Annie revived!

While in Utah, we discovered Annie was playing at the community theater. We thought our girls might just like it.

 

Needless to say, we hit a home run. This summer will forever be known as "The summer of Annie." The re-creations of the Annie plays were incessant.  Nearly every day this summer we were treated to a new scene from Annie.

It brought me back to my childhood, when my sister and I also couldn't get enough of Annie. My sister, mom and I enjoyed seeing the Annie craze come full circle.

I think my favorite part of the Annie obsession is that the kids' plays now include music Enjoy a peak into the Annie highlight reel of 2012.

Utah memories

I had been planning to have some much needed manners lessons for my kids this summer, so I decided to organize it while we were at Grandma's house.

Aunt Lauren loved getting in on the dressing up factor, and pretended to be Mary Poppins, who was their manners' instructor. She cracked me up. I think I laughed the hardest though when the girls pointed out one of her manners' mishaps.

Ky-boy getting back to his cowboy roots.

Kyler loves his Great Grandpa!

The kids played and played and played.

Because we were there so long, Dave and I were able to sneak away for an overnight 12th anniversary trip to Park City.

My mom organized a very nice dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to honor and celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday.

We sure love this guy. His generosity has given all of our family a very wonderful life.

Teyah was just cracking us up. She would not stop kissing him. It went on and on and on to the point that we finally had to pull her away. She was just so excited and happy for him that that's how she knew to express it. It was precious!

My mom is pretty amazing how she cares for him everyday.

I can't believe how big our family is getting! 

After celebrating Grandpa's birthday at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, we found this fun spot to take a family picture.

We can't be close to this gorgeous building without snapping a picture!



Coincidentally, my dad and stepmom Debbie happened to be in Utah the same time as all of us. So, we were able to meet at a restaurant for some fun times.

It's not often that my dad and two siblings are all together. For some reason, we all independently chose to wear green that day!

Our week and a half in Utah was jam-packed and so much fun!

It's all about the Journey

 On our way to Utah for my grandpa's 90th birthday celebration, we decided to make a few memorable stop offs along the way to break up the long (21 hour) drive. Each time we make the drive to Utah, we try to mix it up and take different routes. This trip proved to be eventful.

 

Out of all the places our kids have been, I think Storybook Island is close to the top of their list.

I spy the monkey cage!

The fire truck was one of Kyler's favorites.

Snow White's house was surrounded by five little dwarfs. I can't stop laughing at Teyah trying to wink in this picture.

Storybook Island gave our kids a well-needed re-charge before driving through the backroads of Wyoming -- where we dodged antelope and deer on an almost a minute by minute basis in the dark. I grew up in Wyoming but this was like nothing I had seen before. It was insane and scary! We felt so blessed to finally arrive at the last hotel room in Casper that was extremely overpriced and extremely ghetto! But at least we were safe.

Not long after driving again the next morning, we saw a sign on the side of the road that said: "Martin's Cove." We immediately pulled a quick U-turn to check it out since this site has a sacred history within Mormon history. It was at this location, 500 pioneers who had trekked across the country in wagons and pulling handcarts faced the grimm reality that they might not make it to their destination due to severe blizzards and lack of food. After five days of desperation, the group was discovered by a rescue party from Utah who had brought food, supplies and wagons. Needless to say, this area carries a special place in our hearts and nearly brought us to tears as we experienced the special spirit in this part of the western frontier.

Ellie and Teyah enjoyed pretending they were pioneer children during our short stop but were glad to get back in our comfy Honda Odyssey for the remainder of the trip to Utah.

Perhaps, our kid's most memorable experience was hearing the story of the "prairie diamond ring" and being given a necklace made of the wood of a wagon wheel. This stop off was not in our plans, but was such a pleasant surprise. I loved that our road trip could be flexible.

A sweltering Minnesota Fourth of July

Fourth of July 2012 will forever be remembered as the year of the heat wave -- we set a new record of 101 with the heat index surpassing 110. Despite these warnings, we didn't let the horrible heat slow us down. We started with a parade. As a first, we landed a front row seat. We think the heat kept most of the parade goers away. 

We didn't mind the smaller crowds!  Following the parade, we joined our friends for a Slip 'N Slide party, then hit our neighborhood pool for even more swimming.

To spice things up a bit, Dave made red and blue (more like green) eggs for the kiddos.

Kyler wasn't so sure he liked green eggs.

Because French braids are tradition on the Fourth of July, along with it being dreadfully hot, I even attempted to braid Teyah's hair. Officially, it was her first ever French Braid.

"You guys have got to be kidding me. You want me to ride my bike in this weather?"

To continue a favorite tradition from our previous neighborhood, the kids orchestrated a kids' parade.

It wasn't an amazing turnout, but not bad either!

 

Dave carried the 4th of July tunes, the girls dressed up the "parade floats," and we circled the neighborhood, throwing out candy to our "parade audience" of, um, maybe two people?  We enjoyed meeting a few new neighbors as we made our rounds

And the kids enjoyed the decorated scooters and patriotic outfits.

We have the most gorgeous neighborhood!

We concluded our evening at our dear friends' house with a handful of family games.

 I got to be the guinea pig for this fun game! The Cheetoh toss was fun! Not a bad style!?

And of course we concluded with fireworks.

On our walk home, we could see fireworks going off all around us in the mid-summer night sky.  There was something magical in the air that seems to come around every 4th of July. As we quietly pondered how foruntate we are to live in a free country, Aubrie turned to us and said, "I feel the spirit inside, and it feels good".