4th of July

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday, just below the Christmas season.  I love that we live in a country where we are free and I am so grateful for that.  Every year Ben and I hop from one family get-together to the next.  This year we had a breakfast at my parents' house and then headed over to Kaysville's parade.

I always get slightly emotional when the Veterans pass.

I love the cute river dancers! :)

Halfway through we went over to hang out with the Lymans.

As we were leaving we caught a glimpse of the water section of the parade.

After the parade, we went over to Ben's sister's house for a BBQ and to play with the water toys.

Yes, that is Ben going down the slip-n-slide!

Then we ran over to a BBQ at my Grandpa Jack's house who has a gigantic yard that all the grandkids can play in.

I never asked who, but someone built a water tunnel for the kids to play in and it was so fun!

After that we went over to Davis High to check out the booths they had set up.  I was hoping for more of a carnival-feel (like Taylorsville Days - if you've never been, GO!  It's so fun!), but it was still fun.

After that we met up with a couple of friends for a little bit before we met up with the fam again for the fireworks started.  (My next post is about the fireworks).

We always have so much fun on the 4th and love spending time with the family.

Spring

Spring is here and I am loving it!  I can't wait until more things start blooming and it gets warmer so we can spend more time outside.  :)  Some photos I've taken this past week:

I love how the rain beads up on the tulip leaves.

Happy Easter!

This year we spent Easter with my side of the family.  Saturday we had the usual Easter egg hunt which is always so fun!  Every year we each get a basket and in the basket we get a little bit of candy and then the last few years my mom has been putting really fun stuff in there, too.  Like this year I got a bag of Sun Chips, a carton of blackberries and a pear and Ben got beef jerky, Chicken in a Biscuit crackers and a pineapple.  I love the kind of odd, but totally-better-than-candy things we get in our baskets!  

There are also 4-5 eggs hidden with our name on them:  2 eggs with little candies and 3 eggs with clues in them.  The clues take you back inside where a little "prize" is hiding.  It's so fun and my mom comes up with the most clever clues!  For the prizes we usually get a pair of flip-flops, a shirt and a movie or something similar.  I love that it isn't just a bunch of candy and even though we're all adults and there are only 3 grandchildren, I love that we still do a hunt.  Although, it is pretty funny when people drive past and they can only see adults walking around the yard with Easter baskets, looking for eggs.  :)

So excited to tell Grandpa what she found!

We had to leave early so I didn't get very many pictures, but it was still fun.  :)

On Sunday I taught Singing Time in Primary and we had a great lesson.  I love seeing all those cute kids feeling the Spirit and learning and understanding gospel principles.  After church, we had a big Easter dinner.  My favorites were the ham, potatoes and homemade raspberry ice cream.  It was absolutely delicious!  

My sister made these adorable Easter egg nests.  Bonus:  they tasted good, too!

We also finished dyeing all of the eggs we didn't get to on Saturday and spent some time outside because the weather was so nice.

Doesn't Sarah have the cutest kids?  And they all have such fun, unique and adorable personalities.  :)  I can't wait until next Easter!

Opening of City Creek Center

I know what you're thinking:  "Libby posted something?  I forgot I was even following her..."  Yep, it's been a while since I have posted anything.  I recently had a "moment" where I got pretty bummed that I haven't been recording what Ben and I have been up to.  We have a lot of fun together and I'm sad that I won't remember most of it.  Oh well, I guess.  Here's to being better at that.

A couple of weeks ago we went with our friends Lincoln and Julie to dinner and the opening of the City Creek Center (the new mall in downtown Salt Lake).  They took us to this hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Sapa.  It had a pretty sketchy entrance, but the inside was beautiful and the food was delicious!

After dinner we took the Trax over to City Creek.  It was opening night so it was pretty packed.  I could not believe how good of a job they did with it!  I loved everything about it:  the warm, bright atmosphere; the creek running down the middle; the fountains; the open roof (which has the ability to close, too); the skywalk that goes over the street, connecting the two blocks and all of the DETAILS. I loved it!

They had these live musicians all over the place.  It was pretty fun.

They built into existing buildings.

It's all about the details...

It was amazing!  I really like how it turned out.  Because we went so late, we only had time to see a few stores so I'm excited to go back during the day.

Holy cow. These past 3 or 4 months have been insane. New job, end of summer, family vacations, Ben's school starting, and a billion other things! Just letting everyone know that we're still alive. I would say that I'll do lots of posts soon about all of the fun stuff we've been up to, but lets be realistic here. History would suggest that I won't write another post for 6 months... ;) Just know that we are super happy and doing well. :)

P.S. I love Fall. By far my favorite season!