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August 6 - Camping with the Colvin's The girls love going camping and if we're going camping in August, we've got to get out of the valley to where it is cooler.  So, we went way out of the valley all the way to Julian, California.  We went with the Colvin's and had a great time; they're tons of fun to hang out with.  Emma stayed close to us most of the time, but the girls would go off and play in the dirt and they loved every minute of it.  More than once Laura took off her shoes and filled them with dirt.  We ate great food (and way too much,) and the girls mostly ate cookies.  (Laurie knows the way to Emma's heart.)  The girls watched a movie in the van while us big kids played Sequence.  It was fun, but once again the guys dominated.  The girls finally fell asleep and then we enjoyed the stars (and played with the Google Sky Map App on my phone), and waited for the fire to die down.  Luckily for our neighbors we decided to sleep in the van rather than set up a tent, which hopefully blocked out a lot of Emma's crying at night.  Craig & Laurie had to head home early the next morning, and so we headed out shortly after them, but we didn't go home.  I'll tell more about that in the next post!  Pictures

July 24 - Pioneer Day This year for Pioneer Day, our stake put on a parade, dinner, heritage displays, and had all kinds of fun activities for the kids.  There were so many people there.  We try to support the stake activities, but we have never seen a turnout like this before.  We first walked in the parade (the girls rode), then we waited in line to get our food, then another line for snow cones, and then another line for train ride (of sort.)  There were a lot of other little game booths with lines, so our girls climbed trees instead.  It was HOT, only 111, but I think it felt hotter to us because of our clothes.  We had a great time but I'm glad we only have to dress up once a year.  (And this year I didn't have to sew anything new!)  Train Video / Pictures

July 12 - Chance of a Lifetime, Again We thought we had better take advantage of our Club 33 connection one last time and planned our day.  We invited friends who had expressed interest in going, and got the reservation.  One of our friends was unable to go, so then I called Shelly to see if she'd like to meet us there.  And at the last minute (or night before) Paul drove down to Bakersfield so he could accompany Shelly on the drive because we had an extra ticket into the park (thanks to Craig.)  So on Sunday night we left our girls with the Ruppenthal's (you guys are amazing!) and headed to Yuma.  We left early the next morning and met everybody there.  We did the Matterhorn, Billy Hill & the Hillbilles, Captain EO, and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters all before meeting up with the Inman's outside Club 33.  Our reservation was for 2:00 for 6 people.  We asked if we could make it 7 (so Paul could come in too) and they said OK.  (So please excuse Paul's casual clothes, he hadn't planned on dining with us.)  Lunch was awesome!  The salad/appetizer and dessert were served buffet style, so we all took advantage of that and ate way more than we should have.  Such a great day and so glad we got to share it with such fun people!  Marc has always reminded me of my brother Paul, so it was funny to see them together doing such similar things.  Afterwards, we rode on Pirates and Jungle Cruise before we said goodbye to Shelly & Paul.  We hung out a while longer and worked on this year's challenge while Shelly & Paul played on all the big kid rides until the park closed.  It was more crowded than I like, but it's amazing how quickly you can move through a crowd when you don't have to push a double wide stroller.  Now that we've had a little taste of getting away without the girls, who knows what we might do next....  Pictures

July 10 - Dobbins Point We celebrated Bret's return from scout camp by going to Dobbins Point at South Mountain.  We had never been there before, and the view was absolutely amazing!  We got there when it was daylight and ate our Subway sandwiches that we had picked up on the way.  There were lots of people up there taking pictures and hanging out.  The sunset was awesome, then we waited around until all the people were gone and enjoyed the beautiful city lights all alone.  Bret brought his guitar and serenaded me, it was very romantic.  If you're local, you got to go check it out; the pictures don't even come close to doing it justice.  It is definitely worth the drive, and it's free!  Pictures