Jam Packed!

The kids and I made the long trip down to Idaho Falls to celebrate many things. The first of which was the homecoming of my brother Preston. He had been serving for 2 years in the Rio De Janeiro mission, and he came home on June 29th. We were all excited to see him again. My mom and dad were the first to greet him at the gate. Then June. She was excited, but she kept referring to him as the guy we picked up at the airport!

Preston thought Rose and grown up quite a bit, which she has - she will be 16 soon!

In the coming days we got to play with lots of cousins. On Friday night all of the Bergesons came out to Rocky Top to visit. June and Ryana were brave and jumped from the haystack to the trampoline. It was fun to see all the kids playing together.

July 2nd is my sister-in-law Kathryn's birthday and we celebrated by going on a hike to Jenny Lake which is over in Wyoming right underneath the Grand Tetons. We took all of our kids so it was an adventure for sure. We saw Hidden Falls, and hiked all the way to Inspiration Point. Here is Jack and Preston looking out over the lake at the top of our hike. Jack kept saying that he was "climbing a mountain" and that he wanted to "keep going."

July 3rd was a very busy day for us. Most importantly it was my Jack's 2nd birthday! This little man is the sweetest, smartest, and most handsome boy I have ever met! He is funny, full of energy, and all boy. Here he is with his cupcakes and some of his birthday presents that he just had to put on.

Jack is my "monkey in the middle." He will be smack dab in the middle of two sisters. Good thing he knows how to hold his own. I love him endlessly and I am blessed to be his mama.

After opening presents and eating birthday cupcakes it was off to church, and then things really heated up. My mom and dad hosted a missionary fireside at their house where Preston and Jared talked about their missions. We had homemade "Cafe Rio" for dinner, lots of tasty deserts, and then got to listen to these recently returned missionaries. They both did a great job and both loved their missions. There were 130 people that came out to celebrate their homecoming!

The next day was the 4th of July, which is always fun! We started out the day with the 2nd annual "Showdown at Sundown." It is a 5K that my dad started last year that we hold out to Rocky Top. I was the champion last year, but since this year Happy Cakes is slowing me down I just walked the course. That is until the last 50 yards, and then me and Rex (Kathryn's dad)raced to the finish line!

Next stop was the Smiths for their amazing pizza oven lunch. They have their very own pizza oven in their backyard! Here is my mom and Krissy making the pizza's. These two kept at it for about 4 hours! All of the pizzas were delicious.

While at the Smiths the kids cooled off by jumping on the tramp with ice poured onto it. We had lots of family and friends there so we had fun visiting and playing all afternoon.

Of course the fireworks were the grand finally to the day! June was a little nervous at first, but then loved them. We had been lighting off our own fireworks for the past few nights and she had been singing "baby your a firework" every time one went off. Now that song will forever remind me of this weekend. My Jack slept in my arms right through the firework show - I think he was scared of them.

It was a whirlwind of a vacation, but we loved it. Our family is amazing and I love spending time with them. We like visiting them so much we are going again at the end of this month!