24th of July

Living in Utah, and working at a bank, I got the day off for Pioneer Day. It's the day that Utah became a state - that the Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. And it's an AWESOME excuse to get the day off! And because my husband works for an AMAZING company as well, he got the day off too! WOOT!!

We started out the day by driving up to Bountiful for Brynne & my Uncle Gordon's half marathon. This is Brynne's first half marathon without me. Sniff. That's hard for me, but I am SOO proud of her for doing it!! She told us not to come up, because it is such a drive, but my youngest 2 sisters & I decided we'd go up anyway. Jeannene & Popper came over to my house and we drove up together and got there minutes before she crossed the finish line!



Ok so this isn't creepy that I took a picture AT ALL but I LOVE THIS!! He ran behind her for the last little bit as she crossed the finish line. What a supportive husband!! Brynne said that he was at mile 8 or 9 too cheering for her there too. How fun :) 

Brynne's coming!! She is wearing the white shirt!!

She always sprints the last little bit. Look at that motion shot. Thank you iPhone!

She was so excited we were there :)

Running to the finish line!

After she crossed the finish line, we all gave her hugs and then she and Blake got some free breakfast with her half marathon bib number. We stayed and spent time with them while they ate, and then we all drove back to our house so that we could go swimming at our pool. While we were driving, Jake got filled in on a huge text conversation that has been going on between my sisters & my mom for a few days that involves how funny selfies are. He got out of the car and immediately took a selfie and used some bathroom humor hashtags to go with it and sent it to the group message for my mom and sisters to see. Hilarious.

Love my hubby's selfies

And then I took zero pictures of us swimming but it was really fun. We swam and talked and played with a football for a while and then went back to our house and had Pizza Hut Pizza while we watched part of Top Gun. Blake needed to get to work, so Brynne & Blake left and Jake & I wanted to take a nap so Jeannene & Popper left too to go home. We took a nap for a few hours and then got up and got ready, then went and bought birthday presents for our nieces. Their birthdays are at the beginning of August and they won't be here {they live with their mom in AZ} so we celebrated with them early.

We started out the night with amazing BBQ hamburgers with all the fixings {including avocado - YUM!},  corn on the cob, macaroni shrimp salad, chips & salsa, a veggie tray and baked beans. We had TONS of food. After we were all stuffed full and had cleaned up the kitchen, it was time to open gifts. They opened the gift from me & Jake first.

Love these two little girls SO much

We got them a BIG box of different coloring & art supplies. Jake picked it out after we walked around looking at toys for 20 minutes with no idea what to get. Good job Jake!

They also each got a jump rope with princesses on the handles and Minnie Mouse Bubble Bath

Then they opened the gift from Macy & Clint!

Can they get any cuter? Seriously?!

Looking at it, wondering what it is...

It's kinda like paper dolls, but they are magnets! And they are mermaids! And they are stored in the magnetic box they come in so they don't get lost! SOO cute!!

After we were finished opening presents, we all went outside to jump rope. Kenzie & Emrie went barefoot and within minutes had some BLACK feet!

Cute!! Lol not. Good thing they had showers before bed!

Kenzie jumping :)

Look at Emrie's air! And her face! Hahahah I love it!

Clint & Macy playing on his longboard

We had a big jump rope out too that the whole family jumped in. I have a really cute video of Kenzie & Jake jumping together. I will have to see if there is a way for me to load it to YouTube so ya'll can see. Every time we all get the jump rope out, all the neighbor kids flock to the house. This was no exception - they all jumped rope and then helped us sing to Kenzie & Emrie and we had cake & ice cream!

Cute cake for cute girls

Everyone singing to them

Blowing the candles out!

We all sat on the driveway and ate cake and ice cream. It was adorable to see everyone lined up on grass eating together. Such cute friends!

Jake & Clint became our pyro-technics after that and we all enjoyed a fun firework display. We have TONS of bottle rockets - seriously, TONS. We lit off probably close to 100 of them and still have cases we haven't opened. Jake had a great idea to light them and put them in a metal pipe so that no one had to hold them and get sparks on them. Good idea love! We started taping multiple rockets together and launching them. Yeah that isn't dangerous AT ALL. It was really fun though. On the 4th of July we bought a little pack of fireworks and didn't end up using them, so we used them last night along with the bottle rockets and had a nice little firework show. I am so grateful Jake is into pyro- technics because I sure am not! It was a great 24th of July!