Independence Day

We had a fantastic 4th! There was beautiful weather, fun with friends and family, and yummy food. Ethan and I had a BBQ at our house with some friends and then walked down to the parade. Anna absolutely LOVED the parade. For days she would tell anyone who would listen, " 'Palade', candy!" She just could not believe person after person came by throwing candy at her. Anna didn't even care about eating it either; she was just excited to hold it in her little hands.

We went to our friend's house for sparklers that night. Ethan and Brian started a game of 'snap-it' baseball. (Snap-its are the little white things you throw on the ground and they pop.) If you enlarge the picture above, you can actually see the snap-it Eth is about to hit. I gave it a try and it was way fun. The snap-its were an easier target than I imagined.

Fireworks over Lake Superior were beautiful this year. Anna was pretty nervous, but she liked talking about the colors. The top picture is of Anna leaning against Gramma Melissa. She fell asleep towards the end - definitely something she picked up from Ethan. I would NEVER be able to sleep through the stuff he can. As you can see, it cooled off that evening. It was refreshing since we'd been having 80 - 90 degree days. I think it's funny, and probably a bit unique, to have pictures of the family all bundled up in sweatshirts and blankets to watch fireworks on the 4th of July. I love Marquette!!!

A Trip to Utah

We ventured out to Utah at the end of June for "May-May's" (Meghan's) wedding. It was an awesome trip, and I've been meaning to post about it since we got back. All of the action and excitement of the wedding was fun. It brought back the memories. (Ethan and I have been married for over three years, but we still feel like newly-weds.) The Manti temple was beautiful; I'd never been before. The top picture was taken at the temple, right after the wedding. Yippee for Meghan and Jake! The next picture is of Anna making friends with Aunt Patty while we're waiting for the reception to start. Patty's beautiful, sparkly sandals helped break the ice with Anna.

We stayed a few days with my sister Christie. It was great catching up with her and seeing all her impressive home improvement projects. Most exciting, we met Paxton Freir for the first time. What a handsome baby! There's a cute picture of Garrett holding him up. I do have to mention that the first day I was there, Paxton puked on me THREE times. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but our luggage had been lost and clothes were precious items just then.

Next is a picture of Anna with my cousin Amy's kids, Cole and Kenzie. It's so fun that Anna is at the age where she's really excited to see other kids and wants to play and interact, not just observe. I'm glad that she got to meet her second cousins - is that right? - even for one afternoon. The other picture is of Anna eating Indian food with our friends Dan and Jazmine Peterson. It was great seeing friends out there, AND it was great eating at a lot of restaurants we don't have here in Marquette. Yum, yum! :-) Whenever we take a trip, we realize how totally secluded our little part of the world is.

To reward Anna for being such a little sweetie (she was really, REALLY good the whole trip - way easy going) we decided to go to the Living World Aquarium the last day we were in Utah. Anna LOVED all the fishies. I think her favorite were the jelly fish, or maybe the sting rays.

Anna also loved swimming at the pool; courtesy of Meghan's apartment complex. Anna was so excited about staying at Meg's house and every time she woke up in the morning she would say, "May-may's house." When we were swimming in the pool, an airplane would fly by about every five minutes and every time Anna would say, "Look, airplane!" She was so excited about our airplane ride that she still occasionally looks up in the sky and says, "Look, airplane!" Only, there isn't an airplane. When we ask Anna where it is, she says, "Hiding."