4th of July,Salt Lake Temple and Conference Center, Treehouse Museum ~ July 2014

Aaron and Audrey love going to the airport lookout.

I had fun making a star out of Audrey's hair. The kids decorated their bikes and its hard to believe that we have been in this house a full year. This 4th of July party was the first neighborhood event we went to after we moved here. This year was extra exciting because there was a firetruck involved. The kids go to follow the firetruck through the neighborhood to the pool where the party was being held. Aaron was in heaven!

At the pool there was food, games and competitions for the kids. Its really easy to have a good time at the pool.

Later we joined other friends from church at the Stake 4th of July party. Audrey ran around with the Blauer girls and got her face painted while eating cookies that obviously turned her tongue blue. Aaron played football and other sports with some older kids and had a blast. After that we had a blast joining our neighbors in our own firework show. It was awesome and exceeded my expectations!

This little cutie below made a super cool runway out of play-doe.

We love customer appreciation day at Chic -Fil-A! Dressing up and getting free meals makes us very happy, especially when we are joined by our Cloward cousins!

Aaron begged me to take a picture of this downpour. He loves every kind of weather that isn't hot. Audrey and I went to our friend Kadee's house and she let Audrey help her and Haley pick peppers and tomatoes from her garden. Audrey thought it was soo neat that she wants to grown a garden of her own.

Off to Wyoming for our yearly summer trip. Daddy was super busy working on his first big deal that he was in charge of so we really missed him. The kids loved the train at Denver airport as usual. We also really enjoyed having Aunt Dyan pick us up and drive us to Cheyenne where we met Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen. We loved visiting with Dyan but soon left with Grandma and Grandpa to head on to Casper.

Aaron got really excited to see a real lantern at Grandma's house. He has a fascination with "old" things. We also always love it when the cousins come to Grandma's house. There is nothing better than cousins when your a kid! Especially when you see them once a year.

Cousin Chase is a life guard at a pool so we joined cousins there to swim. Uncle Brian and Lane threw Audrey around to her delight and they are such fun uncles to be with!

Audrey is my little "tomboy princess". She loves getting dirty as much as she loves dressing up. We went to several of the cousins baseball games and this is what Audrey did during them. She sure loves these cousins that appreciate playing in the dirt. Aaron on the other hand loved to hang out by the fence trying to catch fly balls and earn quarters when he turned them in to the Umpire.

I think the water was a little cold, but that didn't stop anyone from playing in the water. Grandma pulled out the buckets to fill with water and noodles cut in half for some sword fighting fun. She also had water bottles instead of water guns for the kids to spray each other.

At the Casper Science Museum we saw a T-Rex that had been found in Wyoming.

We had an awesome time helping Daniel and Nathan plan a surprise 50th birthday party for Aunt Jan. Grandpa and I got to help them prepare all the food and spend some precious time hanging out with them. We hid and turned off the lights when Jan came into town not knowing what was going on. The boys had horns, confetti, and the whole living room decorated in 50th birthday stuff. When she opened the door her face was priceless. She was shocked and then started crying! So awesome!! Soon after we went to the park to play, break a pinata, eat and have a great time. Uncle Brian brought a bouncy house, Uncle David brought his famous snow cone machine, and everyone had a blast. Almost all the siblings were in town for Brianne's wedding and it was a perfect time to celebrate Jan's birthday.

Aaron was unable to be with us, but he was able to go to a Yankee game while working in NYC.

Aunt Cristy invited everyone over to play pool kickball. The kids thought it was so fun! Everything is fun when your with family.

Brianne's wedding was really beautiful. We were so glad to have been able to attend. Brianne was so happy and seeing everyone together, celebrating together made for some wonderful memories. Jan made some fabulous cupcakes that blew me away! The food was delicious, and the dancing at the end was so fun. I have a really entertaining family and I'm so lucky to be apart of them.

We headed to Utah with Aunt Cristy and Aunt Cara. Cara lives in North Ogden and we will stay with her for a few days. We took a break halfway at this awesome park that had a zip line. Of course the kids loved it, but I took a turn too!

We had the most beautiful experience going to the North Ogden Temple open house. I had been helping Cara prepare the temple gardens, since it was her job, when we got invited to attend a special open house for only those who had worked on the construction or gardens of the temple. We were so excited and quickly called the family to get ready ASAP. We ran home to get cleaned up and quickly returned. We were able to walk through the temple at our own pace. Many of the rugs not usually out during the open house were out for us to see. We even got to see the bride's room and linger in the Celestial room. Aaron especially appreciated the Celestial room and the temple as a whole. Audrey thought everything was beautiful. Such wonderful memories to make with the kids.

We loved spending so much time with our cousins, especially at the temple. Many of the gardens in these pictures I was able to work on with Cara the 3 days before the open house. It was a special experience I'll always remember. Not many people get to work on Heavenly Father's gardens.

After the open house Cara went back to work on the temple gardens. Such a sweet day!

Every day we were in North Ogden we went to Cara and David's Northern Shave Ice Shack. We enjoyed being creative with the yummy different flavors.

Aaron thought it was so cool to see how the shave ice was made. David showed him the big machines, where all the flavors were kept and the big freezer for the ice. We were also very happy to have Uncle Jay and his wife visit us. I love seeing family!

This is the gorgeous Brigham City Temple. Cristy and I went to a session and had a sweet experience!

Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to the fish farm while I was at the temple. Aaron caught 2 fish and they ran around and had a blast.

Every day Aaron asked when we would go hiking in the Utah mountains. We finally found some time and Cara took us up to a trail for a little hiking adventure. We were very lucky and found bunches of wild raspberries. We ate all that we could handle and made another fun memory.

After the hike the kids were out jumping on the tramp when it started to rain. They played in it for a bit then ran inside when it started really coming down.

We are off to a day trip to Salt Lake City. We rode the Front Runner to get there which was just one highlight of the trip for the kids.

The SLC temple is so majestic. The kids loved it and Audrey thought it was a castle. It had been a very long time since I walked the temple grounds and the visitors center. I was very happy to visit once again.

Aaron was fascinated by the organ and structure of the Tabernacle. It is such a neat building with a great history. I wish we could have listened the the choir in this building. That would have been amazing.

We could not get enough of the majesty and beauty of this amazing temple!

Touring the top of the Conference Center was an adventure. It was amazing to think that this fountain, grass, trees are all above the very seats were General Conference is held, Music and the Spoken Word and many other great concerts!

The kids got a kick out of the colored horses by the Treehouse Museum that we visited. Everyone had a great time exploring, pretending, and just playing around!