzie super happy at the progress

This is also what Lizzie did while the boys set up the trampoline :)

Once it was all set up Jim got to be the very first person to go on since he set most of it up.

And now we have lots of pictures like this.....



And this.....

Still more......

Lilly likes to kick balls around on it.
  The kids have invented some game where if one of the random
 5 or 6 balls on the tramp touch you it is like freeze tag or something.

And look.... even pictures with friends.

 

For the actual evening of the 4th we went out to a BBQ at Matt and Ruth's.  It was nice to all be together.  Our family left around 9:30 to head to Sandy fireworks.

 

 July 5th- 
Since Liz was in town all of us girls met for breakfast. 
 It was nice to get together and hang out and chat.
 

 

 July 7th- We went up to our property to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of putting the offer in on our property (actually July 5th).  No cabin yet (still far in the future- sigh) but still nice to go up and dream.

 

And those end our 4th of July festivities.

Those days were very nice but busy. 

 

 I am now ready to get back to our normal summer days of

swimming, swimming and more swimming :)