Christmas in July

July is always a much anticipated month for me. It is the Christmas of summer. After July, like after Christmas, I am tired broke and want a change in weather. Who doesn't love 4th of July, with sports barbecue and sunshine? It has been a tradition of our married years (the whole three-haha) to do the Provo parade and freedom festival. This year we even watched the hot air balloons take off and enjoyed a charity breakfast. After a day of volleyball at the park and grilled foods for dinner we enjoyed our "front row" free seats to stadium of fire. Sadly, Elena absolutely hates fireworks. But while fireworks bring Elena to tears, they are a much anticipated moment for myself. I love the feeling of really big fireworks- when they explode the wave seems to hit you in the chest. This year we enjoyed them closer than ever, and we enjoyed it while eating rootbeer floats- how American can you get? For many, after the 4th they could just fastforward to fall- but wait just a few more weeks for the best day ever. No, not pioneer day, back up a couple days- July 22- my birthday! My birthday is what really makes pioneer day. I have enjoyed the last 4 birthdays with an extra perk of a holiday (no school/work) only two days after, it will be a real tragedy when I loose this benefit. So for all those who are wishing this warm weath July away, just wait one more week and then by all means bring on fall!

For those who don't care what I have to say and just want to see picture of Elena- here you go! She is as fun as ever. She is walking well with one hand being held and she is beginning to take a step here and there by her self. Besides walking everywhere she also love to turn pages in books. She is a wiggly as ever, but as sweet as ever too!

San Diego

We just got back from Sea World last week, and it was an awesome vacation. We only encountered two problems. First, it was too short. We loved San Diego, and had a ton of fun. They have a great transit system, which made getting around a whole lot cheaper. Second, we couldn't overcome our own stupidity. On Saturday we went to the beach, which would sound like a great idea. Anyways, we get there and we are have a "gay old time" (Flintstones). This lasted for about twenty minutes when dad thought it would be a good idea to accidentally throw sand in Elena's eyes. Brilliant right? She cried for an hour non-stop, so we decided we had better go back to our hotel. As mentioned before, we used the public transit system and felt pretty good about it by our last day. So in order to save money, we decided to take the bus to the airport. We plan perfectly exactly when we have to be at each bus stop, how long our wait will be, and everything else you can think of. We get to our first two stops without and problems. This is when our stupidity creeps in. We see our bus coming, so we flag it down. It was a little early, but hey, that's good. After sitting in the bus for about ten minutes, we realize that we got on the right bus route, but we were headed in the wrong direction. It took us back past our hotel, and we ended up paying for a taxi to take us to the airport. Can you believe it? Ten dollars for the bus passes and then thirty dollars for the taxi. We probably would have spent about twenty dollars from our hotel to the airport and saved an hour of precious San Diego time. Anyways, we really did enjoy our trip; Natalie and Elena did great in the plane. However, Elena probably was a little less fussy than Natalie. Enjoy the pictures!

Weekend Fun

Mike has totally rubbed off on me. Before, I could work and work and never stop- because there is always more that needs to be done. Now I cannot go a week without doing something really fun or I feel drained. Last weekend we went to an aquarium and visited Grandma's house. We got to feel starfish and manta-rays, and see shark, jellyfish and an octopus. It was fun! Elena loved watching all the bright fish swim too, she is really good at following them. This week, it was too beautiful to pass up a day in the park. We played latter-golf, Frisbee and a card game called "the name of the game is mal" with some friends, and we got to celebrate Pi (3/14) day with some delicious pie. The more I live, the more I realize you gotta enjoy the journey!

A quick update on Elena- she is sitting very well, but still has yet to really roll over without a little help. She hates solids...but like to play with the spoon! She is just wonderful!