August!

So we are finally at August! YAY!!! Hopefully I can do some normal updates after this...hopefully!

A week after girls camp we went back to Utah to spend some quality time with my parents. We're usually not there for very long. So, we decided to take a real vacation with them. We get there Sunday afternoon and we plan out our week. Monday rolls around and we're waiting for my dad to get back from dropping off my niece at home when my mom gets a call from my dad. All I hear is "Are you okay?!?", "The trailer, you need the trailer?"..."Are you okay?!? What happened?!?"..."The trailer for your motorcycle? Okay, we'll be right there! Are you sure you're okay?!!!!!"..."Jake, yes he's here. Yes, the trailer.".... Needless to say my ears pricked up and I wondered what was going on. So, my wonderful mother, gets off the phone in a bit of a panic and starts talking in code, but we learned that my dad was in some sort of motorcycle accident and that he needed the trailer. So Jake went with my mom and I stayed at home wondering what was going on. I get a call about 10 minutes later and dad needs to go to the doctor. It was quite the afternoon...long story short...Dad laid down his motorcycle to avoid hitting the lady who turned out in front of him cutting him off. He, luckily (he doesn't usually), was wearing his helmet, slammed his shoulder into the pavement, rolled three times and then came to a stop. After 8 hours of going to his doc and then the ER we learned he had bruised his shoulder really well - he was in A LOT of pain, and only scrapped up his elbow, knee and hand. He was one blessed old man (sorry dad, but you are in your 60's!). He was kind of out of it for the next week. It was sad that we didn't get to do all the things we wanted to do with him, but we're glad he was okay!

Mom took some of the grandkids to Thanksgiving Point. Mary was IN LOVE!!!!

She loved seeing all the different animals and feeding some of them.

She had a great time with her cousins! They almost look like sisters!

Her ABSOLUTE favorite was riding the ponies. She STILL talks about it all the time!!!!! 

She is having a good time, despite her face.

Poor chicken...ha ha ha!

Thanks Mima for taking us!!!

On Saturday we had a fun little outing. Dad got to come with us this time. We went out to American Fork Canyon and played around.

We found a great place to go shooting!!!

Mary did AWESOME the whole time, but was pretty sleepy on the way home.

Broncos had a preseason game that we got to go to! We also got to have pre-game passes so we went down of the field before the game.

Our friends came with us too. So much fun!!!

Our seats were AWESOME! We were 17 rows from the field. It was a blast!

The half time show was a bunch of little girl cheerleaders...sorry Mary that will never be you...

Mary found her halloween costume, she's so funny! It's a little big, but she'll never know!!!

JULY!!! Almost done!!!

July was a really fun month for us as well!!! Not nearly as many pictures though, so no worries!

Mary started out July with tripping and hitting the couch. Nice bump, huh? It was huge! Poor girl really struggles with staying on her feet.

One day when we were playing outside she came and gave me a flower or the closest thing to a flower in our backyard. It was pretty sweet of her. She's never given me a flower before.

These were the only fireworks we got to do or see on July 4th, but Mary had a blast with them. She kept begging for more.

Then it was road trip time!!! She loves Lion and Sheep! She takes them everywhere! She did AWESOME on the road trip! She's so great!

We stayed with Jake's grandparents the first night. Mary had a good time with them. It's fun to watch them interact.

I wish this picture turned out better!

After the trip to the grandparents Mary and I went down to my parent's house. Jake had to work in Salt Lake City to he stayed with his grandparents. We went out to the pizza factory. Mary thought the breadsticks were pretty cool.

My mom has the monkey that is one that you'd see sometimes with old fashioned organ grinders. It plays music and hits the symbols together and when you hit it's hat to makes monkey noises at you. Mary thought he was pretty funny! We had to hide it from her at one point.

My sister's kids came over and played for some of the time. Mary LOVES her cousins! She had a great time with them!

She learned the joys of a slip 'n slide. I happened to find one at Walmart for $3 and bought it. Mary, unfortunately saw it and now wants me to put it out everyday!

Love that smile!!!

She might not look happy, but she was having a good time snuggling with Dad and her cousin.

On the road trip home we stopped at this old railroad area. Mary loves trains and was in heaven. She would tell us the names of all the trains...Thomas, Percy, Gordon, etc.

I finally bought her a bike. She's not great with it, but she's learning. $3 at a garage sale, not bad!

One of Mary's friends has some awesome toys and one of her favorites is this Jeep. She loves Jeeps anyway, thanks to her dad, but this one is her size. She thinks it's amazing! It's pretty fun to watch these two ride around in it. I have visions of what dates are going to look like........

JUNE!!! Silver Dollar City!!! And lots more!!!

So much fun!!! And so much to tell!!! This month was full of SO MUCH FUN! 

We're on our way to Branson, Missouri home of Silver Dollar City Amusement Park! Jake's family wanted to do a family trip before Kaden graduated and went off the college and then a mission. It was really fun! I'd never heard of Silver Dollar City before this trip. It was a great family amusement park. Mary had a BLAST!!! I was a little worried about how she'd do and we had our moments, but for the most part she was great! I love my little girl!

This was Mary's first plane ride, that she can remember. She was SO excited! Jake has instilled in Mary a love for airplanes so this was awesome for her. She was SO good on the airplane too! (Sorry the camera lens was a bit dirty from a little girl I know.)

They had this huge area with balls EVERYWHERE! There were ball guns, ball vacuums, ball conveyer belts, etc. Mary liked the ball gun best, go figure.

There were a bunch of little kid rides and Mary was BARELY 36" (the minimum to ride the rides). She loved them all! But her favorite was the carousel and the swings.

I think she rode the carousel about 20 times, no joke! She never got off when it stopped and no one seemed to care.

She still needs her nap to be happy...and for me to be happy. They had this train that would go on a ride for about 20 minutes or so. Everyday I would take her on it around nap time and about 10 minutes into it she would look like the picture below. 

Then I'd carefully get off and she'd sleep for about 30-40 minutes and wake-up and be ready to go again. Not the best nap, but better than nothing and I took it! Plus, the snuggles were awesome!

She had a great time in the tea cups. She kept wanting us to go faster!

Mom, Kaden and Jared came and joined us for a bit.

She loved riding all the different bugs and animals. It wasn't very comfortable for us sitting in the back, but it was fun to be with her.

Not the greatest picture of her, she really liked this ride I promise. She could do this one by herself with she thought was cool.

Can't resist these type of pictures...so ugly!

  

Mary rode these swings at least 20-30 times. She never got off this ride either...until it rained and they kicked her off.

Her are the big swings that she could ride with me. She was scared at first and hid her head in my lap, but then she kept begging to go back again and again.

She had a great time on the elephant rides. She was so fun!

At the hotel room she thought it was so fun to talk on the phone...heaven help us when she's a teenager!!!

Don't know how Jake felt about her stealing his drink, but she sure liked it.

On the way home the Pilot let Mary go into the cockpit...Jake was EXTREMELY jealous!!! It was funny! Mary on the other hand was extremely shy. (And my camera wouldn't focus! Grrr!)

Back home the ward did a park day and it was really fun. We went to a nearby park to play and run around the splash park. Mary loved it.

We went out to eat one day and had peanuts at the table. Mary had a blast cracking the shells open and finding peanuts. I think she could have eaten that for dinner.

We also went to a concert in the park and Mary had a great time dancing to the music. 

And yes.....we did potty training.....again. This time I was a little more prepared then in the past. It is still a battle, but she's doing MUCH better! YAY!

My little helper!

Our nice neighbor gave us this slide that Mary loves! 

I made this dress for Mary out of one of Jake's old shirts. I had never done anything like this and it turned out...interesting...but she liked it.

Our little cowgirl. And dancing in the rain with Daddy. Now every time it rains she wants to go dance in it.

Mom's little helper, helping herself to some cookie dough.

We did some yard work and Mary was very helpful to her Dad. It was pretty cute!

Phew! This post is done! Sorry, lots of pictures and info. We had a great June! Hope you did too!!!