4th of July Catch-Up

Ho-de-hum, where to start...

 

The girls and I had an enjoyable trip to Utah for the 4th of July, although we were all missing Paul an awful lot since he stayed behind to keep working on the house.  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows up the canyon one night,

went swimming with grandparents and cousins,

watched fireworks on the 3rd in Farmington while listening to an awesome live band and eating fresh cotton candy,

watched fireworks from Paul's parents front yard in Alpine looking over a good swatch of Utah Valley while listening to the Sousa station on Pandora, enjoyed a 4th of July party at Jennie's house (her birthday is the 3rd and her husband, Ryan's, birthday is the 4th),

 

went shopping with my sis, "helped" Grandpa Russ garden,

did a zumba class, got a horrible 24-hour flu bug (that was definitely the low part of the trip), went to the Bountiful temple to do a session, got a mani/pedi, went for an early morning run on a trail near my parents house, got to see Kayli's two sisters and her youngest brother who were passing through and seeing their grandparents who live about a mile from my mom and dad,

and generally got to love on my darling nieces (especially Adelaide who is 1 and just the sweetest thing ever and who is completely smitten with her Aunt Amy which went straight to my head since she was constantly coming over to lay her head on my shoulder or lap or leg or basically any part of me that she could touch and giving me crazy kisses and her momma said that she isn't like that with anybody else, not even her mom). 

 

The new house is definitely coming along but oh gosh this is a long process and it is just going to keep on going for a good long while still.  We got back on Saturday morning and the carpet was installed that afternoon (it was supposed to have been done Thursday, then Friday, and then got pushed to Saturday by the razzle-frazzin flooring company that couldn't seem to get its act together).  We quickly put together beds and the crib and enjoyed finally sleeping in our own rooms that night and I have been spending every spare minute of the girls' naptime since then desperately trying to unpack and organize and create some semblance of hominess for us because I feel like we have been displaced for a while.  Paul was able to get two closets installed (Clara's and the guest bedroom) last night which has been a huge help because it finally gave me some shelves and space to hang clothes and store books and toys that have just been in piles.  New windows were installed today and the garage is slowly, slowly emptying out.  There is a bunch of finish work to be done in the bedrooms (trim around windows and doors, closet doors installed, baseboard caulked and nail holes filled and touched up, light fixtures chosen and installed to replace the bare bulbs we put up as temporary measures, etc.) and it is going to take a while just to do all of that so we aren't going to be moving on to the kitchen, living room and family room anytime soon (like, maybe not even before Christmas - we'll just see).