So Far This Summer

So far this summer has been a very busy one full of fun adventures and vacations and I don't really know where to begin. Let's start with June. 

BEGINNING OF JUNE

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary in the Las Vegas sun. It was so much fun and we were both so sad to have to come home. First we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and spent the days swimming, shopping, and doing a little gambling (don't worry, our idea of gambling is spending 20 dollars and calling it a day) and we both ended up winning more money than we spent! 

We got to see the Phantom of the Opera while we were there and it was incredible! I love the music so much and I loved it even more while hearing it in a beautiful opera theater! Afterwards we went to a little french pastry stand at the Venetian and bought mini-cupcakes as our anniversary dessert. It was a perfect night :).

We spent the second half of our anniversary vacation at the beautiful Bellagio Hotel. It was much more luxurious than the Hard Rock and didn't have the "party scene" going on constantly.

Our room was gorgeous and so was the view from our window! 

We spent a lot of time walking around and exploring the strip. The weather was hot (go figure huh?) so we took advantage of the shade whenever we could find it and spent a lot of time exploring the shops and things inside the casinos. The Bellagio garden was beautiful and so creative! Everything was made out of flowers!

We walked to the Coke Factory and sampled all the different Cokes from around the world. It was really fun. We couldn't believe how disgusting some of them were (ahem, Italy) and decided that we were glad to live in America.



MIDDLE OF JUNE
Josh and I saw the Poison/Def Leppard "Rock of Ages Tour" Concert and it was literally a blast from the past! They just don't make music like that anymore. And although the music was great, the people watching was even better! Gotta love the '80's crazies.

 

END OF JUNE
My little sister Briana came to stay with us for a few weeks! I was so excited to pick her up and so sad to have to drop her off :(. I took a little over a week off from work and spent the days with her. It was so fun having someone to exercise with (until she decided that I was too serious about it and didn't want to go with me anymore) and enjoy "girl talk" with.

We went to a SLC Bee's baseball game the first day she was here. 

We also went glow in the dark mini-golfing, bowling, and played the arcade games at Fat Cat's. 

We got a deal that included free bread twists and a pitcher of soda from the Pizza Factory with our bowling! It was time well spent and although Josh beat us at everything, we all did pretty good ;).

Briana turned 15 while she was visiting us! We spent the day shopping and doing "girl stuff" and then later that night had a BBQ, and cake. Happy Birthday Bri!

 

 

We went to a lazer show at the Clark Planetarium. It was so cool! They played music from U2 that went along with the lazers. Walking around the Planetarium was just as much fun and we got to try space ice cream for the first time....it was not bad at all. 

I think my favorite part of her stay with us was when she and I had a picnic at Memory Park and walked through the rose gardens and played in the stream. 

Then we went up to the State Capitol building and explored. 

It was so gorgeous inside! Briana decided that's where she wants to do her Bridals when she grows up ;)

JULY

For the 4th of July we went to Park City and watched the parade. Then we had a BBQ on the balcony and later went to the movie theater and saw Rock of Ages. It was a great day!

As you can see, I'm the only one in the family with enough patriotic spirit to wear red, white, and blue ;)

I could write a whole novel about all the details of everything we've done so far this summer but this will just have to suffice. I feel so lucky to have such amazing sisters and an even more amazing husband who doesn't mind being the only guy when he hangs out with us!