Summer Fun

Angels Game: For Father’s Day Daniel & I got tickets for Matt, my dad, Daniel, & myself to go see the Angels vs Rockies game on Friday, June 25th. We like sitting out in right field so we have a chance of catching a homerun or simply just getting a warm-up ball from the outfielders. It’s obviously far from home plate but it’s an amazing view of the whole field. We went to the same game last year against the Rockies, the Angels lost, and Daniel managed to leak through his diaper and pee on me at the very beginning of the game. This year, we saw them play the Rockies, the Angels lost, and Daniel peed on me at the very beginning of the game. Maybe we should get everyone giftcards for Father’s Day next year. But it was a lot of fun and Daniel loved watching the fireworks after the game.

River: As many of you know, I grew up going to the river every year. We go for a week at a time and sunbathe, waterski, ride seadoos, read books, hang out with my cousins and family friends, and mostly just relax. Well, since getting married, I haven’t gone every year. Matt had summer school the first year so we only went for the weekend. The next year, Daniel was a month and a half old and really what was he going to get out of it except a heat rash? Then last year, Matt & I disagreed about whether Daniel was old enough (he’s just super cautious because he didn’t grow up with it – Becca & my cousin were at the river when they were only a couple of months and that was before the air conditioned trailers) plus I had decided to teach summer school. So I was super excited to go this year. My mom and Lindsay left Friday but I was helping host a baby shower on Saturday and Matt had a meeting with Elder Hales on Sunday morning (ya – the apostle. I’ll let him tell you all about that later) so we left after church on Sunday and stayed through Thursday with everyone else. We also had my Uncle Eric and Uncle Matt along with their families come which was a lot of fun since they’re about my age anyways and between the 2 we had 5 more kids under the age of 9 for Daniel to have fun with.

The trip had a couple of issues (as it seems to have every time we go to the river). First, my mom’s trailer didn’t have working water so bathroom visits were at the community bathrooms which aren’t that bad but when it’s 85 out when you get up at 8 am, you don’t want to leave the air conditioning. Then, the other trailer we borrowed didn’t have working air conditioning so my uncles and their families were in 85 degree heat at 8 am. Then the seadoo we borrowed didn’t work. Then we couldn’t ski behind the boat because it apparently hates me. Then the trailer we borrowed had the owner come get it a day early and therefore kicked my uncles’ families out so we had a super full trailer at my mom’s. I mention all these things like the trip was bad though. Seriously – we had a great time.

Before we went to the river we bought life vests for Daniel & Matt. We tried getting Daniel to put his on at the house and he screamed!!! He hated it. We were so concerned that he would never want to put on the vest and just go out in the water without it. When we got there of course though, we made sure that he knew he couldn’t go out without a parent and his life vest. Once he realized that the vest allowed him to go splash, the problem wasn’t keeping the vest on – it was getting him to take it off! We had to drag him out of the water and make him sit under the shade and drink some water.

We had a ton of fun and Daniel liked riding on the seadoos, going for trips on the golf cart, splashing with the Harris’ dogs, playing in the sand, and singing “The Boys Are Back” for everyone. For me, it was a completely different experience. I could spend countless hours floating down river, laying out on the boat, reading books, sitting by the edge of the cliff at night looking at the stars. Now I had a baby to watch out for. We had to constantly be paying attention to him, keeping him safe, making sure he was eating and drinking, trying to keep some semblance of a sleeping schedule. But even though it was totally different, I loved every minute of it. I LOVED watching Daniel love the river. Matt also had a great time going out and battle tubing. You get 2 inner tubes behind the seadoo with 2 people on one and the middle person tries to jump to the other tube to knock the single rider off. It was very interesting to watch! I have video but I don't know how to transfer from our video camera to the computer without it being a huge file.

Plus there was the added bonus of ending the trip with one of our group traditions that we had stopped doing years ago. We all used to meet at the Pizza Hut in Blythe for dinner before we all went our separate ways. This year we did it again. And they had Martika’s “Toy Soldiers” on the juke box that we played, which was also a tradition that my cousin Randy and I had every year. Hopefully in 2 years we’ll be able to go again!

Fourth of July: Matt’s favorite holiday is the Fourth of July. He says Christmas doesn’t count because Christmas is everyone’s favorite. So obviously we love celebrating the fourth. Now I love my house for lots of reasons. But I think one of the best reasons is because of the city we live in. It’s one of the few cities in the county that allows us to set off fireworks in front of our house. Soooooo excited!!! So we decided to have my family (minus Brent since he’s in San Diego – I feel like I’m always saying that) over for a bbq & fireworks. We couldn’t decide what we were going to make so we had carne asada, burgers, & hot dogs. It was pretty much awesome. Daniel & Clayton helped me decorate cupcakes which really turned into them sticking their fingers in the cupcakes and eating the sprinkles but it was fun. Unfortunately the Tows couldn’t stay long but everyone else stuck around for fireworks outside. Between my mom, Becca, & us getting fireworks, we had 2 ½ hours worth of straight fireworks. It was awesome! We got Daniel some of those little poppers and he loved them! Then he saw that we’d let him play with sparklers and that was even more awesome. I think we spent much more time watching Daniel’s reaction to all the fireworks than we actually did watching the fireworks. He was an absolute crack up! The facial expressions! Anyways, we had a great 4th and are so happy & grateful that we live in such a great country enjoying the freedoms that we do and we’re so grateful for those who serve to protect those freedoms.

This is the firework picture that Daniel made in Nursery - so cute!