Mid-July

7/14: So the girls did this while I was slaving away, cleaning and organizing their playroom.  They took down every single shirt that was hung up on the lower bar!!

7/15: We enjoyed a day at the aquarium with the twins' birthmom. The girls have been dying to come and see the baby penguins.

7/19: To use up some squash and zucchini from our garden, I made a chicken/squash/zucchini/tomato/olive (but them them off of my portion, ha ha)/cheese casserole. My family loved it, yay! Makenna even had two helpings! :D

7/21: Makenna (working on a Playdough birthday cake): How old are you, Mommy?
Me: 42
M: I'm gonna have a put a LOT of candles on your cake!!
Me: 

7/21: RIP, Lagniappe III. Our Betta fish died this morning. :( At least this one lasted more than a year! The first two only made it a few weeks each. Haven't decided yet if we'll get another one.

7/23: The girls came running into the room excitedly telling me about a "humongous spider!" outside of one of the basement windows. I went to go see it and pointed out that it was eating a fly. Makenna said it is a friendly spider that she named Jimmy the Spider. But Avery argued that it is a girl and she named it Sara.

7/23, FB post: It's our 16th anniversary and Jared and I both don't feel our best, so it looks like we'll just stay in tonight. Happy anniversary, anyway, babe. I love you, I'm so proud of you, and I'm thankful for all of the adventures we've had together.

7/24: Pioneer Day celebration at Reed & Carrie's (Jared stayed home sick, though).  They set up the big inflatable slide again but it was mostly the adults that used it, ha ha!  We had tons of yummy food (BBQ chicken, hot dogs, pasta salad, potato salad, ambrosia, chips, cookies, etc.).  The twins stayed in the hot tub (although they said it wasn't a hot tub, it was a warm tub--the temperature was kept low for the kids) practically the whole time and didn't want to go home.  I kept asking Makenna if she was ready to go yet and one time she said, "NO!  I'm having too much fun!!"

Jason:

 Hot tubbin':

 Laura & Jason:

 Kaelee & Avery:

 Jason & Laura:

 Me & Laura--we went down several times together.  SO MUCH FUN!!:

Makenna climbed to the top at one point by herself and sat there for a while but never gathered the courage to go down alone and finally asked me to go down with her:

Ready to go down again:

Somehow, I actually turned around at the bottom of the slide and this is how we ended up:

 Their little toes were SO wrinkly from being in the hot tub for so long:

So, we were at the family party from ~2:00 until after 6:00, and when we got home, Jared was feeling a little better and wanted to do little fireworks with the girls, even though they were exhausted.  Avery loved helping Daddy set off some of the little fireworks but Makenna was still grumpy from falling asleep in the car and cried every time one of them made a loud noise.

Doing "snakes":

Running after lighting one, ha ha:

THEN, as we were just about done setting off our little fireworks, the Breinholts invited us to go to their house for homemade root beer and ice cream and to do fireworks with them.

Sparklers!

 Poppers!

 Roman Candles!

 Lounging on a blanket with "friend Jason", watching the big fireworks. :)  Makenna was OK with all of the fireworks at the Breinholts.

It was after 10:30 before we finally got them into bed!  They were SOOOOO TIRED but had such a fun day!!!

7/25: After lunch, we got ready and went over to the Lehi City Resident Appreciation Carnival, which was held in the Legacy Center parking lot.

We got to see a few BMX riders, including Matt Beringer, do lots of stunts on the ramps:

Matt Beringer:

 Jared & Avery on the Scrambler:

Makenna didn't want to go on the Scrambler at first, until after she saw that Avery had fun on it, then we happened to see Penny's family (one of their friends in our neighborhood) and she wanted to go but everyone else in her family gets sick on rides, so I was happy to have her go with us.  We ended up riding this ride at least one more time, switching who we rode with.  Me, Makenna, and Penny:

 The girls on the boat ride:

They jumped in a bounce house for a few minutes, then wanted to go down the slide but it was too hot for them:

 The swing ride:

Don't know the name of this one but Jared rode with Avery while I rode with Makenna:

 They went on the boats at least 3 times.

The Scrambler again:

We went and got a couple of cups of shaved ice to share while we watch the BMX riders again, then rode a couple more rides before going home.

This ride was being worked on most of the afternoon, so they were so happy that they finally got to ride it before we left:

We were at the carnival from 3-6, then stopped by Smith's for a few things, THEN went to a neighborhood Pioneer Day party!  A family in the ward threw a Pioneer Day party again, which included:

Fish tacos, hot dogs, tons of potluck..., 

 Playing with friends--Makenna played with Jason nearly the entire time...

 Live music by the Shane Lee Band...

 More playing with Jason...

 Blowing bubbles...

 Playing in the splash pad...

Then, the girls got some glow stick bracelets and we watched the fireworks, and got home past 10 again.  To say they were tired from another long, fun day is an understatement!!  They were still pretty dang tired today but they did well at church and never even took a nap or fell asleep today.  Didn't take them long to fall asleep at bedtime, though! :D

We love fun weekends!!! :D