The 24th

We had a great 24th of July celebrating Utah's Pioneer Day. The day started out with Allison having a bath with her favorite friend, lion. He is SO loved and needed to be washed anyway. He barely survived his near drowning experience! Here he is exhausted and trying to recover :)

Next on the agenda was a trip to the aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa Spongberg. Everyone enjoyed it and they had a lot of wonderful animals. Allison loved to watch all the fish, jellyfish, rays, sea snakes, sharks, octopus, and well, everything. She would watch them and try to grab at them through the glass. They also have added a new section with South American animals. There were spiders, frogs, fish, an anaconda, and much more.

Maybe our favorite part was where you can touch the rays and some fish! This was very cool. They feel like rubber.

After the aquarium we all went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to roast hot dogs and hamburgers. This is one our families favorite activities. We love the cool air and the sound of the river. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

Allison with her Grandpa and Grandma Spongberg.

We ended the day with fireworks! It was so fun to see Allison enjoy fireworks for the first time (on the 4th of July we were in the mountains and didn't do fireworks). She really liked them!

We love sparklers!

Our neighbors had family in town from Dubai and India and in Dubai they do not allow fireworks to be done on the street so they came out and watched our fireworks from their front porch. After our little fireworks show Dave and I were going to walk up the street to see the big fireworks show put on by the city. We went over and invited them to come with us. So Ratka and her 3 1/2 yr old daughter Smita from Dubai and the grandfather from India came with us. We loved talking with them and the fireworks lit up the sky!

We sure made a lot of memories that day....

Spider Woman

Dave called me a couple weeks ago to inform me that I had given birth to Spider Woman. He then went on to describe what he was talking about and I was laughing so much. The trouble was she would stop whenever she saw him so he couldn't get it on video. But after some sneaking I was able to capture Spider Woman in action. She had a hard time gripping because she was wearing shoes but sure enough she is a climber. The next video was the same day right after this one. Allison is such a joy to be around and is always full of love and entertainment.

Milestone (in my opinion)...

This is the first time I have been able to put a bow in Allison's hair without a headband attached! She looked so cute and I was really excited!!

4th of July Camping

Our family has a tradition of going camping every summer. We love spending time together, slowing things down, and enjoying the beauty of the mountains. This year was no different except that we were trying to camp with a 10 month old and we were missing some relatives who couldn't make it. Dave, Alli, and I ended up being "day campers". We attempted to sleep up there with Allison in her port-a-crib in the tent but by 11pm she was still awake and crying. So we threw some essentials in the car and drove home to sleep and went back up in the morning. Allison and Giada are becoming great friends. Cousins are the best!

We went on lots of walks. We had this little stream right next to our campsite and then the main river was across the road.
Cory, Leah, and Bella are waiting patiently to catch a squirrrel.

It worked!

Here is some of us hanging out and talking.

Our little family!