Pioneer Day and Ashley and Will Visit

Monday we played outside first thing in the morning. There was another birthday party in the quad for a little girl.  It was pretty simple but tons of fun for the kids.  Most of the day we watched and played with Andrea.  She is Bradley's good friend.  They played together almost daily.  In the afternoon she went on a walk around Wymount with us and some of our other friends.  It was a good walk with a stop at a different playground than our own.

Tuesday was pioneer day.  We went to a parade in Mapleton in the morning.  It had a fun small town feel to it.  All the stake presidencies were in the parade.  One was on a flat bed trailer with barbecues grilling hot dog pieces and then handing them out along the parade route.  We had a fun time in our shady seats that we snagged when the start of the parade was only a block away.  Everyone in the town is either in the parade or watching it...or so it seems. After  the parade we came home for a bit to water plants.  Then we went to a park in Provo for the celebration there.  There were a lot more people there this year than last year but most of the same fun activities. Jeff and Elizabeth and Spencer came over later in the afternoon for a barbecue.  We had lots of yummy food.  We decided to go and try to see the fireworks in Mapleton (we have always been to Spanish Fork for fireworks on the 24th ).  Mapleton had good fireworks and we got lucky and got home quickly afterwards. It's always fun to have a holiday.

 All dressed up for the parade

headed home

racing through the obstacle course

Brad was pretty nervous about the snakes...they were plastic

riding on a pony

having a handcart ride

It was a little rainy while we were eating, but then we saw a double rainbow.  The second one is above the brighter one.

Since we were up so late Wednesday we had a pretty slow morning.  Ashley and Will arrived while we were still working on breakfast.  I went visiting teaching while they all stayed home and played.  In the afternoon Alan needed me to take him shopping for some parts he needed to hang curtains in his lab.  He needs them for a user study he is doing but I guess there have been several jokes about their curtains.   Will wanted to do some shoe shopping while he was here so Jared and Lauren went with Ashley and Will...it sounded like they had a pretty fun time.  Lauren came home with a pair of sandals and Jared with a little super soaker.  Bradley, Connor, and I took Alan...We were much faster :)  Jeff and Elizabeth came over for dinner.  Alan made us all yummy pizza.

Enjoying popsicles after lunch

One of the favourite things to do was take pictures on Ashley and Will's camera.  I think Bradley took this one...it is one of the better ones.

I sent Jared out to put on the tablecloth.  When he didn't come back after a few minutes I thought I better check on him...

Thursday we went to the last summer library program.  We made the craft (a Halloween plate picture ) heard story time and turned in our summer reading papers...everyone got to choose a book for finishing.   We got several really good ones.   Ashley and Will went with us. We came home for lunch and when Ashley and Will got back from theirs we went to Trafalga in Lehi.  We mini golfed, rode go carts, bumper boats and in general had a pretty fun time.  While I was on the go carts with Bradley, Jared got stung by a bee or wasp or something...3 times.  Once on the back of the neck, once on his ear lobe, and once on his thumb....it's a good thing he doesn't swell up like his dad :). That night we had white bean chicken chili and corn bread.   We also made home made ice cream and Elizabeth made a fruit pizza.   I'm sure we all got stuffed again!

Playing before the library

right before his stings

Yum!

Friday we walked around campus.  One of the highlights was visiting Jeff at work...and the baby mice.  We also stopped by Alan's work and saw the curtains and Ashley and Will tried the robot too.  We also visited several other places around campus. We got home and had lunch.  Then we tried to go swimming at veterans Memorial pool but we didn't realize that it closed as early as it did, so we decided to go back the next day when we would have more time.  We did walk through the pioneer village that is right there close.  We came home and set up our own water stuff, shot water rockets, and had a fun barbecue and watched bits and pieces of the Olympic opening ceremony.

Jeff at work holding a whole bunch of fleas

Baby mice

Will animating the robot (with the curtains up)

watching the robot do Will's animation

Building blocks in the MOA

Between rocket launches

Water slide...even I went down...It's pretty fun.

Saturday morning we went to the library's trick or treat in July party...you had to go to enough summer activities at the library to get to go.  Everyone dressed up and had a fun time.  Ashley and Will stayed here and got ready to go.  We all went to the pool in the afternoon for several hours.  It was a hot day so it felt really nice.  On our way home from the pool we stopped by a birthday party for a friend who had just moved and Ashley and Will got pizza for dinner.  We had a fun last picnic dinner (our second pizza party during their visit) and finished off the creamery ice cream from the night before.  We were sad to have to say bye to Ashley and Will.   We loved having them here visiting.  Two of Bradley's good friends both moved too...Lily and Andrea.  I'm not sure who he will play with out at the playground now.  They were both so sweet.

Olympic swimmer, Alfalfa, pumpkin, Mickey Mouse, Mom

Wow! Look at me

Sunday was a pretty normal day at church.  I went and heard Jeff and Elizabeth speak in their ward.  They both did a great job.   We had a fun time talking to Grandma and Grandpa Schachterle and just relaxing.

Applesauce for the first time

Loving some red pepper