July

 July started with a fun trip to Dierkes:

Love watching those kids having fun together.

Eve grew a flower from a seed she got in Primary:

We had a fun 4th of July. Mary and Andrew were in town with their kids. We hung out playing cornhole at Benji & Laura Lee's for awhile. Sam and Natalie organized a tournament that was fun. I ended up with Luke and we won our first won but lost our second. Joe and Natalie won it all.

After that we went back to our house to set off some fireworks. Joe bought some big ones this year which we'd never done ourselves so I was a little worried about it. It started out fun. This was our set-up:

 Then, we had one that went off kind of low to the ground and I thought we should all move farther back. We did and then the very next one Joe accidentally put down the wrong way and shot right at us until it righted itself and shot into the air. It was so freaky! We all went running. One shot into our garage but somehow didn't do any damage or start a fire. One hit Maddy's foot and then exploded after that. It freaks me out just thinking about it now. We got really lucky. Of course fireworks were done after that. Andrew and Mary left in a hurry and I didn't blame them. We tried to make ourselves feel better by watching firework fails videos but it just made me more freaked out. I was lying in bed that night listening to the fireworks going off in our neighborhood thinking that one could hit our house at any moment and explode. Scary! But so glad we were all fine. Months later, I looked at the seat of Eve's jogging stroller and found a hole burned into it. So I guess that's where it went!

Classic MTC pics:

Lizzie made it to Portugal:

With the Blackwelders, her mission leaders.

This girl loves her Daddy:

She had a blast one day playing in the sprinklers on the trampoline in the one part of our yard that wasn't ruined:

Joe and I had a great date one night sitting by the canyon and talking. Smoke in the air actually made for a beautiful sunset. I was having a rough time and I'm sure thankful for Joe who can help talk me through those times:

Love this shot Eve took in church:

She frequently falls asleep in the doorway:

I thought this was a great picture she took of both of us:

And a pretty good one of Bluey:

I took the kids to a dragon-themed library event and Eve loved her wings and hate we made:

Eli was a good sport to come along:

Joe and I went on another fun date in the south hills. It was so hot in the valley that we decided to just head for the mountains and it cooled down so much. We tromped up a hill and had a fun adventure. We even saw a moose on the way back.

Eve got to go to a birthday party and her best friend Emmett was there. They had fun swimming together. I tried to sneak a picture of them:

Nate started driving and did great:

The kids had fun dressing Maddy up in stuff from our dress up bin:

The kids and I kept trying to find Woody the rock to win a gift card but sadly, we never did. We were close but we walked right by it at Forsyth and another girl found it. We did have a fun day at Becker Park though climbing trees and playing in the stream: