Summer Travels

It has been a busy month for the Lewis family! When I finally got around to downloading my pictures from my digital camera, there were 175. So, it took me a while to put these ones on the blog and I accidentally started uploading them backwards... and a bunch of others randomly shuffled after I loaded them, so pardon the skipping around. We're going to take a trip back through time, but only a few weeks.


Let's start with last week, when we finally got home after our long trip(s). Mikey was playing outside with his daddy and got in the mud. He had a really funny Hitler mustache, and Kevin caught this priceless photo:

We made our first batch of homemade salsa from the tomatoes and peppers from our garden! We grew all of these pictured below, and added some store-bought cilantro, lemon and lime juice, and one onion. We have a lot more tomatoes and peppers that will be getting ripe in the next weeks or months so we're hoping to make a huge batch of salsa and can it. The first batch tasted great, but was very mild since we didn't have any of our hottest peppers ripe yet.

Here is a belly shot, since I haven't done one for a while. This is Ginny at 31 weeks and a few days; she is a mover and a shaker! One of the biggest differences between this pregnancy and Mikey's is that I can feel my bones shifting a lot more. My hips/pelvis can be really sore when I first get up in the morning, but it usually doesn't bother me too much throughout the rest of the day. Another difference is that I don't think Ginny has had hiccups yet, but Mikey used to get them all the time in the womb, sometimes multiple times a day! I have been nesting big time to get ready for Ginny and I have most of her wardrobe (from newborn to 2 years) already organized, washed, and put in her drawers and hanging in her closet. I also am making some changes to the guest room which will become Mikey's room once the baby comes. I'll take pictures when I get them done.


Mikey dancing with Grandma Shawn at my cousin Annie's wedding reception. That's my cousin Kathryn picking her nose in the background... j/k Kathryn! ;)


Beautiful table centerpieces/decor by my cousins Krista and Lauren. You girls are so chic.


This was the floral arrangement and centerpiece on the food table. I didn't take any pictures until it had started to rain and they took all the food inside. Oops.


This was an awesome hand-built backdrop for the receiving line. It was made from some rustic looking thick tree branches, hand-dyed fabric, and hanging tea lights inside mason jars. Very creative and artsy, I say. Again, props to Krista and Lauren, and Justin (their brother) for the construction thereof. My picture doesn't really do it justice. I waited too long and it was getting dark.

This shows the big tent that the dance floor was built under, and the hanging lanterns inside. The reception was held in the bride's parents' back yard. My aunt Nicea and uncle Fred did a fabulous job with grooming their house and yard to get ready for the event. Then again, their house and yard are always beautiful, so it was nothing new. :)


Annie and Ben had a short ring ceremony in the back yard before the reception so people who weren't able to attend the temple marriage could take part. It was sweet. They are such a cute couple!


This was the dance floor before the music even got going... the kids loved to run around on it, and Mikey was no exception. We got a cute video of him navigating the dance floor and narrowly escaping collisions with the bigger, faster kids.

One of my personal favorite things about this reception: No wedding cake, and instead -- COLDSTONE ice cream! This is Annie and Ben feeding each other ice cream instead of cutting the cake.


Another favorite thing of mine: the a capella version of "For the Longest Time" that Ben (the groom) sang to his bride. Backup singers included Annie's dad, Fred, and a father-in-law of Ben's brother... not sure who the third backup singer was. I loved that Ben was so nervous to sing to her, but he did a great job and we could tell he meant what he was singing.



Some family shots outside the temple as we waited for the couple to come out. I didn't get any pictures of the married couple, though. Oops. Here are my brothers Duncan and Loren, my mom and myself.


This is my lovely grandma Sue with three of her daughters and one daughter-in-law. From left to right, Nicea, Shawn, Coy, and Teresa. I think Nicea had to pick something from her fingernail.


My grandma sitting with all the kids in the family that were there for the weekend. It was a mini family reunion, with some families coming from as far as Texas, California, and Pennsylvania! It was so fun to see all the kids playing together. This is in the back yard with the wedding tent still up, the day after the reception.


Another picture from outside the temple: Bill, Andrea, Loren, me and Kathryn. Andrea and Kathryn are my cousins from Sacramento that we got to see a lot growing up. They are freaking awesome and really great friends of mine -- and Bill is pretty cool too, since he married Andrea.


Me with my mama, Aunt Coy, and Grandma.

The cute fishing pond that my grandma organized for the kids. Kathryn and Grace (the eldest great grandchild of Sue, daughter of Justin and Kitti) were behind the curtain attaching prizes to the fishing pole for the kids.



Mikey also hit the kiddie pool while hanging out at Nicea's on a non-wedding day. Mikey and I were in Utah the whole week leading up to the wedding weekend, staying in West Jordan with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis. We would drive down to Orem for a few hours each day to hang out with whoever was spending time at Nicea's house.


More pictures of the fishing pond. This was one of my cousin Abby's kids (Abby is a younger sister to bride Annie) catching a prize. Her name is Perry. She is adorable!


More shots of the kids hanging out under the reception tent in the back yard. The one making the funny face is P.J., my cousin Lauren's step-son. He is a hoot. We really like his fun personality, and he knows more about sports than many adults do. In the bottom right corner is my cousin Brian's son Peter, who is just two weeks apart from Mikey in age. This was the first time they had met each other, and it was fun to see them together.


This picture shows little Autumn (my cousin Jana's daughter) fishing and Kathryn and Grace hooking a prize for her. You can even see Kevin in the white shirt and hat behind Autumn. It's proof that he was actually there! I didn't get hardly any pictures of him at the wedding festivities. :(


Mikey swimming in his clothes. I didn't have a swim diaper for him, so we were risking it with him naked under his shorts. He did pee once on the sidewalk. It was funny to watch. The hat he's wearing is getting too small, but I keep forgetting to get a bigger one for him! Sorry, Mikey.

The weekend before Annie's wedding, we spent some time at this beautiful place in Idaho. It's called Red Fish Lake. It is a Lewis family tradition, and we were able to go for the first time since Kevin and I have been married. We were camping, staying in a tent (but sleeping on an air mattress!) near this beautiful lake. It was Mikey's first time camping in a tent and he did awesome. He LOVES the outdoors. Isn't it awesome to see a beautiful shoreline like this, with a mountain backdrop???


Another shot of the shoreline at Red Fish Lake. It is in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, near Stanley and Sun Valley. We spent a very short two days here, and I didn't even get to see this beach until the morning we were leaving. I walked down here and snapped a few pictures before we took off back to Utah.


The weather was so nice when we were there! It didn't get too hot during the days 80s to low 90s I think, and not too cold at nights either, upper 20s to mid 30s? I mean, look at that clear blue sky!


Mikey loves to play in the front seats of our car whenever he gets the chance. I accidentally put this picture in with his eyes closed, but I didn't feel like changing it out, since this is a ridiculously long blog post. He loves to push the hazard lights button, and click the overhead reading lights on and off.


This is in Vern and Cheryl Lewis's back yard. I left Mikey outside for a minute while I went inside to get my camera, and when I came back, I found him on top of this patio table! This guy is getting a little bit too good at climbing.

One of my favorite pics from the camping trip: Kevin and I were packing up the car and getting ready to leave, both too busy to keep a close eye on Mikey. I didn't know where he ran off, and when I looked in the tent, I found him doing this! I guess he was hungry. He took that box of cereal into the tent, opened it by himself, and started chowing down. Good to know he can thrive on his own if anything ever happens to his parents!



This is a cute jacket I just found for Mikey at a garage sale. I bought it for $1.00. He was wearing this one morning when it was still chilly outside. He had just woken up, as you can see by the cute wrinkles under his eyes.


He loved just walking around the campsites and exploring. There is no end to this child's curiosity!

Another pretty view -- this was what we saw when we were driving to a trailhead to do a leisurely family hike.

Mikey, after the hike, passed out in the back seat. He was such a good boy, but had to skip his nap in order to go on the hike. He wouldn't sleep while we were carrying him outside and he was so tired!

It was a hot day that day, in the low 90s I think. At the end of the hike, there was a shallow streambed that I let Mikey play in while the last of the hikers straggled in. He LOVES the water, and it felt especially good for him since we had been hiking in the hot sun for a few hours.

I keep forgetting to buy him a bigger hat... This is Mikey examining one of the pebbles. He is so fun to watch, and I always wonder what's going on in that brain of his.

Here I am toward the end of the hike. As you can see, there was not much to look at while we were walking.

Mikey rode part of the way in a backpack carrier we borrowed from Scott's family (ours wouldn't fit in our car when we packed in GJ.) and part of the way on his daddy's shoulders.

These pictures from the hike are all backwards. Sorry. This is a little bit earlier on, just after we had stopped for a potty break. I liked the look of little Mikey from behind, riding on Kevin's shoulders. They make a cute pair, don't you think?

Here's a little family photo from the beginning of the hike. It was really a glorious day, and such pretty surroundings! I can't wait to go back, and hopefully spend more time there next time.

Kevypoo steals a kiss...

I just wanted to chronicle some of our driving time on this trip. The Redfish Lake trip involved a total of 24 hours of driving (for Kevin, since he had to come from GJ and go all the way back to GJ) and a little over 48 hours of camping/vacation time. Whew. We are hoping not to have to make the trip so short again. It was a bad ratio of driving to relaxing.

I don't think the rest of these pictures need captions. These were some pictures of what you see as you're driving up to the campground. The rest are just more pictures of the camping, on the first day we woke up in Red Fish. We arrived at 1 AM so we didn't get to see these beautiful mountains until the next morning. All in all, it was a fabulous two weeks, but we are glad to be home and settled in again. One thing I didn't get pictures of was the day Kevin and I got to go fly fishing together, as a date. We left Mikey with his grandparents, who watched him for probably 6 hours or so, and took him on his first boating trip! There are some really cute pictures of Mikey in his life jacket that Cheryl has on her camera. I'll have to see if I can get a hold of those.

"Bye, bye!" Says Mikey. Until the next blog post. "Hope all of you have had as much fun this summer as I have." :)