Utah in August

We headed out to Utah for our first visit of the year and as usual managed to pack a million fun things in to our short time there. We love spending time with family!

Our first day we headed to the Hogle Zoo with a gaggle of Johnson grandkids

 hit up the bird show,

 carousel,

Eliza with cute little Andrew 

 Sweet Olivia and my girls.  Can you see the excitement here?

 Ben and Andrew gave us a tour of the new Utah museum of natural history

 digging for dinosaur bones

 Managed to get a Johnson family picture with the whole gang

 Syd and Lila Jane

 Next we checked out Thanksgiving Point with the Prina grandkids 

 look at all these cuties!

 We had a big family picnic/B-day party for Sierra up the canyon with kids climbing all over, good food, new babies and of course lots of Bocce ball!

 GG and Madison at the pool

 Then it was on to Edgewood.  Where we fished in the pond and skied with Matt and his kids

 Grace even decide to brave the tube, look at that smile!

 Grandma joined us on the boat

 We got some nice down-time as a family at Edgewood.

 But then it was on to Bear Lake!  We had so much fun with our buddies the Gardner's, whose sweet kids were perfect buddies for Syd and GG.

Todd, Eliza and Grant going for those delicious Bear Lake raspberry shakes.

As you can imagine we were a little tired after all the fun and had to finally head home.  Can't wait to see you all again at Christmas!

More Grandparents!

In August Pete's parents stopped in for a very quick visit and it was so nice to have them here!

 The girls loved to joke around with Grandpa and Grandma and show them our new place

 One night we drove out to half-moon bay and then grabbed some chowder at Sam's

 We got a little time on the beach before dinner and got to watch the sunset over the water.

It was short and sweet visit!

Grandma and Grandpa Prina come to visit

In July my parents came to California for the first time in two years.  We were so excited to have them out here on our own turf and there were so many things we wanted to do with them.

California Academy of Science in the city

Ocean beach

My parents are tough cookies and wanted to spend some of the trip backpacking in Yosemite.  We had so much fun in the mountains and rivers, camping and hiking.

The girls loved being in such a beautiful place and played with rocks and pine cones to their hearts content, splashed in the streams and climbed over all the boulders they could.  The kind of fun you always want your kids to have.

Mom and Dad with their packs

Sydney showing her true colors-haha

Snuggling with GG

Dad and I

There were so many beautiful vistas, I wanted to take a picture of everything!

The girls playing with their mess kits and pretend fires.  We need to do this more often!

Our time together went too fast.  Thanks for coming to visit Mom and Dad!

July 4th

Our neighborhood has a July 4th parade and all the kids ride their bikes.  Pete and Syd decorated her bike and the wagon just like my sisters and I did when we were kids.

 Once we got to the starting place GG decided to ditch her wagon for her buddy Theo's trike

 The kids riding in the parade

 GG with some festive popsicle all over her face.

That night we watched fireworks with both kids for the first time and they loved it.  We had a great time celebrating this great country we live in.

Random July moments

I love it when my girls are playing together and doing cute things.  Like when they made this "house" out of a big box and played in it all day long.

 One beautiful Sunday afternoon we took the girls over to Stanford campus and let them run around.

 We love this maze and they chased each other all over inside until their cheeks were red and they fell down together in the center giggling.  I love moments like those!

The Larsen Boys

Just about all our family and friends know the name Evan.  For the first three years of Sydney's life he was one of her very best friends and she talked about him all the time, even after he moved away to Seattle.  Lucky for her, Evan's mom is one of my favorite people and so we've been able to stay in touch after the move.  The last week of June Alaina and her boys came to visit and we had a wild time.

 Here are just a few pics from our old favorite park and picking strawberries in Santa Cruz.

We realized on our way to the airport that we hadn't had a picture of us, so this was our one attempt.  Compliments of Sydney.  Thanks for coming to visit guys!