picnics, fireworks, powwows, and FAMILY!!

since i'm behind an entire month, i decided upon a picture journal. so here goes. just as soon as i had them all spiffy and ready to go to church, makayah pulled out her little flower barrettes i had made and proceeded to lie down in the dirt in her white dress. agh! isaiah on the other hand loved looking like his daddy in his suit and tie. He tried to stay as far away from makayah, and her messy hands, as he could. this summer we took advantage of the warm weather and lots of outdoor picnics. gotta love the watermelon! ...or in makayah's case, the rind. :) we're not the type to go powwow hopping, but this year was an exception. sam got into a drum group (great hobby for him), and i made isaiah and makayah a grass and jingle outfit. so why not wear them out? besides, they love getting their bag of treats and dollar bills after the tiny tots dance. daddy and our kiddies at the heber powwow. i sooooo much prefer the outdoor powwows to the arenas. this time it was actually fun to go, set up our blanket and chairs and enjoy the fresh air...oh, and lets not forget the frybread! and you can't go through the month of july without lighting fireworks! sam's family happened to be in town and we had a "blast" while they were here. caught up in the firework smoke! isaiah helped daddy light some of the fireworks while makayah would creep up close until she heard the popping noises and then she'd turn and run away. it was so funny to watch. sam's mom stayed with us for the fourth of july.;) despite our late start, we lucked out and got great seats! i sat in front of the bleachers with the kids so they'd be closer to the action. :) this happened to be the first parade for makayah which would explain her, "what's going on here?" look. isaiah loves parades, however, he seemed to be at the wrong place when the parade characters would be giving out hi-fives. he was devastated and almost heartbroken because "nobody's giving me a hi-five!" frown, cry, frown. so when daddy saw the BYU float coming he sat right up front with isaiah, and i was ready with the camera. and lo and behold, the awesome and famous fui came to the rescue. all the kids who had crowded isaiah out before were non-existent this time around, and fui zeroed in on isaiah gave him a hug and a hi-five, crouched down and took a picture with my son! isaiah beamed and everything was all better. :) and a little cotton candy never hurts! here we are with daddy finishing up our monster sized box of fireworks we bought from costco. the only problem was our snooty neighbors across the street who ended up calling the fire marshall on us. we heard the knock on the door, there was supposed to be a fine, but he was nice enough to give us a warning. after he drove off, sam yelled out at the top of his lungs across the street, "ARE YOU HAPPY!!" wow, what a day!! with the vicious heat wave this month, we couldn't resist getting wet, playing in the sprinklers, or heading off to seven peaks. makayah likes to take it one step further, though, and roll around in the mud! makayah just can't resist getting into things...here she is with primer on her head. she'll do anything for a laugh! this past weekend just happened to be sam's birthday. to celebrate the day before, he went hiking mt. timpanogos with his cousins. his dad and brother also came in for a quick visit and it was a very nice surprise. we also went out to kamas and jumped into the raging falls. it took me a while to work up the courage to jump into the ice cold water, but i finally did and it was soooooooo much fun. sadly, sam had left the camera in his hiking clothes so we didn't get to take any pictures. oh well. surprisingly though, makayah loved being dunked into the stream...and isaiah jumped into the kiddie pools twice. he's such a brave kid! so that's most of our news for now. my family also came and spent some time with us this month, but they will be in the video section that i will post soon. yes, i promise, SOON! :) love you all and happy birthday aaron!