June 2020- A little bit of normal: cousin time in Utah

We spent the month of June in Utah and it was so nice to feel a little bit back to "normal" life as we were able to socialize with cousins, see a few friends, and go to St. George.

Ava and I got our hair cut together. We both went for a short summer haircut! I'm surprised Ava likes it really short (most girls would want Rapunzel hair I would think?) but she does not like getting her hair brushed, so she likes it short.

 Here is a picture after I figured out what Audrey was going to wear for the Braithwaite family pictures. Thanks Laura for the romper! We all tried to coordinate and it was hard to find a pink dress for Ava, but we got it done!

 Brent and his parents went to see the floats, covid-style, staying in the car.

 Almost all the Braithwaite cousins went to Gardner Village to see the fairies- just missing Emma here.

 Beautiful butterfly children

 The little fairy houses are so cute!

 All the boys fit on the swing. Coen seems to think he is a little squished:

Dress up tea party:

 Every day the kids ask my mom to print out a picture for them to color. They call it their "poster" and they have a limit of one per day. They think of some pretty random things and there is always a coloring page! (i.e. Mrs. Doubtfire, Sweeney Todd, platypus etc.)

 Ava was holding this moth, which I was pretty surprised about since she is always scared of creatures. She wanted to raise it until adulthood until we talked her out of it.

 The kids' new favorite spot this summer has been in the new shed out back. They go out there and play for hours! They bring some toys out there and just use their imagination.

 My dad has been working from home so during lunch breaks he can hold Audrey, and have mini dance parties with Ava and Coen. It's been fun!

 Coen is really into jumping pictures. Here he is with Kenna- nailed it!

Happy Audrey, loving all the extra attention she is getting during summer break.

 We went to visit Em- always a fun time!

 We always have so much to talk about and not enough time.

Braithwaite family pictures- they turned out really pretty! Here are a few I snapped on my phone.

 Audrey's been doing this scrunchy nose smile which cracks me up.

 Andrew's family came to visit on Sunday and we went on a long walk along the Jordan River.

 Audrey really likes these tiny rocks in the garden and wants to put them in her mouth. She looks at me and waits for my reaction when she does it, little stinker! I have to keep her away from that area.

 Audrey really loves Andrew. It's so cute! Here she is giving him a hug.

 We had my friend Erin and her fiancé over for a little double date- making smore's in my parent's backyard. It was really fun to catch up and meet her fiancé!

My dad's birthday party- we're laughing here at Preston's card. He drew a cake with a lot of candles and then wrote on the back PS. Sorry I forgot 44 candles, they didn't fit.

The next day we had a celebration for Tammy's birthday! It was so fun to have family get togethers and feel a bit more normal! 

  Coen and Ava worked really hard to earn money to buy some beanie babies they saw at Gardner Village in May. They earned a quarter each day they read. Coen was so excited to get Bruni (from Frozen II) and loves sleeping with him. Ava found a rainbow platypus but it must have gotten left during our St. George trip. :(

  Despite not having a neighborhood pool or practicing, Ava continues to be a fish. Coen is getting braver at getting his face wet, but still does not like jumping in. Audrey was a little daredevil like her sister and never complains about getting splashed. She prefers the hot tub though, like her dad.

 Progress on the St.George temple:

 Audrey loves sitting in front and helping dad drive on the very short drive to the Green Valley pool. Just look at that excitement!:

 We spent a lot of time outside, especially at night this trip. The weather was much cooler and serene this trip. The kids loved seeing the road runners and bunnies out the windows each day too. And bonus, this year I saw a fox!

Brent did a lot of research interviews on the news for his summer work. The kids made it hard to concentrate sometimes though.

We loved our walks around the condos. We probably walked or used scooters to go around the whole complex a dozen times over 2 weeks.

 Two water lovers:

Audrey and Coen loved the swings behind my parents condo one bedroom condo (that they sold during the trip!). Audrey loves being a part of the group and being included with the cousins. She also loved breaking their sand castles they would make too. 

 Cousin bonding time:

 A new adventure this year was playing in the Virgin River. Audrey especially loved crawling around and splashing in the water:

 Girl Power! 

 Ava likes bossing the other cousins around, especially for creative means. Ava and Lucy arranged a Zoo where each cousin was a different animal in the zoo (i.e. Lucy = owner; Coen = elephant; Ava = owl; Audrey = panda; Preston = goat; Nathan = tiger; Adalyn = Flamingo; Sam = ?; Thomas = alligator, Adam = snake etc.). Each family member would be introduced to an animal by the guide.

Coen loves helping Emma and making sure she is included:

Brent and the kids snuck out to the Tuacahn Market while I slept in on Saturday morning. We're so sad that all of the performances were all cancelled this year. The Beauty and the Beast sets are still in the background.

 The Braithwaite clan, when all together, practically took over the family pool.  We all did fairly well with social distancing, except in the hot tub. Luckily most of us LOVE to swim...

 Most of all Audrey!:

 Church on Sunday was great and we each pitched in. Dad did the spiritual thought, I did the primary lesson where the kids acted out the story of Ammon, and Laura did singing time. Here the kids are playing a game to guess who ended up with the Googly eyeball. Coen was not very sneaky when he had it.

 While the kids were preparing a play, the girls (and Adam) got lessons in watercoloring from Cher. It is great to see the different styles everyone has.

 Here are the end results:

 Post-play photo op...It is hard to describe the plot of the play as there were so many elements including children in a royal family on a quest to save their parents from an evil wizard and his apprentice, a troll, a dragon....and Mormon missionaries, of course. A good Sunday play to be sure demonstrating the hope that can come from the redeeming power of repentance.

We gathered at the Jacob Hamblin house in Santa Clara for Taco Tuesday.

 It was beautiful and interesting to see/hear how the senior missionaries (in the background) are keeping busy when no tours are allowed.

What a hottie...the temperature that is:

 Andrew and all of his kids adored Audrey and I think she liked feeling so loved!

 For Coen's fun time, and sometimes timeouts, he would work on placing these bingo chips in their corresponding numbers on the master bingo card. It took him almost the entire two weeks to do it, but he was sure proud when he finished.

Every summer for the last six years Brent has been dying to get one of these marble-ous machines at the Tuacahn Market, but we never had room to get it home. This year we brought our bigger SUV and he was able to finally get one. After much deliberation he chose the middle one with two different marble ramps. Ken (left) spends up to 82 hours working on these labors of love. He also makes beautiful stained glass windows, which he has all over his house.