Anniversary California/Las Vegas Trip, Bacon S'more, 4th of July, Championship Baseball Game

It has been a crazy 10 days.  Here's is our update of the happenings in our family...

Lately Aaron has been more adventuresome in what he attempts to cook and eat.  Most things turn out pretty good, but there have been a few questionable offerings.....Anyway, he tried an interesting concoction the other day--candied bacon s'mores.  You make two candied bacon weaves to replace the traditional graham crackers.  You then top the candied bacon with chocolate and toasted marshmallows.  The reaction from our family was mixed.  Aaron and Josh liked it, Sarah, Daniel and Noah were mixed and Matthew and I didn't care for it.  Here's what it looked like when it was all put together:

Last Monday it was  a busy morning.  We had to drop Josh off at the high school bright and early for his 'fun run' up Waterfall Canyon.  I don't know if I personally would call that fun, but Josh was excited to go.  He texted these pictures to Aaron and me to show he made it to the top with the Cross Country group:

After dropping Josh off we had to drive down to Salt Lake to drop Matthew off for his second week of Camp K this summer.  This week of camp he was trying out a travel camp for the first time which meant he would be sleeping in a tent up at Yellowstone.  Aaron and I were nervous for him since he hasn't ever slept in a tent before.  It made us even more nervous to check the weather to see there were going to be thunderstorms the whole week he was going to be there.  If you know Matthew you know that thunderstorms really upset him and make him quite agitated.  We dropped him off and kept our fingers crossed that he would have a good experience and be able to sleep in a tent all right.  Here's the smiley boy as we were waiting to check in at Camp K that morning:

 After dropping off both boys Aaron and I drove down to Southern California to belatedly celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary for a few days.  Thankfully, G&G T were willing to watch Josh, Daniel, Sarah and Noah while we were gone which was awesome.  Aaron and I got to have uninterrupted conversations for 4 days which was great!  After checking in to our hotel Aaron wanted to try out a local restaurant for dinner that had been featured on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  It was called Mama Cozza's and was an Italian restaurant.  Here we are after we ordered our dinner:

 It was okay.  I was glad for the experience, but I don't think I would choose to eat there again.  On the way out we got our picture by the Guy Fieri picture on the wall:

 We got back to the hotel and the rest of the night I was sick.  After spending more time in the bathroom than I care to admit...I finally was able to sleep for a few hours before our first day in Disneyland started.  Let me just say Mama Cozza's didn't taste very good the second time around--ick!!  Anyway we started bright and early at Disneyland the next day.  I still wasn't feeling the best, but I wasn't going to give up a day at Disneyland despite not feeling very well.  Luckily, as the day went on I started feeling better so it turned out okay.  We got to ride the new Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout ride a few times.  It was so fun.  I do miss the old Tower of Terror ride, but this one was fun to ride, too.  Here we are after riding it the first time and getting in line with out fast pass to ride it again.

 They had all kinds of movie props you could look at as you waited in line:

 It was fun!

 After that ride we headed over to Disneyland proper.  I really do love this place!

 Although it was extremely busy, we were able to ride all of our favorite rides including Splash Mountain:

 For a late lunch/early dinner we had a reservation at the Blue Bayou restaurant inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  I still wasn't 100% and so I was really glad they let us split a meal.  The ambience was really awesome.  We got to eat by true candle light, too.

 When the server heard we were belatedly celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary she surprised us with these desserts on a plate saying 'Happy Anniversary' with a candle:

 Here's the background of where we ate.  The boats from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride are right behind us.  It was so fun.

 We tried to ride Space Mountain a few times, but every time we got in line it kept breaking down.  DOH!  We finally were able to ride it for our last ride that night.  Wahoo!

 We got our matching Princess Leia and Han Solo shirts that I love and wore them on the second day:

 Radiator Springs ride which is a favorite!

 Walking around Aaron spied Matt Meese from Studio C who was gracious enough to let us take a selfie with him.

 Splash Mountain again with Aaron being a dork, but he seemed to be in good company--haha!

 That night we were in line to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad when the fireworks show started.  It was cool to be on the ride and watch the fireworks at the same time:

 Another favorite ride was Astro Blasters.  We got stuck in the middle of the ride for a few minutes where I really racked up the points and beat Aaron.  Haha!

We really did A LOT of walking around and by the end of both nights my feet were done, but it was so worth it!

 We only spent two days at Disneyland.  Thursday we headed back to Las Vegas and spent the night at the New York, New York hotel on the Strip.  We walked around the 'Strip' looking at everything that evening.  It was so hot.  I think it was around 115 degrees.  I am surprised we didn't melt!  We saw the Statue of Liberty made entirely out of chocolate:

 We walked through the Stupidiotic store where they had a red hand chair.  Aaron wanted to get a picture with it:

 We saw the fountains at the Bellagio which didn't disappoint, either:

 We spent the night, checked out the next morning to head home.  It was a fun trip despite not being very relaxing--haha!  However, I don't think Aaron and I could actually take a relaxing vacation because there is always so much to see and do at any location that we couldn't sit back and relax and miss seeing it all.  Anyway, it was awesome to have a break from the crazy day to day life at home.  It was a really fun anniversary trip and there is no one else I would rather be married to and go on vacation with.

When we got home G&G T were worn out, but we were so glad they were willing to watch the kids while we were gone.  They had fun with the kids by taking them to use our free mini golf passes, going to Fiiz, made home made root beer, played games, etc.  Grandpa even took Josh to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with Josh LOVED.  The kids had fun at home so we didn't feel too guilty having fun without them.

We were also glad that Matthew had had a great time at travel camp despite the tent sleeping and the thunderstorms.  It came as no surprise that he received the Best Navigator award at the awards ceremony.  When we dropped him off at the beginning of the week he made sure he brought his road atlas along to help the driver of the van know how to get to Yellowstone whether they wanted the directions or not--haha!  Gotta love that boy!

 They sent Matthew home with a journal of what they had done through the week.  It sounds like it was a good time despite the rain which I am glad for.

 The next day, Saturday, Aaron and I were dragging.  We did have plans to go to the Syracuse parade that morning, but Aaron and I had a hard time getting going.  We really needed a vacation from our vacation, but luckily, we got ourselves out of the house that afternoon with a trip to Lagoon.  It was nice to have our family together again instead of being spread out through three states.  We went on quite a few rides ending with Cannibal.  After riding Cannibal I was quite frightened by Josh's post Cannibal windblown hair--EEK!

 Needless to say I did some much needed haircuts shortly after for everyone.

Yesterday, Tuesday was the 4th of July.  Our day started out bright and early with Josh's 5k race for West Point.  He has joined the high school Cross Country team and has been running 4-6 miles every day except for Sunday so he is in pretty good shape.  He got a PR in the race which is what he was hoping for.  Wahoo, Josh!  Here he is (the tall head in the middle of the picture) right before the race started at 6:30am:

After the race we headed over to watch the city parade.  We invited G&G T to join us and the kids were glad they made it:

 Here's Sarah's patriotic hairdo of a star:

 The kids made sure we got a pretty good candy stash from the parade--haha!

 Afterward we headed over to do the activities at the park.  Noah and Sarah played on some bounce houses and got their faces painted:

 Noah got a flag:

 Sarah got a firework on one cheek and a star on the other cheek:

 They also did the catch the duck in the net game where they won some candy:

 They did the fishing pond, too and got some more candy.  I guess you can never have too much candy, right?!

 All the while Josh and Matthew played the adult BINGO game.  I was glad Josh was willing to help Matthew play.  Matthew is wearing the red hat and Josh is wearing the tan hat:

 Josh ended up winning a picnic party pack from BINGO:

Josh also was hoping to participate in an eating contest up at the stage, but was okay to try a minute to win it game with ping pong balls instead.  He came in 2nd place, but had fun trying the game out.  The rest of us did the park activities until it was time for Daniel's championship baseball game at 1 pm.  Baseball was really fun to watch this season.  To celebrate the two teams who made it to the championships, they city made them new team shirts to wear just for the championship game.  Here's Daniel up to bat:

 Daniel's team lost by one point, but overall they had a tremendous season.  Here's their team including Aaron who was an assistant coach:

Here's both teams together after the game:

 Here's Daniel with his cool trophy:

The last game before the championship game they had the whole team sign a baseball for each player.  After the championship game each team member got a ball with the whole teams signatures on it which I thought was pretty cool:

 Here's Daniel with a cool assistant coach.  Aaron loved being involved with the team this year.  He is excited to help out for next year, too:

 After the game we went back to our house (and some awesome air-conditioning since it was 101 degrees outside--ugh) for linner--a late lunch early dinner.  Aaron wanted to smoke a pork shoulder for dinner so he prepped it the night before and woke up at 3 am to put it in the smoker.  It smoked/cooked the whole night and day until it was time for linner.   G&G T also made home made rootbeer for linner, too.  That stuff is delicious!!  We were also excited to have my nephew, Taylor, over for dinner.  I haven't seen him since he returned from his mission to Brazil.  Luckily, he is going to BYU so he is closer by and was able to come up to celebrate the 4th with us.  After a yummy linner we played some games. We then roasted some s'mores over the fire pit.

 After roasting s'mores we walked over to the elementary school to watch the fireworks.

 They didn't disappoint.  While were waiting for the city fireworks to start we got to watch all of the neighborhood fireworks going on, too, which was a pretty good show in and of themselves!

We were glad to spend the 4th with G&G T and Taylor.  It is one of my favorite holidays! 

It has been a crazy week and a half, but I am looking forward to getting back into a routine of sorts.  This summer is flying by.  I can't believe we are already into July!!