At the end of June Spencer and I went on a little date to celebrate my final year of teaching. We took a bread and cheese dinner up to the flight park and watched the hang gliders and para gliders land and take off. It was incredible! They were floating in swarms above our heads and we had fun learning a little about the mechanics of the process.
Grilling kabobs for dinner on our porch.
The weekend of the 4th of July we went to the reservoir and Spencer's sister Darcy came with us.
(Darcy is battling stage 4 cancer and we recently learned the chemotherapy and radiation treatments have been slowly chipping away at her tumors. Progress is slow but we are thrilled!)
We had a ward breakfast the morning of the 4th and then while I ran a few errands Spencer took Leone to Barnes & Noble where they were having a little paleontology story time/activity. Leone won the drawing prize at the end! I arrived just in time to hear her name called. She won a tote bag, the first book of the Magic Tree House series, and a 3D glow in the dark dinosaur puzzle!
We got home and made ice cream that afternoon. I had originally planned to follow a toasted coconut gelato recipe but I forgot to start the base the night before so instead I tweaked a couple different recipes that resulted in our own version of toasted coconut ice cream. It was delicious!
That night we drove up the street to watch the fireworks up close. Usually we would celebrate the 4th with Spencer's family and a barbecue then watch fireworks from his parent's yard where we can see shows from all around the valley. We celebrated with Spencer's family the night before so this time we took advantage of a local show nearby. While seeing lots of fireworks can be fun there is something about being close enough to feel the "boom" as they go off...Leone loved every minute!
There was a free children's festival at Thanksgiving Point a week or two later. Leone painted a flower pot and planted green beans, we received free tote bags, lots of free samples, chased bubbles, saw exotic birds and reptiles, played with kittens, and wandered around all the different booths. It was a great way to kill a Saturday afternoon.
One night, a few hours after we had put Leone down for the night, I got up to go to the bathroom and opened the door to find Leone sleeping at our door. I yelped because I was completely taken off guard but she kept sleeping away.
We discovered a new splash pad with our friends Ambree and Porter. Ambree and I were in the primary presidency together and Porter and Leone are in nursery. I love the new splash pad because it incorporates a waterfall and flowing stream as well as the usual fountains and spouts. The entire feature is made of granite and cement so it has a very natural feel.
We went up to Snowbird for one of their family movie nights. We saw Paddington which, luckily, turned out to be cuter and more entertaining that we had originally thought. While there Spencer spotted Brian May who is the guitarist from the group Queen and an astrophysicist. We decided not to approach him-we were a bit deterred by his entourage-but we know it was him because his hair is unmistakable. It looks exactly like it did in the 80's but now it's white.
