Fun Summer!!

A lot of catching up to do. We have been keeping busy this Summer and have not posted a lot of what has been going on. To make it easy to read, here is a list of some of the things:

-Elise's 1st Birthday!!! It rained on us while we were having a BBQ in the park with family and friends, so we went to the Church pavilion and finished with the cake. On the drive over, Elise fell asleep. We tried waking her up by singing to her...didn't work, she was fast asleep. We woke her up anyway and sang again, ate cake and opened presents! It was a fun 1st Birthday!

-Curtis has been enjoying backpacking and camping trips with Scouts and Friends (and fishing too).

-We have had fun in the sun and WATER! Other than pools and puddles, I took Elise to Roaring Springs not long ago and she loved it. She is too small for the kiddie water slides, but played all around in the water. She kept leading me to climb up the stairs to a certain slide she wanted to go down, but she was too small. She didn't care if she had to get sprayed by water and get it dumped all over her to get to it, she still climbed those steps...so many times!! (As a result, I got all wet too). The lazy river was fun also. I took her on one big slide that I could go on with her in the Kiddie area. It was so fast, I shot out and accidentally skidded my knees on the bottom missing the mat while trying to hold Elise up out of the water...and that was the last time we went on that. I think next year will be a lot more fun!

-ZOO passes are great! Elise likes the Giraffes and prairie dogs (she likes it when Daddy puts her in the bubbles to look out at the prairie dogs, and wave to Mommy)!

-Independence Day was a BLAST! First we went to the Zoo with some friends in the afternoon (hence the Zoo pass above). Later that night we went and watched Fireworks in the Park. Elise was amused by the fireworks, they never did scare her. I love this kind of stuff; crowd of people gathered together, doing something fun, walking back to your car in the dark and enjoying the warm night & conversation with friends, watching the back up of cars drive away from a nice evening filled with happiness and laughter. (Sounds weird, but I love it)!

-Apartment work has been busy, glad to be having a break in August (sort of).

-Overnight camping with my Sister and her family in Sagehen. Camping is great, but difficult when Elise is crawling. It probably would have been a little easier if she could have walked. We hiked to a waterfall (which I love) and dipped our feet in the water. A couple weeks later Maria told me that there are often signs that say there had been a Bear attack!!! I'm so glad she told me after, or I would have been paranoid the whole camping trip. Also glad we were safe. From just spending the night, it's amazing how different it is out in Nature (good and not so good), glad to be away from all the dirt...and those 2 weird bugs. :)

-A friend and I have decided to watch each other's child on a certain day of the week, each week! The girls benefit from having play time and learning from each other, and us, the Moms, get to do whatever we want to do with that time, whether it's something for ourselves or spend it cleaning, ect. I absolutely LOVE it, I can get so much done in that amount of time and it is a nice break. Elise loves it too when her friend comes over and when it's her time to go to her friends. She just goes straight to playing. I appreciate it so much!! (when they get a little older we might do a little play time, activity and learning time too)-like a pre pre-school :)

-Other out of the normal things we have been doing with our time: finishing crafts, lunch in the park, going to the library, having fun 3 1/2 days with a cute little Kenzie!

On the agenda for the rest of the summer: family time, temple days, dates, trip to Utah, taking photos for a Wedding, more dinner and games with with friends/family, more wedding receptions, baby showers, more church activities, basketball, volleyball, apartment responsibilities and whatever else we can fit in!!!