Pioneer Day Parade

On the 24th of July in Utah, there is the Pioneer Day Parade in downtown Salt Lake. We joined my parents, Joel and his family, and Audrey and her kids for the morning. The highlight of the parade for me was President Hinckley in a convertible. He fronted the parade and waved to everyone with a large grin on his face. There were many people in the parade who walked along the side and shook people's hands. Toward the end, Brandon finally got up the courage to shake some of the clown's hands and thoroughly enjoyed the tall clown. It was fun to see all of the stake floats and the high school marching bands. It was sunny and it got a little hot, but the kids stayed cool under the umbrellas with large watermelon popsicles courtesy of my sister Audrey. Overall, it was a great way to start the day and get into the spirit of the holiday.
Later that night, my whole family got together for dinner and fireworks. It was the first time that all of my siblings had been together in a couple of years. It was great to be with everyone and for all of the cousins to play together.

California Dreamin'

We spent the last week in California and what a great trip it was! We stayed at Audrey's house where we were joined by Joel and Julie and my parents. It was great to spend time with everyone in a layed back environment. We were excited to get out of the heat as their highs were our lows.


On our way we stopped to see the large dinosaurs. Brandon was timid and a little scared in the beginning, but he wanted to climb up the large T-rex's back by the end. Sean and Brandon went inside the T-rex into a little museum with displays about the dinosaur extinction theories. Brandon saw a volcano model that showed lava covering dinosaur bones. He called them "sticky" bones and talked about them for the entire afternoon.

We went to Zuma, a beach in Malibu. Brandon was afraid of the waves and spent the afternoon digging in the sand. Joel and Sean spent a lot of time body surfing the waves. Audrey, Julie and I were brave enough to give it a try. We found it difficult to swim out to the where the boys were because the waves would bring us back in. Then, one by one, we were thrown to the ocean floor swallowing mouthfuls of seawater. Not exactly what I call fun, but Joel and Sean enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the non-Californians were not real wise about sunscreen and we all got sunburned.


Some of us visited the Ronald Reagan Library on the Fourth. They had crafts, a patriotic band, and historical characters walking around. We all ended the evening by watching fireworks from the park in Audrey's neighborhood.


The next day, we went to a kids museum which was much smaller than the description mentioned. It was fun for the kids to touch the starfish and also play in a small restraunt. Amanda ran the restraunt and, as Joel puts it, she stopped a mock robbery.

Go Diamondbacks!

I now know that baseball is a cool sport! I had never been to a professional baseball game, just the Salt Lake Buzz back in the day. It is actually really exciting and entertaining, which came as a surprise after the Buzz. A co-worker of Sean's father is a season ticket holder and gave us their tickets for two nights. Sean took Brandon and Isaac (the foster child we mentor) the first night so that I could study for finals. Then Sean, Brandon and I went and had a blast.

The Diamondbacks won both times and Eric Byrnes had home runs both games. He plays outfield right in from of where our seats were. His nickname is "Byrnesy" (pronounced Burnsy) and Brandon thought that was really cool.

Our seats were on the front row benches. Very cool!

WELCOME!

Welcome to our blog! We're very excited to keep in touch with everyone. We've been in California this week, so Audrey is teaching me how to blog in style. We've really enjoyed actually going outside for hours at a time instead of minutes. Check back soon for pictures from our California vacation.