Another exciting day in California was when we went to Dawnae's house for her stepson's birthday party. We had a great time. The kids swam, ate TONS of food and candy, and took a whack or two at the piñata. The party was an "army" theme, so the all of the kids got marshmallow guns and a goody bag full of all the green candy you could think of.
The day after the party Hoyt and Jett went down the driveway to get the mail with my dad, and I had to snap a few pictures. Too cute!!
While we were in California we were able to have a baby shower for Faith who was due to have her third baby in September. We had it on a Saturday afternoon at my mom's house. We had a yummy lunch, opened presents, and then let the kids go swimming. I didn't get any pictures of the lunch or presents, but I finally remembered to take pictures while we were outside.
Holly and Kyle were able to be at the shower, which was great because a few days later Holly went into the hospital to have baby Joshua! We were lucky to be able to go to the hospital and see him when he was a day old. There's just nothing like holding a newborn!
We always love being able to vacation in California during the summer. Even though it's HOT, the boys love swimming every day and playing with cousins. Our first week in California we had lots of fun helping Isaiah walk his goat for the fair, jumping on the tramp, swimming, loving on the dog, playing football with grandpa, and visiting cousins Riley and Paiton.
The boys "live it up" in California and rarely go to bed before nine and get up early every day to play. Every time we had to go anywhere in the car, they would pass out in literally minutes!!
On Saturday, July 7th the boys and I set out on a 2 1/2 week road trip. The first leg of our trip took us to Reno. We were excited to see lots of friends, and stay a few days with Sasha, Kevin, Bear and Lola. The boys did a great job on the 7 hour drive (thanks to lots of snacks and DVD's)!
We were able to go to church on Sunday and see everyone from our old ward - it was great to catch up with friends that we hadn't seen for a year! After church we went to Castiblanco's for dinner, and then after that we had a girls' night at Sasha's. Lots of fun, food, and conversation. We ended up leaving Reno on Monday evening and making the three hour drive to grandma and grandpa Hoyt's house.
The evening of the Fourth, we had a big party at our house. Ron, Kathy and Marcus came along with the Darrows and the Symons, so I think we had just over 20 people here. We BBQ'd and had lots of good food, the kids played on the slip and slide, had water gun fights, rode bikes, and ran around outside. We did our own fireworks show towards the end of the evening, and then were able to watch the Twin Falls fireworks from our backyard. It turned out to be a great Fourth of July!
Our Fourth of July started with a stake breakfast at a park near our house. We had only been to our new ward a handful of times, so we wondered if we would know anyone at the breakfast. All I knew was that I wanted to go and have a free breakfast before heading out to Buhl for the annual 4th of July parade. We got to the breakfast around 8:30 and the park was full. We saw a few people who we recognized from church, had a great big breakfast, and Hoyt and Jett were able to play a few games and run around before we headed to the parade.
After the breakfast we went to meet the Darrow's in Buhl for the parade. While it is a very small town parade, the kids love it and collect at least as much candy as they do at Halloween! By the time the parade ended, everyone was hot and sweaty and ready for some "down time". Here are some pictures of the first part of our Fourth:
