Bountiful Parade

Ryan and I and our kids were able to go and watch the Bountiful Pioneer day parade with Marlene, Tiffany, and Nate. Thanks to Tiffany who had the presence of mind to put out a blanket earlier that day, we actually had some really good seats. The parade was fun but really long. I have to say that I think my favorite part was the fact that the IHC nurses (we were in front of the IHC building) kept coming and giving us free water bottles so that we would stay hidrated. Ok that bands and the floats were really good too.
This is everyone just before the parade started. If you will look close you will see that Ryan is being his true self. It just doesn't get any better than that folks.

Tiffany was nice enough to bring licorice for everyone to enjoy. Brooklyn loved every minute of it. Daddy wasn't so sure that he enjoyed every minute of it. By the tim Brooklyn finished her piece of licorice she was covered in red and was sticky everywhere, but she was a happy girl.

Near the very end of the parade on the floats was that was coming by was giving out stuffed animals. Aby must have smiled the right way or something because on of the parade people from the float came over and put this bear in her arms. He wanted to make sure that she got it. Aby was so excited, and when we got home she told me that she wanted to name him "Teddy." When I sent the girls to get ready for bed, and went to check on them I had to laugh because Aby had taken off the clothes, hung them up in the closet, and put the shoes on the shelf with the other shoes. (this from the same girl that i cannot convince to put her clothes in the laundry hamper at the end of the day.)

This is the Place Monument

We went to the This is the Place Monument on July 20, 2007. Anthony and Sarah are in town and they wanted to go and see it. Tiffany and I had not been since we were little kids, and we were amazed at how they had changed it and how big it had gotten. I am very glad that Grandma got a year long pass, and we will have to go back and visit the places that we didn't get to. I hope that when we go back it will not be quite so hot either, we did pick a day that was 100 plus degrees. Oh well I guess that is what we get for livin' in Utah.
Here is the whole gang in front of one of the many statues that depict how the pioneers traveled across the wilderness. As you can see the kids are excited and ready to go. It only got better when they realized that they would get to ride on a train to get to the houses. You can only imagine how excited they got.

This picture is taken in one of the upper bedrooms in Brigham Young's Forest house, I was really quite impressed with how large and roomy this house was. Nothing like I remembered the other pioneer houses being. Now the story as to why Aby is lying on the ground. I wanted someone in the room when I took the picture, I actually wanted her to stand by the window, but when I said come stand here she decided that she wanted to lay down on the ground and pose, it was so cute that I couldn't resist just taking the picure.

This is the whole gang (me included) in front of Brigham Youngs house. It was a pink house, and had a wrap around porch, interestingly enough, at the time that we were there they were setting up for a wedding reception to take place later that day. What a unique spot for a reception. Here are Aby, Bryn, and Kenzie in the school house. It took Aby a few minutes to warm up to sitting in the desk, but she got right to drawing as soon as she figured out that there was chalk and a chalk board. On a side note I was teasing Braden, and asked him if this looked like his classroom, and he thought that I was nuts and said "no way!"

As our last activity we went on a wagon ride, the kids loved it. The day was not really very busy, and so we were able to take our time and enjoy the ride.

This is how most of us felt at the end of the morning. The only difference was that we didn't have a stroller to sleep in. These two are just too cute for their own good. I also think that the size difference is funny. However keep in mind that Brooklyn is only 5 months whereas Spencer is almost 8 months old.

My Accomplishment

There are no pictues that accomany the next story, but rest assured it really did happen, and I have witnesses to will testify to the truth of it.

On Saturday afternoon of the Sullivan reunion everyone was supposed to meet at willow park, this park was approximately 2 miles from the hotel at the start of Logan, I knew where is was so I didn't worry about anything. Ryan and I had taken the girls swimming, and were playing in the pool. The girls got tired, and so I decided to take them back to the room and get them ready to go to the park. Ryan was still playing with his brothers, so he didn't come. After getting the girls dressed, they were bored and so I thought i will take them on a walk. There was a huge sidewalk sale going on main street where all the stores had stuff out. I thought that it would be fun to walk through the sales. I told Ryan that I was going to start going down main street toward the park, and asked him to pick me up on his way. He agreed!!!

I started down main street, and it was only 101 degrees outside, I had the girls in the stroller, and we were haveing a great time looking at all the things to buy and walking around. I kept looking for the van and trying to stay where Ryan could see me. Pretty soon we were out of shops, and still no Ryan. I didn't want to start walking back because I might miss Ryan and he wouldn't be looking for me on the other side of the road. So I kept walking, pretty soon I was at the end of Logan, and turning to go down the road that led to the park. I was finally able to read Marlene on her cell phone, and asked where Ryan was (thinking that he was looking for me and couldn't find me...hahahah) He was just getting into the shower. I laughed and asked her to lead him to the park, and that I would meet them there.

Later on the way back to the hotel I made Ryan clock exactly how many miles I had walked, and it was 1.8 miles to the park. But that is not the end of the story, while i was walking to the park I came upon some really nice dress shirts for a great price. So after getting back to the hotel and eating dinner we piled the kids into the stroller again and walked back down main street to look at the shirts. The end total I walked a total of 2.2 miles and that doesn't include walking around the farm. I am pretty darn proud of myself.

The American Heritage Farm

After visiting the temple Ryan and I took the kids to visit this farm. Aby was so excited that she kept telling people we were going to visit a farm, and when we got back she would tell anyone that would listen what we did and what she saw and how much fun she had.
In this picture Ryan is playing a game that they were teaching people. You start with one stick on the back of your hand, and throw it up and then catch it, if you catch it you add another stick and throw both of them up and catch them, you keep adding sticks and throwing them and catching them until you miss a stick then you have to keep trying with the same number until you catch them all. I Know that it sounds boring, but it is actually very addicting, I had to pull Ryan away to see the rest of the farm, and the girl that was teaching the game was up to 37 sticks at one time.

This is actually a mountain man section that they have, and here Aby is petting a pelt I forgot which animal, they had several different animal pelts and let the girls feel all of them.

This was a favorite of the girls, they got to ride in a wagon pulled by horses, It wasn't a real covered wagon because they had rubber tires instead of wooden wheels, but it sure did ride a lot smoother than wagons with wooden wheels.

Kenzie Thought that she had died and gone to heaven when she was able to ride this pony around. She did great, and didn't want to get off. We almost had to leave because of the fit she threw when she found out that she didn't get to ride the pony any more.

Here is Aby on her ride, I hope that I don't have to buy a horse in the future, they cost too much money. Both of my girls really do like to ride and pet them though.

This is the petting zoo that they had, it wasn't very big but did have some fun animals to pet, how many people can say they have pet a turkey. They also had geese, ducks, chickens, and goats to pet.

Kenzie decided that since the turkey had been so nice to let her pet him that she would give the turkey her shoe to eat. This turned out not to be the best idea that she had.

You can barely see but there is our friend the turkey right in front of the bench. After Kenzie tried to feed the turkey her shoe the turkey really did think that they had food, so it cornered the girls on this bench and kept trying to peck at them. Aby thinking that she was about to be a turkey's lunch backed up onto the bench and started to say to the turkey "I am not food, I am not food." She wasn't very quiet about it either she was yelling it at the turkey. I was laughing so hard that it took me a minute to calm down and chase away the turkey. After that we felt we should leave before any other birds decied to make us their snack.

The Logan Temple

On Saturday morning of the Sullivan Family Reunion We had some time to go and do stuff as our family. So Ryan and I took the kids up to visit the Logan Temple. It was currently being cleaned so no one was there except a few other people who were just visiting the grounds. It never ceases to amaze me how much peace you can feel just by stepping onto the Temple grounds. Even Aby felt it, as we were walking around the grounds she looked at Ryan and I and said mom "It feels so nice here I love it." I am so glad that I could share that with her. I hope that her testimony of the gosple will continue to grow in strength, and that she will always be able to feel the peace that the sprit brings.
This is just a great picture of the Temple.

Here are my three little blessings in front of some flowers. Kenzie really wanted to hold Brooklyn, and we are very grateful that all went well.

This is that back of the Temple looking down on the valley. and We are sitting in front of the temple doors. I was very beautiful to look out onto the valley.

I am always being accused of not letting people take my picture, and I have been told to put it on the blog. So that is why this picture is here. I think Brooklyn was trying to figure out how to get ahold of one of the flowers.

Sullivan Family Reunion(Friday)

The Tanna and Merlin Sullivan Family reunion was held this past weekend on July 12, 13, and 14th. Many of the family members were able to attend, and it was a lot of fun. We were very sad that Jen and Ang were not able to get a flight out. I want to you know that you were missed and that you are loved. The reunion was held in Logan Utah. (A place that has special meaning to me because I lived there for 3 years, and graduated from the University there.) It is always fun to go back and relive old memories, and visit favorite sights. Great Grandma and Grandpa were very generous, and paid for eveyone who wanted to stay in the Westen Inn. This allowed us to have access to downtown Logan, and a pool.
On our first monring there we took a trip out to Richmond and visited the Peppridge Farms cookie factory. Here you can see Aby, Kenzie, and Kaylee all ready and excited to go inside and see/taste all the cookies. This turned out to be a lot of fun, and I have a lot of cookies to prove it...does anyone need any cookies?????

Later that day for lunch my sweet wonderful husband took pity on me and took me to the Bluebird restarant. This is a special place for my family. This is the resterant where my grandma and grandpa Andrus had dinner after they were married. I believe that due to circumstanses beyond control, both my grandma's parents had died the month previous to their wedding, and no one else was able to attend the ceremony. ( I will check my facts and change the story if I need to.) Anyway I really wanted to eat at this place to remember my grandparents. All would have been great except that Aby spiked a fever, and we had to pack up and leave pretty soon after we got there. I was glad that they Tylonal worked and she was up and running again by that evening.

The evening past time was swimming and playing games. Here you can see Ryan and he was swimming with the girls. (he played games later while I put the girls to bed, and worked on my RS lesson that I had to give on Sunday.)

Kenzie loves to play with daddy in the water.

Here are Keznie, Aby, and Grandma Sullivan playing in tube. Kenzie decided that she liked the tube a lot better than her life-jacket. I cannot say that I blame her, she doesn't weigh enough for her to get a regular life-jacket and the one that she has flips her onto her back.

July 4th

Monica and Aaron and their family were here on the 4th of July, so we spent the day as a big Roundy family. The day started with the Centerville parade, I wish that I had remembered my camera, because all of the kids were so cute. The parade was a lot of fun to watch, even Brooklyn enjoyed most of it only forcing mom to dissapear once for a short snack. It was funny to watch Aby and Kenzie they would get so excited about the floats and cars that they would forget to get the candy, Ryan and I had to keep reminding them to pick up the candy, luckily for us Braden and Karson got to most of the candy first. That afternoon We all packed up and headed for Morgan to Tylers Grandparents, they have a pool in their back yard, and we spent a few hours playing in the water. The day was capped off with dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Roundy's house, and a trip to the Davis High fireworks which I must say were incredable.
Here you can see Aby and daddy getting ready to go off the diving board.

Daddy goes first.

Next comes Aby, who thanks to some wonderful teachers (michelle) and lots of time spent in the water has completely overcome here fear of the water.

It took some convincing, but Ryan finally got Mckenzie off the diving board also. She is not so sure about this swimming thing at least when the water is deep, she is a fish when mom is around, or she can touch.

This is Mckenzie taking a cookie break, just don't tell Aby there were cookies and frosting by the time she finally was convinced to get out of the pool all the cookies were gone.

Here are the few the proud the last remaining in the pool, the rest of us gave up and got dressed. It was only later that night that Ryan and I realized he should have been the one to get out not me. The sunblock either didn't work very good, or came off, but he was really burned, and by the next day had blisters on both of his sholders. They were very sore, and It has only been this last week that he has finally stopped pealing and being in pain. We will be very careful in the future to have Ryan wear a shirt.