Through my lense: The One Where Our Summer Is Coming To An End

I'm always sad when school starts again (even if I'm not in it at the time), because it means Summer is over. Summer is my favorite season ever. This Summer started out pretty rough because in May, we had my surgery, then Rick's, then in June, we had Paige's. We were all just trying to get back to normal, but once we got going, there was no stopping us. :)

These are some of the fun memories we made this summer.

It's a long one... maybe I should have kept up with my blogging this Summer???

June:

My brother (from AZ... we'll call him Brother #2) was in town, so for my birthday, I had a pool party with some of the coolest kids ever. That's right, I invited all of my nieces & nephews (and of course their cool parents) to my house to go swimming for my birthday. It was great, one of my favorite birthdays. Rick & I missed my family vacation right after this because of our healing, but having them over for my birthday made up for it.
My brother (another one... brother #3) and his sweet wife were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. It was such a neat experience & I am so thrilled for them.

Brother #3, baby belly & wife. Special day!

I was able to meet with some friends who I hadn't seen in far too long. It was so nice to have some time to catch up with some of my great friends!
Because brother #2 was in town, I was able to spend a lot of time with my whole family the last week or so in June. I am so grateful for that time.

July:

Rick was able to go back to work & eventually stopped using his crutches. This was a huge step for us.
Rick & I were able to go to Bear Lake with his family, it was the first time I went up with all of them (Rick and I had been up there alone a few times), and we really enjoyed ourselves. We were able to go shooting, we attempted to tube with Paige, and we just enjoyed being with everyone. We did discover at Bear Lake that Paige loves something more than swinging... going down the slide!

The shooting gang (minus 1... she was taking the pic)

I was shooting the pigeons & Ricky was ready to go

I look pretty tough, huh?

Paige didn't like the tube, or the life vest, or either...

Does this face prove it?

Once we got to Bear Lake, Paige decided she absolutely adores grandma Julie.

She wanted to be with her the whole time.

She's counting her toes in this picture. She loves to do that.

We were able to have a much needed relaxing month. I was able to work a little less, spend more time with Paige & clean the house (it needed it!).

August:

I got called to teach Relief Society (a calling I used to dread), and taught my first lesson this month. I had taught Relief Society one time before (not as a calling), but I was pleasantly surprised with how it ended up. I know I received a lot of help, and I had some neat experiences.
One of my cute cousins got married. It was such a beautiful wedding & reception and she looked amazing! She had a photo booth, so Ricky & I had a little fun. Now I keep thinking of all of these cool poses we should have done. Oh well... next time...

We were able to spend lots of time with family again. I especially loved being able to spend time with my mom (she is a teacher, so she had the Summer off) at least once a week.

My mom & Paige both LOVE to swing.

September:

I was able to take Paige (with one of my cute friends & her daughters) to a toddler music class. Paige loved it. We ran, danced & made music. Paige & I also went to the library's toddler time, which has some similarities (except it's free), and we will be going to that weekly if possible!
Football season started. Which means I am a football ~~wife~~ (ahem) widow, but this year Rick has made it a lot of fun (partly thanks to the grill we got him for Father's Day), so I have been enjoying it a lot. He makes dinner on the grill & he has even been stocking up (using coupons even... I wore off on him!) on a bunch of snacks. I can't complain if he makes dinner AND cleans the house every Saturday!
Rick & I went to Flaming Gorge/Manilla for my family's trip to my brother's (Brother #1) cabin. It was a lot of fun. Labor Day is their BIG holiday. They had a parade that morning & a boat parade that night with fireworks. I guess they changed the boat route this year, so we barely saw the boats from where we were, but it was still a lot of fun.

Waiting for the parade to start

Playing at the beach.
She ate her first clump of dirt shortly after I took this pic.

Waiting for the boat parade to start... it was cold & Paige fell asleep in my arms... awhhh!

While we were at Brother #1's cabin, I found out that Paige had one molar cut through! I was surprised since she takes months to cut her teeth (for the first 4 teeth, she took 4 months to teeth, but in the past month, she has cut 5 teeth) & since molars are usually the last teeth to cut. She still has more teeth to cut besides molars.
We tried to take Paige swimming at our pool (at our apartments) several times throughout the summer. Last year she loved swimming, but this year, she seems afraid. As soon as she gets her toes wet, she screams and holds onto me so tightly. Thanks to our trip to Flaming Gorge, on Labor Day, we tried one last time, and she let me put her in up to her neck! She had fun this time.

One of the first times we took her to the pool this summer. We didn't get far.

Another time we tried to convince her to get in the pool

This time it was a kiddie pool at Bear Lake.

She did a little better here, but she didn't want to get out of my lap.

Rick started playing flag football again. His knee still has a long way to go, but he plays QB and doesn't run on it. Please pray that no one from the other team ruffs him up... :)
We went to the fair the other night. It was a lot of fun. Rick took Paige down the big slide (since she loves slides so much), but her favorite part was petting the sheep and goats.