The Dixon Family: June and July 2014

What do you do in the summertime? In phoenix? You use your $10 kohl's cash to buy an inflatable swimming pool!

And you wash your cars (one of which hadn't been washed since we moved here) in the afternoon. **Only attempt this if you have a large "farmer John" hat.**

And then we had Father's Day! My kids really do have a pretty incredible dad. I knew he'd be a good dad when I married him, but he continues to amaze me with HOW good of a dad he is. My kids and I are so lucky!

And he's super buff too :)

Our monthly temple picture. It's coming along nicely! They put up the fence and have been doing a lot with the landscaping. No word yet on when it will open, but I'm thinking October. And we can't wait!

So Parker is currently doing his first rotation which happens to be in Prescott, about 1 1/2 hours away. He lives in an apt during the week with 4 other guys and then comes home on the weekends. Stefanie and Ryan had their 5th baby a few weeks ago and Jana was planning to go to Georgia to help. Knowing that I was going to be on my own with the kids, and wanting Jeremiah to get to see his cousins, Jana graciously offered to take Jeremiah with her to Georgia! So that meant that we got to go to Las Vegas over the 4th of July to drop off Jeremiah. We got to stay for a few days and packed in the fun! The day we got there was Gma and Gpa Waite's wedding anniversary, so we made some Waite homemade ice cream :)

The next day Parker's glasses broke while he was out running, so he, mom, and Jeremiah spent the morning getting new glasses! That afternoon we decided it would be fun to go up the mountains and cool off a bit! So we grabbed a bucket of KFC and headed up there. It was indeed lovely weather. Everybody went on a hike while I held down the fort :)

When they got back we had some dinner (Sam loved the chicken:)

Then it was time for a good ole game of "knock over soda cans with rocks".

When the sun went down, it even got pleasantly chilly.

Sam LOVED digging in the dirt and playing with rocks and sticks. Why do we buy toys again?

These cool trees smell like a strawberry milkshake :)

Then we all went on a much flatter hike/walk.

It was a great time in the mountains!

On the 4th of July, mom and dad took us to adventuredome! We got there right when it opened and stayed for a couple hours. It wasn't crowded at all and the kids could ride a ride, get off, and get right back on again. They loved it!

This plane ride was Jeremiah's very favorite one. He went on it at least 10 times. I think he rode in every plane :)

Lily and Sam liked it too. Sam loved to push the buttons and shoot the gun.

I couldn't get a very good picture, but the kids giggled and giggled on this train ride.

The kids also loved this boat ride, and you can't really tell in this picture, but the kids are laughing and mom and dad look a little nervous!

Bumper cars!

And back to the planes one last time! We had a great time!

The 4th of July would not be complete without a BBQ! We had turkey burgers, corn on the cob, and watermelon. Mmmmmm. . .

And for dessert? Smore's of course! We went over to Gma and Gpa Dixon's house to celebrate with them. I don't know how long it had been since I had a smore. Oh so yummy. And ooey. And gooey.

Once it got dark it was time for sparklers! The irony is that as soon as we went outside to do them, it started pouring rain! With thunder and lightning and everything. A huge streak of lightning flashed right in front of us followed by a very loud BOOM of thunder and poor Samuel freaked out! He turned around with a terrified look on his face and said, "Daddy?!" The rain put a bit of a damper on the sparklers, but each of the kids did at least one :)