Ooo Burn!

After work this past week I got home and saw a flyer on our doorstep. It was an invite to a neighborhood BBQ on the 24th. July 24th is a big deal here in Utah. For those of you reading and don't know what it is, it's Pioneer day. We celebrate and remember the pioneers that gave and went through so much to get to Salt Lake City for their freedom of religion. That's just a simple way to put it, but they were remarkable people who lived by faith and obedience and put the Lord first. Last year I was in Cokeville, Wyoming for the 24th and I was able to see how people spend that day. It was pretty neat. I even heard and met an apostle, Elder L. Tom Perry. That was an unforgettable moment. This year we walked down to the Norton's and indulged in some delicious homemade treats. There was a good amount of the neighbors that had showed up to spend time together. We had dinner and dessert, the kids swam while the adults conversed over their old stories and our new ones. I'm always happy to go to these gatherings to learn about the people we will end up being around and relying on the most. Thankfully they are extremely welcoming and the nicest people I have met in a very long time. As the night went on we continued filling up our plates and waited for the sun to go down.

The sun had set, we set up our chairs facing the street and put on a firework show. Right before that had begun one of our neighbors went to go get their golf cart, Zach tagged along and got to drive it for a few minutes, Zach was so excited. We are the only ones on the street with NO toys whatsoever. They took it to some dirt rode a street over and rolled around for a bit. Once they came back we had the fireworks ready to go.That was pretty awesome, and very scary. Mostly scary. Our neighbor across the street has a friend that works for a pyrotechnics company, so we were hooked up with some big boy stuff. The kids were the ones mainly lighting the explosives, which was not the best idea I've seen in my time. At one point our friendly neighbor Brody, who is about fourteen, was holding a Roman Candle in the street. It was a pretty cool firework that I haven't seen before. Just a reminder, it is illegal to light fireworks in Rancho so I'm still getting used to the whole idea. But he was holding this thing that was shooting out from this "candle" and suddenly he throws it on the ground because it got too hot. Well that wasn't part of the plan and of course it was directed straight towards a young girl and shot right at her. Leaving her hair to catch on fire and a hole in her shirt. Poor girl, her hair smelled awful! At that point I was on my feet and always ducking behind someone else when they would light them. It was pretty great...definitely an adrenaline rush. Here are a few pictures from our night, excuse the blurriness...

this one is too funny...

Friday was our three month wedding anniversary. We went out to eat at a place called Neal's and had some crispy fries and delicious unhealthy grub. After which we tried a frozen yogurt place called Red Mango, not a big tart fan. But they did have a chocolate and peanut butter which we definitely went for, add that to our unhealthy list. We then drove out to SLC for a movie night at the drive in. I have to say, the drive in is one of my favorite summer things to do. I grew up going to the drive in and I just love them. All the families around us took out the seats in their vans and set them behind their vehicles. We even saw one couple in a truck with a blow up mattress in the bed of the car, pretty dang smart and funny. I counted about six families eating hot and readys, and saw only one nasty man with his butt crack hanging out....drive in's usually have some gross dodgy people, and that was definitely one that qualified. We saw Turbo and Grown Ups 2. We laughed during the second one, they were both just average movies but definitely enjoyed the second movie the best. Turbo was lame for our taste. We snacked and stayed out late for the first time in a long time...which was much needed.

MERICA 

Yesterday was the best day of our summer yet. We got a pass of all passes, which allows us to get in for free to some places and also have discounts to other fun activities. So Lauren, Zach and I headed out to Provo for a day in the "sun". We went to a water park called Seven Peaks, it was a lot of fun. Also we were expecting a storm yesterday so the weather was a bit sketchy. It was sprinkling at one point, but nothing too crazy. The highlight of being at Seven Peaks was meeting up with Teichert (Sullivan) and Michelle. Teichert served his mission in San Bernardino and became a really good friend of mine and my family as well. He lives in Wyoming with his awesome wife Michelle and they came down for the weekend. So of course we had to meet up and hangout. I loved it. They are pretty much the coolest people.

Before heading out to Provo yesterday Zach told me he was going to wear his speedo under his shorts and surprise everyone with it at some point during the day. So of course he did. But what was even better then him just stripping into his speedo joking around was when he really surprised us...so what happened was Teichert, Michelle, and Zach were going to do a really high and steep slide. I wasn't quite up for the scarier more intense slides, in fear of my loosing my life, so I stayed behind with Lauren to watch them. Here is the slide...they did the blue one...

Yeah, that'll give you a wedgie. 

 As you can see you lay on your back and go through a tunnel at the beginning and top of the slide then the tunnel ends and it shoots you out to drop. So Teichert and his wife went first and then we were all waiting for Zach. And sure enough we see him coming down in his SPEEDO. What first looked like a naked man though...But how he did it was while going through the tube in the beginning he managed to take his shorts off with enough time to still set himself up for the drop. WILD CHILD I tell you! It was so dang hilarious, only he would do that and actually pull it off....literally. I don't know where he gets his ideas but it was pretty awesome. No shame whatsoever.

Lastly...this is my dad and Magnus on Wednesday at the airport. I can't wait to hangout with him in the upcoming months.