July Part I: St. George and a Visit from Chris

July 1- 16

We had the Dahn party at a swimming pool in Draper. We had not swam the whole year so Coen was a little hesitant at first.

The annual Braithwaite trip to St. George fell over the 4th of July this year. We love staying in the condos and relaxing down there! Brent made this mermaid for the kids the first morning:

Brent was shocked to learn Cher's kids hadn't tried Fruity Pebbles so he bought some at the store and had them try the cereal.

We spent lots of time swimming in the pool:

 Here are a couple videos of Ava and Brent going off the diving board. Ava would just run off of it.

Brent and I got to go on a date to Jurassic World at the theater. No picture, but it was fun!
Coen's new 4th of July shirt- he looked so cute! I just always want to kiss his cute little cheeks all the time but he gets mad at me now and wipes off his kisses.

The boys and girls separated for a while. The boys did stomp rocket and Dairy Queen and the girls went shopping and to Chick Fil-A.

 Every year Ava and Lucy dance on this "stage" in the swimming pool. Here's a video of the girls performing:

Brent likes to play games with the kids and he always holds their attention like this:

Happy 4th of July!

We went hiking to the Red Cliffs. And by hiking I mean walking on a trail for a few minutes to a waterfall, which is my kind of hiking :)

It was so beautiful! I absolutely love the red rock in southern Utah. Dad wanted to jump in on our picture:

Thanks Dad.

You can see where the waterfall is when it's not the dry time of year.

We went to Matilda at Tuachan and Cher watched Coen with her boys. He was really excited to have a little PJ party with them.

Tuachan was fun as always. Ava was in heaven getting to stay up late and go to Matilda with Lucy.

We went with Cher to the park by the condos that has a train and splash pad. It's so awesome! It was sooooo hot even us adults had to get in the cool water.

Dad enjoyed cheering for Brazil in the World Cup.

We went shopping at the outlet mall and Ava really wanted this purple dress at Old Navy. Here's the thing. I would have said no because I'm cheap and I usually only buy things on sale. Also it doesn't have very modest sleeves. But I kind of left her coloring at a table and wandered off for a while. When I came back to the table, she was gone. It had been quite a while so I started to get worried wondering how long she had been missing. Right then she came around a corner with tears streaming down her face. She had been lost and was scared. I felt so bad. So I bought her the dress.

We all went to Outback Steakhouse. Coen has squinty eyes when he smiles. And he melts my heart.

St. George was filled with lots of swimming, eating, movies, shopping, walks at sunset, games, and laughing. And then it was time for Cher and my parents to go home, dang. We stayed for two more days. We went to the splash pad:

And had a water balloon fight at the condo. Brent and I played catch with the water balloons and I was always the one to get wet!

Here's a little video of the kids playing with the water balloons:

We went on our walk along Main Street in Santa Clara as we always do. Ava was pretty moody and didn't want to walk.

We went to Dairy Queen for Brent's free ice cream. After Coen ate, he put his fingers in his water cup. I was grossed out and asked him, "Why did you put your hands in your cup?" He responded with a tone like it was so obvious, "I'm washing my hands cuz they got all dirty." Word for word. This boy talks in long sentences at age 2 1/2. I love his talking so much. Here's a little video so I can remember how cute it is.

We drove to Mesquite on Sunday and went to church, then to visit Brent's brother's family. Then we went to Vegas! We went to the Bass Pro Shop at a casino:

And saw a real life mermaid show:

We walked along the strip for hours and enjoyed the sights and free stuff:

My favorite thing in Vegas is Bellagio:

Ava at the MnM show, Ava was sad she "didn't look cute" in the 3D glasses. Ha!

Coca Cola store:

They just looked so cute looking upward in their stroller:

It was late when we left Las Vegas, but we hadn't had dinner yet so we stopped in Mesquite for primer rib at like 10 pm. The kids were sound asleep and I felt like irresponsible parents.

We got back to SLC on Monday barely in time for Brent to go teach his class. Tuesday was Chick Fil-A day which we're all over. Ava drove over to Chick Fil-A as Elsa. 

Our little cow:

My mom took the kids to the Gale Museum while I worked:

In the evening the sunset was gorgeous!!!

One early morning Ava started throwing up. Ughhhhhh. She was sick all day. In the evening I wanted to take her for a walk to get out of the house but she only made it for a few minutes and wanted to go back in. Brent, Coen, and I went for a long time though. I asked Brent lots of questions all about the people that have lived in these houses for decades. It kind of boggles my mind.

On Friday the 13th we had an outdoor movie and watched a Hitchcock movie for a scary theme. Chris flew in to visit us.

We basically all got Ava's sickness on the weekend which was bad timing. But Brent still went out with Chris and they hiked Ensign Peak, and went to Temple Square, Trolly Square, etc. The kids and I met up with them at the Planetarium and then we got gelato.

I'm not sure how, but both of my children got full red lips:

Chris, Brent, Bob, and the kids went up to Silver Lake:

Zoom in on Coen's face here:

On Monday night Chris took us all to a fancy steak restaurant. Ava's kids meal was gigantic!

 I found this Marco Polo Ava had sent Ashlie at the restaurant. I was confused why her voice sounded like this and found out you can change it in the settings. It was cracking me up so bad!