After we enjoyed a couple of days in San Diego we headed up to Utah to spend almost two weeks with my family. We had such a great time! Everybody was apologizing for the heat wave that was passing through Salt Lake at the time, but it felt great to us. I made sure to get Tommy outside every day we were there because it was so beautiful. 
Tommy got to play with his cousins, Makayla and Jarom. The above pictures is when they were all playing with the same toy and they each had to hold a few balls to do it. They also played outside together in Grammy's huge sandbox. Tommy and Jarom played in the sand while Makayla preferred to play with the hose on the grass.
It's really hard to get a picture of all three kids together with Grammy, but we try every time we are together.
Tommy got to play with his cousins, Makayla and Jarom. The above pictures is when they were all playing with the same toy and they each had to hold a few balls to do it. They also played outside together in Grammy's huge sandbox. Tommy and Jarom played in the sand while Makayla preferred to play with the hose on the grass.
It's really hard to get a picture of all three kids together with Grammy, but we try every time we are together.
Tommy (1), Makayla (almost 2), and Jarom (3 1/2).
On Sunday we got to attend my brother, Wes', ward in Lehi. He teaches nursery so we all went to nursery together. Tommy loved these sunglasses. It was so amazing to see how his ward juggles 5 nursery classes like it's no big deal. It inspired me to come home and make some major changes in our ward's nursery since we have almost as many kids, but we were all in one big class together. Thanks, Wes and Jamie, for teaching us how it's done!
Tommy loved playing in Grammy's sandbox. It was a lot like being on the beach in San Diego, I guess. He was happiest when he had control of the hose. 
Daddy and Tommy playing in the sand together.
Tommy and Grammy together in the sand.
Tommy loved that hose! I had no idea he was so easy to entertain. The weather was warm, but the water coming out of the hose was pretty dang cold, but Tommy didn't seem to care. He let the water run all over him and he loved every moment of it.
We have played with the hose a lot since coming back home to Phoenix. It provides at least an hour of entertainment with relatively little mess or effort on Mom's part:)
We went to the park a couple of times while we were in Utah. Unlike Phoenix, we could actually play on the park equipment because it wasn't searing hot. However, Tommy preferred to either sit and dig around in the wood chips or wander off and explore the pavilion and surrounding areas.
My brother, Carson, and I ran the Deseret News 10K on the 24th of July. We had to wake up at about 5:00am to run, but it was worth it. Carson did awesome, finishing in about 53 minutes (not bad for his first 10K!) and I was proud of myself, finishing in about 57 minutes. If I had just kept up with Carson I would have beat my personal record! Oh well, maybe next year:) We missed the big parade downtown for the first time in years, but I don't think anyone was really too upset about that. Later in the day we went to my Aunt Linda's home and enjoyed lunch with all the cousins. I haven't seen some of my cousins since I got married two years ago, so it was really fun. I miss my family lots.Tommy had this love/hate relationship with my mom's dogs. This is a video of Tommy and Sammy. Sam looks really ferocious in this video, but she is the sweetest thing in real life and she would never hurt anyone. She just gets nervous around little people. It seems like every trip Tommy starts out being afraid of the dogs, and by the end of the trip he is chasing them around and getting right up in their faces. It's good for him to have some time with the dogs at my mom's because we aren't getting a dog around here for a long time:)
Overall, it was an awesome trip. We played at the park or in my mom's backyard almost every day we were there. One day I took Tommy swimming at the community pool and he loved that. I tried to teach him how to blow bubbles in the water. He thought it was pretty funny, so he tried to do it and ended up drinking some pool water. Yum! We were also able to go to Provo to see Ben's friends, which was so fun. They even did a Happy Pirates reunion show (the Happy Pirates is the improv comedy troupe Ben performed with at BYU).
We are so happy to have been able to make the trip to Utah. We love our friends and family there and we miss you so much!
Overall, it was an awesome trip. We played at the park or in my mom's backyard almost every day we were there. One day I took Tommy swimming at the community pool and he loved that. I tried to teach him how to blow bubbles in the water. He thought it was pretty funny, so he tried to do it and ended up drinking some pool water. Yum! We were also able to go to Provo to see Ben's friends, which was so fun. They even did a Happy Pirates reunion show (the Happy Pirates is the improv comedy troupe Ben performed with at BYU).
We are so happy to have been able to make the trip to Utah. We love our friends and family there and we miss you so much!
