Happy 4th Festivities

We helped orchestrate a neighborhood 4th of July party with a lot of food and A LOT of fireworks. We have some neighbors from Asia that always go all out for the holiday. This year they bought an entire pallet of fireworks. I'll be honest, it was almost too much, but it was fun. Sarah's friends came to hang and it was nice to have celebrate our great nation's birth together. Audrey fell asleep, but we couldn't blame her. :)

Random June-

 We were at a movie with the boys when Sarah called to tell us she'd gotten a flat tire. Her friends had tried to help her change it, but they were struggling. Mike went to help and taught her how to do it. 

I ran the Drop 13 half marathon and came in with a respectable 1:45:.. considering that I was a bit under trained. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mike at the finish line. 

Sarah is a good little artist and I wanted to remember these small paintings she did. 

Saratoga Springs Open House

We had the opportunity to go to the Saratoga Springs Temple open house a couple of times. The first time we went, we took my parents and Sarah on a private tour with Mandy Green, the Paxtons, a couple from Mike's work and a random couple. It was really interesting having Mandy point out things that we hadn't noticed or thought about. There is a lot of symbolism and the Saratoga Springs temple was beautiful inside. Sarah took this picture of the outside of the temple at night. 

The second time we went, we went with our neighbors the Holts, Mike's mom, and Roland. Afterwards even Adam said it was cool, which is REALLY saying something. 

Mike's super sweet fly over

 Mike had the opportunity to plan and fly a statewide flyover celebrating 100 years of air refueling. Since he was the planner, he put a little detour that went right over our house. It terrified some neighbors that weren't aware it was happening, but a lot of our neighbors and members of the community were outside waiting and sent video. We got a lot of pics and videos sent to us. Mike was also interviewed by church headquarters and was featured in some articles, which was pretty cool. I'll see if I can find some of the pictures. 

Here's the video I took from our house. He went right over the top. It was pretty cool. 

Here are the articles he was in. He was also in a couple other ones about what he's doing as KC 135 Test Director. 

6:30/23 - LDS Pilot Calls… https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2023/6/30/23779524/latter-day-saint-pilot-utah-air-national-guard-refueling-flyover?utm_campaign=churchnews-en&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social_share&fbclid=IwAR3hsnhyFD7IRPNt63R_4uC2QUJ9T2FPwNR2JTPGNsCalsp4IgE2gMAq74c_aem_Aa5RdD9h_VRZ4qPBb5QXZqjSIuVfjJirObB1DPIiIr5SfSp13fLttnaTIJA1IYKxy0I&mibextid=Zxz2cZ 

7/24/23 - Connected Battlespace modernizes the fight in the Indo-Pacific https://www.ang.af.mil/Media/Article-Display/Article/3467866/connected-battlespace-modernizes-the-fight-in-the-indo-pacific/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ 

8/2/23 - Tanker Modernization Engances Battlefield Communication https://www.ang.af.mil/Media/Article-Display/Article/3480132/tanker-modernization-enhances-battlefield-communication/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Tat Time

 Mike and Audrey have started giving each other tattoos. This is why he's the fun one. ;) Here is a sampling of their artwork. 

More Dinosaur Island with a side of Butterfly Biosphere

 I love the phases kids go through. Sometimes they grow out of them, and sometimes it leads to a lifetime of love for something. Last summer by parents joined us at Dinosaur Island at Thanksgiving Point. My parents bought Audrey a T Rex stuffy she named Gray Dancer as well as a Dino encyclopedia. Since then, she's been obsessed. As I wrote in the Random May post, she's been five or six times this summer and I'm sure we'll go another handful of times before it ends. It's a cool display and it's always fun to have her point out dino facts. 

My parents came back into town a week later and we went to the Butterfly Biosphere

Schools...out...for...summer!

 I failed yet again to get an end of the year picture for all the big kids. We'll just say that they all grew. ;)

Sarah earned her third academic letter. 

Audrey's preschool went on a field trip to Wheeler Farm and then she had a cute program to finish out the year.