4th of July

Hands down my favorite holiday is and always has been the 4th of July. I love the parades, I love the games and food in the park, the barbecues, the snow cones, the swimming, I love everything about it. And this year did not disappoint. One of my favorite things is an excuse to get these guys matching clothes...And lucky for me even down to Lainee I was able to get to match. You can't really see it, but her little outfit has popsicles on it too. I love matching!

Of course we started off with the parade. There was actually a 5k and breakfast in the park that morning but we missed it. We drove home from a family reunion in Nevada super late the night before, and after 4 days of camping and partying late every night and all day we needed the sleeping in!

After the parade we headed to grandma's for water games and barbecue. 

Little beauty <3 p="">

After the barbecue Jake and I took the kids to the splash pad to cool off a little more. It was stinking hot...if I remember right it was like 104...we were cooking. 

After the splash pad we went home and got re-dressed. Then we headed to dinner. They had food trucks at the fireworks and they did not disppoint. Jake and I both had a steak burrito from a Mexican food truck and it was delicious! The kids had "The World's Best Corndog" I didn't try it but it sure looked good. My dad had one and said they were very good. 

The girl's matching start hair. This was after a full day of playing and swimming so it was looking a little sad by then but I still wanted a picture. 

After we ate the kids played on the playground with about 100 other kids, there was entertainment going on, but we just sat and played games. 

Once it got dark we pulled out the sparklers and did that. Then the fireworks! They were really good. Lainee slept through the whole thing, which is good because that means I was covering her ears good enough, because they were loud!

It was a perfect day!

Thatcher Family Reunion

A few weekends ago, when she was just 9 days old, Lainee got to go on her first road trip and camping trip. We headed to Vernal for a family reunion. We really went back and forth trying to decide if we were going to go since Lainee would only be a week old. But in the end we decided the kids would have fun, and I really needed to get out of the house, so we went. And I'm so glad that we did, because we had so much fun! 

The whole family went river rafting one morning and we weren't up for taking the kids on that! Still a little young for white water rafting.....So we headed to the Dinosaur National Monument for the day.

We took the shuttle to the bone quarry. These are actual bones in the rock. See that big leg bone behind Emery. It is crazy they found all of these dinosaurs right here in Utah!

After the quarry we drove through the park. There are Indian Petroglyphs in a few spots. We stopped at these ones and showed the kids.

After that we drove to another place in the park that actual had shade...it was sooooo hot....and had picnic. Then we went on a hike to Hogs Canyon. 

Little Dare Devils. Emery hikes just like her grandpa....takes off and climbs anything she can find. I was actually surprised Macie followed her all the way up there, but she did great and wasn't scared at all. I had to make them stop and come back, they just kept going higher. 

Hogs Canyon. Mostly just a place to hear a really good echo, which is one of their favorite things, so they were very happy. 

Macie blowing wishes on the hike. She said "I wish that baby Lainee would stay a baby forever and never ever get big." haha! 

We spent a lot of time swimming in the pool at the campground. The kids would never ever get out if we let them.

Uncle Colton feeding Lainee her first treats...

The next day my Uncle took us on a hike to some other Indian Petroglyphs. 

It was such a fun weekend. Even though only about half of my extended family was there, we still loved seeing the ones that we did!!

Lainee is 1 month

Our littlest princess turned 1 month on Friday and I can't believe it. Why is that post pregnancy months go twice as fast as pregnancy months. She is the sweetest and we are all obsessed with her. She gets cuddled non stop, eats like a champ, wakes up 1-2 times a night, has every one of us wrapped around her finger, and is the perfect addition to our crazy. Oh how we love you baby girl!!

Weber State Fireworks

Last night were the Weber State Fireworks to kick off Pioneer Days. Jake and I both agreed last night on our way home that this is easily one of our favorite traditions. My family has been doing this for about 20 years now, and I don't think we have ever missed a year. But I love it. We head down to save our spot, which has been the same spot for about 15 years at least, cook dinner, sit around and talk, play games, then finish it off with an awesome firework show. It is so much fun.