July 2024

We didn’t do a ton on the 4th of July. It was so hot we didn’t want to do any parades. Kenny took the kids swimming and then we hung out on our street. Jessica and Andrew have put on a good fireworks show for years and so we always look forward to doing our block party and fireworks every year now.

Kelli and the kids came to town so we spent the next couple of days playing with them before we headed down to California. It was so good to have them here. The kids loved playing with Erika and Ryder. They are the cutest!

We had a fun trip down to California! First up was swimming with the Poulsen kids… so many pictures because Mandy takes the most beautiful pictures and I love them all!

We even got a date night in and went to a Taiwanese restaurant at the mall in La Jolla. It was delicious and then we walked around the most beautiful mall.

We were in California at the Poulsen’s house for Trey’s birthday. Avery made the letterboard for him and Mandy made him a cake! He loved his presents as you can see on his face haha:

We headed to the beach for his birthday. More beautiful Mandy pictures too!

Trey has really wanted to go mini golfing lately and we don’t have any good places for that in Vegas so we thought it was the perfect thing to do for his birthday down in San Diego.

Other fun things we did in San Diego… went by the San Diego Wave stadium (professional women’s soccer team that Alex Morgan plays for), drove by the Padres stadium (professional baseball team), shopping, and walked around the temple.

Once all my family got there, we stayed at a house in Rancho Santa Fe. There were horses that the kids could pet, Mandy took our family pictures and Trey’s baptism pictures, and the kids played with all the cousins.

Whale Watching! Mom gave the kids whale-watching tickets for Christmas and July was the first time that we could all go down together. It’s not usually the best time to see whales, but we figured the experience would be good no matter what. We saw dolphins right away. So many of them. And they swam right in front of us and were so playful. We thought that was so fun and thought even if that’s all we see it will have made this worth it. But then we saw a mola mola (I had never even heard of this) and then we saw two blue whales! It was incredible! The captain was freaking out because they don’t usually see blue whales! It’s super rare! He said only 1% of the population will ever even see a blue whale and we saw two! They are the largest animal on earth. They are 80-100 feet long and their heart is the size of a mini cooper. We were so close to them too. And they really were so huge! Poor Kelli was so sick and me and dad weren’t much better haha. But everyone else did pretty good!

We had a great beach day. I loved playing Cross Net and the big kids are so good at it now so that made it lots of fun! Kenny loved holding Erika and they even got a nap! Ryder loved playing with all of the cousins at the beach. They dug a huge hole.

Sky Zone… we met Kelli and mom at Sky Zone so the kids could play and Ryder loved running around with his cousins! Erika had fun walking around on the trampolines too!

Surprise Party… We got Trey GOOD! He was obsessed with this Golden Birthday idea (since he turned 8 on the 8th) and he wanted a huge golden party- everything gold. Then we ended up doing a trip to California so we didn’t plan a party. Although, I was secretly planning him a surprise party for when we got back. And we did it. He had no idea! Kenny took him to Target to get him out of the house and when he got back he had friends and family here to surprise him. He was so shocked! And excited! We decorated in gold and did lots of water games. The water balloon launcher was a hit! We loved celebrating him this way and the kids were all so giddy waiting for him to get here. I think everyone loved it!

Waiting to surprise him…

Such a fun party!

More summer fun…