The Party

On Saturday, June 13th we had a pre-graduation celebration party for Emily, and a 50th birthday party for my dad. It was also a late first birthday party for Zuri . Before the party, we played in the park. Zuri's favorite activity is swinging! She loves the free-falling sensation; I think that she is going to love amusement parks. Below are Travis pushing Bradley, and Madeline pushing Zuri.

This is the cake for the party. "Grandpa" is my dad, and "Lil Josh" is Zuri because she looks just like her daddy. My grandma likes to call her J Jr. It's hilarious.

My childhood best friend, Chantal, came to the party with her husband and four kids. We get together as often as possible with living over 600 miles apart. J is posing with her children: Kaylie, Maddie, Bradley, and Brianna. Hmmm...portent of things to come? ;-)Maddie smiling for the camera! Chantal's husband, Travis, is sitting with Bradley.

Chantal with Zuri. She was chewing on something and didn't want to let it go.

Zuri sitting with her great-great Aunt Lilly and her great-grandma.

Zuri playing with the dog. She loves animals. She had fun with the cats, but even more with the dog.

Playing "this little piggy" with great-grandpa! She absolutely loved it!

We had a great time in Sacramento that weekend! We are looking forward to seeing everyone again for the 4th of July!

Emily's Graduation

Emily graduated from UC Davis with her BA in Psychology on June 14th, 2009. We are so proud of all that she has accomplished. J and I were fortunate enough to be able to attend the graduation ceremony (even if we had to sit on bleacher type seats and our bums were numb). Here is Emily accepting her "diploma." YAY!

Emily and her friend walking back to their seats.

Here is the family (minus J who was taking the picture) after the ceremony. Dad, Grandma, Emily, Luke, Sean, me, Zuri, and Grandpa.

Not really sure what's going on in this picture; it looks like Emily is clocking Luke, but she "swears" that he was holding her wrist making her do it. :-) He was putting bunny ears on her with the programs. I know it's fuzzy, but you can also see my new haircut (and how short my hair is now--I'm still getting used to it)!

I know it has been a while...

I know that it has been a little while since I have posted anything.  Sorry about that... I am getting into a new routine and we have officially weaned Zuri from napping in her swing, which means that she is sleeping in the room with the computer.  I would post during her naps but she wakes to the clicking of the keys, so no more posting during her naptime!

We have a busy summer ahead of us!  J will be going to Alaska with his brother and parents for the first couple weeks in July.  While he is in Alaska, Zuri and I will be going to Tahoe.  Keep tuned for some awesome pictures!  (We are in Gunnison right now, so I don't have access to our pictures to post--sorry!)  The end of July we are planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park with Chantal and Travis.  I have never been to Yellowstone, so I am really looking forward to the trip.  In August, we may take another trip to Tahoe for a few days.  Then J will officially be a graduate student of BYU, so we should be settling down in Provo at that time, but we shall see! ;-)

  

  Last weekend we went to Sacramento for Emily's graduation, but I will post more about that with pictures another time.  I hope all is well with everyone!  Thanks for your support!

Cascade Springs

Dad and Emily spent the week with us last week; they came into town for Rachel's wedding, which was on Wednesday (also happened to be Dad's 50th birthday). It was really nice having them here. It's hard when my family is so far away and I don't get to see them all that often. We are going to Sacramento this weekend for Emily's graduation from UC Davis, which will be fun.

We took a little hike through Cascade Springs in American Fork Canyon on Friday. It was overcast and seemed a bit smokey, but it was fun. We were originally going to take a tour through the caves of Mt. Timpanogos but we missed the last tour by an hour. C'est la vie. I took some fun pictures of our hike through Cascade Springs though!

First Birthday Parties...

This post is over a month in coming, but I had to get pictures for all three of Zuri's birthday parties! Yep, I said three. We had a party at the Lucero's, the J's family, and one with my mom's side. She is lucky to have so many people who love her so! J wants to do a fourth party with our friends, but I am worn out!

Party #1:

We went over to Dave and Corie's for a combined celebration of Ashley's birthday and Zuri's birthday. Okay, so Zuri's birthday was really the focus, but we spent the day shopping with Ashley for scrubs--she needed new ones because her old ones don't fit anymore due to her pregnancy. We had moose burgers (the moose that Josh got--and everyone was pleasantly surprised at how good they were).

Zuri's first cake! She was mesmerized by the flame! She didn't really care for the cake--more than anything she just wanted to play with it; I shouldn't be surprised, that's what she loves to do with her food.

She was able to spend some time with her great-grandma and grandpa Lucero, who just adored her.

Present time! She didn't really get into opening the presents too much, but she did help a little bit!

Playing with her Auntie Shawnie and her new ball!

After presents, we all wound down with a game of Imaginiff...where Zuri helped Grandma Corie.

Party #2:
We had the second party down at J's parents house. She got to spend time with her cousins and Aunts. Her favorite part was all the balloons, of which she couldn't get enough!

The picture above, her Aunt Alisia is holding her. Below is half a shot of her great-grandma.

Playing with her Aunt Amanda...and her cousin Ashton.

Time for cake! She was about as interested in eating the cake as the first time...she made a bigger mess though. Still didn't like it.

Party #3:

We had her third party over at our apartment. It was such a nice day out that we went outside on the grass. Good thing we did, because Zuri made a huge mess with the ice cream! She enjoyed getting into the bag and pulling everything out--it's her new hobby. She played with her Uncle Dallas and Aunt McKenzie, and had fun with Grandma.

Inside McKenzie read to Zuri...so cute!