Yesterday was a holiday here in Utah and to celebrate our pioneer heritage, we went fishing and “camping”! I say “camping” because we didn’t spend the night or anything. Just played at the campsite and cooked yummy food over the fire. We had a marvelous time! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Haymond for hosting us and making it happen!

The reservoir at Mill Hollow where we spent the day. Isn't it gorgeous?

Amelie was in love with the worms brought for bait. The fact that we were putting them on hooks for fish to eat didn't seem to bother her, though.

Daddy teaching Amelie the ropes. She turned out to be a natural and practiced her casting until she was able to cast way out into the lake.

Grandma Brenda mentoring Calder. He enjoyed casting and trying to figure it all out.

My two fishermen--fisherpersons? You couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Easton giving his secret sign. You'll have to ask him what it means. I'm not allowed to tell.

Daddy caught a fish. Bryce actually loves to eat fresh fish, so after we had wrapped up the fishing for the day, he cleaned the fish (I don't think I even want to know what that entails. Or entrails, for that matter.), and grilled them up.

And then the most exciting part of the day--Calder caught a fish! Here he is holding his netted prize. It was like a little miracle.

Easton could care less about fishing. All he wanted to do was get in the water.

Exploring our campsite.

Sitting pretty while Aunt Michelle did all the hard work of building the fire.

Our campsite was a children's paradise. I tried to be open minded about Calder's adventure schemes, but some of it was just too high and scary for this mama's nerves.

One last one of my cute fisherman. It was really a wonderful day.

A couple months ago, I took Amelie to an instrument petting zoo. The Utah Valley Symphony played a short concert and then the local music store arranged to have all sorts of instruments out in the foyer for audience members to try. Amelie tried them all–trombone, cello, violin, trumpet, flute, and more. Before this concert, she and I had talked about starting music lessons. She said she wanted to learn violin. While I was very pleased to hear this, I didn’t want her to choose violin simply because that’s what I play and teach. I wanted her to find something on her own. So we went and listened to the concert and tried out all the instruments (I was kind of hoping she might choose cello) and, lo and behold, she still wanted to learn violin.

I knew it would be fun having her learn my instrument, but I had no idea how much fun. On Tuesday, we arranged to rent a little 1/8 size violin and she was over the moon about her new instrument. She played and played and played. It’s amazing what you can come up with using only open strings! Then on Wednesday, she had her very first lesson with my friend and neighbor, Eliza Bryan. Amelie was very excited about this part. When we agreed that she could start violin, Amelie insisted on taking lessons from “Nan’s mom”. The first lesson went great–Eliza is wonderful and Amelie was thrilled.

Right after we brought her violin home.

During her first lesson. She learned how to shoot her bow like a rocket ship, do pinkie jumps, sing a song about the names of the strings (involving Eeks, Ants, Dirt, and Ground), pluck the strings, and lots of other fun tricks.

She is in heaven! I know the novelty will wear off eventually, but I’m enjoying if for now. It’s so sweet to see and watch her play!

This 4th of July was pretty great! We woke everyone up and headed out around 5:30 that morning so that we could drop the kids off with my friend Harmony who so graciously offered to tend them for us that morning. From Harmony’s, Bryce and I drove over to the Freedom Run race in Provo. It was a beautiful morning and the race was early enough that we managed to precede the heat that hit later in the day. Bryce, Brad, Brock and I ran the 10k race (a little over 6.2 miles) and Mark and Brenda did the 5k race. It was so fun to participate as a family! And I finished! I truly never thought I would be able to say that I could run over 6 miles, but I did.

Just after I crossed the finish line. Brock and Brad finished a while earlier, but Brock was sweet enough to run back up the race course to meet up with me and Bryce and then run the last bit of the race with us. It was a great morale booster and I so appreciate his support!

My sweetheart ran the whole race with me, even though he could have gone much faster. It was wonderful having him beside me the whole time, encouraging me and keeping me going. Thank you, Bryce!

Those crazy brothers are going to run a half marathon tomorrow. I will be happily watching from the finish line.

After the race, we headed over to the big parade. Amelie and Calder got to sit with Grandma and Grandpa Haymond the whole time and were in heaven!

There were lots of exciting floats and balloons and bands!

This guy did pretty well considering we had to wake him up so early!

All the excitement and the lack of sleep caught up to him as soon as we got in the car.

All in all, it was a pretty great day! To top it all off, it rained and rained the next day. A blessing indeed considering the insane fire season we’ve been having here.