The Summer Keeps Getting Better!

My parents made another visit out here to get a Kaylen fix before we take off for Australia. I still feel like we're in the middle of summer, but shortly after we get back from Australia, Leslie and my Mom will start back up with school and shortly thereafter, Gregg and the younger kiddos will start! So, we're really glad they were able to make it, it's always great to see them! Here they're taking a little stroll around the court outside our apartment.

My Mom has been asking since we moved out here to see the Great Salt Lake. So, we decided to take her to Antelope Island. It's about a 30+ minute drive and you jet out into the lake on this island. There are a few things to see and great views of the lake. Unfortunately, the last time Gregg and I went, years back, it must have been around May (not the dead of summer!) so it was MUCH more pleasant the first time around! Apparently, mid summer brings out all the biting deer flies, brine flies and lots of spiders! Ugh... bring out enough biting bugs and I start to lose ALL interest. But we made the most of our time on the island. We saw a ton of buffalo compared to the last time Gregg and I went. And this was Kaylen's first time seeing the lake... I'm sure she'll remember every minute of it, ha ha.

This was at the old ranch that has been on the island since the Mormon pioneers came to Utah. They have the old ranch house, etc all set up as it was in the beginning. In the pic, Gregg's roping himself quite a catch! :-)

Kaylen was actually in the salt lake with her Daddy, but this was a better picture of the both of them. The brine flies got a lot better the further you went out into the lake. It was quite the walk to get out there though due to the drop in the water level! But my parents were total troopers. I was the one with the bad attitude thanks to all the deer flies! Long story short, I don't plan on going back! So, I'm glad we took my parents out there!

There is a GREAT restaurant up the canyon from our apartment. We don't take the chance to go as often as we should. My Dad hadn't been yet and they have incredible outdoor seating, so we went up there for breakfast. Kaylen had her very own teddy bear pancake.

The next weekend, Gregg went camping/ backpacking with his Dad and brother, Ian. They had such a great time! It was so fun to go through all their pictures, but I picked just a few for the blog. They camped right on the edge of a beautiful lake up in the mountains and hiked to another one even further up one day. The campsite was at 10,000 ft!! They were prepared with all the necessary luxuries, tent, two different grills, steak for dinner, their air mattresses... the only thing they weren't as prepared for was the cold! It's a lot colder that high, so the 35 degree nights were a little shocking, but they made it through and made some great memories on top of it!

They did as much fishing as they could get in and went on some good hikes. Ian caught the biggest fish and if I remember correctly, they were able to eat about 10 of the caught fish while they were up there. They spotted quite a few bear tracks and tried to keep their eyes out for the mommy and baby bear that were across the lake from where they were camping, but no luck on getting a glimpse.

They got some really great quality time together. Even though Kaylen and I missed Gregg tremendously, we were very glad he had such a good time!

I had a feeling I was going to get a little lonely with Gregg gone, so my wonderful sis-in-law, Jay (Leslie) came down from Logan for a visit! We actually had a day off at work that Friday thanks to a Mormon state holiday, so we had a long weekend together. Minus Kaylen getting an ear infection that Friday, we had a great time hanging out!!

(Oops, wrong place in the blog... this was a pic from when my parents were in town. It goes with an Adorable video of her laughing hysterically that I can never manage to figure out how to get posted!)

(Oops! Ha ha... also random picture of my two cuddle bugs that probably should have gone somewhere else in the blog, but I can never figure out how to move pictures once they're in here!)

Okay! Here we are back to my two pretty girls! We had a little Subway lunch in the park near our apt. It was a great night and we got to take Goliath (Jay's Yorkie she brought down from Logan with her), too. We had a good time chancing Kaylen around the playground when she refused to sit down and just eat something... but as is life with a 1 yr old!

Jay was in town while our friend, Dane, celebrating his 1st birthday, which actually fell on 7/27, but it was great getting to celebrate with him! He is so good with the camera! Kaylen's new trick is to try her best to not look at the camera or you when you're putting on the whole show just to get a tiny bit of eye contact! Meanwhile, Dane shoots you the best smile ever when he sees the cameras come out! We'll have to get him to teach Kaylen how to do that.

The last day Jay was in town, we all went to the Bees game after Gregg got back from Wyoming from camping. It was Kaylen's first Bees game! We bought her a Kaylen size baseball, which she had fun throwing down the stairs any chance she got. There wasn't a crowd as it was a Sunday game after the big Utah state holiday and it was in the high 90's. So, we got a good deal on grass tickets, but sat in the shade in the stands and never got kicked out of our seats! So, it was a lot of fun!

We have had a lot of fun this summer and are preparing to head to Australia this week. Life has been crazy busy lately with everything fun, prep and work related. I just got a completely new job at work, so there will be a lot of training going on for me, not only getting trained on the new job, but training 3 people on all the things I was doing. So, it's been a very stressful week at work, but most things I won't be able to deal with until I get back. I will be one happy girl when we get on the plane and everything that's done, is done... with work, with travel prep and all we can do is live it all moment to moment! We are very excited! We have a lot of great things planned while we're there! We're just crossing all fingers and toes, sending up our prayers, and might even have to attempt spitting in one hand, wishing in the other that Kaylen will do as well as can be expected on this trip!

The next blog will be everything AUSTRALIA!

Making Memories!

I'm sure our trips to the Zoo are nothing new, but the Zoo was having military appreciation days over the 4th of July, so we went with some friends and got in for free! It was a great day to be there and our friends, Kat, Adam and his kids were a lot of fun to go with!

Being that our day at the Zoo was so gorgeous, we thought it would be a great time to head up to Jordanelle on the 4th, outside of Park City, with our friends, Ali, Jason and Dane. Well, the weather did not stay gorgeous. We paid the $10 (each car) to get into the park, then froze our butts off for two hours, let the kids run around in the sand, called it a day, and stopped for Mexican food on the way home! It wasn't quite the day we hoped it would be, but it was a nice chance to just hang out with the Harts.

Here is our girl in her 4th of July gear! Unfortunately, she didn't get to do anything very 4th of July-ish (too young to stay up for the fireworks!), but she did get to wear her very cool outfit the next day when we went up to Logan! She looked adorable as can be (thanks Grandma Ruby for the super cute clothes!)

We went up to Logan on the 5th to pick up Katie who we were lucky enough to have stay with us for the week! We got to celebrate Cherie's birthday (a little early as her birthday wasn't until the 9th) and got a chance to see Jay and the rest of the fam. The whole family came to Logan, so we had lunch, celebrated, and headed back so Gregg could get to work.

Jay bought Chez cheesecake (yum!) for the birthday celebration! Kaylen helped her blow out the candles!

Kaylen also thoroughly enjoyed the cheesecake! It was a lot of fun to see her eat it! She just dug right in and she wasn't even picky about the kind, she went for all of them, but she seemed to really love the one with raspberry swirls. Unfortunately, this picture was taken when the yummy cheese cake went in. Just outside of Logan was when she managed to purge it out all over herself and her car seat. I think we'll be going a little easier on the cheesecake in the future!

Kaylen ended up getting pneumonia, so we were very lucky to have Cherie come back through Salt Lake with Ian on her way back to Wyoming a couple days later. She took care of Kaylen for the day so we could take Katie and Ian to Raging Waters, the local water park! It was a gorgeous day to go and we had a lot of fun. Grandma Cherie got lots of good time with Kaylen, too. (The antibiotics kicked in right away and she got much better, very quickly.) Katie and I did some major shopping the first night, Gregg took her up to Park City to do the super awesome coaster at the resort, Katie and I went to a movie, we did Raging Waters and the two of them went to the Museum of Natural History as well. We had a GREAT time! It was a super special treat to get to spend some quality time with our Katie.

We had been planning a white water rafting trip along the Snake River just outside Star Valley for a while, which is why it was great timing to get Kates for the week. So, we all headed to Star Valley to deliver Katie home as well as make our trip down the rapids. Kaylen made good use of her car ride by sucking her toes (Sorry, it was too cute a picture to not include it!)

It was so much fun to have Warren and Ian come on the trip with us! It was our friend Mato that had all the equipment and the knowledge! Back in the day, he was a guide in Alaska. I had never been white water rafting, but being that he was bringing his 9 year old son, he made things very safe and continued to educate us on the way down. Some friends of his were visiting from Washington, so we had just enough people in the raft. It was a beautiful day and such a blast!! We were very grateful to Mato for the experience!

We seriously had a great couple weeks! And we still have so much left to look forward to!! My parents are actually coming for the weekend tomorrow. They need a Kaylen fix before we head off to Australia in a couple weeks! Sure... seeing us is probably okay, but we're glad Kaylen gets them to make the trip from Minnesota more often! Next week, Gregg is going to go backpacking with his Dad in Wyoming. So, he'll be gone for 5 days or so and is super looking forward to the time with Warren. Next up... Australia! Still feel like we have lots of things to do to prep for it, but most importantly pray that all goes well with Kaylen for the flights, routines, etc.!! But we are VERY excited! Gregg has found some super exciting things to do while we're there and we'll get to see a lot of family! We can't wait!

Bring on the sunshine!

We have already made some wonderful memories this summer and the great weather has helped! Gregg and I were able to have a super fun bocce ball date in the middle of the court one afternoon while Kaylen took a marathon nap (monitor close by!)! Also, the student apartment bought these little houses above for the kids. We went out to BBQ one evening and there weren't any other kids in it, so Kaylen had a ball her first time inside! The little doorbell actually dings! She loved it!

The downtown farmer's market is awesome! We've always thought so, but this year, it got even better! They have spread out a bit and now there is music!! We sat down and had a little lunch listening to a little blues band. Again, it was a gorgeous day to enjoy the weather and the farmer's market!

Gregg picked out some Chinese food for us to share for lunch. It appears as though Kaylen might be taking after her drummer Daddy with the chopsticks! If she's anything like her Daddy, she's going to be great!

As mentioned before, June is a huge birthday month! Our friends Jason and Ali celebrated both their birthdays in June and had a combined get together. It's always fun to get Kaylen together with her pal Dane. Although, they always seem to manage to find the ice!

Last Friday night, Gregg had to work a graveyard, so Kaylen and I got out of the apartment on Saturday so Daddy could nap. The court/ local ward was headed up to Pineview Reservoir for a camp out the night before and invited us up for the day. We got to go for a really nice boat ride and I even went tubing with my friend, Cheryl! It was a lot of fun and Kaylen enjoyed the water!

Here is our little peanut enjoying the beach and the water. I'm hoping to get her to more water as the summer goes on! Any chance to get that cute bod in a bathing suit!

Our friends, Carissa and Casey, are getting married on July 31st!! Unfortunately, we're going to miss the weekend because it's one day after we leave for Australia :-( We are super bummed, it's going to be an amazing wedding. This last Saturday, I got to go to Carissa's bridal shower and it was so so so much fun. Her friend put on such a great shower and we had a little gals night out at a bar close by after! I guess I had my dancing shoes on! Kaylen and Daddy got to have a little time together, which was also nice.

Downtown, there is a gorgeous building called the City and County Building. It is right next to the downtown library. There are quite a few festivals there in the summer and this summer, we finally went to our first one! We went to the Utah Arts Festival! It's a great place for people who have money to spend. Unfortunately, we don't, but they had some amazing art and some really good music! They had a little toddler play area where Kaylen got to run around! She had this alligator all figured out!

Gregg usually has to work Monday nights, but this last Monday, he didn't have to, so he was able to play his first softball game of the summer! It was about 97 degrees, but Kaylen and I sat in the shade and watched Daddy play!! He did GREAT! He had some great hits and some great catches! They won 10-5! It was a lot of fun for him to get out there and for us to watch!

Here's a picture of Daddy and his little girl after the big win!! We are both always so proud of him. While we're talking of pride, I will provide a little update as to the MCAT as most of you know he took it in May. He ended up not doing as well as he would've liked. It's so hard to believe because he did so incredibly well in all his classes and all the practice tests, it just didn't make sense that the score wasn't what we were hoping for. We know how hard he worked and how much he knows. We are so very proud of him. He will be taking it again in September after we get back from Australia to improve his score. Thanks for all your ongoing thoughts and prayers as he took it this last time! Please keep them coming as he's back to the studying grind hoping to improve his score by a bit! We are super grateful for our family and friends and all of your support.