July Wrap Up

A few pictures and highlights from July!

We to Highland Glen to do some paddle-boarding and kayaking. I sat back in an open grassy area and took care of Lucy and Shantel took the kids out. It was really nice to be outside and in the water. 

We did a hike with the kids and loved being outside and playing in the stream. We tried to avoid people and wore masks when there were too many people on the trail. 

Shantel's friend Kayla came to visit (See also COVID-19 hits home post). 

Shantel is in charge of stake baptisms and has been doing a great job with those. It is especially hard during a pandemic to manage, and she has been wonderful. 

Visiting family in Morgan. Shantel took the kids up and they even did a late night movie night outside. 

After we found out we had to quarantine we did a fancy dinner at home and it was so nice. 

Shantel also did a little lesson about fire!

Lydia found a little snake. 

More cousin time. 

Glad that even in the midst of some hard things, we were able to make some great memories in July.

Starting Lydia's Harry Potter Journey

 Shantel and I love Harry Potter. It is impossible to really describe how much we love the story and what a magical experience it was for us. I actually started reading Harry Potter in middle school (8th or 9th grade). The first 3 books were already released by that point and I read all three very quickly. Then I waited expectantly for each new book to come out. We would always go wait for the midnight release of the book and it was so much fun. We had many many fun conversations. On one of the book releases, my mom decorated the whole house in Harry Potter while we were gone and we came home to tons of Harry Potter decorations. As you read you become so connected to the characters and it is a brilliant book. 

We have been so excited to share it with our kids. However, we have not wanted to share it too early before they are ready. In addition, even if Lydia could read all the books, they are not written for an 8 year old. We grew into the books as we got older and the storyline progressed. We also recognize, that many/most of kids Lydia's age are allowed to read all the books and watch all the movies. We don't want to miss the window of having her be interested. We decided as an 8 year old she is now ready for the first book and are so excited to introduce her to it. We decided we would start reading so that the Chapter on Harry's 11th birthday came on July 31st and we could do a Harry Potter party. If has been so much fun to read (and super fun to try our hand at the British accents). 

Here we are getting started with the book. 

A few days later we did Harry's Birthday Party on July 31st. I think we'll make it a tradition to read a new Harry Potter book and do Harry's Potter each July 31st. We celebrated with a huge sign, decorations, chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Butterbeer, and Butterscotch discs. We read the book, wore Harry Potter glasses and Lydia even got her own special letter inviting her to the party. 

We are so excited to keep reading and enjoying Harry Potter with Lydia!

Date Weekend

 Sometimes I feel like there is big news, but it never really makes it into the Blog because it does not really make sense anywhere, so here are a couple things:

-Jenna came to visit for the summer and...is not going back to Iowa. She and Kevin are moving back to Utah. We are so excited. However, she had planned to watch out kids for a few days so Shantel and I could have a relaxing few days. See below.

-Matt and Brooklyn also messaged a few days later and told us they are moving back to live with Scott and Lori for a while. Since they were both working from home and basically stuck inside all day, they decided they might as well move back to Utah for a little while. 

We are so excited to have them both back close! 

Shantel and I originally booked an AirBnB in Logan and decided to hang out there for a few days. However, when we found out we were exposed to COVID-19, we cancelled the AirBnB while we could still get a full refund and decided to adjust. It ended up working out perfectly. 

Shantel dropped the kids off on Monday night and came home and we had the night together. Since we did not spend money on somewhere to stay, we wanted to do lots of good food. 

Monday night Shantel picked up Freddy's Steakburgers. I had really wanted to try their burger and we got custard as well. We ended up playing a few games (Codenames Duet and 7 Wonders, the two player version). It was so nice and so much fun and the food was delicious. We especially loved the fries from Freddy's. 

The next morning we headed up for a day trip to Logan. 

We started by walking around the temple. It was so nice and reminded us so much of our wedding day. It was beautiful and so good to remember that amazing day. 

Jenna said she would take Lucy, but we thought it would be nicer to just keep her since she is pretty happy to just go along, so we kept her for the few days. She did awesome and made a great companion for our trip. 

For lunch we picked up Cafe Sabor and it was so so good. We took it to 2nd dam and ate lunch and talked while looking over the river. It was so relaxing. We talked about a lot of things over the few days. The best part was talking a lot about our kids and what they need and how we can best teach them. 

Right after we went up the canyon and found some hobbit caves that we hiked to. 

After we headed to the Utah State campus to walk around and go to the store there. We could have spent hours there. We loved walking on campus and seeing everything. In fact, we might have, until a storm suddenly rolled in and we had to make a mad dash to the car and just missed getting drenched. It was one of the highlights of the day as we were just laughing once we got in the car. It starting raining so much harder right as we got under cover. 

In town we went to the bluebird for chocolate. The restaurant sadly was closed down, but around the corner they still had a bluebird chocolate shop. Then we got some bread at the Great Harvest Bread Company (and a cinnamon roll for breakfast the next day). 

On the way home we stopped by the Brigham City Temple to finish our temple tour from a few days before.

That night we were able to watch movies and eat good food. We picked up Capriotti's on our way home. 

The next day we went to IKEA to do a little shopping and found a bunch of fun stuff. We had to wait in line for a few minutes to get in since they only allow a limited number of people inside. 

 We did some more movie watching that night. We also got Summit Pizza for dinner and it was so good. 

It was such a relaxing few days and we loved the time together. We are so grateful for our kids. It was so nice to have a few days to unplug and relax and talk about how we can help our kids.