4th of July - Park City

My parents and Matt were up at Park City on vacation during the week of the 4th of July.  Jeff had a couple days off so we went up and joined them for a few days!

 On the 3rd Jeff and I went to the Oakley Rodeo!  I love rodeos :)  And Jeff... well he knows how much I enjoy them ha ha.  

On the 4th we went to the Park City parade... kinda lame, really long, and WAY too hot!  We filled the afternoon with games and swimming, then walked over to the Park City ski resort to watch the fireworks!  Best Fireworks I've seen.  They were fun and we had great seats!  And it was really nice that we could just walk to and from and not have to fight traffic.

Home Sweet Home

One of my high school best friends came home from her LDS mission in Russia!  We went to her homecoming a couple weekends ago and it was SO good to see her again!!

So happy to all be reunited again!

Love these girls

Family Pictures

Family Pictures we took up at Midway:

(Thanks to Maridee's sister Kaylee for helping us take these)

 My family is pretty great :)

All the grandkids

 You can totally see each of their personalities in this picture ha ha!

Twenty-Three

We spent my 23rd Birthday in Colorado Springs at my sis-in-law's house!  We flew out there Sunday night (the day we got back from our family vacation in Midway) for about 4 days.  They were in the process of packing up and moving out of their house, so we were there to help - mostly with entertaining the little ones :).  It was fun to see them and the kids, and to hang out in Colorado one last time before they move out to Boston.  

On Tuesday, in between moving days, we all packed up and took a trip to the park.  Being a really hot day, I was hanging out with my niece in the comfort of the shade underneath the playground.  Suddenly I found myself surrounded by children.  One in particular - a chubby little boy with a high pitched voice, probably about 3 years old - had me laughing pretty good.  He was asking me if I would go with him down the big curvy slide.  Thinking that his mother probably wouldn't appreciate some strange women taking her child upon her lap and going down the slide, I asked him where his mom was and to go ask her.  

The rest of our conversation went as follows:

Boy:  "but I want YOU."

Me:  once again... "Go ask your mom to take you down the slide."

Boy:  "but... but... you're the CUTEST Mom!"

I was totally flattered.  Ha ha!  I love children :)

So, my birthday was on Wednesday, and unfortunately Jeff got called into work and had to fly out at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  He felt pretty bad about having to leave me on my birthday, however before he left he tried to make the day as special as he could.  The two of us gathered up our niece and nephew and took them swimming!  Brielle (almost 3) and I had fun making waterfalls and filling up buckets with water, and Colson (14 months) had a great time diving into the water and drinking it up ha ha.  There's no fear in that kid!  It gave Jeff and I a good taste of what it's like to be parents of two :)

After swimming we came home to a wonderful surprise cake that Kristin's friend made.  It was delicious!  I didn't think I was going to have a birthday cake so it was a great surprise.

I left Colorado Springs on Thursday and met up with Jeff in San Diego where we spent the rest of the weekend helping Jeff's brother move!  They just bought a house, so that was pretty exciting.  Everyone kept teasing us that we were just the family movers and that our next stop was St. Louis to help my in-laws who are moving to Boston this summer.  Ha ha... But we were very glad that we could help out!  

  The end of June was a very, very busy couple weeks for us!  But lots of fun as well!  It was great to spend so much time with family members.

Rau Family Vacation

Right after our trip to Chicago, Jeff had to go on a 4 day trip.  Then the day he got back we drove up to Midway to meet up with all of my family for a weekend Rau Family vacation!  We stayed at this cute Swiss resort up by The Homestead and crater.  

It was a weekend full of laughter!  We had a great time playing lots and lots of games (of course), volleyball, spikeball, swimming, eating yummy food and plenty of treats.  

 Grandpa's Candy Store

Maridee's sister Kaylee (who is my age and also went to USU) is living with them this summer and got to come up to Midway too!  

The twins first time swimming!  Not so sure about it at first...

The girls eventually warmed up to the idea of swimming and got a kick out of splashing the water (leaving their mom and grandma soaked ha ha)

A family train... with me as the engine!  I was pulling Brynlee around the pool in her floatie and somehow picked up a bunch of hitch-hikers :)

Riding the carousel 

Brynlee kept telling me that she was going to ride a bear... and she ended up on this one.  A wild Boar!  Ha!  She didn't notice the difference :)

I love this one.  Look at the face!  Do you think he liked it?!

Lexie is just growing up so fast... she lost her first tooth that weekend!  And the tooth fairy managed to find her even on vacation :)

The resort had some random goats on their property, and Brynlee had fun feeding them with Jeff!

We also, with the help of Kaylee, took some family pictures that I will post later after I edit them. 

A Thousand Feet High

These last few weeks have been super busy for us... we've been bouncing around from place to place, and Jeff hasn't had a night at home since like 2 and a half weeks ago.  It's been constant go-go-go, but it has also been tons of fun!

A few weekends ago we took a short trip out to Chicago for Jeff's cousin's wedding!  Jeff is from Chicago and we've been wanting to take a trip out there for a long time.  Unfortunately Jeff had to work right before and after so we were only there for a day pretty much.  

We flew in Saturday early afternoon and went straight to the wedding ceremony.  It was great to see most of Jeff's extended family and meet the cousins I hadn't met yet.  After the ceremony we had a short break, so we used our time wisely and walked to Garrett's Popcorn :)  My mother-in-law's favorite!

 The wedding reception that night was the coolest reception I've ever been to.  It was held in the Willis Tower (aka the Sear's Tower) on the 99th floor and we had the most AMAZING views of the whole city and Lake Michigan!!

We also got free VIP Skybox access on the 103rd floor!  It was pretty much a glass enclosed balcony (including a glass floor...yikes!). 

It was a weird, freaky, terrifying feeling stepping out onto the that glass floor suspended over a thousand feet above the street floor... ha ha, but totally worth it!!

Jeff's family minus his sister and her family, and his brother's little boy

The reception was full of delicious food, visiting with family, and lots and lots of dancing!  Being on the 99th floor we had such amazing views of the city, sunset, and city lights!  We also got to see a lots of fireworks and even lightning!!  Totally awesome!

The next day all of Jeff's extended family met up for lunch to celebrate to Jeff's great aunt's birthday!  It was fun once again to meet and visit with Jeff's second cousins and extended family.  After lunch we had just a little time to spare before we had to be off to the airport so we drove past Jeff's old house and then stopped and visited some old neighbors who are good friends of the Wegners.