The Smith Saga: JULY

July 1-

I went on a ride with Meredith that morning. We were both training for The Iron Lung Century. We drove to our starting point and when we got out and started pumping up our tires I noticed my tire looked like this...

Since we were far from home I just pumped up my tires and we started on our way from the Capitol headed through Salt Lake up to the Top of Emi and Up to Big Mountain. Or that was the plan.
About the time we got to Sunnyside Ave I hear a loud pop and my tire had blown. I was SO BUMMED! We needed to get a long ride in to prepare for our Century at the end of July. I called Jesse to get a ride back home. Meredith had to keep on going without me. Bummer all around.

After getting picked up I went to the bike shop to buy new tires. I showed them this picture and I got the response "I can't believe you didn't crash"..."If you had been descending EMI you would have lost full control and you'd probably be in the hospital right now."

My bummed attitude about not getting my long ride in quickly dissolved into pure gratitude for being safe. I had some guardian angels protecting me that day for sure!

Fynn just LOVES salad. He's almost 4 and loves salad. How is that possible? I don't really care how, I just feel happy he does.

Jul 3
I had cleaned out Fynn's room to turn into Ryker's room. I had put these photos just in my closet for temporary storage when Fynn found them and was just awwing over how cute he was as a baby. lol.

And he had just got out of the shower when he found them. So he's in the nude too. This kid is always making us laugh.

July 5- ANNUAL SMITH BIKE RIDE
Traditionally the Smith Family rides the Rails to Trails trail for either The 4th or 24th of July. It always makes me happy to be with my family, riding my bike and soaking up the sunshine. Combing them all... I couldn't be more thrilled.

And oh my gosh... look at that grin. How can you not melt when you look at the glee in his face?

The whole gang (minus a few people due to new babies and job situations).

Then we went back to Grandma Heidi's house and we had a water balloon fight and toss. Until we ran out of balloons. We have some pretty funny videos of us tossing the balloons back and forth with beach towels. The adults were launching them as high as we could. We were laughing about it.

July 10- SLCFD LAGOON DAY

We didn't get season passes this summer again, so the boys were way excited when we got to go to Lagoon on the Fire Department.

I got to spend most of the day with Fynn while Jesse took the older 2 boys with all his SLCFF friends on the big boy rides. I actually really enjoyed living the day out through the eyes of my almost 4 year old. Every ride was pure magic to him. His smile made me smile. His laugh made me laugh. His giddy excitement rubbed off onto me. We were best buds that whole day.

In the evening I did get to sped time with Ryker and Cy riding a few of the big rides. At one point I did lose Cy. Thankfully when we started the day we designated a spot to go to if anyone got lost. And thank goodness he remembered to go to that spot. The poor boy had huge tears in his eyes and I was SO happy to see him and SO proud he remembered to go to the safety spot.

We ate dinner under the Pavilion with the SLCFF and their families. Didn't win anything from the raffle, but we made many new friends.

We were all so worn out from a fun day. It made me wish that we could have more days like that one with my boys. Makes me wanna quit my job and play with them everyday! I love my family SO MUCH!

July 12- HUGH JACKMAN CONCERT

Back in December I was gifted this concert from my family for my birthday. I got 2 tickets and since Jesse wasn't too interested in going, I picked my friend Jenny to go with me (so we both could just gush over Hugh).

I wasn't sure what to expect, but OH MY HECK it was probably the best show I have been to. I didn't want it to end.

I got chills over and over again. And I may or may not have cried a little bit.

He sang songs from The Greatest Showman, Les Mis, a bunch of different musicals from Dear Evan Hansen to the classics like Singing in the Rain. Acting and singing lie Peter Allen (who apparently is an iconic Austrailian entertainer). He even tap danced, played the drums, the piano, and danced himself.

Oh and Keala Settle was there and sang THIS IS ME and I couldn't believe how AMAZING she was in person.

It was such an incredible show.

We gushed over Hugh the whole night and didn't want to go home. I didn't realize how talented and down to earth charming that he is. He really put on a talent show. He even was crying during one of the Les Mis songs that he sang. It was refreshing to see a concert that was true raw talent.

July 13- We are official dog owners

We met with the breeder and it was time to bring home our puppy! And MURPHY is the name that we all settled on!

Welcome to our family Murphy!

The boys

July 14

At the start of this year The Church of Jesus Christ made some adjustments to the Sunday block. We now have 2 hrs in church and the 3rd hour is at home within your own family. This has been pretty cool thing for our family. My boys are in the scriptures more often and we have had some pretty incredible discussions with our family. This program has been inspired of God! The curriculum is called Come Follow Me. This year we have been studying the New Testament.

After church we played wit our new pup. He's so freaking adorable that me and the boys just can't handle it. His first night at home he cried through most of the night. But after a couple of days he settled into his new home.

Needless to say we are loving are new family addition. Murphy!

July 15
Family night with my boys (Minus Jesse who was on duty). Thank goodness we live right across the street from the church. Why? Well our yard is still torn up from the addition on the house. So we currently don't have grass to play on. So we just play at the church yard for now.

July 16

Fynnie just loves Murphy.

And since they are about the same size I think Murphy plays with Fynn like a sibling.

In the video of this, Fynn is giggling SO HARD.

July 18- SLCFD BEES GAME

Yet again another Fire Department Night out.

The boys were each given a ball from the game. A total highlight for them. Even though Ryker was seconds away from getting it signed before the player ran back into the buncker.

July 20- IRON LUNG CENTURY

7407 ft elevation gain
100 miles
100+ riders
2 girls pushing themselves
1 challenging route!

At the half way point... The top of Big Mountain!

What a day and what a ride! I was quite intimidated by this ride ever since the moment we signed up for it. And on that day Meredith and I proved we were stronger than we realized!

July 21-

Murphy is fitting right in with the family!

July 22-
A total impromptu to take our FHE dinner up to the lake side. We had a Come Follow Me discussion in the car ride on the way up to the lake. And when we got there we set up "camp" and I made us dinner on the camp chef!

And cute Cy brought me this flower. He can be just the sweetest thing sometimes,

The boys played in the raft. Murphy got to experience his first swim... and he didn't like it so much. lol.

He stuck around by me most of the time.

GOSH I am blessed with these boys!

When we were headed home Murphy fell asleep in my arms. I was in puppy heaven.

July 23- Bees Game again?

When we were at the Bees Game a few weeks before this I ran into an old friend who actually works at the Bees Stadium. We talked for awhile and he mentioned that if I ever wanted to get tickets he could get some for us really cheap. He also told me that the Bees Game puts on a really awesome firework show for the 24th of July. I got thinking about it and I thought it would be a fun experience for the boys.

So Sam Noel got us some tickets. When it got closer I invited our friends Johnny and Tessa Murdock to come with us. So I was able to get them tickets as well.

After the Bee's blew away the opposing team we all got to go down onto the field to watch the fireworks.

They ended up being the best fireworks I had ever seen. Being down on the field we were super close to them.

That night was pretty Awesome!
Awesome Game!
Awesome Friends!
Awesome Family!
Awesome Fireworks!
Awesome Summer Night!

July 24- SMITH FAMILY REUNION
It's been quite a long time since the whole entire Smith side of the family got together. So we all gathered in Mike and Heidi's backyard for a yummy BBQ, Volleyball tournament, and catching up.