Family Memories

That was the theme for the 24th of July for us this year. It's all about the kids and the family memories.

I had to work Friday so Josh took Sasha with his Sister Pam and her daughter Mcartny and his parents to the carnival in Bountiful. I met up with them later for the parade then we hit the fireworks. I think Sasha had a lot of fun at the carnival but since I wasn't there then there is no photographic proof. :) But I did get a few at the parade and the fireworks. It was a pretty good show that Bountiful put on this year, I must say. At least I can say that now after accepting that once you see a fireworks show in DisneyWorld there is simply no other fireworks display that can even come close to matching that. Once you accept that, you are able to once again be impressed by other fireworks shows.

At the parade, waiting for the fun to begin . . .

Still waiting . . .

And now waiting for the fireworks . . . .
Hanging out with Big Dog!

Sowell Family Reunion

Over the 4th of July weekend we had a Sowell Family Reunion at my grandparent's cabin in Island Park. It was great to see everyone and spend some good, quality family time together. Some fun pics from the weekend . . .


Anthony and Grandma Ruby (this was Anthony's last weekend as a free man for two years. He left on his mission to England on the 9th!)
Sasha and Uncle Chris. Good ol' Uncle Chris!
Todd and Liz by the campfire

Grandma and Grandpa by the fire. Grandpa's lovin' on that S'more!

Dad, Joni and Chris . . . through a haze of smoke. ;)

Sasha after a much-needed bath in her cute new jammies from Grandma Joni!

Watching the fireworks with dad. That was her expression pretty much the whole time! Hilarious! I thought she might get scared, but she was fascinated by the fireworks. A girl after my own heart. We love things that sparkle!

Getting ready for the fireworks.

A small group of us drove to West Yellowstone for a few hours of shopping. This is the bear we saw right off the side of the road on our 120 mile journey back to the cabin. For those of you in the know, West Yellowstone is really only about 3o minutes from Island Park, but when your cousin distracts you with a street race (Touareg vs. Suburban- who do you think won?) you kind of forget that ever-important left turn that takes you back to Island Park instead of to Montana. But if we hadn't missed the turn we never would have seen the bear!

I took Sasha for a ride on the 4-wheeler. She insisted on wearing the helmet! I love that it is twice her size. But safety first!

It's been a while since I rode a wheeler, so my dad sort of had to teach me how to put the thing in reverse. After that we were good to go!

Apparently Sasha likes to golf. Not sure where she got it from since neither Josh or I are big golfers, but she had fun playing with the clubs and even hit the balls a few times. It's especially funny because no one showed her what to do with them, she just started swinging the club at the ball. Perhaps it was that weekend spent with Uncle Rich . . . Such a sweet little thing . . .

Other than that I can't say that July has been too eventful. Work is going really well. I'm already at 55% of my quota which is awesome, I think! I really love it there. I love the people I work with and my boss is great.

Josh took exam 2 of 4 yesterday for the CPA. We won't know for 6 weeks if he passed or not, but we're keeping our fingers crossed. He takes exam #3 next month. If all goes well and he passes the rest of them on the first try then he should be done by the end of the year. If not then most likely by next June, depending on how many he has to retake. Throwing tax season in there doesn't help things go any quicker, but we're just taking it one test at a time.

Sasha is turning in to quite the jabber mouth. Not that we're surprised by this given who her mother is. :) Her list of words include: shoe, cheese, juice, Ma, Da, kitty, fish, more (pronounced mo-ah) and oh pretty.

Ever her mother's daughter, she loves shoes! We got her a new pair this week and when Josh pulled them out of the box she got all excited, starting clapping and saying "Shoe! Shoe!" and once we got them on it was "Oh pretty!" I just love it!

Where did June go?

I can't believe it's already July. This is nuts! But we are doing our best to enjoy every minute. Well, I'm not sure I can say the same for Josh . . . he pretty much hates studying and if I were him, I would be miserable too. But I guess that's why I'm not an accountant! :)


A couple of weeks ago my company had a summer party at Hogle Zoo. This was Sasha's second trip to the zoo and she loved it!
She loved riding the train! She didn't want to sit on my lap, she had to sit by herself. She's such a big girl.

On the carousel. She did not want to get off! She would have ridden for hours if she could!
I've trained her well to be ready for the camera. That's her CHEESE face.

One of my oldest friends Rich also works for my company so his family got to come to zoo day too! Which was good because otherwise I would have been a total loner that day! (Rich, Emma and Melissa)

I love how Sasha is almost too long for this stroller, yet the straps still hang on her because she's so skinny.

She also could have sat and watch the elephants for hours. I'm not sure what it was about them, but she was absolutely fascinated! She screamed when I pulled her away from the fence.

This is a video I took of us on the carousel. Not too bad for one handed photography when I couldn't even see what the camera was pointing at! Sasha's laugh is so contagious, I just love it!