day trip.

you know those days when all you can think to do is get in the car and drive???

last week i had one of those days.  

max was screaming.  

that blessed child woke up avery who was napping.  

then i had two grumpy kids on my hands.

i called danny and he gave me some great advice:

"drive up the canyon"

so that is just what i did!

we ended up having a fabulous time.  

it's amazing what some fresh air can do to you!

max was able to take a nice long nap on the drive (something that is a rarity these days...any tips?!?) 

and we enjoyed some snacks up at payson lake.

the kids had fun wading in the water...until avery fell in!!  she is my little dare devil!  she wasn't sure about it at first, but a few minutes later she was ready to dive back in :)  max was so worried about her though.  the entire drive home he kept saying, "avery fell in the water.  i so sorry.  avery got wet.  that was so scary."  not only that but he still talks about it.  he loves her so much and is darling with her (most of the time!)  such a sweet boy.  (notice is shirt is on backwards?  he is becoming very independent these days...)

all in all, the trip was a little longer than expected but i think it was just what we all needed.

thank goodness for the great outdoors!

while they were eating.

i'm pretty sure i only take pictures of my kids when they are eating.  we must eat a lot.  or that is the only time that they sit still for more than ten seconds :)  either way, here are lots of recent pictures of these two crazy kids eating.

first group of pictures // string cheese on the front lawn while daddy was mowing.  

notice how reddish-orange the lighting is??  these were taken during the horrible fires surrounding our little town.  for about 3 days we had ashes floating down from the sky.  craziness.  so glad we've had some rain recently!  we need it so badly.  

but, back to the kids.  they are obsessed with string cheese (basically any cheese in general).  avery usually just chomps it down in a few bites unless she sees someone else peeling it (max) then she has to eat it that way too.  however, that sometimes causes her to gag :) you'll see what i mean in a minute...

second group of pictures // cherry cheeks

max thought it was pretty hilarious that he could stuff a cherry in each cheek:

third group of pictures // avery = our messy eater

max has always been pretty particular about staying clean while he eats.  avery is an entirely different story.  it doesn't phase her at all to be covered in food from head to toe.  i actually think she kind of likes it :)  notice in the last picture how tall she is getting!!  where is my baby going??

fourth group of pictures // squinty eyes

i'm not sure where avery picked up this little talent but she does it all the time.  she is such a goof ball.  lately, she and max seem to egg each other on and they both think they're so funny :)

we love the fourth.

this past week has been a good one.  

full of all of the wonderful things that come along with the fourth of july + summertime.

my sister alli & her husband tony pulled into provo on sunday evening and they were able to stay until thursday afternoon.  since danny has class at byu basically all of those days we stayed the week at my parents as well.

tuesday morning we started out bright and early at the hot air balloons.  we couldn't convince anyone else in my family to come but we did successfully drag our two little ones out of their cribs and brought them along for the ride.  max has been before (and he was especially out of it due to lack of sleep...) but avery was so fascinated and made it that much more rewarding to go.  i am not usually a morning person but for some reason i have no trouble waking up to see the balloons :)  it was such a beautiful morning!  the sunrise was breathtaking and it almost made me want to consider becoming a morning person.  however, i haven't made the change yet...

the kids always have a lot of fun playing with all of grandma shaunna's awesome toys (she puts me to shame!) and avery was drawn to all of the dress-up items.  lately she has been big on accessorizing!  i've definitely got a little girl on my hands :)

we started wednesday morning out bright and early as well by running as a family!! in the freedom run 10k!  it was quite the accomplishment.  i ran last year with some of my girlfriends but i had done zero training and totally killed my body.  this year danny & i trained a little more than i did last year (one of these years i will be extremely prepared...) but it was surprisingly much easier this time around.  the only thing i was super bummed about was we got there late!!  how sad is that?!?  we started about twelve minutes late and crossed the starting line with only the volunteers in sight.  i really wish we could have started with the whole crowd.  i needed that adrenaline boost to get me started!  i blame that on my slower time :)  we ran about a twelve minute mile so we did eventually catch up with other runners but overall we had a great time.  the kids did exceptionally well and danny was a trooper to push them the whole time.  he deserves a medal.  (which reminds me--they ran out of medals when we crossed the finish line!  i need to call someone...)

after eating a bunch of snacks & checking out our race times, we headed over to the grand parade.  my aunt's family owns a house on university so it's tradition to watch the parade in that spot.  it was a hot day but once the kids figured out how to continuously pour water on their heads they were ok :)  i loved the floats this year (tangled anyone??) & decided that i should help with the construction of a float at some point in my life :)

after naps for everyone we had a mini family reunion in my parent's basement.  i found this cute template on-line, customized it for our family and got some white t-shirts at walmart.  they turned out so cute!  i highly recommend iron-on paper.  imagine all the possibilities :)  we played a few minute to win it games and laughed a lot.  just what a family reunion should be! (ps. if you want a full list of minute to win it games check it out here.)

at six we headed to my grandparent's house for a delicious BBQ (they are the best cooks!) and hung out with family for a while until we left to meet up with danny's parents at the byu soccer game.  the field was looking very patriotic and i had a great time watching the first 15 minutes of the game :)  the kids weren't loving the confines of the bleachers so we went with grandpa frank to the mini field where all of the little (and bigger) kids were running around.  i wish i had pictures of max & avery running laps around the field but just believe me when i say it was adorable :)  there were a bunch of older boys playing a game of soccer and they both kept weaving in and out...somehow managing to never get knocked down.  it was truly amazing :)  

after the game we met up with my family again to watch the fireworks from the stadium of fire.  we had great seats and over 300 glowsticks which made for a very entertaining night :)  the kids stayed up the entire time (not sure how they were functioning on so little sleep...) but they were really good and once all of the excitement wore off in the car avery was asleep in seconds--glowstick necklace still in place!  i told you she likes to accessorize :)

how grateful we are to live in this wonderful country and to have had such a fabulous week with family.  

god bless america!