America Day

We had a lovely 4th of July at a place called Jones Beach on Long Island. We sunbathed, we swam, we napped, we ate sand, and we had a front row seat to the fireworks that night.

(If you look carefully you can see who was eating the sand.)

There were thousands and thousands of people at the beach, and someone capitalized on the captive audience from the movie G.I. JOE. This guy went all along the beach dangling from a helicopter. It got plenty of attention.

Emmilene was scared of the fireworks for the first 30 seconds, but then settled into a fascinated stupor.

We were so pleased to have such a lovely view of the fireworks that we thought it didn't matter how long it would take to get home. 4 hours later (at 3 am) as we walked into our apartment, we vowed to never stay to the end of a firework show on a crowded beach again.

But it was a lovely day.

Busy Summer

So the warm days are slipping away too fast for me to keep up!

Emmilene and I visited my family in June and actually missed our flight to SLC (how did that happen?). The above is what you do to entertain a one-year old at an airport for 5 hours.

(She was not listening to Hannah Montana, btw).

It was a great trip! Most of the events revolved around the two little girls, Emmilene and her cousin, Lillian, who is exactly 2 months younger.

We went to Lagoon (an amusement park) where most the rides were a little too big for little girls, but they loved the Merry-Go-Round and ice cream.

We also went to Hogle Zoo, where they have an amazing bird show with eagles and other birds of prey flying right over your head (see below).

This poor elephant below was 22 months pregnant! There are some perks to being a superior race. She carried it very well, I would have only guessed she was 11 months.

We made one more attempt at a birthday party for Em. We give up. She will have to go cakeless for the rest of her life.

And Here We Have Idaho...

If you are an Idahoan, you are singing the state song right now.

We visited my parents home which was green and lush from buckets of rain.

Gardening with Grandma

Extreme makeover before and after with Aunt Sonja.

Playing Piano with Uncle Anders

And photo shoot with Grandpa

She didn't quite know how to react to the horses. The frisky one next to me was chewing on my hair...