Where to start?

Let do all of July's happenings in one post!  We started the month off by celebrating the fourth of July with my family.  The typical BBQ and fireworks.  I think it's safe to say that no one was prepared for how cold it was!  But we survived.  It was actually quite fun cuddling up in a blanket waiting for it to get dark enough.  The fireworks were Logan's first and they pretty much rocked his world!  It was beyond cute.  Mara had a blast as usual!  It was definitely a fun relaxing day.  I was so glad Sean didn't have to work it.  It was nice having him home for a holiday!

Logan took an hour nap while we waited for it to get dark

Mara is obsessed with my sunglasses.  It's actually surprising they are on her face and not around her waist...

Aren't they the cutest?  And yes these are all of the pictures I took that day.  What a slacker mom I am!

 Next we went to the Steel Days parade.  Stephanie was amazing and set out blankets the night before only to get rained on all night long!  Then she went and checked on them at 6:00am and picked up doughnuts for everyone.  She is awesome!  Our kids had a blast.  Let me rephrase that...Mara had a blast and Logan got a good nap on grammy's lap!  I was paranoid about going because I had started potty training Mara only three days before so we took her potty chair along in our car.  It went well and she had no accidents.  Speaking of potty training--it was so easy!  Mara was definitely ready which is why it went easy.  After day two (which was accident after accident pretty much all day long) she was great!  I officially declared her potty trained!  She even survived a road trip and vacation after only a week!  Back to Steel Days...

Mara playing with Kayden & Maddux her best buds

Logan taking a nap on Grammy

Enjoying the parade!

Next we have Pioneer Day!  Grandpa Evans likes to go see the baseball game and watch the fireworks show up in Salt Lake.  For one reason or another we haven't joined them the past couple of years but fortunately everything worked out this year and we got to go.  It was so much fun.  It definitely helped that the Bee's won by a zillion points.  The firework show was incredible.  Thank you Grandpa Evans for taking us!  Trevor bough Mara a Bee's baseball and she still carries it around with her and talks about uncle Trevor all the time.  I guess we know how to get Mara's heart!  Buy her stuff.  She's such a girl!

Logan enjoying the game

What a cheeseball!

Towards the end of the month we decided to try a camp out.  Just in Grandpa's backyard.  That wouldn't be too bad, right?  We'd snuggle the kids in their bed at the usual bedtime and then Sean and I would get some alone time to swim in their pool.  It would be so much fun!!!  Right?  Wrong!  I'm pretty sure it took us 2 hours to get the kids asleep.  By then it was 10, so we hurried to go swim for a bit and I kid you not as soon as we got wet enough for it to be cold to get out Mara realized we were gone and didn't want any of that.  So out we got and went back to the tent to sleep.  Sleep?  Hmmm....I learned that doesn't really happen in a tent with two squirmy children.  Oh no.  My favorite part of the day was when they decided to wake up at 5am because the sun was up!  I guess all that matters is that the kids had a blast.  I'm not too sure we'll be doing it again anytime soon, but it was really fun to watch how excited the kidlets were.

Settling in for the long night :)

Mara was so excited she just kept bouncing around on top of the air mattresses.  Yes we used them.  Who wants to sleep on the hard ground if you don't have to?  Not me!

At one point Logan managed to escape the confines of the tent.  What a sneaky little guy he is.

Well, I think that is all of July.  At least all that I took pictures of.  We also had swim lessons and a road trip to Idaho.  How did I not get any pictures of those events?  Sad day.  I'll have to be better about picture taking now that I have a few tips on how to take better photos!  Gotta love enrichment night activities!