4th of July Celebration

This year I decided we'd go low key for the 4th. Having a baby and trying to get naps in, navigating traffic, and  an extremely long and busy seemed like a lot to deal with.  So I decided we'd scale back this year.

On the 3rd I went to the Freedom Festival during the day with Lexie. It was honestly more fun than going with Jon. He doesn't like that kind of thing. He goes with me because I want to go, but I always feel stressed to hurry through and get out because he is impatient with that atmosphere-hot, crowded, busy, knick knacks! Haha

The boys wanted to get their faces painted. Max's is a zebra and Zac's is a skull.

Enzo was really good the whole time. Lexie was also a great help to hold him for a bit at the end. And she was great company.

Ever year, I like to buy the boys these noodle swords. This year they had light saber ones!

The boys also started karate the week before and were excited to try out catching this frisbee thing on their arms

I got these new sunglasses for $5. Really, with the attention I have available to caring for sunglasses this is the right price range for me!  I liked the freedom festival better this year, they had more craft booths and a lot less commercial than in past years. Still, Swiss Days in Midway is the BEST for crafts! I also got a couple pairs of earrings for $3 each. I wish I'd bought one more, that off white pair!

They were also giving out free dryers ice cream! We sat under this huge historic tree by the parking garage to eat it.

Zac was making some funny faces with his face paint. I missed the really good one. The paint accentuated the expression.

On the 4th we took it easy...or tried too. Jon did yard work all morning. We had an early dinner/late lunch BBQ and invited Dave and Emily and their significant others, Adrianne and Henry.

I found these patriot stars on clearance and thought they'd be fun to add a little flare to the holiday celebration.

We made homemade ice cream for the first time. We ran out of time to freeze it after, but it was ok. It was like a Wendy's Frosty.

Hanging out in the yard. They also played some Bocci Ball.

Then we went to Provo to meet up with my family to watch the fireworks.  It was a pretty hot day, so we waited a little bit at their house before heading to our spot.

My dad "flipped" a motorcycle recently and took the boys on a ride.

Max

Zac

Then Jon got to ride. He was thrilled....me...not so much!

It was a big bike, 1150. Jon did great driving it though.

Playing Sequence Junior while we wait for it to get dark. Adam was there for a little bit, it was nice while it lasted.

Enzo was sooo good!! He did have two naps since we were home most of the day, so that made all the difference.  Although, after we parked and got out of the car to walk to the spot, I realized that I forgot to bring baby bottles!!!!! I had no way to feed Enzo!!! Jon was amazing as usual and headed out to find some. The bottles Enzo uses are a bit different than the typical ones. So I was worried that if we got something different then Enzo wouldn't drink from it. It can be particular sometimes. As Jon was driving around to find somewhere open at 7:30p on the fourth of July, prayers were answered and Babies R Us was open!! That's the only place I've seen the bottles. The day was saved!

The boys loved the glow sticks that my mom brought. It kept them busy the whole evening. We even had to take them away from Max during the fireworks so he'd watch!

Its getting dark

Cuddling in their blankets

We hit practically no traffic getting to the canyon. It helps that I know my way around up in that area, we went a major back way. It was fun to take it easy and do low key. But the next day as I was looking at the freedom festival magazine, I did feel sad that we didn't get to see the hot air balloons and didn't see the parade either. This is my favorite holiday because of all the fun things to do. The balloons are one of Zac's favorite parts. He cried when he found out we weren't going to see them on the 4th.  Maybe..... we'll do more next year...maybe...

T-ball on the Neighborhood League

June 11
First Game

We missed the actual first game because we were on vacation. But this is their first game. They just got their shirts. Their team was called the Little Giants.

This is not a city league. Its a neighborhood one that I found out about through a neighbor. It was sooooo much better than the city league! The kids actually get to play certain positions that rotate around.

At this first game Zac played short stop. He did great at it!! He and the first baseman got 3 kids out! Zac threw great and the first baseman was a great catcher.  At the following games, the outfielders realized how fun it was to be the short stop. They had a hard time staying in their position sometimes, so a few kids at once would go after those shorter hits and when Zac played the position again it a race to see who on his own team could get it first :P

July 2
Last Game

Max was playing 3rd here. You can see he is really attentive! ;) He liked to play in the sand a lot.

Here is Zac at short stop. The other player on his team next to him was the coaches son, and man he was spoiled. He pretty much got to do whatever he wanted most of the time including kick him mom in public with no consequences.

Zac going after the ball. I wish I had a better picture, but my camera isn't that good to zoom that far,

Hot and thirsty

Zac at bat. He got some pretty good hits too.

Zac running from first to second

Hitting home plate!

Max goofing off walking a funny waddle walk to the plate.

A lefty! This helmet was zoo big and heavy on him. The first couple times he was wearing it as he ran the bases and it was pretty funny to see how top heavy he was. You could see him leaning to balance the weight.

Max running to first base. He often times forgot where it was. Haha :)

Max running to second

Max is on first this time, with a helper.

In the dugout waiting to bat.

It was really fun to have the boys in t-ball this year. And so much funner to watch than when he was on the city league last year. And it was great that the games were in the morning so it wasn't so hot. Zac will be too old for this league next year. I'm sad about that.

The Garden

So as I went out to water yesterday (the irrigation comes on Sunday :(  I looked at our pitiful weedy garden and decided, I hate gardening. I suck at it. I hate to weed. We've rarely gotten a good crop. We never know what the timing is to plant. A few of the rows we have planted haven't come up at all. I don't like watering with irrigation water. We have to cover it many nights in the spring so it won't freeze. We lost at least 1/3 of what we planted when it frozen one night and we didn't cover it. Its so much work! Personally, I'd rather spend my time organizing and cleaning the inside of my house, or going to the pool with the boys. And currently, I can barely stay on top of my main priorities of which the garden isn't. In my opinion, this year also got way out of control with the size. I think I can manage 3 rows. So perhaps next year, that is all I will commit to.

Anyway, here it is. Our awesome neighbors let us borrow their small tiller and that made a HUGE difference with the weeds. Jon is stellar and worked really hard to get it looking a lot better, but still so many weeds!

Jon was using the tiller, I was hanging out

Enzo was sleeping

And the boys were swinging

What about Bob?

 As I was catching up on my blog some weeks ago, I noticed there wasn't much of Zac in there. He is still around, just not around here that much. He's busy playing with friends or outside and I'm inside taking care of the baby and trying to stay on top of the house. He is doing great.  As part of the boys' summer chore routine, they also do workbooks and read. Lately, Zac has been interested in writing books, so he can do that instead of his workbook.  He wrote a fiction one about monsters, and then he wrote a non-fiction one about our vacation to St. George. He also illustrates them.  We love to see how they turn out and he is so proud of them.

Max is starting to follow suit. He'll draw pictures and tell me what to write for the words. I love them too. Its just like Max would tell a story verbally-so fun!

Here is Zac working on a book, trying to get away from the noise upstairs.

This was the day before the Fourth of July. They were playing in the sprinklers for a little bit, then they started playing, "What about Bob?"  We watched that a couple weeks before as a family and they thought it was funny.

Gil, Bob's fish is supposed to be in the bowl. And Max says, "Dr. Leo Marvis" instead of Marvin. They are funny boys.

A Fort for Enzo

The boys LOVE to make forts. This day Max decided he'd make a fort for Enzo.  There was no complaining from Enzo too. I wonder if he even noticed? He was busy drooling all over his hands! :)

You can just barely see him in there

Jon is much better at giving Enzo tummy time. He is starting to handle it much better now. And he can even roll over occasionally!