A Mini Vacation with Friends

Towards the end of Genelle's sixth month we decided to go on a little vacation to the Oregon Coast. It was beautiful and so much fun!! The water was too cold to put Genelle in, but she had a ball hanging out with our friends over at My Life of Checked Boxes!

Highlights from the trip

1. Waking up to see/hear/smell the Ocean EVERY MORNING!!

2. Seeing all the green and brown loveliness that is Oregon

3. Getting to see and touch Sea Stars and Anemone during low tide

4. Eating Seafood!! (Even Mike tried some oyster, crab and fish!)

5. Relaxing for a whole week and playing games with some of my bestest friends!!!

6. Tillamook Cheese Factory and the Blue Heron with it's petting zoo

7. Visiting Portland (specifically, VooDoo Donuts, Powell's Book Store, the Washington Park and some Food Carts just down the street from Washington Park)

8. Breakfast on the Smelt Sands Beach in Yachats

9. Newport!

A Christmas Trip

There's something to be said about going down south for the winter... It's warm, there's family and... it's warm.

This Christmas Mike and I went to Las Vegas, Los Angelos and Mesa. It was great to see our family in all three places (even if we didn't end up staying very long with any of them).  While we were there we ended up...

Las Vegas
-Seeing the Hobbit
-Buying my Dad a trashcan
-Having Dinner with my Mom, the girls, my Dad and the Boys

Los Angeles
-Seeing 2/3 of Mike's sisters
-Holding Mike's sole nephew, Landon
-Trying Stained Glass Candy for the first time

Mesa
-Seeing almost all my Aunts and Uncles (on my Mom's Side)
-Singing in the Trees
-Seeing Les Miserables (With my Lovely Aunt Micki and her kids)
-Meeting up with my sister and driving her up to Vegas

And with all that we managed to get TONS of photos in Mesa, 1 photo in Los Angeles and no photos in Vegas.

It was a TON of fun seeing everyone and we hope to do so again soon! Love ya'll!

The 4th of July

The Fourth of July really started the eve before. 

Mike and I were invited by his cousins to a block party. 

There was...

Face Painting

Cotton Candy

Sparklers

Some better than others

And a Dance party!

The next day...

Mike and I woke up at 5:50 this morning to prepare for the Freedom Run.

The Running Group (minus Suzie R.)

Mike and I

The Course

It was a hot day, but this has got to be one of the funnest runs I've ever been on (with the exception of my first run)! For the first mile there were speakers pumping inspirational music and for the majority of the race course there were people lined up on the sidewalks, cheering us on (okay, they were really there for the parade later in the day, but it was still nice of them to cheer for us). 

My time ended being 32:26, which is better than my other times (38:40-1st race, 35:10-2nd), and I beat Mike so I'm pretty proud :). 

At the finish line volunteers handed out medals (cool!) and water bottles. There were Gatorade and water stations, fruit, ice cream, bread and chip stands... it was pretty sweet!

Mike and I after the race

After everyone had had their fill of goodies, we headed down to University Avenue for the parade! Mike needed a 'shower' so he left for home, but he promised he would join up with us for the parade.

Olden Patriots

Navajo Representative

ROTC Rep

 It was so much fun watching the balloons, floats and Utahn State/City Leaders go by. (I made sure to hoop and holler when the UVU President and float came by -represent!) After almost 2 hours into the parade (approximately 2.5 hours after we split ways) Mike showed up for the parade. Within minutes he was bored, so we left.

After we got home and watched a little bit of Independence Day, our friends, Kim and Casey, came over and together we went to Bicentennial Park to play Disc Golf. Now, I've only played the game once before, and never on the field we played on so it was no surprise to me that I completely and utterly lost (with a score of 14 over par). But it was fun anyways (and you know that I'm going to sneak over there and practice every change I get).

Later, we all went over to a (random) Apartment Building's pool. Of course when we got there there was two guys from my old high school playing basketball so Mike HAD to join in. So the boys splashed around while Kim and I chatted to the side. 

After about an hour it was time for us to go, so we said goodbye to Kim and Casey and rushed home to change for our friend's barbecue! It was sooooooo good! After it was over Mike and I were only too happy to take home two heaping plates of left-overs! 

The night was not over yet tho, when we got home we picked up some ice cream and root beer then made our way over to our friends, the Lewis's. There we played games and had floats until the Fireworks began. 

It was awesome!