Our Annual Fannin-Wastart Week!

Ever since we moved to Utah the Wastarts have come to visit us for a week every July. It is our favorite week of the year! We try to pack in as much fun as we can and it always feels too short. This year we got to meet their cute little baby, Emma!

The kids had so much fun playing together and were so cute to watch! As usual, we went to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Carnival and HAD to ride the zipper! This was the first year that neither Kristen or I were pregnant, so all the adults got to ride! The girls had fun on some of the kiddie rides!

This year we decided to go to the Kid Activity day at Fiesta Days. It was really fun! They had all kinds of activities and games for the kids to do and it was all FREE!! They had a blast! I think we will have to do this again next year!

The kids got to decorate visors. 

Of course she picked the princess one!

Check out my Tat!

Getting her nails painted by "a princess!" (Spanish Fork royalty) 

She was lucky enough to be in the last group that got to go in the bounce castle. She loved it!

We decided to finally venture out to the Hogle Zoo! The kids loved seeing all the different animals, as long as they weren't too close! :)

Madi loves giraffes so we had to see them first!!

This elephant sprays water out of his trunk!

We went swimming at the Provo pool this year and had so much fun! The kids loved going on the big slides with us!

After swimming we went to the Provo Food Truck Round up. It was so fun and yummy! I think we will have to go more often.

She got the Minnie Mouse sunglasses from Grandma and knows how to rock them!

We also had a picnic at Canton View Park. We were joined by some geese who would NOT leave us alone!!

As always, the week went way too fast and we are already looking forward to next time!!

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).