July-August Adventures

This July was jam-packed with fun activities. July 1st we celebrated Canada Day with Grandma Spencer. We went to the parade and enjoyed watching the kids run out to catch candy and Georgie get excited about the horses. We had a little bbq with James' cousin Jono and his friend and our boys and got to try the new recipe for hot dogs that was actually quite delicious. It was hot dogs cooked with swiss cheese and topped with strawberry jam on the bun. It was really yummy! We left a sleeping Georgie with Grandma while we took the oldest four to the Raymond Stampede--the rodeo. The boys really enjoyed it, for the first 1 1/2 hours, then they started complaining. We arrived with no snacks and no extra money to buy any! Whoops, we learned our lesson I guess. The boys had some friends who were riding in the rodeo, so that was pretty neat! After the rodeo, Grandma and I hit the carnival on main street with the boys while Dad recovered. There were lots of free activities--the wagon rides (lots warmer in July than at the Town Christmas in December), roping fake calves, small wagon races, and yummy homemade cream puffs and other treats. Amazingly, the boys were still going strong, so after dinner we watched some movies and stayed up to catch a spectacular fireworks show that didn't start until 11:00! We were pretty impressed with the party Raymond put on this year.


July 4th was a quiet celebration on our deck with sparklers lit in a fire. The boys ran around and Georgie even held one for a bit.

July 5th James, George, Owen and I were in Calgary for a special event. We drove up the evening before and stayed at a hotel. The next morning, the boys and James left me to my fate as I lined up with quite a few other "immigrants" to take my Canadian citizenship test. I passed, happily, and that afternoon we were all sworn in. I was very impressed with the judge who did the ceremony. She was very welcoming and friendly and excited for us. Now I am a dual citizen--a total citizen of North America! I feel really blessed to be able to call two wonderful countries home now. I am excited to become a more active member of my community as well as eliminate a lot of hassel at the border and with renewing citizenship and so forth.


That weekend the boys and I bid Daddy farewell (with a few tears on my end) for 4 weeks as we traveled down to Provo, Utah to stay with the Williams clan. James stayed back to accomplish his final two classes for his Master's in Education! We are so proud of him. He finished with great grades and feels tons smarter and qualified than before. :-)

While in Utah we did many things. I will highlight a few. First of all, it was really hot the whole time we were down. We had some great evening and morning walks, and Nana and Grandpa even took the boys on some of their morning walks with the dog, Zeus. Because it was so hot, we went swimming lots. I bought a pass at the Provo outdoor pool, and we used it all up by the time we left. The boys all improved on their swimming a lot while we were there--a lot of this was because they actually enjoyed being in the pool instead of being frozen all the time. Tommy especially overcame his fear of the deeper ends and is diving and swimming like a little fish now. Owen also increased his distance and Will and Ry swam across the pool like pros! There were just a few days where the afternoon thunderclouds came in that prevented us from swimming when we wanted, but otherwise we had great weather.
We had such a great time with the cousins. Logan, Sophie, Caleb, Elsie, Ruby, Millie, Tristan and Hallie were a blast. The kids all got along really well and there were many funny moments and cute conversations. I enjoyed giving backscratches at night while reading "Doctor Doolittle" and "Island of the Blue Dolphins" to all the kids. We got to sleep over at Logan's house and Aunt Abi made delicious pizza and took us to a really fun lake/beach/playground. We then went to sleep over at Uncle Ryan and Aunt Nicki's house and got to know their kids as we spent some fun time at the playground, playing soccer in their backyard, and the kids made forts and played the wii to their hearts' content!

I got to visit with my friends Marilyn and Kirsten who I hadn't seen together in a long time!


Back at Nana and Grandpa's we got to have lots of visits with Lucy and Grey and meet new Aunt Kassie, who Tommy promptly fell in love with. We went to see Cars 2 and Kung Fu 2, which were both great movies and a fun highlight of our visit for the boys. We spent a day at Thanksgiving Point and Abi and Logan and Brian met us there. We did the double whammy of the petting zoo and the dinosaur museum. Actually, I think that was the same day we all hiked the Y in the morning too! Wow, is that right? That was a crazy day. Tommy was amazing on the mountain and the boys really enjoyed the animals and the museum this time around. Georgie was the reason we left when we did, otherwise they might have stayed all day! Grandpa and Nana were troopers at the Point and helped a lot with all the needs of every boy. Georgie had a bad fall off a bench right onto his face and had a big fat bloody lip for awhile, and Tommy got an allergic reaction to all the animals at the petting zoo, but other than that there were no real casualties on the trip!

Pioneer Day finished up July with a bang. We experienced Pioneer days at Heritage Park in Provo and the boys had fun watching Native dancing, riding ponies, petting animals, and doing other fun activities. That evening, the cousins all dressed up in Nana's pioneer dressups and joined the Oak Hills 1st Ward primary parade and ice cream social. Yummy! We hurried home from that so the women could have a bridal shower for Kassie. We ate the most scrumptious food (made by Lu) and enjoyed some good visiting while the menfolk "hung out" in the other room with the kids and watched (or tried to) a movie.





Aunt Abi and Uncle Brian were troopers to come down for day visits and a couple overnighters. They planned a really fun picnic up in the canyon on their last day down (for awhile!) and we roasted hotdogs and ate delicious smores and got extremely dirty. :-)


Brian purchased some really fun fireworks which he left in the hands of Nana, Lucy, and myself. We took the kids down to Wasatch and had some fun. It got really windy and started to rain part way through, but we got through everything. Georgie especially was intrigued by the fires.



I brought the boys' rollerblades down, but it was so hot, they didn't go out much. So we planned to go on an evening when Ryan was down with his kids out to the Roller Skating Rink in Orem. It was good to see that they've fixed up Classic Skating! We got there a bit later than planned because there was an accident right in front of Ryan's car. After skating for awhile and being asked to leave before our hour was truly up, Uncle Ryan asked if we could get a refund and instead they gave us all tickets to the fun bouncy house area of the place. The kids enjoyed that night quite a lot.


August brought Trent and Natalee with their kids and we had a fun time visiting with them. We went to the Spanish Fork farm and rode Rajah and Sarge. Tommy's eyes started swelling up again, but luckily we bought benadryl so we were prepared. Georgie rode with me but otherwise spent his time at the farm screaming. I think he got a bit worn out on our Utah trip, but for the most part he did really well. We went swimming with Trent and kids and laughed at how cold the Texan got in Utah, when we were enjoying the HEAT! ;-)


One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Hill Air Force Base in Ogden. The boys were excited to see all the airplanes and it was especially neat to show them Grandpa Halvorsen's Candy Bomber sign and airplane. They loved the interactive area where they dressed up in astronaut suits and flew in simulators.

Soon after that James joined us and it was a really happy reunion after four long weeks! Thankfully, our iphones helped us keep in touch and see each other, so when Georgie caught sight of James he was very excited to see Dada again. We certainly felt all together again after he came back. The same day he arrived, Granny and Grandpa and KRisten and John Whiteman and kids arrived. We had some fun times with them--watching Megamind, visiting in the kitchen while preparing food, getting shaved ice treats, walking around BYU campus, and swimming. They are a fun crowd and they sure were helpful with the kids.

Tommy learned some new skills while in Provo. He learned how to buckle himself into the car seat, pump on the swing, start from a dead stop on the swing, and swim. Georgie also developed a lot in his speech. He also started liking books--to read and be read to. Georgie also grew up a lot. By the time we were leaving he was saying more coherent sounds and making more signs. He also started to love reading books.

The final week of our visit was of course the main reason for the trip! We loved the preparations for and the actual wedding day of Greg and Kassie. The women went and got pedicures (mine, Lucy's, and Mom's first times) and that was fun. We had the place to ourselves and felt really spoiled--especially because the men again held down the fort at home with all the crazy kids! We really missed Nicki at this and all other events. We were able to see her at the hospital and knew she was where she needed to be!


The wedding ceremony and lunch and reception were beautiful and the food was delicious and it seemed like a really great celebration.

The following morning, Lucy and I rousted ourselves out of bed at 4:30, and bloated with cheesecake and brownies, we drove to the Riverwoods where we boarded a bus up the canyon and then waited, shivering, for 1 1/2 hours for our 1/2 Marathon race to begin! By the time the race started, the bloated feeling had disappeared, and we were both quite comfortable for the run. It was a beautiful day and I had a lot of fun (I know, that is probably not the best word for it) running for just over 2 hours with Lucy! We talked, joked, found "targets" (people we wanted to pass and then never let past us again) and enjoyed the beautiful run. I would definitely only do that again if I was running with Lucy. She is very positive and motivating to everyone on the trail and that was a great example to me. I admire her so much for setting these exercise goals. She is one tough cookie!



After the race, we recovered by eating more cheesecake and brownies and watching a movie with two sick kids while the others got to go see the BYU scrimmage. We iced our shins in the gutter running down Mom and Dad's street. Was cold but very nice. Monday morning early we climbed in our Canada-bound vehicle and bid everyone farewell. Thanks for the wonderful visit and the grand time we had there!