A post by David
We had a fantastic summer with friends and family. Most of it is captured with its own blog post, but we wanted to cover the other summer highlights (and a recap a few big summer events from other posts).
Holidays:
We had a great time with so many fun holidays.
We had a BBQ for memorial day at the Peaden house which included delicious homemade ice cream. Austin was intrigued by the whole process and loved the ice.
Independence day was spent at home. We made it to the Lehi Round Up parade with Wendy and Jacob and Aubrey. Then enjoyed a joint neighborhood fireworks show that night.
Pioneer day was another day at home with some face painting by a neighbor.
Parks and fun centers
We made a lot of trips to the park (mostly Shantel) and also enjoyed a few visits to the Lehi Fun center for the kids to go on rides.
Swimming
Lydia took swimming lessons at the Lehi Legacy Center and did amazing. She started the summer timid about putting her head under water. By the last week of summer she could swim underwater for 10-15 feet and dive to the bottom of the deep end and kick back up to the shore. One of her favorite things was winning a buoy (float tube) at the Eide Bailly summer party that she could use to float at in the water and jump off of the side of the pool deck onto her tube.
Shantel and Lydia and Austin also had numerous play dates at the pool or splash pad. This included time with Jenna, Camille and Jason and also Amy. Sometimes I was even lucky enough to sneak out of work early or take a day off to join them at the pool or 7 peaks.
Other summer highlights
We went to Boise and visited grandparents and then went camping at the beach. You can read all about that here.
Shantel treated me to a trip to Hruska's Kolaches in provo. It was so much fun and reminded us of our trip to Houston (Kolaches are popular in Texas).
Went to see Peter Pan at Hale Center Theater. We have loved having season tickets again this year. The highlight so far is definitely "The Nerd." If you ever get a chance to go see that, it is hilarious.
I traveled to Boise and Fargo to train the firm on our Knowledge Coach software that we are implementing. I also held two training's in the Salt Lake City Office. I really enjoyed working with some of the other trainers and getting such a great opportunity within the firm. In an unrelated note, I also won the first annual "Eide Bailly Rising Star" award that is given to an upcoming rising star in each office of the firm. It is a huge honor and I'm excited to participate in some of the events this fall which includes attending the annual partner meeting with the other rising star award winners.
Shantel has been busy with wedding announcements (about 4 or 5 orders over the summer).
My mom took everyone who could make it out to dinner at El Farol's Mexican Restaurant. This is the only restaurant we went to as a family (outside of fast food) when I was growing up. As kids, we usually only got to come when we got old enough and when my Grandma and Grandpa McAllister were in town. They would take us all and pay for dinner. I have so many happy memories here with my family and especially my Grandma and Grandpa McAllister. Since my Grandma McAllister past away, we have not come very often, so this year my mom asked for mothers day for money to take us all out to dinner. It was a really nice night. My mom and dad were joined by Shantel and myself, Wendy and Sam, Kevin and Amy. If you ever decide to try the restaurant, the best part is the chips and salsa, and the sopapillas.
There were birthday parties at the park (Happy Birthday Andi).
We had fun watching the Olympics for two weeks. Our favorite things were the swimming and gymnastics. We had an Olympic watching party at our house with the Peaden family side. Lydia's favorite part was definitely the gymnastics. She insisted on us building her a balance beam to use that night. Then she also convinced Grandpa Peaden to come back the next day to build a real wooden balance beam.
We went camping with the Middletons! The full trip highlights are here.
All in all, we had an amazing summer. We feel kind of like Lydia when she realized that Henry was leaving and she was not going with him after the camping trip, so so sad to see him go. Although- as a side note- Lydia as loved summer, but has been asking for a month when summer will be over because she wants it to get cold so there will be snow.
Goodbye summer of 2016! Thank you for the beautiful weather, the swimming and the adventures, we'll see you next year summer.
