The Hot Air Balloon Festival

The colors were so beautiful against the blue sky!

Annabelle and Stockton had never seen anything like it before :)

Stockton's favorite balloon was the big pink pig! He watched it from the time it left the ground until it was completely out of sight!

I was worried for this man :)

Taking it all in

More beautiful colors

This is a peaceful sight--both of them are so content :)

There is always something beautiful about the red, white, and blue in the sky!

This balloon was giving people little rides, but the line was huge. Josh and I discussed me going (because I really wanted to), but the line was just too long! Maybe next time :)

After the balloons had all taken off, the kids got their own balloons to decorate! Annabelle got to choose facial features for hers and tape them on. Stocky just wanted to color his with markers :)

What a beautiful morning! We got the kids up early and dragged them down to Sandy City for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. We had to be there by sunrise, but once we arrived it was all worth it! The kids were in awe, and it made me so happy to see them exploring something new and taking in the gorgeous sights. It is so hard for me to get up early when I don't have to; I have never been a morning person! Nevertheless, the mornings when Josh and I force ourselves to get up early in order to do something fun as a family, I always love it and want to do it more! Some of my favorite activities as a family involve getting up and out of the house early: 5K races, hiking, etc. This experience was no exception. We had a wonderful, relaxing time! Before heading home, we stopped at the grocery store for donuts and milk, then dropped in on my parents to visit for the afternoon. A perfect summer day!



Get up and Get out

"I'm too sexy for this pack"

Striding it out

Just a little morning rock climbing

Yep I'm a model :)

Happy to be sitting after a challenging hike

Every little boy needs do this with their dad during the summer! So cute! Stocky was in little boy heaven!

Relaxing playtime for the kids. I love how they just kind-of separated and starting doing their own thing in the dirt :)

Handsome husband and strong baby carrier :)

The lake!

What they did when I said to pose :) Liv posed with her stick and Annabelle threw up her arms. Haha

Sliding down dirt hills and loving every second!

Uncle Josh

Aunt Robyn

Parents and lovers :)

Hmmmmm...in hindsight...why was I allowing him to eat something with those dirty hands?!

Liv on the way down--still plenty of energy to spare :)

We woke up the girls bright and early to go for a hike up at Brighton. It was such a great little hike for the kids! Pretty challenging for them to feel like they really accomplished something, but not too challenging where they complained a lot. They all did great and especially loved the parts where they got to climb up the rocks! Josh was a trooper with Stocky on his back--I do believe this is the last hike Stockton will ever be photographed in the backpack :)

Activities like this remind me of when I was young and how much we loved going on little hikes and playing in the water in dirt. It makes me so happy to see children out hiking and experiencing nature. They are away from the city, getting dirty, seeing something they've never seen, and allowing their imaginations to guide their play with nothing but mother nature to use as "toys." :) Josh and I both talked about how we need to make an effort to do this much more with our kids in the summertime.

When we got back to the car, we had a lunch packed for each of the kids that they devoured on the car ride home :) We returned Liv back to her house ready for bed at 1:00 in the afternoon :) What a great time for the girls--they had a blast during their time together. And as always, we loved having Liv in our home!



Girly Giggles

They were so giggly :)

Beautiful eyes. Beautiful hair.

They came up with this little pose all on their own

So cute!

Annabelle and Liv had a great time at their sleepover! They laughed, told each other stories, tested their theory about whether toys could move went you weren't looking (Conclusion: they definitely move when you're not looking)! :) They talked and giggled well into the 10:00 hour, but they were still great little girls! And hey, what's one late night every once in a while when you get to make treasured memories with your cousin?!