July 2015 - Lehi Trafalga

July 14th

We recently introduced Melody to Winnie the Pooh. She loves it and it's pretty much all she 

will watch. This day she grabbed her stuffed Winnie the Pooh so he could watch with her.

Later that day, Karri came over and gave us a present of a lot of sand toys. The girls were 

having fun with them and Melody was playing peek a boo with one of the buckets.

July 15th

The kids have been wanting to go to the Lehi Trafalga all summer so we finally went with Morri's family.

Here's Xander on the climbing wall.

While the boys were playing Laser Tag, Liza was kind and watched Melody 

for me so I could take Jaina on the bumper boats.

We had fun and got soaked.

These girls love the rides here and run back and forth between them all.

It's hard to see, but Melody is in the airplane with Mara and Jaina!

When they were done she didn't want to get out.

Next we headed upstairs to play mini golf in the dark!!!!!

There was a bench in the shape of a surf board and the girls thought it was pretty cool.

I can't believe that my baby is old enough to walk with us hand in hand.

Afterwards we headed to Sonic for dessert and it took forever because their computers 

went down. So after waiting for almost an hour we finally got our ice cream, but by then 

Melody was so so so done with being in the car. So we just went home.

Once home we were getting everyone ready for bed and Melody found the kids camera. She 

would hold it up and say 'mile'. I couldn't quite figure out what she was saying because she 

would normally say 'cheese'. Pat was able to translate that she was saying 'Smile'

The next day Mana came to our house for dinner and got to enjoy these girls swarmed around her.

She even introduced Melody to the 'Monster at the End of this Book' app on her iPad. 

The older girls have really loved this one. It got Melody laughing a lot.

We always love when we have visitors.

July 2015 - Spanish Fork Reservoir

July 13th

I had to wake Melody up early from her nap and found her with the corner of her 

blanket in her mouth! We headed up to Provo to help celebrate Doug's retirement 

from the Provo Police Force. Once again, I didn't take any pictures of this event.

We had been talking about going to a reservoir and decided to go to the one here in Spanish Fork. 

We invited Pat's family to join us. Morri & family, and Lana & family were able to come.

Once again, Melody just wanted to stay under the umbrella. I didn't mind this because the 'sand' 

was not sand at all! It was tiny pebbles and it hurt to walk barefoot on it, but the kids didn't mind.

Pat & the boys swam to the opposite side of the reservoir to retrieve this large 

floating log so they could play on it. The smaller kids thought it was pretty cool. 

Even though we all had our swimsuits on, the moms stayed cool under the umbrellas.

Pat decided to take Melody out into the water, but she didn't really like that.

Alex & Noah were burying Xander's feet in the 'sand'

Right before we left, Melody decided to play in the 'sand' by picking up a handful 

and putting it on the towel. She didn't like that her hand got dirty though.

Afterwards we headed to Arctic Circle for dessert. It's always fun to hang out with the people 

we love. Thanks for coming with us, Morri, Liza, Carter, Alex, Lana, Noah, Maddox & Olivia.

July 2015 - 9th-12th

In order to keep busy while Pat was at school, Xander wanted to show us an experiment 

that he had done at school. You have a 2 liter bottle, put some vinegar in the bottom of it, then 

he put baking soda inside of a balloon, placed the balloon on the top of the bottle, then tipped it 

up to let the baking soda out to mix with the vinegar in the bottle. The reaction makes a gas 

that then fills up the balloon.  He did this a few times and even helped Jaina do it.

Afterwards the kids just wanted to play with balloons, so 

they went outside and blew them up as big as they could.

 Mara's friend Ashley was over playing and they decided to tie all the balloons together to try 

to make a kite with them. It didn't really work, but they had fun anyway.

That evening had been a rainy one. When it was time for the kids to get ready for bed, I spotted a 

rainbow through the kitchen window. Since it was so bright I grabbed the kids and ran outside with them.  

Mara and Jaina were in heaven because it was a Double Rainbow and we could see the whole thing!!!

I had to use the panorama feature on my phone to get the whole thing in one picture.

Mara and I stayed outside for quite awhile just enjoying this beautiful rainbow.

July 10th

Melody found my shoes that I had left on the landing and put them on. 

She loves shoes and wearing everyone elses.

That night was the annual Hallmark Ornament Midnight Premier!! I go with mom, Karri & Chris 

every year! It's usually entertaining, they have food and then at midnight we get to buy our yearly 

ornaments. They had a carnival theme this time and we played some fun tossing games and got 

coupons. The only picture we took is of us 'falling asleep' while waiting in line to buy our stuff.

July 11th

I can't believe that I didn't take any pictures! Our nephew Maddox was baptized this day. We had a great time being with family. Amber, Aubrey & Brody were even in town!  It was a great baptism, we had an amazing lunch at Lana's house afterwards. On the spur of the moment, Tammy decided that she wanted to take the grandkids to go see the new movie Minions, so Xander and Mara went with her and their cousins, while Pat & I took Jaina and Melody home for some much needed nap time. When we got home we put a movie on for Jaina, put an already asleep Melody in her bed, and the two of us took a nap too. It was amazing!!

Once we woke up we headed back to Orem to be with family some more, we just 

ended up hanging out at Lana's and at a nearby park. Mara had a sleepover with 

Addi and Aubrey, and Xander had a late night with the boys.

July 12th

The very next day was Jacob's 'homecoming' talk in sacrament meeting, so we 

were able to be with family again. This time I made sure to get a picture with Jacob, 

since we forgot to get one with Maddox the day before.

This was a fun sight to see. Grandpa on a swing with some of the grandkids.

Later that day, we went to Mana's for Sunday dinner. While we were there 

JD showed us his dance moves for his upcoming play 'Tarzan'. He plays a 

gorilla and gets to dance with a younger girl, so he showed us with our girls help.

Mara has a tendency to laugh easily, so it took a good 5 or more 

tries for her to be calm enough to finish the dance move.

When Jaina tried it, she was perfect and wanted to do it over and over again.

Because the other girls did it, Melody wanted to do it too.

July 2015 - Tammy's Birthday/Jacob Airport

One of my dear friends, Jessica Macdonald was visiting from Hawaii and was able to 

stop by and chat for a little. It was so great seeing her and her daughter Emma.

Mara & Emma were best friends before they moved and would hang out almost every day 

together. I hope that they can continue to be friends and keep in touch through the years.

I had opened the coat closet to get out the vacuum and Melody swooped in to play with the boots 

and hats on the floor. She certainly has her own style and loves to have the play food in her mouth.

Later that day I gave Melody her bottle before her nap and found her like this: 

sitting in the toy stroller with her milk and two sippy cups full of water.

July 7th was Grandma Tolman's birthday. 

Her one wish was to be with her grandchildren.

We went to her house for cake and ice cream, played a new game on the front lawn. There are two 

teams with different colored balls. A white ball is thrown out first, then the teams take turns with 

their colored balls and try to get as close to the the white ball as possible to win the game. We 

played it a few times, first with kids v kids, then dads v moms, then kids v parents.  It was a lot of fun!

Melody loved all the balls and we had a hard time keeping her away from all of them.

Melody loves Alex and he loves to play with her. He has always been good with the little ones.

Happy Birthday Tammy!!!

That night she had all the grand kids sleep over (not including Olivia & Melody) 

and play games. In the morning after breakfast we gathered our children then 

headed up to the airport to see Jacob come home from his mission!!!

We got there early and the airplane was delayed a bit, so it seemed like we waited forever to see him.

The Stradling's will be complete once more!

These boys spent a lot of time at Grandma's house making this banner for him. 

They were very precise with the lettering and measuring it all out.

These kids made posters too!!

Waiting and waiting.

Finally!!! He was home!!!

And they are complete!

These boys LOVE to play Smash Bros so much that they have shirts of the game. They planned to wear 

their shirts that day, just for Jacob!  Jaina loves the game too and has a shirt with Rosalina on it.

After the airport we went to Red Robin for lunch. It was great to be together as a family. It was a long 

morning and Melody was exhausted. Her falling asleep in the car happens more often lately, especially 

when she has a bottle.  I just love how she fell asleep this time, with the bottle still in her mouth.

After we got home I was able to go to a late lunch with friends because Annika was in town 

from California! It was awesome because our choir teacher from Mountain View was finally 

able to join us. It's because of her and her class that we became life long friends.

It was such a great few days filled with family and friends.