July 2023

 We had a great July full of summer fun!

These kids have grown so much!

We had a fun 4th of July evening this year, since the morning was spent leaving the Martin family reunion and having lunch in Rexburg.

We got home around 4 pm, then ate some hot dogs and had some red, white, and blue ice cream sundaes:

Then we watched our neighbors blow off a ton of fireworks from in front of our own house:

Cora had her first swim meet for the summer in July! She swam breast stroke and backstroke this time, and she won first place in her backstroke event!

Our whole family went to see Newsies at the Hale Center Theater this month, and we all loved it!

I painted our front door pink this month, and I love it!

The kids all did their night of cooking dinner this month! Ivy chose to make waffles and bacon:

Our primary activities group went to the fire station this month! It was hot, but informative:

Me and the kids went to the Butterfly Biosphere this month. We saw lots of cool things and had lots of fun!

After the Butterfly Biosphere we got some cheap ice cream cones at the restaurant next door:

The kids had fun playing on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath!

Snow cones with Grandma and Grandpa Schuetzler:

We went on a tour of the local chocolate factory, Mrs. Cavanaugh's. We learned things and got delicious chocolate and candy!

We went to Hang Time one day:

We had family game day one Sunday. While playing Cover Your Assets, one scooter ended up being worth $200,000!

Cora is learning to french braid hair and got to practice on me one day:

Pretty flowers outside of the Orem Rec Center:

I took the kids to the Orem Rec Center to swim one day:

Hyrum got braces this month! It took a couple years longer than planned because he had to get so many teeth pulled, but he finally got them! It only hurt a little bit the first day he said.

I took the kids to the Museum of Ancient History this month:

I went on a hike with some ladies from our neighborhood this month. It was beautiful:

BYU had an employee celebration one afternoon where you could race turtles down the little stream just south of campus, and our kids had fun racing!

None of our turtles won, but we had fun anyways:

They had other things to play on at that event that the kids liked too:

My best friend from high school got sealed to her husband this month, and we were able to go to a little party to celebrate that. It was fun to see some old friends from high school!

Cora and Ivy have started having "sister time" on Sundays, and one Sunday they did each other's makeup:

For Pioneer Day this year, we visited Pioneer village in Provo. We tried out some pioneer games:

We tried on Pioneer clothing, looked in old pioneer log cabins, and learned a lot about the pioneers:

Ryan and I went to the Barbie movie together this month, and of course, we wore pink!

One of Cora's best friends from Nebraska came to visit for a few hours this month! They loved being together again at least for a bit: 

Our kids had their last piano lesson with the teacher they've had for 2.5 years now, and it was sad to say goodbye! She's taken a job teaching at an elementary, so she had to be done teaching our kids piano:

Little Ivy watching her tablet in a cardboard box:

We took the kids to Splash Summit this month! We had fun going on slides and playing in the wave pool all day:

The kids had their super long CF appointment this month (the one that includes their X-rays and annual labs), so afterwards for a treat we went to Litza's Pizza in SLC:

Cora had her second (and last) swim meet this month! She did great in both her events: freestyle and breaststroke. Ryan also got to compete with some of his swim team friends doing an IM relay!

We went to Deer Creek Reservoir with some friends this month, and we all had fun kayaking and paddle boarding. Cora and Ivy were able to stand up together on the SUP this time:

We celebrated Harry Potter's birthday this month by watching a HP movie and eating some fun HP inspired candy:

Cora got to go to her friend's fun birthday party at the space center this month!

We took the kids to the Orem Farmer's Market this month and got some yummy poffertjes:

Ryan and I went on a date this month and drove out to see the aftermath of Bridal Veil Falls after the avalanche this winter. It was crazy how different it looked!

Our kids earn a date in the summer by reading books that we pick out, and Ivy earned her date! Ryan took Ivy on her date to IHOP and swimming at the Orem Rec Center:

Ryan took Zane on his date to a movie (Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken) and then to the restaurant at Thanksgiving Point for lunch afterwards:

Ryan is officially an official at USA Swimming's swim meets now! He got his first name badge, but as you can see, there was a slight problem with it:

Ryan has also joined a Master's swim team (aka swim team for old people), and he enjoys the friends he has made there practicing three times a week: