How much fun can you have in one summer?

Well, this summer has seriously been jam packed with fun. We are living it up while we don't have kids! We went to the Spanish Fork Rodeo last Wednesday, and loved it.

I was so glad we were early enough to see the skydivers.


The whole crew. (Karen, Chandra and Doug obviously missed the memo that we were taking a picture.)


Look at Brandon. What a good looking cowboy! Mitch is in the background and let's play Where's Dallin as well. (Hint: Look between mine and Brandon's faces.) I can't tell you how hard we laughed when he told us he was in our picture and then showed us where! Classic.


Thursday was Pioneer Day and I don't have any pictures to show it, but it was nice to have a day off to relax. It made me grateful for my air conditioned office though!

On Friday my baby sister Amy turned 19. It's so weird that she's all grown up now. We celebrated by going swimming, having a picnic, and watching a movie in my parents' backyard on this ginormous screen.

Amy and Kai. Funny side note. Brandon loves to tease Kai that he's a princess. Kai gets so mad!! So Brandon was calling him a princess in the swimming pool and Kai said he didn't want to be a princess. So Brandon asked what he wanted to be. And Kai said Indiana Jones. Wanna know why? Cause he has a whip! Kids are so funny.


Brecken doing a backflip (with Kristen's help).


Here we are at the giant warehouse that is Kristen's job, getting the screen ready. I can't believe Kristen is talented enough to design and make these massive screens. She's so amazing!




A while back in a random post I put some pictures on here showing the progress of our tomato plants. I was so excited that they had grown a few inches. Well, these plants are massive now and practically taking over our backyard. We're so excited about it! Here's the real before and after pictures.




And that's the update for now.

O Canada

Last week we took a trip up to Canada for a family reunion on Brandon's mom's side. Other than the long drive to and from, we had a lot of fun. It was so good to see Ryan and Jess and Mady and for me to meet all of Brandon's other cousins who I only know through blogs (such a weird world we live in).

One day we went to the Calgary Stampede. It's all about over-priced food and expensive carnival rides but we did find a few free shows to go to that were really good.

First was the dog show...

I had to crop this picture because in the background you could see Jessica eating and Chandra's legs. You're welcome guys. ;)


Haley is the most gorgeous little 4 year old I've ever met. (She's our niece for those of you that asked last time.)


Then the BMX show (pretty impressive I must admit).


Then the hypnotist show that was pretty darn funny.


I loved this sign for the bathrooms.


And I have to admit, there was no orange bang on the Tom Thumb Donuts. They were so yummy!


Here is Tara's favorite ride, the Fireball. Brandon loved it but I just watched. Those kind of rides make me sick.


Another day we hung out at a park and played some crazy games. Here I am trying to walk while balancing a book on my head, keeping a coin in my eye, and holding a ball between my knees.


We went to the cemetary and visited Brandon's grandpa's grave. I really wish I could have met him. Everyone had so many good things to say about him. (Always makes me wonder what people will say about me after I'm gone...yikes! I still have time to change, right?)


The Calgary skyline...


The best part about our trip was Banff, a national park there. It was so pretty! We went on this beautiful (and easy - doesn't get much better than that) hike to a waterfall.


Then we went to a gorgeous lake and went canoeing and had a BBQ.


I think this picture of Mady is so stinking cute! She was so much fun to play with.


We ate so much good food while we were in Canada, mostly thanks to Brandon's aunt and uncle, Kevin and Cyndi, who were the best hosts anyone could ever ask for. We also watched a couple movies in their theater. It was so much fun staying with them!

Now it's back to work and regular life. Yuck. At least my cousin is getting married this Friday so it's only a 4-day work week. Yay!

4th of July Festivities

I LOVE the 4th of July! We had so much fun celebrating this year. I guess technically the first thing I did to get festive was paint my nails in honor of the holiday. Those are little white stars on them in case you can't tell.


The first activity we did was our annual BBQ and mini golf at Cascade. It's always so much fun. The food seemed especially good this year. Here are a few pictures...






Thursday morning me and Bran woke up early and went to see the hot air balloons with Kristi and Ben. It was so awesome! We took like a million pictures. Brandon said me and Kristi were like kids at Toys R Us. :) It's so fun though. I want to do it every year! So fun that we ended up going back on Saturday morning with Brandon's parents and Tara and Gary.










Here we are waiting for the balloons to come back for their competition, but they never made it.


Smokey the Bear landed right over by our house.


The actual day of the 4th was so awesome. It was great having work off and we sure made the most of our day. I started it out running in the 5k. Kristi, how did you and I not get any pictures together?!! It was so much fun. I want to try for the 10k next year, but we'll have to see.




This is the AMAZING bagel sandwich Brandon brought to me after the race. I'm so glad someone in our house knows how to make good food. It certainly isn't me.


So then we watched the parade, which was awesome.


The big blow up balloons are one of my favorite things about the parade.


I had to include a picture of the Strawberry Days float since I grew up in Lindon.


This picture was taken for a certain someone. I think you know who you are. ;)


Later in the day we went swimming but I didn't take any pictures there. And we watched fireworks of course at night. It was an awesome day.

On Saturday we hiked up to Stewart Falls. It was harder and longer than we remembered but it was still a really fun hike. If only we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we probably would have let Shannon (5 months pregnant) and Haley (4 years old) stay behind. :) We had fun with everyone together though.








Later that day we went to the Freedom Festival in downtown Provo to get our two favorite things: Twisted Potatoes and Funnel Cake. I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any pictures but man, they are so yummy! Here are some pictures courtesty of Google Images in case you guys don't know what these are. I highly recommend them!

Funnel Cake:


Twisted Potatoes:


Anyway, we had a fabulous weekend and now after work today we are headed off to Canada for a week so stay tuned for a post about our trip. :)