Scott Wells Family Reunion

It has been a very eventful few weeks and I really have needed to sit down and write down my feelings about all of the fun things that we have done.
I have already reported a little bit about our 4th of July. Turns out that Provo really is a great place to be during the 4th of July. I feel like we celebrated for 2 weeks. Which was great for us because it meant lots of free entertainment, and bad for us because people were lighting fire works all hours of the night around our apartment. Lucy was a champ. She can sleep through anything... well except for when she doesn't.
We packed for St. George the next day, (5th of July) and we geared up for a good time with the Staheli family and the rest of the Wells gang. Wednesday night we got to go see The Little Mermaid at Tuachan. It was an amazing production. We enjoyed every minute of it. The tickets are pricey (thanks mom) but if you can make it down there, it's worth seeing. Thursday we went up to Pine Valley. I gave the girls a cake decorating lesson. They had a good time and so did I sharing the skills and techniques I have learned.
Friday Traci and I got ready for the Scott Wells Family Reunion. It was a very well planned reunion. (Traci and I did a good job, and everyone else did a great job following through on their assignments, Thanks everyone!) We all woke up early Saturday morning and met at my Mom's house for a few hours of hard labor and service in the form of cleaning up my mom's yard. I made job jars for the all of the kids inside the house and they did a great job. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them work and asking for more assignments when their own jobs were completed. Their parents have raised them well. My favorite was McKay. My mom had told me the night before that he was a good organizer. I assigned him to organize a couple of cabinets that the kids use for their art supplies. He got started right away, and I said to McKay, "I heard you were good at organizing things." McKay replied very serious and proudly, "yeah, pretty much." It puts a smile on my face thinking of that morning. It was really fun to serve next to my family and was a great beginning to a fun filled day.
We all got ready for some pool fun at Mason's house. He was a fantastic host and we had a great time at his pool, and the food was delicious.
I don't know that it was really planned but there was enough time in between activities for the little ones to take a short nap and get ready for the evenings activities. Everyone arrived refreshed and ready for family pictures. My mom's neighbor took them for us and they turned out great. The grand kids changed into their t-shirts grandma provided numbered by their birth order from 1 to 15. They lost their names for the night and we would just label and group them by numbers. It was kind of fun for them as well.
James and I fried up some tacos then Traci headed a really fun family treasure hunt that sent all of us running for the winning prize at the end of the race. The kids had their talents ready for a fun talent show and I had prepared achievement awards for each of them that they got with a dollar bill to spend later at the snow shack run. Even though we explained that there was a prize for everyone, they were anxious for their turn to receive their award. I loved to watch each of them at the edge of their seat wishing for their turn in the spotlight. I sure love all of these kiddos.
We topped it off with a game of Candy Bar Bingo and all went to our beds completely pooped with such a packed day of excitement and fun. I am sure grateful for a wonderful family and for a good time spent with them.
Also included is a four generations picture with my Grandma Sullivan, My mom, Me and Lucy. So lucky to come from such great ladies.

Video update of Lucy's newest trick

Freedom Festival and other Fun activities

We have had a lot of fun on my week off, and Lucy has had lots of firsts. We took her to a freedom fireside on Sunday night to start off the Freedom Festival activities. Lucy slept through most of it, but would shake every time everyone clapped. We got to see Miss America.. and her crown. It was in the Marriott center and it was packed. Lucy also took her first swim on Thursday. She loved it!
We went to the Orem Rec Center. We decided we would start there, because it's free... well sort of. We got cheap passes there through my work last November and we are just starting to use them. We had so much fun we went the next day too.
We are still working on endurance. Lucy only lasts about 30 to 40 minutes and she's ready to go, but she has a lot of fun. And we have fun because all of the swimmers tell us how cute she is the entire time we are there.
Lucy got a brand new stroller. She was getting tired of the car seat stroller, and we had lots of places to go this week, so we spent the money and got her this fancy ride. She loves it!

Our first stop in the new stroller was the rooftop concert series. Sam Payne and Cherie Call kicked off the nights entertainment, but I am here to tell you, it only got better and better. Sara Sample played some of her stuff and then... a few of the local bands played the entire Abbey Road Album from the Beatles. It was so fantastic. We really didn't plan on staying the entire concert but it was soo good, we had a hard time leaving. Lucy did great too.
We had great seats. It was a really nice evening and I can't even begin to describe the quality of the entertainment as well.
Lucy slept until it got dark and stayed awake the rest of the night, enjoying the music. There were a few guitar solos I wonder if she was going to make it through, but she handled it like a champ.
The next morning, we woke up at 6:00 am, to go see this! We could have easily talked ourselves out of it, but decided life is too short to miss out on events like this just for a little extra sleep.
Apparently Provo does this big hot air balloon launch every 4th of July weekend. We would not have known, if Gayle had not enlightened us on the Provo ways.
This year they featured a Darth Vader balloon, that was really cool. It was the only balloon that didn't get very far,... less impressive, but it was a cool balloon anyway.

We walked up to Kneaders after we saw them all go into the air and got there just before the crowds started coming. We didn't go to the Stadium of Fire, but we did go check out the festivities down on Center Street and we heard the fireworks as we were trying to put Lucy to sleep. So basically we've been celebrating the 4th of July all week long, and the best part is, they are not over yet. Tomorrow is the parade and more fun. I missed the regular pizza and fireworks, but we have made the very most of our 4th of July weekend in Provo.