Summer Vacation - 4th of July Celebrations

I have way too many pictures, so this is July part one post!

We celebrated my grandpa's birthday at my parent's house the day before his actual birthday, which is the 4th of July. Some of my favorite memories growing up are my grandpa's birthday parties- playing with my cousins, bbq, birthday cake, and fireworks at night. I sure love my grandpa. He is so selfless and so so funny.

Here we are singing happy birthday to him.

Jeri and I joking that we should stay far back to sing to grandpa because he doesn't want it to be loud ever.

Andrew meeting his namesake for the first time! Coen loved Andrew right off. He wanted Andrew to hold him, maybe so that he could get closer to touch his beard?

 Here is a video of Coen learning how to scoot (July 3- almost 8 months):

The 4th of July- we went to the candy parade!

The fire truck that goes at the beginning of the parade is pretty loud. Coen did the biggest pouty lip when he got scared, but he didn't actually cry!

Beautiful Ava in her patriotic colors.

I have tons of pictures like this in front of my grandma's house from when I was a kid.

A few family pictures in our patriotic colors. We had a bbq at Nana's.

After Nana's, we went to "Grandma Tam's" as Ava calls her :)

Coen is now old enough that Mark will hold him :)

Playing with cousins

Ending the night with fireworks! It was a great 4th of July!

Ava started swimming classes at the rec center. She absolutely loved it and did so well!

Playing at the park with Preston:

Preston loved Coen and helped feed him his bottle

My parents took Ava to the zoo for me while I worked one day. She was so happy to spend time with her cousins!

Slip n' slide in Grandma's yard.

My mom was in charge of a Chinese exchange program again. This year we hosted two boys at the house, Erick and Michael. It was so busy, because Brent was the assistant, and I had to fill in when Brent was working. Between the two of us we were working a ton, and also trying to help do activities with the boys in the evenings.

Brent went on the down town excursion with the Chinese students and they went to the visitor center. Several of the kids requested Book of Mormons.

Ava also went on the excursion and took a nap at the library because she was exhausted.

Another day Brent and my dad took the boys to hike Ensign Peak:

Cute little Ava in her hat, trying to keep cool

They also went to the Capitol building.

I stayed home and worked, because I was really busy at work during this time. I put Coen in the pack n play, hoping he'd play for a bit but he was so offended I wasn't holding him. He put his face down and cried:

Selfie, at the request of Ava:

Another day of swim class for Ava (she went twice a week for half an hour).

This time didn't go so well because her substitute teacher was a BOY! She screamed bloody murder the whole time as you can see in this picture below:

Luckily the rest of the time Ava had girl teachers for swimming class.
Coen being so cute at the Chinese social at the park:

The Chinese boys brought us all gifts from China. One of Ava's gifts was this pink headband which she made Coen try on. His face is so funny in this picture. Ava was saying "oh cute!!!"

We got to go on a double date with Emily and Tim to Brick Oven. It was so much fun. I wish we lived close again. Some day, right Em?