Another month down

I am having a hard time swallowing the fact that summer is almost over. Next week I go back to girls camp for the second year in a row. I am very much looking forward to it. You spend months planning and grumbling and wondering why the heck you signed up....then suddenly something magical happens. It all starts to come together, you begin to see the fruits of your labor and their is an excitement in the air that is spectacular. I am glad that I get to be the 3rd years leader. I have learned a lot from this experience and very much look forward to this coming week :) Well, onto the last month.

Back in June we had a week of hot hot weather and we played it up. Luckily this was the week prior to leaving for our July 4th trip to Utah, so it helped pass the time nicely. Instead of sweating in Concord, we took the kids to Pacifica Beach in San Francisco. It was a beautiful 80 degrees. We ate Taco Bell with friends and had a good time!

Towards the end, the kids were building this massive water pit and it was fun to see all ages, spanning 1 year to 10 years, contributing to the effort. What a team! I almost didn't want to leave, but then I remembered traffic out of San Francisco on a weekday in the afternoon and yeah....we booked it out pretty quickly.
Reagan turned 5 on June 22nd!! What a precious daughter she is :) Some of my favorite things about Reagan at this age are her excitement over everything in life and how social she is. She is a little on the sensitive side, which can be bad at times, but she is one of the most compassionate kids I know. She was really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so we did a little pirate birthday party for her, but she has since moved onto Phineas and Ferb and other "big kid" shows. I actually love Phinease and Ferb, I usually sit and watch it with her. Makes me laugh :) We made little pirate booty bags for the kids that came.

We did a treasure hunt (pretty much signature pirate party game, right?) We celebrated after her party by heading out as a family to Chili's for lunch. She keeps asking when her birthday is again. I sure wish 5 year olds knew how long a year really was!

Our dear old civic hit the 100,000 mark last month. She has served us well. Here's to another 100,000!
We headed to Contra Loma with friends during our hot spell in June week. Wow, what a blast the kids had! They played all day and slept like a log till the next morning. I think I did too. This place wears you out! Here is Nolan with his buddy Josh.
Reagan and Addie with Trey (total crush) and JT.
Reagan and Justin. I also credit Contra Loma with teaching Reagan that it really is okay to put your head in the water and she has since swam underneath the water. Her nose is plugged, but still... I plug my nose :)
Laura and I took our kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito. This is a small town just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pouring rain that day, but we ended up having a really good time. I think the kids loved the painting the most.
This is a shot from our car in the parking lot of a fogged in Golden Gate Bridge.
We spent the first 9 days in Utah. We got to see almost all of our family (we missed you Jeff and Selly!) My family had a dutch oven cook off. It was really good and tasty to see all the creations each family contributed. My pizza wasn't as original as, say, Lindsey's mountain dew potatoes and chicken, but it didn't taste too bad :)

Here's the hoes, Newlywed Hoe on the left and Knocked-Up Hoe on the right.
The whole family chilling while the dutch oven cooks. Seeing the gorgeous flowers at my parents and at my in-laws has inspired me to someday landscape beyond our simple square of grass. Maybe this fall?
On the morning of the 4th, my parents cooked a big breakfast, per tradition.

Here is me and my mom, with Landen's youngest Finn.
Nolan and Chase.
Nolan, Emma, Reagan and Jane in front of the Roundy sign on the morning of the 4th. We had really nice weather! It was overcast and even rained later in the morning.
Mid-day, we headed over to the Rasmussen's. They had a huge ginormous water slide set up at the local elementary school and so Matt took the kids down it. Reagan actually went by herself, big girl growing up!
We lit lots of fireworks (love that they legalized the huge ones this year), had some amazing shishkabobs and watched the Kaysville fireworks from the hill at Burton Elementary. It was a low key day and we really enjoyed it!

Reagan, Austin, Avery and Whitney
We headed out to Park City again for a Rasmussen reunion. We stayed in the same vacation home. It was an exciting couple of days filled with canoe and boat rides, roller hockey, just dance 2 on the wii, a treasure hunt for the kids, swimming in the hot tub and of course, lots and lots of good food.

Here is Nolan with his Grandpa Rasmussen. Poor Nolan was sick most of our trip to Utah. When we pulled into Salt Lake City before the 4th, he was hoarse and coughing. Our last day there, we ended up taking him to urgent care because it had turned into croup. He took some steroids and seems all better now. But it really never fails....one of my kids ALWAYS ends up sick when we travel :)

Just Dance 2 was so much fun. I would buy a wii just to play (dance) that game. Reagan hears Katy Perry's "Firework" on the radio and immediately recognizes it from the dance. She even does the chest thump from it :)
Enjoying a popsicle at the lake, Reagan, Avery, Austin, Brooklyn and Whitney.
All the Rasmussen grandkids( minus Trae, who was sleeping) in front of the house. Notice Nolan's 2 suckers?? He lived on those here. Good times!On our way home from Park City we stopped in and visited my friend and roommate from college, Laura. She has an adorable little guy named Boston. It was so much fun to see her and catch up with her!
Matt took the kids to Hill Air Force Base museum with grandma, grandpa and cousins!
Oh yeah, cutest thing ever was some pics Matt took of Nolan and Lindsay at the cabin. (Not technically a cabin, but we like to call it that). Still got the sucker!
Life is good, it continues on and we are blessed. Love to all!