The July of Family Visits

It's sometimes hard living away from family, but we're blessed to be able to visit/ have visitors!  We live in a beautiful place with sunsets that take your breath away. 

But we'd leave pretty sunsets for fun with family anyday.  In July, we visited Utah County and all the family that lives in that vicinity.  We also had Beverli, Eva, and James come and visit us that month!

We went to see Jake and Kelli in their new place, a basement apartment only a field away from the Payson Temple (currently under construction).

Can you see the temple being built in the background?

We held baby Brookie...

And played with Parker...

And Devon, Maxwell,

Rexton,

And Brooklyn again,

And JJ... and more Brooklyn...

Okay, we actually played with all the cousins, but Brooklyn had the most pictures.  Jake showed us one of his favorite restaurants in Payson- a little cajun food place (I forget the name).  Our crew was rather large (22 people), so we got to eat in a private room upstairs.  Devon was so tired, he fell asleep eating.

The food was pretty good and that room was nuts!  Kids were hungry, then kids were tired, but we always have tons of fun with everyone!

Later in July...

When Beverli's family came to visit us, we took a trip to see McConkie Ranch, one of the coolest places to view ancient Indian art.  The hike was perfect and the day was beautiful.

Steve found a nasty bug.

It was a grasshopper looking thing with a big stinger looking thing.

We could walk right up to the ancient wall art.  We didn't touch.

On our way back, we did a side trip to visit the grave of Steve and Bev's ancestor, Good Annie (Annie Mariah Rasmussen Snyder).  The boys cleaned up the grave a bit.

Eva, Lily and Amara went to pick nearby bouquets of clover blooms.

A storm began to move through.  We snapped a picture as it started to rain.

Did I mention it was pioneer day?  And Good Annie was a pioneer that settled out in our neck of the woods, in Jensen (Uintah Basin).

It was hard to look up into the rain for this next shot.

Later, we went home and lit off some fireworks for Pioneer Day.

James was the official lighter of the fireworks.

Our time was short, but we wanted to make the most of it, so when Bev's family was on their way out of town, we tagged along with them to Starvation Reservoir for some swimming and sand art construction.  A few more hours of fun.

 Then we ate at China Star in Duchesne with them and they were on their way home.  We hope they'll come back soon for another visit!

Also in July, We traveled back down to Utah County for Devon's 2nd birthday celebration and a family photo shoot for my family.

 Due to rain and a over-crowded park, we moved the party to Dad's house.

 Our family pictures were taken up Provo Canyon past South Fork Park at a place called Old Mill.

 The Lauret family is getting pretty big!

 

 Here's the Lauret kids with our dad.  We're all look so grown up.  Weird.

 My kids are the oldest in this crew of 16 grandkids (all under age 8... actually all were age 5 and under except Lily.)

 The women tried to get the kids to smile...

 The men tried to wrangle them up...

 Photos were taken, then we were all set free!

 We don't get to see Emmy and Stockton very often, so it was fun to let the kids play with them for a minute or two.

Lily is actually holding her clip up, but it looks like a good pose anyway.

 Every trip to Utah County is a good excuse for us to go out to eat.  We went to Pizza Pie Cafe, one of Steve's favorites.

 Another fun thing the girls got to do was go to the Highland Splash pad with their cousins.  Devon loved being with Lily and would bring her from place to place.

Rex has such a great smile!

 Oh! And April, Jake, Kelli, and I went to do family history at the Provo center on BYU campus.  Afterward we went to visit dad at work and have lunch at the Hard Disk.  I love spending time with my dad and family!

Phew.  That was July in a consensed nutshell.