Celebrating July

Our fourth of July consisted of an early morning trek to the hot air balloon launch in Provo, sprinklers, BBQ, and homemade ice cream at Grandma's, and fireworks with the neighbors in our cul-de-sac.

 

I've lived in Utah County for the majority of my life and have never been to see the hot air balloons in the wee hours of the morning on the 4th. My sister Lyndsey and I thought the kids would love it, and so we decided to do it this year. We woke them up at like 6 in the morning and headed to Provo. By the time we got there they were already all in the sky, but they were still fun to watch. Grant couldn't get over the PIG! A HUGE PIG balloon...it was basically the coolest thing he'd ever seen. We brought breakfast and parked on the grass. After the balloons we walked a couple blocks to University where we watched the parade, well about a half hour of the parade before the kids were too hot and bored and wanted to go home.

I need to upload the video we have of this, Grant and Olive dancing. At the balloon fest there was quite the dance off with these two. Here is Grant showing Olive his new move...the toe tap. 

Below, after running through the sprinklers at Grandma's, Grant and Olive found a nice little mud hole to play in. Seriously, those two are always finding trouble. 

 Lyndsey, Joey, and new baby Pierce enjoying some time on the porch swing. 

 

Here is our attempt at a 4th of July family photo. 

 

 

 Grant was so funny about the "fire" a.k.a. sparklers and wouldn't hold one by himself. When we finally did get him to hold one he just stood there real still, with this weird look on his face and didn't move. I think he was a little confused since his parents were going against everything they had taught him about fire!

And the 4th of July wouldn't be complete without cherry juice stains.

Summertime with the Hepworths

Ever since Adam and I have been married we've gone to Lake Tahoe with his family in the summer. It's one of the prettiest places on earth, and would be perfect if the water temp was like 10 degrees warmer. Despite the cold water we always seem to get in it and have a great time.

No one can make Grant laugh like Aunt Vanessa. She is definitely his favorite, and since she's been in Georgia for the summer he was so happy to get a full week of Vanessa time. 

Lake Tahoe scenery

Grant could dig in the sand ALL day so we played at the beach a couple of mornings.

Adam's little brother David got home from his mission this past December and has missed out on Tahoe for the past couple of years so it was fun to have him there. I think he's in second place as Grant's favorite.

Reading books with Grandma before church.

Adam's grandma, who started the Lake Tahoe tradition, had a little "Tahoe Hunt" one afternoon for some of the younger cousins. Grant quickly remembered how Easter worked and just wanted to open the eggs to get the candy.

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Driving the boat with Grandpa. We spent most of our time on the water. 

It was nice to spend some concentrated time with family, especially since it might be the last family vacation we have Paul, Natalynn and baby Kate for a long time. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for such a fabulous trip. Grant is still talking about it:)

My Garden

This is the first time I've ever planted a garden and my plants are growing! I'm so excited! Today I cut a bunch of my basil below and made pesto for pesto BBQ chicken pizza, yum. 

I did three little garden boxes this year and I'm seriously obsessed with it. I have to check my garden everyday. Below I planted 3 different kinds of tomato, a beefsteak, a roma, and a cherry. I didn't realize how big they were going to get and they're kind of taking over the entire box.

I planted two different kinds of peppers, jalapenos for salsa and then just a sweet pepper. I also did cilantro, which you can see went to seed while we were out of town last week, sad.

I did a couple of things from seed, like parsley, lettuce, and bush beans. When my little parsley starting coming up it seemed like it would never get big, but now it's totally bushy. It's getting overtaken by the tomato plant next to it, but I'm so happy it has survived.  

Yesterday I cut and washed a bunch of this lettuce. It's kind of a pain but it's so good on sandwiches and when it's all washed it makes making a salad a cinch.

Do you see those little zucchinnis growing? They are still small, but they're there. I can't wait for them to get big, and I can't wait for my tomatos to turn red. And I can't wait to have this dang baby. Hopefully this baby comes before my tomatoes turn red.