Summer Trip - Cedar City House

Sam had so much fun hanging out with the cousins at Thanksgiving, and was sad that it was such a short trip. The Burtons invited him to come stay with them for a while this summer so he could get some more time hanging out with them. He has been super excited about this! We decided that we would all meet up in Cedar City and spend a few days there and go to some plays at the Shakespeare Festival, and then Sam would go home with the Burtons and stay for a week. While Sam was with the Burtons, Mike and I took the girls to see Bryce Canyon and to Universal Studios Hollywood so they could do something fun for the summer too. We drove back to Arizona at the end of the week, spent a day with all of us hanging out with the Burtons, and then drove back home with Sam. It was kind of an unusual way to do a summer vacation, but everyone had a great time.

Driving to Cedar City

We found an Airbnb house in Cedar City that could accommodate all of us (my parents, Kate, and the Madisons also came on the Cedar City part of the trip). It was a really cute house with lots of fun activities and a large yard for the kids to play in.

Playing chess in the front room

Crafting at the kitchen table

The basement had a hoops game, an indoor play set, a foosball table, and a theater room!

The entrance to the theater room was hidden in a little red telephone booth

There were two arcade games in the theater room too!

Ready to watch a movie

We watched National Treasure one of the nights

Doing a puzzle

To help the kids (and the adults, hehe) understand the story of a Midsummer Night's Dream before we went to the play, Karin had the kids act out the story with stuffed animals. We gathered up all of the stuffed animals that the kids had brought on the trip, and each one got a name tag of the character they were supposed to be.

V, Thomas, and James acted out the story with the stuffed animals while Karin read the story out loud

The play is already a comedy, but is even sillier this way! It was a fun way to get familiar with the story

V brought a craft where you can make bracelets out of little rubber bands

She made me this beautiful bracelet with my favorite colors!

Another night we watched the 2003 version of Freaky Friday in the theater room

Before we left, we took a group picture in front of the house

4th of July

 Because I was still recovering from surgery, we didn't have our normal 4th of July BBQ and fireworks celebration, but we did do some other fun things throughout the month in the spirit of celebrating the USA

My parents did a fun patriotic Sunday dinner

Making little star diamond-painting decorations

Doorstep pictures with Dorie

V's Pool Party Birthday

For V's 8th birthday, she really wanted to have a swimming party at my Aunt Sue's. It was held on the 4th of July, and we all had a great time!

We passed all these flags while driving up to Salt Lake

Fun in the pool

Some fun red, white and blue flowers for decoration

Dinner was pizza, salad and fruit

Instead of a cake, V had a pyramid of doughnuts!

Yummy!

Opening presents

(Poor Beth had gotten food poisoning earlier that day and needed to go lie down for the first part of the party, but felt better and was able to join for the rest. That's why she isn't in a lot of the pictures) 

June Misc.

 Here are some other things that went on in June:

Nora went to FSY at Snow College with her friend Sierra

Doing photo filters with the rats, hehe

One of Juno's favorite spots

Kitty boys hanging out

Sam and Mike have been learning how to play Magic the Gathering

Sleeping ratling babies

Fritz LOVES getting attention

Dorie loves car rides

Napping Juno

To celebrate my Mom's birthday, we had lunch at Plated Dreams in Woods Cross. It was such a cute restaurant and had yummy food!

Mom and I both had the Monte Cristo sandwich

We left as they were closing up (they closed at 2:30pm)

Summertime naps

Dorie pouting after her shower

Max is such a cutie

My colonoscopy prep day - if you know, you know. lol

One of Ev's portraits of Dorie

Juno loves exploring

Nora and I painted our nails with purple and green nail polishes before going to see the new Little Mermaid movie

We really liked the movie - I think it is my favorite of the Disney live-action remakes. 

Orange cannon ball

Sam participated in a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) group at the junior high last year and had a good time with that, and the rest of us were interested in learning how to play. We have been doing a campaign with our family over the summer, and it has been a fun learning experience. Mike is our dungeon master, and he has put in a lot of work to put together fun quests and experiences for us.

Figuring out our characters, filling out the character sheets, and rolling for stats

Dorie hangs out with us while we play, so I made up a character for her. She is a dog named Bones who has a curse on her that makes her look like a skeleton dog.

I needed to get another surgery this month, and Dorie has been a sweet little buddy during my recovery

Nora and Mike were able to see a new musical that premiered at Hale Theater called "Hans Christian Andersen in New York"

They had a special Sunday dinner on Father's Day. The Burtons were here, and they also celebrated my Mom's birthday. Unfortunately I was still recovering and was not feeling well enough to go, but the rest of our family was there.

Double Backer's cakes!

Grammy with all of her Grandchildren (except John who wasn't able to come this time)

Another night of D&D questing

Max has been hanging out with me a lot as well. We have been giving him "free feeding" periods during the day (access to a bowl of dried food that we always keep full) to try and help him gain weight as he is recovering from hyperthyroidism. We tried to give him a free-feeding bowl all the time, but the other cats were eating too much of it. We had to change it to only at certain times of the day when the other cats weren't in the room with him. I think he has gained some weight, which is good.

Oliver is still enjoying life as a tripping hazard

We watched UHF as a family because the kids had never seen it. I told them the story about when I visited Mike's family for the first time while we were dating. Paul (Mike's Dad) asked me if I had ever seen UHF, and I responded "What's UHF?" He said we needed to fix that right away and we watched it that night. Lol

A family outing to see the new Indiana Jones movie - I was still recovering, so my mom took these pictures for me. They said they enjoyed the movie and that Harrison Ford did a great job. I am excited to see the movie sometime in the future.

I like to take silly selfies with the rats and send them to Nora for fun. I thought Chrissy looked so cute in this one

Watching a movie with Dorie: A Story in Three Pictures

Hahaha

Ev with cat treats in her hands

Sam playing VR