East Coast, West Coast

The best New Jerseyans in the world decided to spend some of their summer in good ol' Utah. This made us especially happy because they happen to be my mom's closest sister Janell, her super fun husband John and their adorable kids.

We celebrated their arrival with a picnic and playtime at the creek.

By the way, this is the same Uncle John who, 15 years ago, would park us right in front of the cemetary just to watch us freak out because we couldn't hold our breath that long. Well, some things never change. I was a little late to the festivities due to work but I sure got a nice welcome--when I went in for a hug, he instead threw me over his shoulder (in a skirt, no less) and proceeded to pretend that he was going to throw me into creek.

The Zulicks left us for a few days to visit Old Faithful and got back just in time for our big Smith family party on Sunday. The highlight of the night was definitely watching my sweet Grandma go bowling on the Wii. I love her reaction when she got her first spare:

My Grandpa Smith took a turn, too, and they kept up with their bowling game even after everyone had redirected their attention to other activities. Well, everyone except Gabe, who remained their biggest fan:

He was so into it! It was so cute watching him cheer for them. We made sure to get a shot of Grandma with almost all of the grandkids).

Everyone got together again on Monday night to see WALL-E at the drive-in (p.s. drive-ins are another summer must!). It was such a cute movie! We all loved it & highly recommend it.

And on another note... California, here we come!

Okay, here I come--Matt's already there! He's spending 3 weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base (which is about 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara)... before getting to come home to Utah for his 17-day summer leave!! Matt's halfway through his little vacation right now so I'm hopping on a plane in the morning to come visit him. Jodie & her family are so kindly letting us stay with them in L.A. and we're all in store for a super fun weekend!!!

So, since we won't be around... Happy 4th of July, everyone! It's such a neat thing to stop and celebrate our liberty, and remember that we have brave men and women still fighting for it every day.

We're so lucky to be Americans.