Fun in the Sun

Summer is in full swing and we are trying to make the most of it.  With an active 2-year old, I've found that I'm going out and doing things that I wouldn't normally.  But before I get into that, I want to put in an update of Brandon. He's in a partnership with a couple guys with a company called Cinema Book Trailers.  As the name suggests, they make book trailers that are so awesome that they look like legit movie trailers.  Yep, they're that good.  At least, that's what they're trying to do. They've done a few things so far, and hopefully they'll continue to pick up speed and projects. Recently, they finished production on a fantasy book called "The Golden Cord" by Paul Genesse. When it's done, I'll post a link to where you can find it.

Orem has a SummerFest and we went with some friends.  This ended up being a blast for Kayla even though we were only there for a couple hours. 

They had a lot of fun rides for the kiddos to ride on.  (Kayla's friend is actually laughing)

She loves the carousel!

You better watch out for these two drivers!

A couple weeks later Kayla and I went to the zoo (again!) with some friends and their kids.  It was so much fun! We went during the week and first thing in the morning.  I think that was the best thing to do because a lot of the animals were pretty active.  We had so much fun! But I'll let the pictures say it all. 

I was pretty proud of that  framing

Watching the ostriches in Hogle Zoo's new Safari exhibit  

Here's looking at you kid!

Kayla's favorite part of the whole zoo adventure

I was finally able to get the kiddos to smile at me all at the same time!

Just to prove I was there, too.

She loved it so much we had to go one last time before we left.

I'm grateful we went the the zoo when we did because the next morning, I sprained my ankle going down the stairs.  Nothing broken, but highly inconvenient.  Brandon and I were a pretty silly sight going into the doctor's office: me on crutches and Brandon in his boot. both left feet messed up.  I guess we have to do everything together, literally.  I'm grateful that Brandon was far enough in his healing process that he could take care of Kayla while I was out of commission. I'm doing a lot better now.  Hardly any pain. So now we can have more fun during the summer!

Along with all the fun adventures we're having around Utah, we also have an adventure in our back yard. Even though we weren't able to do as much as we wanted to due to injuries, we still got a really good yield in our garden. Here's what it looks like:

Strawberry Hill (Kayla won't stop eating them)

Left to Right: strawberry hill, lettuce, tomatoes (behind my bum sorry), onions,
carrots, peas, cucumbers, more peas, pumpkin patch

And now we're into July where there's nothing but sun, sun, sun.  We went to Colorado to spend 4th of July with Brandon's family.  We had so much fun!  Kayla got her Grandpa Time in and practically everything she asked for from Grandma.  I was too busy relaxing to do much picture taking, but here are some things we were able to get.

She loved Grandma's yoga mat and found a lot of interesting ways of playing with it.

She loves her grandma

She let Grandma do her hair!

I did get a video of Grandma and Kayla dancing together, but Grandma didn't know she was being filmed, so we'll just keep that to ourselves.  Needless to say it was extremely adorable and hilarious. Things you do for that face up there.

And then, as if our extended weekend couldn't get any better, we went to a community pool, and Kayla LOVED it.  It was a struggle to get her out when it was the adult-only time to swim.  All of us ended up getting out, too because if she saw one of us in, she was going in as well. I love that she loves the water so much.  My mom would tell stories of how I was a fish as a small girl. It's fun seeing little bits of my personality and preferences coming out in her. Mostly, I think she's more like Brandon. But we'll see how her own personality develops as she gets older.

If you notice in the video, she started going for the diving board.  She eyed it several times and once went over and stood in line to jump off it!  Luckily, Brandon got her away from there and safely jumping into Grandma's arms from the side of the pool.  I don't think she realized what really happened if she jumped off it (her head would go all the way under) and we know she doesn't like it.  Silly goose. Besides that, I'm super impressed by her swimming skills. Hopefully I can teach her all I know and she'll be a fantastic swimmer. 

So I think thus far our summer has stayed pretty busy. And I know we have more fun adventures coming our way!  I love my family so much!