L-A- J-O-L-L-A

 Last week was quite the party with the Pratts in La Jolla, CA!  

I'll just say we...

ate some of the best food, 

cleared our lungs breathing that wonderful ocean air, 

road a fantastic roller coaster, 

saw wild dolphins, sting rays, sea lions, and a jelly fish at the beach - who needs Sea World 

took a major wrong turn thinking we were above the GPS - wrong, 

had some of the happiest children, 

saw the most seaweed ever wash up on shore,

relaxed every night in what seemed to be our own personal hot tub (Taya's pronunciation, ha bub), 

laughed to tears on more than one occasion - in fact...still laughing, 

watched Halle's eye's light up after finding the first sand crab,

road on an eight person bike along the boardwalk with Chad at the wheel (must I say more?),

sat at Powerhouse Park watching the surfers until dusk,

wished for sun all week and got it on the last day.

We all came home with something...

Brandon - a lovely sand burn on his forearm

Nat - a new hat

Halle - a bucket of shells

Taya - a new found love for her cousins

Photo Shoot & Hair Flowers

Yay!  

Steph and kids were in town the last few days and the girls and I were lucky enough to spend a little bit of time with them yesterday.  We hit the splash pad for a couple hours which was fun to watch Macky, Morgan, and Halle running and playing together again.  After a little rest we had a little photo shoot of the girls wearing Steph's mom's crocheted hair flowers (which are SUPER CUTE - buy some for sure).  I just shot a few pics of the operation and some of the timid interaction between Taya and Sophie. 

Our 4th

 We had another sweet 4th of July weekend!  Brandon and I decided to take the girls (Tiara included) to Pine Valley for a stroll around the lake and a picnic by the river.  Halle thought it was super cool because people were catching trout left and right.  It was so fun to see Tiara galloping through the grass and wading through the river like she was a little puppy again. Taya was a little freaked out over the abundance of flies but soon learned to swat at them instead of screaming "BEE".  When we returned home we took a quick dip in our backyard kiddie pool, then over to Craig and Peggy's for a dinner party.  That night we went to the Sunbowl for some good ole live Country Music.  I wasn't too thrilled...............but it turned out pretty fun, plus the kids loved dancing to the tunes.  The fireworks were the best I've seen in a long time!  Taya cried in the beginning but eventually calmed down when she realized they weren't going to stop.

 
Our weekend continued into Monday where we took the trip of a lifetime, (meaning, we won't be doing that trip again anytime soon.)  We, along with Peggy, Mr. B, and Helen decided to take the back road to the Grand Canyon.  Our destination (we thought) would only take us a couple hours to get to.  Reality?.... The entire round trip took us 8 hours.  Plus we had to stop several times, once for lunch, and once because Taya was car sick.  Brandon and I love road trips so for us it was adventurous.

3,000 foot drop ~ Dreadfully terrifying!

Historical school house  ~ perfect stop for lunch and a swing