Summer lovin'

How did July come and go so fast?! I'll try to make this short and sweet...lots of stuff going on.

* My little brother left on his mission on July 1st. He spent three weeks in the Provo MTC and then flew to the Dominican Republic MTC last Thursday. We got an email that said something to the effect of him having lost luggage and missing the connecting flight because of some airline delays. He's going to have some great stories.

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* 4th of July...family fun, per usual. I didn't feel well, so I didn't get to eat waffles and ice cream, but the rest of the day was great. Good parade weather, a lovely long nap, and a great time at fireworks. We were elbow-deep in preparations for my grandpa's funeral, so it was a little more somber than usual, but we still found time to celebrate good ol' independence.

I got some cute pictures of my niece:

...and a picture of our potato salad. (...and it's happy to see you!)

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* Rachel and I planned a camping trip for the Provo peeps. I always feel like the camping mom, but sometimes it's good to know that things are taken care of. We had a lot of people come join us for a rollicking good time around the campfire, complete with bear scares (oh Lucas...), using an outhouse, and sleeping on the ground. Ah, nature...c'est magnifique!

I stole this from my friend's Facebook album. Mmmmm...s'mores!

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* My hair stylist talked me into summery highlights. She hit the 'Annie looks awesome!' jackpot (in my opinion). This was the same day I went on my 'date' with my nephew. Here we are, hangin' out in Salt Lake:

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* A couple weekends ago, some of the girls and I went down to Cedar City to the Shakespearean Festival. We saw As You Like It, Private Lives (don't worry if you don't know it...it's not Shakespeare), and Comedy of Errors. I loved them all; each one was funny, and there was a particularly attractive actor that played lead parts in two of the plays. We had a lovely time finding things to occupy our time (see the picture of us sleeping?) in one of the most boring towns EVER. I woke up on Saturday morning and figured I'd go for a walk around town. I Googled Jamba Juice so I could go get a smoothie...yeah, it was 2 1/2 miles away. I wasn't doing much else, so I went on my way. Turns out there is no Jamba Juice...only steakhouses and western wear shops. It's a wonder anyone can survive going to school at SUU. I hope they have a really cool student union building or something. We did find a some cute gift shops, and I dropped a total of $20 on souvenirs. Whoo!

More pictures I stole from a friend's Facebook:

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* Pioneer Day was a lovely day off of work and really low-key family activities. We decided to do things "pioneer" style, so we (read: Sarah and Dennis) made dutch oven ribs, potatoes, and biscuits. I made some homemade ice cream (a first, by myself). We watched the kids run through sprinklers (pioneers had sprinklers, right...?) and did sparklers (and pyrotechnics?). Most of my family was elsewhere, but we had one of those silly, goofy, laugh-because-everything-is-so-ridiculous nights. It was relaxing to get away from work stress and everything else and just be loony. I would try to describe the hilarity but I just wouldn't be able to do it justice. And you would probably just shake your head at my dorkiness. :)