Other Summer Happenings

This year for the 4th we bought a few little fireworks to do with the kids. They were both scared and excited when watching them! They did think they were pretty neat though! We got to see the usual show put on around the neighborhood too!

For Lucas's birthday I got a babysitter and took him to the driving range. We had a lot of fun hitting balls and even played around on the putting green. On the way home we got shave ice! We all went out to dinner as a family.

We finally introduced the kids to sidewalk chalk and they thought it was pretty fun! We worked together to decorate our back patio. The kids were covered in a rainbow by the time we were done!

Tyson thought his eyebrows needed a little color!

And a few more pictures from Summer.......

We had fun at our block BBQ!

Madi got to go for a ride on Dianne's scooter! 

I made Lucas this shirt for Father's Day!

No summer is complete without shave ice! It was hard for all 4 of us to finish this beast!

Tyson thought this was cool!

I heard so many giggles and turned around to see this!

Play-Doh creation!

The Springville splash pad is the BEST splash pad I have ever seen!

Playing with a bubble wand!

Bear Lake

We had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at Bear Lake for the Pitcher family reunion. We had never been before and were not disappointed! It is such a beautiful place! We rented out a big house with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had fun sharing memories of my grandpa and exploring the area. We even tried the famous Bear Lake Raspberry Shake. Ok, so it wasn't out of this world, but it was still pretty delicious! We walked along the beach down by the lake, but we missed out on the day on the water because we had to get home for Lucas's new class that was starting. I guess we will just have to go again sometime!

Brooke's family couldn't be there. Neither could My sister-in-law, Chelsea. They were missed!

All the Pitcher Cousins (minus Brooke) from oldest to youngest!

My parents!

We found a cool spring on the side of the road in the canyon!

Arizona

Back in May we went to Arizona for our friend's wedding. It was quite the road trip for such a short stay, but it was a fun adventure! We got to explore new territory as we drove down to Arizona. Southern Utah really has a lot of beauty! There are so many beautiful red rock formations and just amazing scenery! As usual, pictures just do not do it justice!

 As we were coming into the Arizona desert, I was wondering where all the iconic cacti were. I didn't see any and I had expected to see them all over. Then it was as if a line was drawn across the scenery. We went from no cacti to huge cacti everywhere! Some of them were seriously so huge! They are such strange looking plants!

Our awesome friends from Colorado, the Wastarts, were also there for the wedding so we booked our hotels together and got to play! We had a whole day open to explore. We went to downtown Scottsdale and walked along all the shops. We even stopped for ice cream at a cute little sweets shop.

Living in Utah has been disappointing when it comes to finding good Mexican food. We got a recommendation from the hotel staff for a Mexican restaurant and it ended up being delicious! Madilyn liked the salsa so much that at one point we caught her drinking it from the bowl! (It had a little kick to it, too!)

Jenn got married in the Mesa temple. It is a beautiful temple and we were happy we could be there. After the wedding we had a picnic lunch outside. Jenn made the comment that she loved the beautiful spring weather......um, say what? It was 104 degrees outside! If that is beautiful spring weather, I am sure glad we were not there in the summer! I was not made for heat! Bring me snow any day!

The reception was in Prescot which was a lot cooler and more of a mountain area. Madilyn had fun dancing and kept asking me if she could "give the princess a hug!" That's right, Jenn was a princess! We stayed the night in the hotel that the reception was at and our room looked like a condo rather than a hotel room. We had one more night of fun with the Wastarts before heading home the next day.

Earlier in May.......
Lucas and I went to a show called Cavalia. It was basicaly Cirque De Sole with horses. It was an amazing show and we really enjoyed it! We even had fun talking with the couple who sat next to us. At one point in the show the stage was flooded with water and the horses danced in the water.! The tickets were expensive (but worth it) and I think it is because of all the advertising costs they had. I am pretty sure they rented every available billboard in the area! There were about 20 billboards advertising for it just in the stretch of I-15 between Spanish Fork and Orem (about a 15 min drive).

Easter and The Tulip Festival

For Easter this year my parents were in town! We were excited to have a fun weekend with them and then....it hit! The pukes! 

We were on our way home from Costco when Tyson started erupting like a volcano in the car. We got home and got him cleaned up and he did it again! In the mean time, Madi was going potty and started crying. When we checked on her we found that she had erupted as well! I gave both kids showers and put them to bed. 

We began a game with my parents to try to enjoy what was left of the evening, and we were interrupted twice by Madilyn and at least one more time by Tyson with more eruptions. After changing the beds and cleaning the kids numerous times, we were finally able to get ourselves to bed. 

The next day they seemed to be doing better, but we decided to forego the egg hunt with my cousins, just in case. Sure enough, Tyson woke up from his nap screaming and covered in puke! Luckily, Madilyn was done with it! We were well enough to have a fun egg hunt from the Easter Bunny at our house on Easter and everyone seemed to be doing ok! It had been more than 24 hours since the last eruption, so it seemed we were out of the woods! There was a get-together at my grandma's house that night. Lucas, unfortunately, was starting to feel sick, so he stayed home, but the rest of us went. We had a fun time, but Lucas texted me saying that he had started puking! We went home and as soon as we got in the house, Tyson puked again! Seriously?!? That night my mom joined in the puke war. 

The next day I took them to the airport to go home and on the way back from the airport, Tyson went at it again! At this point I was going a little crazy! I'm just glad I didn't get hit with it because puking is one of the worst things in the world to me. This seemed to be the end of it, and we made it three whole days with nothing. It must be over with, right? On thursday evening as I was headed out the door for a meeting, Tyson puked! Luckily, this was the last of it! I don't think I could have handles any more!

 It was definitely an Easter unlike any other! I at least got some pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes at a time when they were feeling ok!

A couple of weeks later, Lucas's mom came to visit. We decided to all go to the Tulip Festival. It was so beautiful! The only other time we had been to the gardens was last Fall for the Scarecrow Festival. It was neat to see the different flowers that were in bloom now, and it was fun to try to re-create some of the photos that we took in the Fall. It was really windy, but we had fun and enjoyed sharing it with Grandma!