July 2025

Quite possibly the best month out of the year

We love July. It’s Lauren’s and my birthday month, as well as the birthday of our beloved country and we couldn’t be more grateful for the life we have.

July started off with a bang, with the family tradition of going to the Kaysville parade. Personally, I think I will always hate a nice parade, but the kids and fam enjoy it, and that’s good enough for me.

Post Kaysville parade, we always like to go for a swim and Uncle Jer’s and Aunt Katie’s pool. It’s legit the perfect pool party venue.

Lou has his own little swagger going on. He is for sure our party boy and makes every occasion so much more fun.

Since Ethan and Sarah moved out of PG, we didn’t know what to do for fireworks this year. We ended up going to Orie’s parent’s home/farm for a little BBQ and backyard volleyball, then went to the park afterwards to watch fireworks with the Dennisons.

For my birthday this year, Lauren got me a new squat rack which has been absolutely incredible to lift with. So much more comfortable. I would give this safety bar a 10/10.

Every year, without fail we have a big get together with Lauren’s side of the family up at Bear Lake, aka the Caribbean of the West. For whatever reason, we are blessed with so much family close by and the kiddos have so many amazing cousins to connect and share memories with.

Grammy’s bought all the grandkids matching swimsuits. We feel so lucky that our kids have so many amazing cousins to grow up with.

Grammy’s is notorious for coming up with games and obscure activities for everyone to enjoy. This year she bought these massive pant-like things where the kids had to throw beach balls into. The other activity was sock wrestling, where you go up against another person with only one sock on, and whoever takes off the other person’s sock wins. The most iconic match up was Lauren’s brother Riley going up against Cousin Alex, where he just laid on her. Good times!

Conrad was my only child this year that wanted to surf. It’s always a shot to the ego when your children don’t want to do things you love, but I learn to live with it. Donovan says, he only likes surfing in Costa Rica.

Sad day, we found out that Lauren’s chicken, “Dolly Part-hen” turned out to be a “Darryl Part-Rooster”. Since we live in the burbs we had to get rid of him. We were kind of thinking she was a he for a while, but weren’t quite sure. Then one morning he let out a little cock-a-doodle-do and that was that. Lauren didn’t want to cook him so we posted him online for free and Juan came and pick him up within the hour. Who knows if Darryl ended up as dinner, but to keep Lauren’s pregnancy emotions in check, we chose to believe that he was the cock of his new flock.

Under the bridge at grandma and grandpa’s. Lou was wearing a spiderman costume acting like spiderman so I thought it was an iconic moment for a photograph, then Donovan had to jump in and be part of the action.

In Utah, we have a baby 4th of July holiday called, Pioneer Day on July 24th. Celebrations are pretty much the same as the 4th, but on a small scale, and every year for the 4th, I want to get fireworks we can light off at home instead of the big extravagant ones that the cities put on. So we went to the local firework stand bought $100 worth of fireworks and had the best of times. Needless to say, we are fans of the small scale firework shows. The kids all had fun, throwing smoke bombs, catching the parachutes, and lighting little fire crackers.

This summer Roxy has been obsessed with goggles, or as she says, “gah-goos”, and we absolutely love it. Sidebar, I’ve never seen a child lose as many shoes as Roxy. I swear we can’t keep track of her shoes to save our lives.

We crossed off another summer bucket list item with some homemade vanilla bean ice cream and pizookies. The Maxwell’s joined us and the pizookies didn’t disappoint.

Another highlight is that we bout an industrial strength ice machine that was used in hokulia shave ice shacks. Ethan’s buddy from his mission, Nick, was selling them at a huge discount and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

After having 3 sons and finally getting my girl, it’s fun to see how different girls are. While she loves to shoot hoops and throw baseballs with her brothers, she also loves to do her hair, put on lotion, make-up and etc, and in this particular moment she got a little too carried away with the lotion and the red nail polish. She’s our perfect little girl.

Lastly, we wrapped up July with what feels like our annual boating trip to Deer Creek. Orie, tried to body surf the wake and almost gave us all a peep show, with his trunks falling to his ankles. Lauren has been an absolute trooper this summer, having to forgo quite a few activities in order to keep baby healthy, but we are so grateful for her sacrifice.

We love our little family and are so grateful for so many friends and family that enrich our lives. God bless America!