Slow down summer!

As is usually the case, summer is blazing by way too fast for our liking. We've enjoyed having lots of opportunities to have time with cousins and friends who are visiting from out of town. Cousin time means everything to my kids and we've loved having the time with the Gregsons and Hamblins from Arizona, the Mackintosh Clan from Idaho, and Cody from North Carolina. We look forward to our next cousin get together in August when we'll meet in Montana with the Crowells from Washington and the Gregsons from Canada.

Luckily for my sons, there are lots of boy cousins who love to engage in wrestling and wars!

Brock is loaded and ready for combat.

Grandpa Ehman and Brittan on the Alpine Coaster in Park City. This may be one of the funnest rides I've been on in a long time. Worth every penny. What a cool Grandpa!


The gang with G'ma and G'pa Ehman, Cody and Brock in Park City anxiously waiting their turns for the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster.

Miss Farmington probably thought she was being stalked during Farmington Festival Days with the amount of pictures she was requested to be in with these boys. Cody was in love.

Do you think Shaw likes Beau (a cousin of a cousin)?

Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with the Arizona Gregsons. Aren't they cute? I think Dylan may think the shark is real.

One of our favorite places to take family and friends who are visiting...Sweets Candy Factory! Who doesn't like fresh taffy and orange sticks straight off the line? The best part though are these amazingly fashionable hairnets that you get to keep! Lucky us!

Even Shaw had to follow the OSHA rules and wear a hairnet. How cute is that! He slept through the entire tour but you can see by the grin on his sleeping face that he was dreaming of cinnamon bears and jelly beans.

Sweets Candy Factory tour #2 with Brent and his fam. Can I tell you how much I love this guy? He literally was a kid in a candy factory and made the tour very entertaining. He continually clapped his hands and would say, "I like candy. I like candy." I think our tour guide thought he was a kid who "rides the short bus" (meaning he is a "special" Brent).

The 4th of July at G'ma and G'pa Mackintosh's house. Gracey Hamblin and Shaw got cozy for a Kodak moment. Shaw seems a little nervous to be in such close proximity to a girl. We had a yummy BBQ and major fireworks show. G'pa Mack never does anything in a small way. You know those insanely large firework packages at Costco? G'pa bought 2 of them! G'ma stuck to tradition and was a one lady parade complete with thrown taffy. Good times!

You can always count on a few belly laughs when Jeff and Brent get together. He's not heavy, he's my brother.

My childhood friends got together for dinner at the Mandarin. Lynette Helmer (first on left) was in town from California and orchestrated the reunion. These gals were all in my ward growing up. There's Lynette, Holly, Trisha, Me, Janis, and Kristine. It was so fun to catch up. We even relived our teenage years when we drove around after dinner trying to find someplace that was still open so we could get ice cream. Most things were closed so we ended up at Wendy's drive through. We couldn't get our orders straight and the lady got very annoyed with us. It was like we were 16 again!