Lynlea's Blessing...Chesterfield Style

We spent the weekend up in Chesterfield for Lynlea's baby blessing.  We left around noon on Saturday and arrived in Chesterfield around 3pm.  Dedo was nice enough to offer her car for the trip as long as we let her come...haha!  Silly lady!  She wouldn't even let us pay for gas.  It was a great trip up.  James kept asking Dedo about different things in her personal history, and I secretly recorded most of her responses.  It's going to make a great personal history for her!
After arriving in Chesterfield and giving Lynlea a squeeze, we headed to downtown Chesterfield.

First stop...the general mercantile!

 Our ancestor, Denmark Jensen, was one of the firsts settlers in Chesterfield.  His cabin still exists there, and there were pictures of him and his wife in the General Mercantile store.  It is pretty awesome.  One of our distant cousins was working the cash register.

In Denmark's house

The whole crew in front of the cabin.

 After exploring downtown Chesterfield, we headed to Kimmy's brother's house to ride horses.  The kids were in heaven, especially Porter!  He is really into horses lately.

 

 

 

 

 

It started to rain a little while were there so the grandma's and babies headed for cover!

 Then we headed to Kimmy's parent's house for a hot dog roast and dutch oven eats!  It was so much fun!  Kimmy's family is so nice, and we loved spending more time with them!  Their home and land is so beautiful!

S'mores were a must too of course!

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, Deeds gave Lynlea a beautiful blessing, and it was wonderful to all be at church together!

Such a good lookin' bunch!

After church, we all gathered again for lunch at the Banks' house.  I believe I ate approximately 10 cookies...delicious!  Before we knew it, it was time to hit the road and head back to Utah.

Porter and I did a little exploring first!

 Let me just add that Porter is busy, busy, busy and exhausting.  James and I can rarely just sit in the same place at the same time because one of us is always chasing Porter around and keeping him from damaging things or himself.  I try to tell myself to enjoy this phase because I will miss it in a few years, but it still just seems to wear me out!  I just want to sit and relax and enjoy everyone's company.  Sit and relax are two words that are not in Porter's vocabulary.  That is for dang sure!

Hanging out with Grandpa!

My parents didn't leave until late in the afternoon yesterday, so we got to play with them for a little while in the morning.  Until the next family adventure...that will be Jack's baptism in October.  We love being all together!

Splash Pad and Olympics Party

It's the best time of our lives when the Olympics are happening!  We had to celebrate with an international food besties Opening Ceremonies party last night.  But first thing's first, earlier in the day yesterday, I walked with Porter over to the new splash pad that opened near our stake center.  Amy and the kiddos met us there.

Porter fell asleep on the walk over.  I can't figure this kid's napping schedule out!

I think this was a happy face...cheese!

Porter loved it!

Here is the brilliant thing about a spash pad...I don't have to be in a swimming suit or get wet!  It's a win, win really!
Back to our Olympics party...we met at Jake and Olivia's and had nachos, Greek salad, and pizza on naan bread (how international can you get?! way to go, T!)

Sadie got right down to business on the patriotic Hershey's Kisses and Reese's Mini Cups!

Porter was in heaven going up and down the slide.

And we all watched the opening ceremonies while also playing Wii Sonic Olympics at the same time.

 

 We were all just about passed out by the end of the Opening Ceremonies.  It ended so dang late, but it was so fun, and we are planning to have the Olympics on 24/7 for the next two weeks!  Go USA!!

July Randoms

I'm finding that the end of every months, I have a collection of just random pictures on my phone.  They warrant their own post since I took the pictures for some reason!

This is Porter's favorite page in his church book.  He loves pointing out Nana & Papa and Grandma & Grandpa.

 These next three pictures all those how much Porter loves his Mr. Bear that Nana and Papa gave him for his birthday.  It's just about the cutest thing you've ever seen!

 

Toe head buddies!

Normally Porter doesn't have much to do with Popsicles but he devoured this Otter Pop on this day.  Sticky mess!

"Cheese!"  My little cougar buddy!

 

His new favorite spot to hang out.  He pulls all the toys out of the cupboard and then sits in the cupboard.

His other new favorite place to hang out.  He pulls me over to the fridge and then begs to be lifted up.  Then he picks out what he wants to eat. 

He almost always picks yogurt.  One day I just let him go at it because it's pretty boring spoon feeding it to him and he has to learn somehow, right?!  What a mess!  I'm not sure any made it into his mouth.  I haven't let him fly solo on yogurt eating since.

Olivia and I try to meet up about once a week to go for a walk with the kiddos.  One morning we were wearing the exact same outfit even down to the shoes.  It was pretty hilarious!  Love this friend of mine!

And July is officially in the books!