While Brent, Ava and I were in Europe, the younger 3 were with both sets of grandparents. I received some pictures of what they were up to-
Kai had lots of fun at the zoo:
These two cutie brothers were with the Cowley side on the 4th of July, up at Bear Lake.
The boys enjoyed a parade and caught a lot of candy.
Kai stayed back with my parents and really enjoyed his hamburgers and french fry lunch.
Coen and Audrey got to go later too!
The next day was Chick Fil-A day, wohoo! We drove to Laura's house and had fun dressing like cows with them.
Grandma Tammy bought these cookies that the kids had a lot of fun decorating.
We got to go out to lunch for the kids' birthday lunch with my parents to Tucanos. My kids LOVE steak and they ate their money's worth!
Marcie helped the kids make and decorate cake pops:
Ava and I went to see Jordan be Tarzan. It was so good! Thanks mom for the tickets and for watching Kai!
Ava and I watched the World Cup final at my parent's house. We cheered for Spain and they won! It was a very exciting game.
Tammy is in Activity Days and invited Coen to go to the day camp. He was nervous to go but we encouraged him and he ended up having lots of fun.
Kai was so fascinated with the little potato bugs. I love how kids help you slow down and look at the world again.
Putting these 4 rowdy kids to bed every night was a chore! Often for our Come Follow Me we'd sing Primary songs. The kids got really in to singing a song they were learning in Primary called "Daniel's Song."
I called the airline to try to rebook him, and the soonest they had was for 48 hours later. Brent had already been traveling for a full day (Denmark to Germany to Philadelphia), and I was counting down the minutes until he was back. We were so bummed! He waited in a really long line in the Philadelphia airport to speak with an airline worker. They were able to put him on a flight to Las Vegas, then to Phoenix, and then to SLC, and he'd arrive home on Wednesday morning at 11am, only about 12 hours later than originally scheduled.
Kai loves animals and loved petting Lottie. Here he is laughing because Lottie licked him.
Kai loved this little roller coaster in Laura's yard. We were worried if he was big enough for it, but he not only went down, he used his feet to accelerate faster haha.
Audrey and Olivia played in these tents for hours one day!
My happy little Kai was actually not so happy a lot of July. I think a combination of not being home with his normal routine, and getting so many teeth this month made him extra grumpy. He also woke a lot in the night. Exhausting for me, and also sorry to the grandparents who were babysitting him this month!
On a day Natalie was babysitting they went to the South Town mall for a beach activity:
Mark bought a new trailer and Kai really loved running around in it.
Ava and I went to see Jordan be Tarzan. It was so good! Thanks mom for the tickets and for watching Kai!
Kai learned very quickly where the popsicles were in the freezer. He begged and cried for many popsicles this summer haha. Here's a video:
Bob & Tammy went to St. George so I was on my own for a couple days until Brent returned from Europe. He was supposed to return Tuesday evening, but as he was landing in Philadelphia from Europe, we saw that his next flight was canceled. There were bad thunderstorms in the East and thousands of flights were canceled! We had some rain in Utah too:
The kids made welcome home signs while I went to pick up Brent from the airport.
That night we had my parents and my grandparents over to dinner. We love staying in this condo and these are core memories for our kids each summer!
The next day we had swim time at Andrew's (old) swimming pool. His in-laws still live in that community, so we were still able to swim there this year. Look at these two little ones!
We did a sticker craft at my mom's condo afterward:
All of the girls went to Grease at Tuachan. It was so good!
We all met up and had fun playing at the arcade. The older kids did laser tag.
Then we took some unofficial family pictures that night. Grandma & Grandpa and their 14 grandchildren:
Great Grandma & Grandpa Hansen with the grandkids.
Coen and Nathan had a sleepover at Grandma Hansen's condo. They had a lot of fun and played games and giggled.
The next day we went to Provo to see the Gates of Paradise in the Museum of Art at BYU. Sister Gray, who discovered the art pieces at BYUH, gave us a tour.
Thanks to Tammy for babysitting on an early Saturday morning! Kai LOVES trucks and wanted to sit on this one.
That afternoon we met up with Emily and her family and swam. We talk a lot through Marco Polo during the year so it was so good to see her in person!
We also had Bob & Boston with us.
She was so excited to have cousins come celebrate her.
Laura and I discovered we were almost matching. I love this little sister of mine!
We looked at all the souvenirs (so many Legos) that Brent brought home from Europe. We unpacked, did laundry, and repacked for St. George. Brent and I went out to Mexican food on a little date. Then the next morning we went to pick up our rental car and we were off to St. George. Brent said his jetlag wasn't too bad and even drove us.
Kai after swimming- I think this is about how we all felt!
My parent's tallest and smallest grandsons, hehe. Preston is 16 and about 6'3.
The next day my sisters arrived with more cousins and more fun. We spend a lot of time in the pool:
On Sunday the timing worked out perfectly that we could go to McKadie's farewell in Mesquite. I'm excited she's going to learn Spanish in Argentina! We were also able to spend time with Brent's parents and some of his family that was in St. George for the farewell.
On Sunday evening we toured the St. George visitor center with my parent's friends who are missionaries there.
Then we went back to my parent's condo and had sandwiches together and watched a movie. Kai hung out in the sink for a long time- the water makes it his happy place, and it's helpful to contain him!
Coen and Audrey went to Finding Nemo at Tuachan that night:
Cher, Thomas, Brent, Kai and I went for a drive up Snow Canyon. It was a beautiful time of night!
I worked some of the mornings on this trip since I was feeling behind after being off for Europe earlier that month. Brent took the kids swimming while I worked.
That afternoon we all went to Minions & Monsters. It was.... not the best. But the kids still had tons of fun.
We all went to Del Taco afterward and took up a whole side of the restaurant with all of us.
The next morning we went to the dino park. We went nice and early before the crowds came. There was only us and one other family in the park, and they came over the speaker and announced that the train would be leaving shortly. Brent and I looked at each other and decided we better run over and buy tickets and get on the train!
Laura's kids came after a little bit and we did the splash pad. Coen asked me to take a video of him. Poor middle child, I need more videos of him!
Grandma, the treat giver.
In the meantime, Cher, Andrew, and my dad took the teens to some sites downtown. They went to the historic courthouse:
Outside the Washington County building with Washington himself:
We went to lunch at the Pasta Factory, Brent's favorite.
Ava went with Cher's family to do baptisms.
Our little family:
Cousins eating treats after the pictures:
When I went to make sure the boys were going to bed, Nathan asked Grandma if they had a Book of Mormon in the condo. She gave it to him, and then I peeked in the room and saw him and Coen taking turns reading verses before bed.
We went to visit Lucy who was watching Laura's girls in their condo. Here's a video of what the girls were up to- singing Benson Boone while upside down:
On the way home from St. George we stopped and visited the Wolfersbergers, our old duplex neighbors from Hawaii. We had lots of fun seeing them. Ava rode home with Cher since I had only rented a 5 seater car- thanks Cher!
They are beautiful! I didn't get too much of the tour since Kai just wanted to run and this museum was not the place to do that. So we spent lots of time walking around outside. After this, Brent went to visit Brother Rojas for his birthday.
Saturday morning at 8am Brent and I went to see the Odyssey on the IMAX screen. Yes- 8am! We had a lot to fit in that day. We had just bought the tickets the day before and it was so crowded, so we didn't even sit by each other! The movie was very good though.
That night and Sunday morning, we organized, packed like crazy and cleaned the bathroom etc. It is a process to get ready to go back to Hawaii!
On Sunday after church we went to the new visitor center downtown. They have temple replica rooms, so here is our family in a sealing room!
That night we celebrated Audrey's birthday!
And that concludes our summer. Brent was only in Utah 12 days this summer- most of which was in St. George. But our kids start school the first week of August, so we flew home August 3.
