We had a fun time celebrating our great country during the 4th of July weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

We got up bright and early on the 3rd and headed down to Provo to take a look at the hot air balloons.

It was pretty amazing. It's not every day you get to be so close to hot air balloons as they are rolled out, inflated, and navigated in the sky right above your head!

The 5 a.m. wake up call was definitely worth it--Amelie still talks about the "big balloons" and her favorite one, Tony the Tiger.

Saturday morning, we staked out our place along the Provo Freedom Festival parade route. We were lucky enough to find a spot big enough for all the Haymonds. It was definitely even more fun with family.

In our patriotic get-up. Amelie loved the sparkling floats! And the snacks that grandma brought...

Our very own Heather (Brock's fiancee) in all her glory as Miss Provo. The float was pretty spectacular--this photo doesn't do it justice.Â

All this celebrating made for one tuckered out little boy.

Now that Calder can pull himself up to standing position, he is even more of a curious explorer. Like any baby, he is drawn like a magnet to the things we don’t want him to play with. His current favorites: poking at our DVD player and chewing on our shoes. Time for more baby proofing, I guess!

One of the first mornings that I found him standing in his crib.Â

Time to baby proof Amelie's toy cupboard!

I’ve already posted about one of Thanksgiving Point’s great features, the dinosaur museum. Here’s another one of our favorite spots to play there–the Children’s Discovery Garden.

The Discovery Gardens have lots of fun play structures like this cool bug.

"Oooo...Pretty flowers!"

"And yummy, too!"

Amelie's favorite part of the Children's Garden is the Noah's Ark splash area. Water even shoots out from the elephants' trunks!

We also finally visited the larger gardens that Thanksgiving Point is famous for. There was a rose garden, a fragrance garden, a pond with lots of fish, walking paths, and much more that we’re looking forward to exploring again soon.

Lovely roses.

Hanging out with Daddy.

The gardens boast the largest manmade waterfalls in all of North America. And, don't worry--I was holding on to him tight 🙂

We were blessed to have lots of family from out of town come and visit with us at the end of June. Elliot started things off by staying with us for a couple days before heading off to BYU football camp. A couple days later, Nicole and Claire were also able to experience the joys of camping out on our living room floor. On Monday the 29th, Sarah brought Kiegan, Jonah, Tate, and Belle to join in on the fun. Finally, Bryce and I got to play with Tony, Kiegan, and Jonah at Lagoon on the 1st of July. It was wonderful to see everyone again! And a big thanks to Nicole for all of the terrific pictures!

Amelie got to watch Elliot do some football drills on campus.

Claire is truly one of Amelie's favorite people. She was pretty much attached to her very patient cousin's hip the whole time they were here.

The girl cousins: Claire, Belle, and Amelie. I had to bribe Amelie with a marshmallow to get her to sit still long enough to take the picture.

Calder and Belle had lots of fun together. Going in for the hug...

Gotcha!

The boys: Jonah, Kiegan, Calder, and Tate. I loved watching my sweet nephews with their baby sister--so tender and gentle!

We were so happy to see all of you and are counting the days–and, sadly, months–until we get to see you again!

Well, it was a very difficult decision, but we have selected the winner of the Caption Contest. Part of what made it so difficult was that I didn’t know who most of the comments came from since you all logged in as “family” 😉 If you need a reminder of your personal username and password, just let me know.

Without further ado (drumroll, please), here is the original photo with the winning caption:

“Ooh! Rocky just took a hard one in the face. Thats gotta hurt!”

If the author of the caption will please identify him or herself, I’ll figure out what your grand prize will be!

Oh, and this was actually Calder’s reaction to sucking on a wedge of lime.