July 1-6

Well the madness continued this week at the Afualo Abbey!  We made it a full and fun week. Tuesday we went up to Park City hoping to find relief from the heat down in the Valley.  No such luck.  It was really hot up there too, but we all enjoyed riding the alpine slide and alpine coaster.  It was a fun way to pass the day.

After another fun day at 7 peaks everyone came over for dinner on the 3rd of July so we started celebrating a little early.  We had yummy food, and fun, kid friendly fireworks!! 

We decided to have a 4th of July Breakfast Extravegaza!  It was a lot of fun and a lot of food and it was all red, white and blue!!  It was way yummy.  We listened to patriotic music, played nerts and had a hair day for all the girls.  Well, I did all the girls hair.

The traditional Flag Cake!

Love my Family!!

Love my sisters!!

We went to Stadium of Fire down in Provo the evening of the 4th.  Carly Rae Jepson and Kelly Clarkson were performing.  It was quite the event and we all had a really great time.  The girls loved singing along to Call Me Maybe and Good Times!

 One of the dances that we watched.  They were giant slinkies.  Way cool!!

 Noah had a swim meet at 7am on the 5th of July.  That was a tough one.  It was all the way out in Magna which is about 35 minutes from us.  Noah gave it his best effort and is posting consistent times in his events.  That means it's time to go faster.  He had a meet the morning of the 6th as well.  These double headers are brutal. 

 We had a church activity on the 5th of July in our neighborhood.  It was a bike parade and ice cream social.  It was fun until the storm blew in and we had thunder, lightning and rain to deal with.  We made it home though before it got to crazy.

 Now everyone is gone and the house seems awfully quiet.  What a wild and crazy 2 weeks it has been. 

June 23-30

Afualo Abbey is in full swing and filled to capacity.  There isn't anything I love more than a full house to cook for.  Only I hate cleaning up afterwards, but the joy of a house filled with laughter and family is well worth the hours it takes to clean up afterward.

All my siblings were in town so we decided to have a mini- Updike reunion.  Obviously my parents weren't there, but they made an appearance via skype.  I think they enjoyed seeing all there children together.  It's been a while.

We had a nice dinner and FHE lesson on eternal families and of course play time.  It was a nice and simple gathering that ended with pictures.

 Monday we treked on down to Provo and stopped by an old family favorite, Brick Oven, for lunch and then Seven Peaks for some good old water fun.  The weather didn't cooperate to well since a storm blew in, but we still managed to have fun.

When I was little we would always come up to see the Manti Pageant.  I didn't remember much from it so now that we live here I thought we should try to go again.  It was fun that the pageant coincided with my siblings being up here as well.  So we drove down to Manti, had dinner at the Tabernacle and then watched the pageant.  It was late and we got back even later, but it was a fun tradition to revisit.

Friday morning Lily had a swim meet.  Neither her nor I were happy to get up after getting to bed at 2am to go to a 7am swim meet, but she did it and she was happy with her swims.  After the swim meet we met the Lunds downtown and visited the Conference center and ate lunch.  We came home and vegged out the rest of the day.  The Mortensen's came over for dinner that night.  We played a marshmallow game.  Fun was had by all.

 Saturday we all went to go see Monsters University.  It was alright.  Everyone came over for dinner again.  More fun was had.  Sunday Damon and I spoke in church.  It's been a busy week.

Dallas

While being in Texas I knew I would have to make a trip to Dallas to visit my college roommate or I would be in serious trouble.  So on our way back to Salt Lake we made a stop in Dallas.  We stayed at the Reed's house for just one day, but it was a fun filled day and way worth the extra time.  Wish we could have stayed there longer.

 Playing in the enormous back yard with all the fun toys.  The kids loved it.  After they got all hot and sweaty we took them to the pool.  They loved it there too.

 Lily and Zoe hit it off instantly (kind of like there moms).  They are the only girls in a male dominated household.  It was an instant bond.  Nothing warmed Michelle's and my heart more than seeing our daughters snuggled in bed reading books.  It was a precious sight!

 Oh how I miss my college roommate and wish we lived closer.  We left the next morning with Zoe begging us to come out at Christmas.

Our drive home was pretty uneventful.  Just very very long.  We stopped in Farmington again for the night.  We drove home the next day.  We stopped in Monticello for one last temple stop and then got home at 3pm on Friday the 21st.  We were all happy to be out of the car!