Lehi Roundup Days Parade and 5K Run

I went to the Lehi Roundup Parade on Friday night (sometime in June) and two of my brothers came with their families, plus my baby sister showed up with her husband.  Here's one of my brothers' and his wife.

And here's my other brother and his wife.  I don't know why I forgot to ask my brothers to take off their sunglasses but now they look alike with their glasses on.

And there's my sister and her hubby!

And there are my parents and two nieces!  I have such a cute family!

And here I am with one of my nephews!  It was a very warm evening but as soon as people from the parade started throwing candy, the kids didn't notice the heat at all.

Here's my sister's baby boy.  He was chomping on some watermelon through the mesh.  He loved it!

And my last nephew.  I sat by him the whole time.  At one time during the parade, a band started playing some slower, classical music and he commented that he didn't like that kind of music because it made him sleepy.  Good to know.

The miniature floats were awesome.  I could have taken a hundred photos but rather I enjoyed the parade and only took a few of my favorite floats.  Can you guess this float?

This was a Dr. Seuss themed float.  I really loved that Thing 1,2,3,4,5,and 6 were pulling it.  When I was a younger teenager I ended up pulling three or four miniature floats.  I don't ever remember riding on them or walking behind them, just pulling them.

Saturday morning I got up and joined my dad and brother in our first 5K run.  (Actually I think my brother had run a 5K before).  My dad was super excited and he should have been, he came in third for his age group.  I came in 10th for my age group and my brother came in 8th or so...can't really remember but I know it was before 10.

Here we are at the end of the race...all with our red faces.  My mom was waiting for us all to cross the finish line.  She got a picture of my dad finishing, and then my brother but when I crossed, her battery ran out on the camera.  Good thing I had my own camera.  I really enjoyed running with my dad and brother, even if they beat me by one minute.

Later that Saturday morning Mom and I returned to the parade route to see my dad in the parade.  We ran into our friends Lisa and Mark and they sat right next to us.

Here's my dad sitting on the bales of hay getting ready to throw candy.  Those other men are also Stake Presidents or Stake President Counselors.

"Hey DAD!  Look over here!"  Yep, I got his attention right when he was ready to throw another handful of candy.

I love that I grew up in a small town with summer traditions and I love that I can return and relive so many childhood memories.  I also like that this year I made a new memory of running with my brother and dad.  What a great summer!

Kidd Family Reunion

We went to a Kidd Family reunion in June.  I forgot to pull out my camera all except for the water balloon sling shot.  And I took too many pictures of that...but it was fun.

SM helped many different kids shoot their water balloons and then it was his turn.

SM's water balloon went far...across the park...over the trees...and into the street on the next block.  Success!

Now that's called cooperation...those two sisters working together to shoot the water balloon.

Everyone else was smiling...I wonder why he wasn't.

My niece that is just to the right of SM was the only kid or adult to hit the target that was placed out on the grass...and she hit it twice!  It was fun to see her succeed!

Snow Canyon near St. George

We made it to Utah after four days of driving and one day stopping in Texas.  We stayed in St. George with SM's sister and her family.  They decided to take us on a hike with an amazing view at the top.

The canyon looked amazing from the top.  A camera can't do it justice.

Some of our hiking buddies!

Of course this is staged...she doesn't have enough fear in her eyes for this to be real.  But it still was a great picture.

My brother-in-law took an extra small hike up this rock face and got a better view of the canyon below.  Too scary for me to try!  We had a great three or four days in St. George.  It's so nice to be with family for the summer.

Roswell, New Mexico

Day three of driving to Utah, we stopped in Roswell, NM to check out the aliens.  The first thing we saw was not an alien but a large statue of some guy on a horse and a long-horn bull.  I did read the plaque but can't remember what it said.  Oops.

It was a warm day and we were glad to take a break from the car.

The lights on main street all looked like this...little aliens eyes on the lights.

The Coca-Cola machine had this fun picture on the front.

Check out these cute pillow aliens that we saw at the local furniture store.  We only stayed in Roswell for a half an hour but it was nice break from our trip.

Austin, Texas

After two days of driving, we stopped in Austin Texas to visit with our friends and take a day away from traveling.

Look at this cutie.  It was a very hot day but this cutie had thrown up all over his clothes and so he was enjoying the park in his birthday suit.

Check out the view of the city next to the "lake."  There were a lot of people running on the trail, kayaking or canoeing, and enjoying the outdoors.

After spending the morning at the park we stopped at the Trailer Park Eatery for some lunch.

We ate at Torchy's Tacos and had some very yummy tacos and deep fried chocolate chip cookies.  We had a great time in Austin and felt bad that our friends all ended up ill with the stomach flu.  Hopefully the next time we spend time together no one will be ill.

New Orleans, LA

So this summer is full of lots of new things, and New Orleans was one of those new things.  We decided to drive from Georgia to Utah and take the southern route.  We stopped in Mobile, Alabama for lunch and then drove to New Orleans.

SM and I spent an hour or so in New Orleans.  Check out that cute alligator.  We were hoping to hear some live jazz music but apparently we needed to come later in the day because we didn't hear any live jazz music.

I found out that there are some very ugly parts of New Orleans but there are also some very beautiful parts.  I'm glad that we got to go but it's not some place that we will be going back to very soon.  We have too many other things to see.

Charleston, South Carolina Day 2

Monday morning SM and I went to the waterfront to take a ferry tour to Fort Sumter.

We spent an hour or so at the museum, learning about the first shorts fired in the Civil War.

Here's our ferry!



On the ferry tour.  It took about 30 minutes to get out to the island (Fort Sumter) and meanwhile we saw many different sites from the ferry.

Here's a photo of the very impressive bridge.

Here's a look of the waterfront of Charleston...so picturesque!  Beautiful!

There's Fort Sumter behind me.  The weather was overcast and a bit rainy but we still enjoyed ourselves, even if we were cold.

Look at those holes in the walls.

This is one of my favorite pictures that SM took while we were on the ferry.

Monday evening my brother finished up with work and went out with us to get a treat...or two.  We found a cupcake store.

Look how yummy!  SM loved his cupcake.

I don't like cupcakes very much but I love frozen yogurt and so we found a frozen yogurt place and we all got frozen yogurt.

We loved our time in Charleston.  We had a very yummy late lunch or early dinner and I tried boiled peanuts for my first time.  I found that I'm not really a fan of boiled peanuts.  But we had some yummy grits and Southern food.

I took a couple photos on the way back to Georgia...hoping to get a photo of Spanish moss and the atmosphere of South Carolina.