Dancing under the stars

The Pioneer Holiday weekend brought lots of time spent in the mountains. A picnic and stroll around Secret Lake, breakfast up Mueller Park Canyon, and then Adam and I went to one of our favorite places. A place where we had our first heart pattering date,where the day of our romantic engagement began, where we went hot air ballooning....dreamy Park City and Deer Valley. We drove up for a concert under the stars. Tad Calcara and the New Deal Swing with the Utah Symphony.  Music from the 30's and 40's filled the air while people were swing dancing on the side.We couldn't resist and got up to swing dance as well, while Olive watched us.  She also couldn't help but move to the tunes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and others.  She would throw her head back, give a huge gummy grin and start swinging her head back and forth.  We thought we would get many dirty looks for taking our sweet baby to the symphony. Well, we had just the opposite, tons of smiles at bright eyed, rosy cheeked Olive Mary.  

(Please excuse the phone video quality.)

We were lucky to spend one hot July Saturday swimming at Em and Dave's pool!

All of the Beckstrom clan was able to be there and it was fun to spend time 

enjoying good food, basking in the sun, and watching the little cousins loving 

being together.

Emily and Dave have created such an incredible yard to spend an afternoon in.

I have this dream to become a Master Gardener.  I love to garden and create beautiful little landscapes.  I love to weed and just be working outside.  I must say that Em has an incredible garden and I loved seeing how 

well all of her plants and flowers and veggies are doing.

Caroline livin' it up with Em and Dave

7 months

Olive Mary's seventh month included a lot of firsts for her:

First time pushing up onto her knees and lunging forward to try crawling.

First time seeing a movie in the theater, Toy Story 3, and sitting through the entire thing.

First time enjoying her new regimen of peaches, pears, and prunes to keep her little

body working smoothly.

First time experiencing the patriotic 4th of July and fireworks.

First time on a relaxing boat ride in Bear Lake

It was not the first time that people said "she is the happiest baby", or laid her sweet, fuzzy head on my shoulder after her evening feeding and just snuggled up to me, or touched her cute little
pointed tongue over her upper lip.

Big changes in bloom!

We are thrilled about the changes is store for our little family this fall.  Adam was accepted as a transfer student to the George Washington University Law School! We feel this will be a great opportunity for our family as Washington D.C. is the mecca for patent work and networking.  While we feel lucky to have this opportunity, the choice hasn't been an easy one.  We are very sad to be leaving our incredible New Hampshire friends!  The first year of law school creates close bonds because it is tough for both the husbands and the wives.  We have become close to so many people in Concord.  They took excellent care of us when Olive was born providing support for Adam and I and looking after Caroline.  They helped me get through the winter with a newborn and took Caroline all over for play dates.  I was so nervous to leave all of our friends and family in Utah, but then we found the greatest friends who became our family in New Hampshire.  New Hampshire is such a dear place to us.  We will miss its beauty and all the quaint things to see and experience.  We can't wait for our new adventure and hope that our family from the Shire and all our other family and friends come to visit!  

(Picture courtesy of Photography by Halley, one of our favorite New Hampshire peeps!)

in summary....

The perfect days of not knowing exactly what day it is or what time it is are slipping by quickly.  June came and went and we are well into July.  Since there has been so much fun to be had, writing down some of the memorable times has been a little scarce.  Picture taking has not been lacking, however.  

I have never had more peerless times at the zoo.  Could baby elephant Zuri be any cuter!?  Two trips particularly stand out.  Perfect parking spot, mild sunny weather, marveled at the exotic bird show (if you have not seen it it is worth going and it's free!), watched Caroline wave over and over to her fans from
the merry go round.
The second time was take-your-breath-away windy, ALL of the animals were out due to lack of heat, watched the leopard pace back and forth like we were going to be his prey.

We also attended the Beckstrom family reunion at This is the Place Park, admired chalk art and Caroline 

perfecting her dance moves on her rock stage, enjoyed taking in the Arts Festival, made a T-shirt quilt for Adam, and sang yet more rounds of Happy Birthday to my sweet, positive, hardworking, cherished husband and our spirited, animated, and winsome little Caroline.

Ahhh...summer

 watching America's favorite pastime. sipping ice cold frosty beverages. singing "Take me out to the ball game". train rides. decadent peanut butter bars homemade by Kate. giggling children rolling down

the grassy hill. making memories with family. 

Mouth watering menu, enjoying the view of fresh produce growing in a large garden, little cousins tromping around the yard, spending time with extended family, being with Grandma Beckstrom....

these are the memorable family birthday parties we get to attend each month.

Here is the pre-engaged beautiful couple, Jamilyn and Nathan, who became engaged on July 3rd!

Sweet, sweet baby Samuel.

Hyrum, Caleb, Caroline, and Andrew enjoying the treasure that they found.

Happy Birthday to Caroline, Adam, and Aunt Jan!

Please your palate

A couple of weeks ago all of the Winegar girls, including our darling new addition Kate (Clark's wife), and the nephews went to lunch at a little cafe called Mini's.  It's a mini cupcake shop that also has amazing sandwiches.  I had Leslie's favorite: Fresh Mozzarella, roasted Red Peppers, Field Greens with a pesto and balsamic Vinegar Spread...can you say yum!?  And my cupcake choice, well the cupcake of the day was Key Lime and all sold out, so I went for the Chocoholic.  Yes, I have a problem and I am the first to admit it.

The vintage outdoor rocking chairs and checkers table helped us to just sit back and enjoy the breezy, sunny summer day.

That same week, Adam and I, along with our parents, all went out to an incredible Japanese Restaurant: Koko's Kitchen.  It is a cozy little place and my mouth waters as I am thinking about the food which was sensational!  Both of our father's went to Japan on their missions and it was fun to hear about the variety of foods they ate, blowtorching slugs in the shower, and how the missionaries ate chicken feed (moogi in Japanese) for breakfast.  I truly love both of our parents so much.  They have eached sacrificed to have us live with them once throughout our marriage and we have been lucky to not only make without problems, but to actually really enjoy it.
(When I told someone that in New Hampshire they asked where the halo was over my head, they didn't believe that I liked it.)  
It was so fun to dine over sushi and katsu don and hear our dad's laughing about different quirky cultural differences.