Alpine days, birthdays & first day of school

      Alpine days was great and the final day with the parade, carnival and fireworks did not disappoint.

Fun times for these girls.

A couple fun parade entries.

In between parade & carnival fun.

Face paint for these three.

And we might as well get matching henna for us.

Dancing and Cheetos, the best day!

Another fantastic fireworks show.

     Sunday these two boys got to hold cute baby Mack, whether they wanted to or not. Haha

Perfect photo bomb from Mack’s dad sitting behind McClane.

    Then we got to do a little birthday celebrating with a “Christmas” gift for Beau.

She was pretty stoked about the mermaid jacket but I guess she already has the mermaid book. (But I bet her copy didn’t come with $25!)

And we have a visitor this week, Mr. Jinx, who’s cute but crazy.

    And then it was Charlie’s birthday and first day of 7th grade. She was pretty excited about her gifts and needed to open them first thing in the morning.

He’s seriously nuts.

More birthday fun.

When you forget it’s her golden birthday until half way through the day so you scramble for a way to make it special.

  

                                A few friends and family to sing and eat cake to wrap up her day.

First day of school!

9th, 12th and 7th

    And just as we’re moving out of elementary the Wendel’s are just getting started.

Beau’s beyond excited for kindergarten.

    

        So there you have it, a busy week with plenty of photos. I’m sure there’s more fun to come so stay tuned.

Best visitors and rodeo fun

     I’m having major technical difficulties with my blog this week so these photos are not in proper order. (This will be my version of the backwards episode of Seinfeld.) 

      We ended Thursday with a night at the rodeo. We had so much fun and Charlie got her annual photo with John, the rodeo clown. (Not photographed is Carter and McClane, who left a little earlier.)

     Monday night was the Alpine car show and I finally got a visual of more than one of my favorite style Corvettes. 

These two are both 1959.

     And Sunday we had a visit from some of our most favorite people! 

Look how big Reese is getting.

Such a fun treat. Best ice cream night!

     And now on to the weekend of fun with the Alpine parade, carnival and fireworks. Stay tune next week for those photos and first day of school photos of the three youngest. (BOO!)

The girls

     Another great gel nail!Plus a fun water night and Reese update.

I’m loving these polka dots!

     We had the Wendel girls over for a few hours and they were thrilled to spend the majority of their time in the water with Masyn and Charlie.

 

     And today we got this adorable photo of Reese just moments before she went in for her first procedure to help eliminate her birthmark. According to her mom everything went great and she dealt with the whole process like a champ. We just love her!

 

      And now we move into August and, reluctantly, admit school will be starting this month, but for now we’re just going to look forward to Alpine Day’s celebration. 

Legendary

    This summers American Fork parade will go down in history for a couple reasons. First, Heidi was late! Unheard of.  She also reserved the spot, like a boss, so we'll let her 'one-time' sleep in, slide. 

    Second, Kristin scored a full bag of Crumbl cookie samples from the Crumbl volunteer. My version is she knocked the guy down and took the bag, but really she just used her charm and boldness to politely take the bag from his hands. Either way, the guy was in utter shock and all the people sitting near Kristin got a sample size Crumbl cookie. The 2025 parade will never be forgotten!

These girls love a parade.

The legendary Crumbl cookie 'burglar'.

Just a small sample of a few parade entries.

A parade selfie.

    And this year we enjoyed the American Fork fireworks from Ralph and Judy's front yard. It was a great view but a little busier than usual with cars driving by the whole time.

 

    And Harley and Charlie took another montage of photos Sunday evening of busy girl, Elliot.

She really likes to utilize the stools.

Charlie was getting a kick out of theses forehead photos.

    I passed this deer and her cute baby on one of my morning walks.

 

    And another legendary moment from this week was the generous amount of hot sauce packets the employee at Del Taco gifted us. I counted 105! Give that guy a raise!

 

    And I had to take a photo of Kat to give a follow-up on her head injury. Just 21 days later and you can barely tell she had a hole in her head. 

We love these cute girls! 

    We're not talking about where we are in our summer days, we're just enjoying them and we won't be saying the 'S' word for at least another week. For now we're just looking forward to Alpine days. Endless summer is the goal.

New goals/dreams

    I don't know what I love more, summer in general or a good stroll through a car show. Anyway, this years car show was legendary when a very generous car owner allowed me to sit in his cool '67 Tiger Sunbeam and get a photo. I believe I was meant to have a car like this. The speedometer said 140, I'd like to see if that's accurate. Anyway, fun day, even if there were no '54 Corvette's and only one older Camaro.

 

    Hopefully this won't be my last car show of the summer. Now on to parades and fireworks!

Happiest 30 years ever!

    We'll start with a few random July 4th photos that didn't make last weeks post, and end with photos from our little anniversary getaway. It's been a great week and the best 30 years of marriage!

Greg's all ready to light some fireworks.

Best neighborhood!

Greg being silly and can you spot Charlie's head hanging down from the hammock?

Sunday night shenanigans with the grand-girls.

Elliot is nuts!

A fresh gel set!

A yummy dinner to celebrate our anniversary. (Lets just say there wasn't enough time to go to Ruby River so we'll try another night.)

    For our anniversary getaway we went to the fancy Best Western in Ogden, which did not disappoint and then we made the scenic drive home past several cool reservoirs.

 

 

 I struggle with the selfies!

    Not photographed was our yummy burgers from Burly Burgers. It's a little hard to believe Greg and I have been married 30 years. It's been an adventure! And I'm excited for eternity with the best guy I know!

Happy July 4th!

    We had a great week. From another great ice cream gathering to celebrating our freedom and the birth of our nation.

Carter and his buddies are fixing up this boat so they can access more fish. This photo was taken right before they went on their maiden voyage.

    Sunday night ice cream is still going strong.

 

Ice cream night wears Ada out!

    Andy treated us to a prequel fireworks show the night before the 4th and it was spectacular. Sadly, it also resulted in an injury.

 

    Poor Kat got hit with a fairly big piece of shrapnel and we had a bit of a blood bath on our hands. Thankfully she's going to be fine and our amazing friend, nurse Stephanie, came to the rescue and glued up Kat's hole in her head so she didn't have to get stitches.

Kat and Ada sharing some love.

 

    Kat came better prepared the next night. The hard hat was priceless! Charlie put together this little care package for Kat and we could't help but add a head wound to the little cat drink. 

She's the best!

    We had a bit of a wet start to our backyard barbecue but we didn't let that stop us. And of course it stopped and dried up quickly.

 

    Best friends and family!

 

A cute family photo of the Wendel's.

    And then it was out front for a neighborhood free-for-all fireworks extravaganza!

 These cute girls loved the sparklers.

 

Elliot with the birthday girl. Mackenzie is officially 16!

And Ada finished up the night with a sparkler and the best cheesy smile!

    Another great July 4th with some of the best neighbors, friends and family!