24th of July Weekend

I know I am slow getting these up, but thought I'd post some pics from our holiday weekend.

Friday morning we watched the parade in Salt Lake and ate something delicious for breakfast... Stuffed french toast maybe? Anyways, after that we went to Taste of the Valley in Provo. For $10 you get a punchcard to grab samples from each of 30 vendors. When I say samples we're not talking Costco samples here. I think Goodwood's "sample" was a brisket sandwich with two sides. Yeah... we basically ate ourselves silly. Vendors included P.F. Changs, Tucano's, Gloria's Little Italy, FroYo, some fudge shop that was delicious... We will be going back as long as we live within 100 miles of the event.

Anyways, here is Chase playing on their free bouncy castles. Tim took him up to that great big huge slide; and ended up helping about 4 other kids get up the 8 foot wall as well. What a sweetheart.

(Chase is on the right just about to go down)

That night we went with my mom, sister, grandma, aunts, and cousins to Butlerville for fireworks, festivities, and free watermelon. I was beyond impressed. I am convinced this is the place to be every year. There were a lot of people there but it is at such an enormous park it never felt CROWDED. (I swear everytime we go to anything in provo/orem/american fork there is nowhere to park, and no room to maneuver a stroller, much less keep from getting trampled. I hate that!)

Plus we got some really stellar chocolate coconut macadamian nut ice cream....
Chase enjoyed playing with the kettle corn and my aunt bought like 50 glowsticks for the kids to play with. Also the fireworks were the best we've seen all summer.


Tim, Chase, my mom, and sister:
Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's Market in Salt Lake with my family. It is a pretty upscale market and we loved looking at all the vendors selling beautiful things; and eating samples. And more great news- the market is right across the street from Brugges Gaufres & Frites- so you can get yourself a Belgian waffle while you are there :) (Note: true belgian waffles are not breakfast food. They are thick and chewy and covered in dark chocolate. But I won't judge you if you DO have one for breakfast :)) Jack was such a sweetheart and pulled Audrey and Chase around in a little wagon the whole time. Chase just loves those kids!

We spent the rest of the day mostly at Gigi's (Chase's great grandmothers). He loves her house because she has a dog... and the dog has this cage in the basement: I swear it is his favorite thing ever. If he wants to play in there... he will NOT come out.

We also played in her pool because we can't get enough of ours I guess
After that we took Chase over to my aunt's for some good barbecue. He just loves his "cousins" (my cousins) Jack (4) and Audrey (2). And they adore him too. Jack gave Chase rides in his John Deere Powerwheel all around the backyard, they jumped on the tramp, ate popsicles, played in the water, had a picnic, and Chase found hundreds of toys out back to play with (I"m not exaggerating- Chase wishes he lived there). Anyways, he found this little truck that was just his size... He thinks going over there is really stellar.


When the night was over the kids were trying to convince me that he needed to sleep over. Chase even climbed in Jack's toddler bed. 1 1/2 and I'm already having to say "no" to sleepovers. I hate being the mean mommy :)

Monday was our 3rd anniversary and Tim played hooky from work all day. I guess technically he took the day off. Nana took Chase to stay with her at Gigi's on Sunday night and I didn't see him all the next day. I had my first doctor's appointment, we snuck boatloads of candy into "Harry Potter", went to lunch, went shopping and just had a good time together without any kids. We made fondue for dinner and it turned out fabulously! We grabbed Cheesecake Factory for dessert and it was really a wonderful day. I am so grateful to be married to such a wonderful man. He really is just my best friend, and I can't imagine not having him in my life. I love him so much!