Monday, July 11, 2011

Family Happenings/4th Of July

The weekend of the 4th was a busy one for us as I am sure it was for many of you.
Brittany's sister Melanie was in town from New York so we spent some time up in Sandy. The morning of the 4th my buddy Travee and I had planned for a few weeks to go snowboarding up at Snowbird since they were still open. We also took in the Granite parade, went water skiing and had a fire works show in the Grossens Cul de Sac. It was a great 4th and I think it is my top 2 fav holidays.


Slalom skiing at Utah Lake.


I wanted to put some more pictures and stories in of while my Sister Melanie was in town. We had a blast while they were here. My niece and nephew went tubing and had a blast they were on the tube for over a half hour. It was fun to watch them.


It made them pretty tired


Growing up we always had a neighborhood breakfast at our church. Then there is a parade. Kids the night before would decorate their bikes it was a pretty short parade. Since then it has grown to become an hour long parade full of fun cars, floats, and bikes. I love that it is still going and that I am able to go and see some of my friends that I grew up with. There are also a couple of home made trains. They had one of them at the carnival and my niece and nephews loved riding it.

Cul de Sac of Fire
Richard rented a popcorn and cotton candy maker. They were both a hit.
Also another old tradition in our neighborhood was resurrected by my dad this year. Back when I was younger my parents rented a popcorn and a cotton candy machine. Our neighborhood was full of kids and we all gathered in the circle in front of our house. Neighbors would bring other goodies and lots of fireworks. We loved it. Once we got older the numbers slimmed down so it stopped and I'm so glad we did it again. There are a lot more new kids in their neighborhood and it was a blast! Thanks Dad!


My dad and Ben running the popcorn and cotton candy machines. What good troopers.


Jack Jack loved the popcorn


Our Friends Jen and Jeff were back in town from Kentucky.
It was a lot of fun to see them again and of course Jen had some cotton candy :) We sure miss you! Can't wait to see you again soon and your new little addition coming!!

The popcorn man and Brit.

See, I told you it was a hit. Brooke working on #12
My sister had the record that night of 11 cotton candies. She loves them. I don't know if I could eat that many in one year, but it is the best night for it!

The Bawden's

The Grossen's

I had a pair of firework glasses and decided to give it to my niece and nephews to try it out. They loved them.

And The Herway's
It was a lot of fun having my whole family together again for the Fourth of July. It has been a long time!

That next weekend we stayed in a house by Jordanelle. This house was amazing. It had three floors and had an elevator. The kids loved it. One day I saw my nephew run on to it by himself so I quickly ran on to it with him so he wouldn't be alone. I was holding my 10 month old niece and my other niece got on as well. When the elevator moves you can barely feel it. So we were on it for awhile. The elevator has two doors that open and my nephew was getting so excited to see what door was going to open. I sat there for awhile and discovered it wasn't going to open, we were stuck. I have always had a fear of being stuck in an elevator. Well this didn't help having 3 kids in it with me. I'm just glad I saw him get on it and he wasn't by himself stuck. I started knocking on the sliding door hoping someone would hear me. No one did I pushed the alarm button and they didn't hear that. Nice alarm! I then slid open the sliding door and there we were stuck in between floors. My nephew started walking out and I stopped him and he then realized we couldn't get out I started knocking on both doors and my nephew started crying. I probably wasn't much help, when I was screaming help! The doors lock when the elevator is going. Luckily I found an emergency latch and my sister opened the door and laughed when she saw us at a different level. I handed the kids down and got off. I'm glad we weren't stuck for long.
I had to get a picture of it.

On Saturday we went to Park City. We went on the Alpine Coaster. Watched my niece and nephew jump on the tramps. My niece even did a couple of back flips. We also had some lunch and did the Alpine Slide as well. It was a fun day!

My family loves playing games. So at night we all got together and played some fun games.
My crazy brother having some fun with Cheetos!

It was a lot of fun having my Sister in town! Some other things we did while she was here: We went to the church museum, they have a fun new kids section and the kids had a blast! We went to Cowabunga Bay, just hung around my parent's yard while the kids played with the slip 'n' slide and some other fun water toys. It was a blast! Love you Herways! Can't wait to see you again soon. Hopefully we can make it out to Jersey soon.


4th of July at the Bird
The lines at the Bird were soooooo long!


It turned out way funner than I expected and we had a good time! Now I can say I have snowboarded on the 4th of July in Utah. In a week I can say I have snowboarded on the 24th too. (At Mt hood)




The cloud cover was really nice and it kept the temps down a bit.






Travee and I.



And thanks to my lovely wife who got us in for free! :)




Also another story. For awhile now we have been wanting to go do a session at the Salt Lake Temple. I haven't done a session there yet and have been wanting to. We had been talking about it a lot and finally went. As we pull up to the under ground parking lot we see a bright yellow sign. And on that sign it says Temple Closed. We were both bummed. So we decided since we had already drove there we might as well walk around. It has been awhile since I have walked through the visitor's center. It is great and we want to go back soon! The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was practicing so we went in. Our last Single's Ward Bishop's wife is in it and we spotted her out. So even though the temple was closed it was still a great night! Hopefully we can make it back soon when the Temple is open.






Tuesday, July 5, 2011

El Jardin 2

The Garden is coming along pretty well. For dinner tonight I decided to make a fresh salad from the Spinach we are growing. Yum.
I am looking forward to more meals like this in the coming months.