Pioneer Day- our own special state holiday

So most states celebrate their individual state holidays on the day they entered the union, not here in Utah, we like to march to the beat of a different drummer. Now to be fair I am okay with this. See Utah entered the Union on January 4th, there is no way I want another day off right after the New Year. I will take my extra holiday in July, thank you very much. 

So we don't have any set traditions this day, very odd for our little family. We hang out with family members and that is always fun, but there is nothing that we do year after year. 

This year it was fun because Christian took the day off with us. We had a relaxing morning and then went over to the Bradley family celebration. We went swimming and the kids loved showing off their crazy dives. 

Even James got in on the action. Something I have to applaud. Here is a confession, I have never jumped off a diving board...and I never will.

Matty enjoyed playing with the toys and all of us enjoyed the many homemade ice creams and the dutch oven cooking.

Our next stop was the Bellamy Family party and a hot dog bar.

The kids had fun riding down Aunt Hilary and Uncle Bart's hill on the mini-bike.

Even Matty got in on the action with some help from Uncle Zach

We had fun celebrating Birdie's birthday as well

And the kids loved chasing the chicken's around.

I had to snap this picture quick. James lost his two front teeth lately but will rarely show that grin, I think he is darling toothless.

We ended the night with a fabulous firework show.

So happy Pioneer day everyone. Same time next year.

Oakley vacation

Seeing as Salt Lake has just hit its seventeenth 100 plus day this summer (we are on track to beat the 21 day record) it was time to escape to a place that is at least ten degrees cooler during the day. So the Bradley family packed their bags and headed to Oakley, up away from the heat.

We love going there. The kids love playing with the cousins and Christian loves playing board games until the wee hours of the morning. Me, I like taking naps in the afternoon or being able to read a great book. So we love Oakley. 

There was a hootenanny, trips to the pool, and fishing trips. We ate a lot of great food and played some fabulous games, I even won a few of them. 

The kids loved early mornings just playing with their cousins

And we even played on a slip n slide.

We played some minute to win it games.

The kids had more fun balancing the apples on their heads rather than balancing the apples on one another.

When that didn't work, the balanced them on Uncle James' head

that was until Matty decided it was more fun to knock them over.

It was a great weekend with the Bradleys. It was only marred by coming home and finding a half gallon of milk curdling in the basement, a colony of ants invading, and hundred plus temperatures but what do you do?

Matty turns two- or the tale of two birthday parties

It's official, our baby isn't a baby anymore he is an official "big boy". He is the happiest child you have ever met. He also talks and sings up a storm. His vocabulary is incredible and he jabbers all day long. He is our Mickey boy and has been known to walk around singing the Disney Junior jingle, I promise he doesn't watch  that much tv. He also loves to dress up as a super hero and to go to the park. He is adored by each family member and each family member adores him. He also is two so our tantrums have started and we have found he has as strong of a will as every other member of this family.

Because of scheduling problems we had two parties this year. One for family who would be out of town on his birthday and one who didn't. Matty was very excited for this. He kept saying he was going to have his "Mickey Happy birthday" party. This meant two cakes and two days of presents- what more could a two year old ask for.

Party #1 recap

There was a mickey cake- I did my best, I am not the best artist and it is even worse when I am working in a chocolate sauce medium. 

Matty got a "binky treat" (a ring pop) at nusery for his birthday that day, along with a cute badge. The binky treat casued much sticky drool which lead to a change of outfit...the badge stayed on though.

Good thing big sisters around to help us blow out our cupcake.

And it is great to have cousins that help us open our presents.

Matty was most please with the slide he got for his birthday. It was the best gift we could have gotten him and has already gotten a lot of use.

It was a fun party and Matty deemed it a success.

Flash forward six days to his actual birthday. Matty decides that this is going to be an awesome day as he gets another "Mickey party".  This, of course, must be coupled with a  Mickey outfit and the birthday badge. 

Matty told me on Monday he wanted a Mickey and Jake cake. Lucky for me they had both set of characters on sale at the Disney Store. I got both for him and was able to make his Mickey/Jake cake dream come true. 

At midnight the night before I got the great idea to make party hats with Mickey ears on them...I made three before I decided it was too much work. Matty loved it though, so did his cousin. 

He also really loved his birthday cake and he has loved playing with them since.

He also thought that opening presents was fabulous.

The second party was also deemed successful and our new two year old went to bed that night snuggling a new Goofy, Donald, and Jake toy while surrounded by his brand new Boynton books.

So happy birthday little Matty, you are and incredible boy who feels our life with joy and adventure every day. 

Fourth of July

The 4th of July is a favorite holiday in our house and this year it was just fun. The night before we went to our neighborhood's Cul de Sac of fire. They had bands playing all leading to a huge firework show. Have I mentioned that I love our neighborhood. It was so fun to get to see so many neighbors and meet so many more.  Laine has decided to the music was too loud and plugged her ears the whole time. 

Matty on the other hand decided to show his moves to the whole neighborhood while he was "rocking out".

The next morning the kids seemed unaffected by their late night out and were up and jumping on me in bed around seven. 

So I got up and started the flag cake...we were trying something new this year.

After the cakes were done we went and got pancakes at Village Inn- we are totally American in this house. 

Matty enjoyed his "giant pancakes"

Then we continued our tradition of seeing the latest Pixar movie...Monsters University was hit with our clan.

When we got home I decorated our flag cake...the picture makes it look more oblong than it really is. 

But it was patriotic in side.

We had one last swim party at Uncle Adam and Aunt Amy's

And the kids were good sports to pose for some tradition pictures.

They are good friends these kids. And love playing with each other.

They were having a great time and there were some great giggles.

We watched so fireworks that Grammy and Poppa bought while we waited for the Sugar House Park ones to start.

It was a great busy day and we had a fabulous time.

Wait, what happened to the rest of June?

Okay I am pretty sure that the summer is just passing by at lighting speed. This could be because with four kids I am running every where this summer. I don't seem to be home much during the days as my tan skin is a testimony too. 

So here are a few things that happened this month...

We bought a car, a mini-van to be exact. My sister and I went out and test drove cars and picked this beauty. I have named her Mathilde, because it is an awesome name. I now wonder why it took me so long to buy a mini-van and why I think it is super cool that I now drive a mini-van. 

We went to the park, a lot. I can't remember going to the park this much and having this many picnics. I am pretty sure that I am keeping Lunchables and Capri Sun in business.

Because we went to the park so many times we needed to take more baths, sometimes two or three a day.

We went to Wheeler Farm with a few friends, we even brought our cousin Ellie with us.

We also brought two loaves of bread with us and they loved it. The kids more than the ducks.

Did I mention we went to the park a lot?

We also went to the zoo with our cousins and piled on top of a rhino.

It has been hot this summer, we took time to cool off.

We also tried life out as a monkey, since Christian always calls them monkeys this was not a stretch.

To beat the heat we went to the aquarium one morning,  it was fun and we pretended to be penguins and were disappointed that the otters decided it was nap time when we got there. 

Oh and Eve got glasses, I had better pictures than this one, but I forgot to turn my flash back on so they were all super blurry with distorted faces. 

So goodbye June and hello July!!!!