Today we celebrate Pioneer Day here in Utah. In honor of that day, I present: A Bunch of July Miscellany.

To celebrate the 4th of July, we headed down to Provo for the hot air balloon festival. This picture was taken at 6:30 a.m.--an early morning, but definitely worth it.

There's just something magical about hot air balloons. And it's doubly fun when you get to see them take off from the ground just feet in front of you.

Some guys from Belgium even graced the festival with this awesome Darth Vadar balloon. Pretty cool. Wonder how much it costs to ship a hot air balloon from Belgium to Utah...

We also went to the Freedom Festival parade down in Provo. Bryce ran the 10k race with Brad, Brock, and Kathleen (she ran the 5k) and then we all sat and enjoyed the parade.

Oh, and we just inherited this awesome bunk bed. Thank you Mark and Brenda! The kids adore it and it's so much fun to play on. And see that cute boy on the bottom bunk? He's potty trained! Hurray!

Life gave us figs and we made fig newtons. They were delicious--very very tasty!

This past Saturday I ran my first 5k! I have never considered myself a runner, so this was a pretty big deal for me. I came in at 32 minutes and 32 seconds. My goal was 34 minutes, so I was very pleased! Thank you, Bryce, for inspiring me!

At my 5k, they had a kids race, too. Hilarious to watch.

Apparently, hot air balloons have been a big part of our month. This is me with Amelie and Calder up in a tethered balloon just after my 5k. I'll admit that I got a little nervous up there, but the kids had no fear. It was pretty cool!

It’s been a great month! To top it all off, Easton started rolling over this past week. Pictures of that amazing feat to come.

We blessed Easton in church on Sunday, June 12th. I love this tradition of giving these sweet babies a blessing–it never fails to bring a couple tears to my eyes. Easton was lucky enough to get to wear the same blessing outfit that Bryce wore as a baby. Calder wore it, too. I am so glad Brenda kept this darling outfit!

Here's Bryce in his outfit, back in 1981.

And Calder in 2008.

And Easton in 2011. Isn't that blanket gorgeous? Brenda's sister, Betsey, made it for Easton. It matched his outfit perfectly--it even has a light blue ribbon running around the edge! Thank you, Betsey!

Turns out, it's really hard to photograph squirmy babies.

My sweet baby boy.

It was a lovely morning–thanks to everyone who was able to come and support Easton. I fall more in love with him every day. His sweet personality and easy smiles just melt my heart.

June is the month for Strawberry Days, here in Pleasant Grove–the weekend when we all get together to celebrate our city. There’s a parade, 4 nights of rodeo action just down the road from us (this year there were even fireworks!), the children’s art show, and the carnival. In years past, we’ve done more–gone to the rodeo, sat out on Main Street to watch the parade–but this year we decided to take it easy and just go to the carnival. The kids were so excited and it was a great tool for bribery that whole week. “Okay, guys, go right to sleep so you can go to the fair on Saturday!” “All right, Amelie, stop whining so you can go to the fair on Saturday!” You get the idea. We had a fun afternoon at the carnival–just a couple of hours was plenty of time for our little ones to enjoy some rides. I love that they have each other and can do stuff like this together.

Cruisin' in their orange jeep.

On the dragon coaster. Calder looked a little nervous at first, but that didn't last long.

Journeying into outer space together.

Here's Amelie pointing to her entry in the children's art show. It's a drawing of, in her words, our house and us looking out the open windows and a rainbow and baby trees. I asked why the grass was black and she said that she did that to make the picture more colorful.

Oh, and by the way, I am now a member of the Pleasant Grove City Arts Commission! The mother of one of my violin students is the head of that commission and mentioned that they were looking for a couple new volunteers, so I sent in my application, got voted in by the city board, shook hands with Mayor Call, and went to my first meeting. We work to promote and support the arts in Pleasant Grove, including our various performing groups (the orchestra, the children’s choir, the theater troupe) and other artsy efforts. We’re even hoping to have our very own arts festival next year. It’s fun to be involved in the community and I look forward to helping improve the art experience in Pleasant Grove!

Just thought I’d share this cute little picture of Calder posing with his homemade Statue of Liberty torch from an activity we did one morning.

Little Boy Liberty.

Now whenever we see a picture of the statue in a book, he’s the first to yell, “The Statue of Liberty!”

We went to a great playground the other day and it had this fun “log” for the kids to climb up. Just in case you happen to be in American Fork, Utah and want to give this a shot, here’s a little tutorial:

Step 1. Approach log and figure out how to get on it.

Step 2. Continue ascent.

Step 3. Climb and try not to fall off.

Step 4. Approach summit.

Step 5. Glory in your triumph.