Heather's coming to town!

Heather came to visit us July 13-19.  I was SO EXCITED!!!!!

On our way home from the airport, we stopped at the top of Harrison Pass to take a pic with Ruby Valley in the distance.

I took Heather to the fish hatchery one day, though I think it was more for Charley than Heather.  :)

We rode our bikes one day.

Beautiful Ruby Valley!

 And took the grand tour, stopping by the observation deck at Narciss boat landing.

For the last 2 days, we headed to SLC.  First stop?  Aquarium.

Get back here C, we're looking at the penguins!

All Charley REALLY wanted to do was ride this frog!

Although this boat with the little boy in it was pretty cool too!

Hey, where'd he go?

Our next day was spent at the Hogle Zoo.

Look Dada, a snake!

Come on, Heather!

Those giraffes are BIG!

Sharing Mama's ice cream

Last stop of the day - carousel.  I have one tired baby.

Group pic!

Parting shot.

We had so much fun with you Heather!  Please come back to visit us!

Good Friends and Good Times

Our good friends Ambre and Brad Brewster, and their kiddos Owen and Addyson, came to visit us for 9 days! It was so nice to spend time with them - too bad the times are so few and far between these days. They flew into Salt Lake City on July 3, and we drove over and joined them that evening. We took advantage of the hotel's happy hour, then retired to the room and ordered pizza in for supper.

The next day we spent at the Hogle Zoo, which we were all impressed with. The habitats were ideal, the animals all seemed content, and best of all the zoo did a great job with conveying conservation messages - what I think should be the point of a zoo. The visitors were amazingly respectful - unbelievable, I didn't see ONE PERSON banging on the glass or saying something negative about the animals, which was a first for me!

After we left the zoo, we went to The Mayan for supper - they actually have cliff divers for entertainment while you eat! Even though it was a day early, we "celebrated" Rod and Brad's birthday (they share their day!) by eating a chocolate cake with a sprinkler in it.

Later that evening, Rod and I celebrated the 4th of July by watching a fireworks show from the top deck of our hotel.

The rest of the week was just really relaxing and especially enjoyable for me, having good friends around to talk with! We caught up on lots and had some good quality time - how I miss that! We went hiking, the boys went fishing, we toured the fish hatchery and Owen and Addyson got to feed the fish, Ambre and I went mammal-hunting on the roads at night, we watched a movie while the kids (and Brad!) were napping, we took the dogs for LOTS of walks (which both the dogs AND the kids, who got to walk them, really liked) - it was really, really nice.

Their final weekend here, we took them to Lamoille Canyon - we'd loved it when we visited with Mom and Dad and thought they would love it too. We had lunch first at a little tavern with a great front porch, and the weather was perfect.

We were hoping to find more mountain goats, or even better bighorn sheep, but no luck this time. However, the avalanche blocking the road was all cleared up, and we were able to drive to the top of the canyon and hike 2 miles to Lamoille Lake, a beautiful pristine alpine lake. Finally, Rod and I found our Clark's Nutcrackers - and there was a grove FULL of them!

Since we're about to be parents ourselves, it was particularly cute for me to watch Rod interact with the kiddos - he's gonna be a great dad!

Thanks again, Ambre, Brad, Owen and Addyson, for making the trip to come and visit us - it meant the world! Come anytime!