4th of July and Other Summer Fun

It's already been a busy summer! Here's a little of what we've been up to so far...

Luke's been busy trying to find excuses to use our smoker. We had a little barbeque party with some friends one weekend and Luke did fries and chicken thighs. Whenever he gets the smoker going our neighbors throw whatever meat they have on too, haha.

Jacob also signed up for an art class with Ava from their old preschool teacher, Miss Beth! They did a great job and had a lot of fun so we're planning to do another class next week.

It has been getting hot out so we've spent a lot of days relaxing in the backyard pool and having lunch on the patio. And I've been loving that we finally have AC this year.

And while swimming in the backyard is fun, I think Jacob enjoys the big pool much more. He's back in swimming lessons, which are every day for a two week session. I've seen a lot of improvement with him, so I think that's pretty cool. I may even sign him up for another session since I like getting a little sun every morning too!

And we're back in soccer again too, but he's only getting to play about 4 games this summer. The first game he missed because he had a sprained ankle. I'm still not really sure what happened, but he woke up with a really swollen ankle on Blake's birthday and continued to discolor over the next few days. He missed the first game of soccer even though he was running and jumping and acting normal on it, but he insisted on wearing a wrap. We never took him in to the doctor thinking he'd be fine in a couple days, which he was- until a week later he said it started hurting again and was limping. But I still never took him in because then he was fine by the end of the day... So hopefully soccer doesn't make it hurt again, I guess we'll see what happens, ha.

So, either way he's only played one game so far, but I did catch a good run of him on video. Last season whenever he started he would kick the ball once, then all the other kids would come and Jacob would back off. This time he really tried, but when the kids came, instead he would sit on the ball so they wouldn't steal it! It was actually pretty funny, but I'm happy at least he was trying!

 When Jacob's not busy with a class, he is almost always outside playing! He doesn't mind playing alone either, but he loves to play with the other neighborhood kids. Him and his friend across the street have the same little bikes and they are so cute when they ride together!

 

Another thing I worked on lately was this little blanket for my friend's son who was in the Children's Hospital for a week and a half and it was nearly his 6th birthday. Coincidentally our ward was making rag quilts for children at that hospital so I worked on this one, and took it to my friend's son myself, and luckily he's doing much better now! I didn't realize how easy these quilts are though, so I think I'd like to make one again next time I have a baby.

And this brings us around to the 4th of July, and you can't do the fourth without a barbecue. Luke was asked to do pulled pork for our ward lunch so he smoked up 6 shoulders starting the afternoon before and cooked them through the night.  

Luke had to teach me how to add the charcoal so that I could take over for a few hours while he got some rest.

All his hard work paid off and the barbecue was a success, everyone loved his pulled pork and fries too. Though I wish I got a picture of the end result, maybe next time.

 

Luke had just a few leftovers so he put them all together into what he called a pork-tato. He seemed to like it but I'm still not sure about that one, haha.

We took it easy during the rest of the day and then that night we walked to the end of the neighborhood where they do the fireworks across the street. I'm so glad we can just walk and not have to worry about traffic! I think it will continue to be a fun tradition!

We found a great spot on the hill without a problem and plenty of time to spare. The boys were excited but did awesome just waiting patiently in the stroller. They didn't even want to get out, I was actually impressed how well they did considering how late it got.

Anyway, Thornton has some awesome fireworks! They start their show off with sky divers jumping out of an airplane and have some sort of lights on them and are just swirling around together until they start dropping really fast, and one by one they dive into the crowd- and everyone goes nuts! The last guy has a huge flag waving back and forth with a flag colored parachute and once he lands then the big fireworks begin. I had never seen anything like it- it was really fun!

And the boys were shocked, I love Jacob's face here!

Both the boys were in awe and absolutely loved the fireworks!

I was glad they weren't afraid of the sound or anything because we were pretty close and had a perfect straight view, so everything seemed huge. Definitely worth it.

Throughout the last few weeks, our dear old friends the Loughe girls were back in Colorado visiting. They stayed with us twice throughout their stay and we all had a great time visiting with them, it felt like the old days. They boys had so much fun playing with their old baby-sitter, they were so sad when we finally had to drop them off at the airport. But it does make me look forward to more family coming back to visit us soon! Next up is Erika and Tyler who will be driving through Denver and staying with us for a few days next week!