Day of Family Fun

The Saturday before the 4th of July, we decided to let the girls be in the children's parade. I thought it would be a fun experience for them. They had a blast. Not sure if they would have had more fun catching candy along the sidelines, but they seemed to enjoy the ride.
Here are the girls and Derek waiting patiently for the parade to start.


We decided to let the girls run around the park to get some wiggles out while we were waiting.

DaKoda wouldn't jump off the curb by herself. She yelled at me until I came and helped her down.
The girls and I. One of my favorite picture of me and the girls since there seem to be so few of them.
Derek pushing the girls while they did a great job waving.

My turn to push!
When we put Brooke in the car, she started crying hysterically saying she wants to be in the parade. We tried to explain to her that she was in the parade, but it was over now. We told her we were going to IKEA next, and that quickly stopped her tears. At IKEA, they were having the Swedish Festival. We decided to go inside and do a little shopping before doing the activities. I am so glad we did! KBull 93 was right inside the door and asked if we wanted to spin the wheel. I tried with Brooke first and didn't get anything. Then Derek spun and out of like 40 spots, he actually got it to stop on the only spot that was the winner. They had two CD's left, but neither were singers that we knew. So we chose option #2, 4 tickets to the Days of 47 Rodeo! Hurray! I have never been to an actual rodeo before. I am so excited to go, I can hardly wait. My Mom was pretty jealous when I told her. She said she has always wanted to go to the rodeo and has tried asking my Dad to take her, but they have never gone. If I didn't think the girls would enjoy it, I would have asked my parents to go with us. Outside of IKEA, at the activities, we all got to sample some of their sparkling juices. I tried peach and it was really good. Then the girls got their faces painted. They also got to do a little fish pond where they each got a stuffed toy that IKEA sells. They liked the fish pond.
Here's what Brooke picked. A spider! Well, she really asked for spider man, but they had to choose something off their board. Not sure why she really wanted it, she doesn't like spiders!
DaKoda chose an ice cream cone. It's a little hard to see, but from the bottom is the cone, a scoop of strawberry, then vanilla, then chocolate. Can you see it now?
After all that excitement, we went to our friends, Paul and Shiloh's house. They were having a swim party. It was lots of fun for the girls. They both loved going down this little slide in the smaller pool. It really made me want to buy the girls a swimming pool.



On the way home, we decided to take Redwood Road all the way down. We wanted to see where it took you. The girls were asleep after just a few minutes of driving, so it was a fun time for Derek and I to just get to talk. I saw this little building that Shiloh had also taken a picture of. I thought it looked even cooler in person. It just looks so forgotten.
As we were coming around a bend heading to the freeway from Goshen and into Santaquin, I saw this construction contraption up high on the mountain. Derek asked if I wanted to see if we could get closer to it. I said sure. We drove up the mountain a little until we came to a gate that was closed. Derek saw a walking path and said he would run around it and see if he could get closer and offered to take some pictures for me. Such a sweetheart. He ran the entire way. I was a little freaked out sitting in the middle of the mountain alone with the girls in the car with no cell phone reception. Thankfully Derek was only a few minutes.
Pretty cool looking isn't? Where we had to stop and park, there was a pretty nice spot by some water. Derek wants to take his brothers back sometime and go fishing. Our little drives sometimes turn up hidden wonders!

I love days like this. A little walking while dressed up, a little prize, a little face painting, a little swimming, a little grown up bonding time, and a little drive. So much fun.