All About July

  Ahh, July. One of my favorite times of the year! The girls love to draw with chalk while we wait for dad to get home. 

  Allie loves our homemade coconut water and fruit popsicles!

  July 2nd was Charlie's birthday. Mom, Kristen, Sarah, Rachel and I went to the Hyrum Patriotic Program that evening. Of the many years I lived in Hyrum, I never made it down for it. We enjoyed picking delicious raspberries at Grandma Swans afterwards. Then later we lit off fireworks since that was one of Charlie's favorite things. Later that night everyone went up to the cemetery and sang Happy Birthday. Mostly it was a good day, though there were definitely hard times.

  Aaron decided this was a good a place as any to take a nap.

 The Fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday. There's so many fun traditions! July 3rd was the Logan Fireworks. This year we had my mom, dad, Brayden, Todd, Sarah and Chai, and my Uncle Alan and his family. We played games and enjoyed being together. I have to say, this year's show was amazing! I'm grateful to Kerry for watching the girls for us, Lydia's not too keen on fireworks so we enjoyed it a lot more without a screaming child.

  Lydia helped Aaron gather eggs from the chickens.

 The Fourth always starts off with our annual Rigby breakfast in the cul-de-sac. Pancakes, eggs, ham, fruit and hash browns, yum! Then its the bike parade! The kids have a blast decorating their bikes red, white and blue. We didn't have room in our car to bring Lydia's bike so Uncle Bruce rounded one up for her. She loved it!

  There's quite a clan now! These are my cousin's Ryan, Daniel, Jenni, Liz, and Michael's kids. Lydia is on the far left in the blue and Todd is in the back.

  This was the first year all the Rigby's decided not to go to the Hyrum Parade. But you know me and tradition, there was no way I wasn't going! I'm glad my family decided to come too. It's definitely a lot easier to save seats for less than ten people as opposed to 40! We had a great time, Lydia was in candy heaven.

  After the parade it was time for lunch at Grandma Swan's. The food is always so good, pulled pork sandwiches, salads galore, homemade root beer and ice cream sandwiches. Sarah caught these gems of Lydia enjoying her ice cream to the fullest. 

   After an amazing lunch we went back to the Rigby's for more fun on the zip line, games, and visiting. They also had fireworks and an outdoor movie later but our girls were too partied out so we put them to bed. Maybe next year. I was a truly wonderful day, as always!

  Last Friday Lydia was begging to go to the park. I gave in and we had a lot of fun. As we were getting ready to leave, I saw a large gathering at the bowery. When I asked someone what was going on, they told me Woods Cross has their weekly literacy program here. They have a guest speaker, a craft, story time, a treat and give out free books. Allie was pretty tired and I didn't bring any water for Lydia, so I decided to stay for just a minute to see what was going on. Well a minute turned into an hour, we had such a fun time! George Washington had come to talk about being a hero. Lydia listened better than I thought she would and told her dad later that she can be hero too.

  We made a paper rocket that you blow with a straw.

  On the left table were all the books they were giving away. Amazing!

  Our haul. Pretty darn good! We've read the three princess stories four times a day ever since.

  Sunday, July 8th was a big day. Loren and Mom Peck played a duet called Patriotic Meditation in Sacrament Meeting. It was beautiful and I'm so proud of them for doing it with limited amount of time for practice. They stayed for church which was really nice. I gave my sunday school lesson then helped with the lesson in Relief Society. I love my Sunday School class! I'm really going to miss them when we move. After church Chris and Kristen joined us all for dinner. It was so much fun having everyone here! All except for Sarah who was in Mexico and Maddy, of course.

  Word on the Street. Did you know there are skeletons in the Arctic? This game should really be called, "Stretching the Truth Just a Mite Too Far". It's hilarious though.

After months of traveling, searching and stressing about homes, we finally put one under contract! It's a 3 bedroom in Nibley. Although we'll need to re-paint and put new carpet in, we're really excited to make it our own and be settled. If all goes well, we'll close on the 10th of August. Thank you all for your prayers and support! I know we've been guided and blessed. We're excited to start this new adventure.

  On July 15th we celebrated our sweet Allie's birthday! It was such a fun day spent with family. We stayed overnight in Avon celebrating Chris' birthday so we just continued partying the next day. We went to Hyrum Dam and had fun in Chris' new kayak and canoe. Then afterwards we went back to Avon and let Allie enjoy her first cupcake. Lindsay made her the most amazing horse cake! It was perfect. Such a fun day!

  The fun kept going when my family came down the next day to celebrate some more! We had cake, ice cream and played games. Allie was spoiled with fun presents from everyone. Nothing gives me more happiness then being with family! It was such a wonderful time together.

  Right before I took this picture they were holding hands. Of course, when I pulled my phone out, I'd missed it.

  When I asked Lydia what she was doing, she said she was all packed and ready to go to Grandma's!

   Our favorite bench on the bike trail.

  The other day the girls and I went on a walk on the bike trail. It had rained the night before so there were a TON of snails on the trail. I'd never seen so many snails in my life! The girls were in heaven. Lydia spent over an hour moving all the snails together so they could be with their family. People stopped to take pictures of the girls with the snails. Lydia loved to poke them and watch them go into their shells while Allie just growled and watched from a distance. 

  Lydia is pretty creative with her play. 

July 23rd was the day I had secretly been dreading for a long time. It was a really hard day for Loren and I. I was glad we were able to go to church, to feel of the Spirit was greatly needed. Loren and the family were able to serve dinner at the Ronald McDonald Family Room at Primary Children's. It was fitting to be there, serving the families of kids that are going through extreme trial. We made it through the day, and I'm grateful we were able to be together, just as Charlie would have wanted. 

  As we've been packing getting ready for the move, Loren came across his Bar study materials. What to do with it? I'd love a good bonfire. 

  The Relief Society presidency left a treat for my birthday. Lydia said, "Thanks for sharing, mom! I'll have yellow and you can have purple!" 

  Snail hunting never gets old. 

  I got the most wonderful surprise the day after my birthday. It was 8pm and I was doing laundry when the someone knocked on the door. When I opened it, I found Chris, Kristen, Atticus and Sarah on our doorstep with cake and games in their hands. I was totally shocked! I couldn't believe they had driven all the way down to Bountiful to make sure I had a happy birthday. I'm the luckiest girl to have such thoughtful and sweet siblings. It really made my whole day. It would have been even more sweeter had I won in Ticket to Ride but alas, not all birthday wishes can come true. 

  My parents went to a wedding and so Loren and I went to Kearns to pick Brayden up from his state swim meet. It was fun to watch him in his relay.  He does so well! He stayed overnight with us and then went back to the meet early the next morning. I love spending time with Brayden, he's so fun and good with the girls. I'm so glad we got to spend some time with him. 

  Not sure whats going on here. A new way to eat breakfast?

  Since Sarah is leaving for law school and won't be here for her birthday, we decided to celebrate mine and Sarah's together in one epic party. Lindsay outdid herself again with a cookie dough, rock climber cake. AMAZING!!

  Homemade raspberry ice cream, cherry bars and cookie dough cake. Oh my heart. 

Kristen, Rachel and Loren put together giant sized board games. We started with Sorry and everyone from Lydia to Dad played. It was so much fun!

  Next it was time for giant-sized Word on the Street. So creative and fun!!

  And lastly, Pac Man! We even had real cherries to Pac Man to eat. This was one of the most fun birthday parities to date! I'm so impressed with everyone's creativity and kudos to Kristen for pulling it all together. She made it a very memorable day.

  Loren and I have had trouble syncing our pictures together, but think we figured it out so hopefully it won't be so long before I post again. I can't believe July is already over. One more month of summer, so sad! There's big changes coming our way and I hope we're ready for them. Here's to two more weeks before our new adventure in Nibley!