"Summerize"

As most everyone knows, my pregnancy has made me lazy and grumpy and a major baby so my relationship with Blogger was put on hold.  The summer is over now, the baby is coming in about a month (eek!!!!!), and I need to get with it!

We'll begin with JUNE...

 Audrey finished up a great year in dance with a great performance.  My only complaint (and maybe other parents of dancers can agree with me) is that 3 hours for a dance show is too long!  My daughter is 5 and she was on stage at about 8:00!

 Ryan ran his first half marathon of the summer.  He did really well!  He's a little bit too competitive though because he thought he should run faster than ALL the girls and have the best time in his age division.  I thought his goals should be NOT DYING and FINISHING.

 The girls went to the Princess Festival in Lehi and ate it all up!  Audrey even had her picture in the Daily Herald!

Audrey took an art class through the city.  She had a lot of fun.  Kennedy and I spent a lot of time walking around.

Ryan and I celebrated our 10 -year anniversary!!!!  Our honeymoon was on the east coast so we thought we'd spend our anniversary there.  On our honeymoon we spent a few hours in Boston and didn't see much so we had a re-do.  The things that didn't change about Boston in 10 years...the crazy roads, thick accents, and the HEAT.  There was a heat advisory for the two days we were there and I am positive I have never sweat like that.  I didn't even wear make-up.  What's the point?

 This is the Bunker Hill Monument.  I have to post a picture of it because you have to walk uphill to get there (obviously) and then we walked up 300 steps to get to the top.  I'm pregnant and out of shape and it was hot and there's no airflow and I thought I might die.  But I did it. 

The entire Freedom Trail is amazing.  You see all the historical sights and they have the entire path painted throughout so you aren't staring at a map the whole time.  It's hard to imagine that battles once took place there but it's easy to imagine fighting over a land as beautiful and precious as this country.

 It wasn't easy to find, but I thought it would be cool to see the facade of the Cheers building.

 And to relive the only part of Boston we experienced on our honeymoon...Fenway Park.  The outside is as plain as any other brick building in any other old city, but the atmosphere is hard to beat.  The people are absolute fanatics and the history is palpable.  My favorite part is probably the walking concession guys whose accents seem almost rehearsed.  "Git your hotdogs heah."

On to New York City!

 This picture is really terrible so if you can't tell, it's of Ryan and me at Wicked!  It was such a fantastic show.

 Rockefeller Center

 Top of the Empire State Building

 Ryan read a book about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge so walking across it was on his 'must-do' list.  It was CLOSED.  He was pretty disappointed.

 If you are a fan of the channel TLC (and I AM), you may recognize Carlo's Bake Shop from the show Cake Boss.  Audrey and I love to watch it together and it's really fun until she requests a 6 tier, moving Dr. Seuss cake for her birthday!  Anyway, it's in Hoboken, New Jersey.  It's not a pretty town and it's not a pretty bus ride to get there, but let's just say we tried to ship crumb cake home in our suitcase it was sooo good.

 This is the Manhattan temple.  Nothing spectacular on the outside except that the planter boxes are the nicest in the whole city.  Would you expect anything less?

 Central Park was beautiful and enormous!

 FAO Schwartz is famous for toys right?  Why don't people talk more about the candy?!  It was so cute and I'm not afraid to admit we spent something like $10 on bin candy.
It was such a great trip!  Ryan worked really hard to plan it and other than some horrendous flight problems and my body constantly reminding me that I'm pregnant, it was perfect.  Being alone was definitely the best part.  We missed the girls but they were in good hands with grandmas and grandpas.

On to JULY...

 Audrey took swimming lessons.  She is not a natural swimmer.  She never liked putting her face in the water and she had to be pushed off the diving board, but she still enjoys the pool after it was all over and that's really what matters most to me.

 Spanish Fork has a week-long 24th of July celebration.  We aren't big rodeo fans and so far we haven't cared much about the parade, but we love the carnival!  We went with our good friends, the Duvall's.

 Audrey said she wanted to go on the big ferris wheel and I kept trying to explain to her just how high it was and that if she got scared at the top, she wouldn't be able to get out and 'are you sure?' but she kept saying she really wanted to do it.  She just laughed and smiled and enjoyed the whole thing.

 The face painting was really fantastic.  This is Audrey's best friend Breea.

While Ryan spent the last weekend of July in Miami (poor guy), I took the girls to my parents' house and we were joined by cousins!  My sister Emily has Chloe (6), Ruby (9 months), and on the far right is Gigi (3).  Other than a total lack of sleep, they had a blast.

AUGUST...

 August was HOT so we spent some time at the splash pad!

 Audrey played soccer.  She scored one goal and was pretty happy about that.  Kennedy spent a lot of time running around, "like Audrey" she said.

 Altogether Ryan ran 3 half marathons and one 10K.  This is a picture of his least favorite.  Next summer he wants me to join in on the fun...we'll see.

 Ryan's birthday is in August and we got him a new tent since our growing family had outgrown the old one.  We decided to try out the back yard first.

 The girls actually slept better than I expected.  The parents, not so well.

Our summer tradition of the Scera outdoor theater in Orem continued.  This year the favorite concert was Rodney Atkins and the favorite play was Wizard of Oz.  Audrey and Kennedy have a major obsession with the Wizard of Oz so it was perfect that it was done this year.

I had some pictures taken of the girls right before school started.  We had just cut 5 inches off of Audrey's hair and I think somehow she looks older.

 Audrey just plasters on a smile and goes through the whole session without blinking an eye.  To get Kennedy to smile for a stranger is a bit harder but thanks to a brilliant accident of bringing along one of her stuffed friends, we got some real smiles from her too.
Then, finally, the moment we've all been waiting for...Audrey started school.

No tears were shed.  She's handled everything very well.  Kennedy and I are always very excited when it's time to pick her up.