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Summer Hikes

This summer Andrew and I had a lot of fun hiking around Utah County. The mountains are just too beautiful to waste and it was fun bringing Rosie along for the ride. Here are some of the hikes we went on:

Bridal Veil Falls

This was Rosie's very first hike back when she was four months.  I ended up being more nervous than she was.

Stewart Falls

This hike was lots of fun, but unfortunately we didn't make it to the falls. Rose was good for most of the hike, but then got really cranky. We decided we had better turn back before she got really upset. We'll have to come back sometime so we can make it to the waterfall.

Y Mountain

We wanted to do this hike one last time before we left BYU.

Battle Creek Falls

My sister Katie spent the weekend with us and we went on this hike all together. It was a perfect day for a hike.

We could see Utah Lake from the falls!

Andrew was papa-bear watching our little cub in the cave. 

Here is an epic Rose-eye view of the fall. 

Andrew tried to get too close, so I held Rose while he climbed up for this shot on the slippery rocks. 

Wet 'N Wild

Excited to go swimming for the first time!

Rosie's reaction

We tried a few times after that, but she really hated it and cried the whole time. Oh well, there's always next summer. For now, she likes splishing and splashing in her warm bath. And that's good enough for me.

Pioneer Day

Pioneer Day is an official holiday in the state of Utah and is held on July 24. It commemorates when the Mormon Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley after traveling across the plains. This year we celebrated by first going to the Pioneer Day concert in Salt Lake the weekend before the 24th. Every year the Mormon Tabernacle Choir puts on quite a production and invites a guest artist to perform with them. This year it was "The Joy of Song" featuring renowned Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins. We invited Andrew's little sisters Mary and Sally to go with us. It was a great show and we had a fun night.

We're ready to go

In line at the Conference Center

Katherine Jenkins sang beautifully

After the show it was a nice night on Temple square.

Then on the actual Pioneer Day we held Driveway of Fire at Andrew's parents home. This was my second time attending this Well's family tradition and it was a blast...literally. The name "Driveway of Fire" is a play on the "Stadium of Fire," the name of the big concert and fireworks show held in BYU's stadium each year on July 4th. The Wells have set off a few fountains and other little fireworks in their driveway since Andrew was little, but when he and his brothers were teenagers, they started a tradition of a more elaborate show complete with a narrative theme, little paper soldiers that get burned up, and rather dangerous (but legal) explosions. The early years featured a Star Wars-like story of epic battles between good and evil. Last year, we did a re-enactment of the Harry Potter finale where we burnt down a scale model Hogwarts Castle while witches and wizards shot sparks overhead. This year, we did the Battle of the Five Armies from Tolkein's The Hobbit, which we are excited to see as a movie at Christmas time. Andrew and his brother Paul set up the fireworks while the rest of us constructed men, goblins, dwarves, eagles, and elves out of paper to make up the five armies. 

The story of the battle: Bilbo the hobbit has enraged the dragon, but also found out its secret weakness--a soft underbelly that the town's local bard will exploit with an arrow. After the dragon destroys most of the town and is killed by the bard, the goblins attack ridding on wolves (tank fireworks in this case). The dwarves, men, and elves fight valiantly, but the goblins burn down the mountain and are about to triumph when the eagles finally arrive and Bilbo starts the rallying cry of "the eagles are coming" that gives everyone hope. Eventually good prevails, but in our version, it is a miracle that everything isn't totally destroyed, and that the audience or Andrew didn't get burned!

Everyone hard at work

The construction of the dragon

Dwarfs

Orcs riding wolves

Elves...with Legolas.

The eagles are coming.

The townsmen

The dragon turned out awesome.

The fun just keeps on going!

Lucky Number 7

Rosie is seven months and sitting up by herself! And she sure likes it. In fact, try to put her down any other way and she'll let you know that's unacceptable. She was a little wobbly in the beginning, but now she's got it down and only falls over when she's reaching for a toy or her favorite book.

She also learned how to say "mama" and repeats it over and over again much to my delight. She doesn't know what it means yet, but it still sounds so good coming from her in her cute little voice. Andrew has begun coaching her on "dada" but so far it hasn't stuck.

Rose is finally sleeping in her crib now too. We transitioned her slowly from her swing.

For the past several months we've noticed that one of Rose's eyes had her bottom eyelashes growing up and getting stuck in her eye all the time. It never seemed to bother her, but it obviously made us concerned. At her six month check up the pediatrician had us referred to an eye doctor to see if she needed surgery. Luckily the eye doctor said it is a pretty common thing where the eye lid has an extra roll of skin. So he said she will most likely grow out of it and as long as it continues not to bother her, she should be fine. We were pretty relieved. Here are some photos of her at the eye doctor.

Rosie is eating lots of more solids and has a great time with it. She's had green beans, apple sauce, peas, squash, and prunes so far. She's liked the squash the best (from what I can gather) and green beans the least. 

She's still making her snarly monkey face all the time and we sure get a kick out of it.

She's our little princess!