July 2014

July is my favorite month of the entire year. As a student and a teacher it was the only months that held no school obligations whatsoever. Everything is green and the skies are sunny. We celebrate my second favorite holiday (the 4th) and my birthday. It is usually the only month that my entire family gets to spend time together, and it is usually the month we go to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. What more could you want? This year our July was jam packed with family and fun. 

Summer Fun

Ellie loved July.

This year Ellie could spend time trying to do what all the bigger kids do. All her cousins were so sweet to her, watching out for her and showing her things. She is such a lucky little lady!

Joey and Ellie are just a few months apart. I'm sure they'll have plenty of adventures together as they grow up.

Ellie spend quite a bit of time in the backpack this month.

We also had time for some friends. Finn and Ellie are cute together, even when they fight over toys.

The Shakespeare Festival

The Shakespeare Festival was one of the biggest highlights for July. We saw Sense and Sensibility, Comedy of Errors, and Twelfth Night.

The boys opted out of Sense and Sensibility, but it was fun to go with most of my sisters and my mom.

This was the first year in a very long time that all five of the sisters were able to go to the Shakespeare Festival. It was so much fun to have everyone there.

Ellie enjoyed the greenshow with Grandma.

There is a darling frontier museum in Cedar City that the kids loved. Ellie's favorite part was panning for gold splashing in the water.

The pool was also a big hit. Ellie loved walking around in the kiddie pool in her "Suess-mobile" as everyone started calling it.

We stopped at Cedar Breaks on the way home. It is gorgeous up there (though I didn't manage any pictures of the actual Breaks).

I love this picture of Caitlin and Ellie. So cute!

 The Zoo

Our next adventure was the Hogle Zoo, where all sixteen of the cousins got to play together.

My favorite part was the polar bear. Ellie loved her too. For such a big creature, she was absolutely elegant in the water.

Ellie also loved the splash pad, but since I didn't have extra clothes and I was worried about Ellie getting trampled by the zillion kids there, we didn't play for long.

Bald Mountain Trail

Our little family went on a big adventure and climbed Bald Mountain in the high Uintahs. The base is over 10,700 feet in elevation and the summit is over 12,000 feet.

Ellie was a champ and we made it to the top. The view is spectacular.

Ellie was not a fan of the huge wind gusts on the way down. Fortunately I was able to help a little bit by wrapping my sweater around the sun-shade.

Other Activities

Ellie's first bike ride

The blow-up pool and the hose have been our good friends in the summer heat.

For my birthday I took Ellie to the children's museum in downtown Ogden. I had never been and it was the cutest place. Jamie and Beckett were nice enough to come along, even though there wasn't a whole lot of activities for babies that small. I am definitely planning on returning, especially as Ellie gets bigger.

Overall our July was a blast. Exhausting. But a blast.