The Pollard Place: July: Ocean Birthday, Wildflowers, and Glinda Falling Over

July! Wow, this one was a big one. We had our Della turn eight! She is becoming quite the remarkable young woman. Just like we did with Henry, I wanted to take Della to the temple in her baptism dress to take some pictures! She liked it a lot more than Henry, which is probably because the weather was infinitely nicer in July than February, and because Della loves getting her picture taken and Henry hates it haha. It was fun to take some pictures of my beautiful girl!

We have been preparing for the Tanzania trip for a long time, and we had one final thing I hadn't been able to fit in: The Bean Museum. The girls and I had seen it when Henry was doing his soccer camp and I realized how cool it would be to see it before our trip. We saw so many animals and then we also saw a bunch of human skeletons, which is cool because some of the oldest skeletons have been found in Tanzania. Walking through and seeing these animals was so fun and our excitement was so high to see them in real life! Amelia was terrified of the lions eating the other animals so I was a little nervous about how that would go in Tanzania, but we had no need to worry haha.

I convinced Rusty to do a workout with me on the patio

Fourth of July!! This year we were in town for the morning bike parade and had the kids decorate their bikes and then we all went in the parade. After the parade we hung out at home for a little bit and it rained, making us worry about the rest of our plans. But it cleared up and we went over to the Cowleys for a BBQ before going to the cul de sac across the street for fireworks. Then we drove over to the farm and watched the fireworks from Memorial Hill. I love the Fourth of July!

Della's birthday! She got to open some presents on her actual birthday before her party.

Della's birthday party was under the sea themed! And we realized (I realized) that she hasn't had a birthday party since we moved to Midway, so I was feeling pretty awful and went a little more overboard than I normally would for a birthday party. But Della is so kind and always so grateful, that it's fun to go overboard for her!

Rice krispie sashimi, fruit cut out like fish shapes tied onto pretzels like a fishing rod, popcorn as sea foam.

Gummy worm fish bait

Gold and ruby treasure that is mustard and ketchup

Candy kelp on a stick!

I paid my friend Amy to make a cake for Della! She did a great job!

Look at my beautiful girl!

Della also wanted real sushi

She had great friends come! She invited Thomas, Ayla, Emmaline, Ellie, and Eli.

After they had their food we played shark attack with the parachute

and then they played some games in the grass and played with the water slide.

We took a drive up Snake Creek in the side by side and Sierra car, and it was one of the times that I think we live in the best place in the world; and that we are extremely underusing the area around us. It was so beautiful and so fun to be up there, and I can't believe we haven't done it before! We drove up and just explored a little, had an impromptu dance party, and then found a beautiful field of flowers that we laid in for a while. It was a magical night!

Della was cracking us up so much

We floated the canal again this year! It was a little bit better with the girls, but Della still said she was really scared. Then we went over the first little bump and she realized that it was all fine and she calmed down. We were proud of her for being brave and doing the thing scared! Just do the thing! Even if you're scared.

Wizard of Oz. Ok so when we saw Joseph and the Technicolor Coat that our town put on and it was so amazing, I was so excited to see that they were doing the Wizard of Oz! That's Emilie's favorite movie of all time, so I told her that she had to come and see it with us. And that it would blow her mind because it is that amazing. WELL. That was not exactly the case. Turns out we have two different local groups that do theater and this group is the one that is not as talented haha. It was actually kind of rough. The worst part was that poor Glinda came out riding on a hoverboard so it looked like she was floating (and it looked really cool) but then she fell straight back and landed on the ground! Then she got up and her hair was stuck in her crown and she was so disoriented because that was a big fall, and then she fell again. And then she fell again. And then she started swearing into her microphone and then put the hoverboard away and when she walked back out she tripped and fell again haha. IT WAS ROUGH. But the guy that played the lion made up for everything because it was so amazing and Rusty and I were actually crying we were laughing so hard!

We wanted to go hike Bloods Lake again because it was so amazing last year! What we didn't know is that dogs are not allowed up at the lake, so we just took turns at the top section and one group stayed with Bailey and the other group went to the lake. I think this is one of my favorite hikes because it is just so stunning the entire time. And the lake at the top is beautiful!

After our hike we got yeti bowls because OF COURSE WE DID.

But it was also 7/11 so we gave the kids the option to get a slurpee insead and two of our kids were in favor of that and one was smarter and got a yeti bowl.

Rusty and I went mountain biking!!

We got to go boating! Henry tried surfing and it was really hard for him, but he has been sticking with it and today he was up for a lot of the time! He is doing great and we are so proud of him for sticking with it even though its hard. We know he will love it!

Rusty and Amelia tried knee boarding it was... unsuccessful.

Africa was so amazing! It also was so long and had so many cool things that it has its own post. BUT we LOVED Tanzania and would love to go back any time! When we got home, we found this sweet note and dinner in our fridge waiting for us.

Alyson and I did the Harry Potter exhibit in Salt Lake City and it was so fun! It was a little crazy with just getting home from Africa, but she said it was really fun when she went with her kids and so we got tickets before I even left. Because we went on Harry Potter's birthday it was mega packed, which was a little bit annoying but once we got in it actually flowed fine. And we got little pins that say "HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY" and that was fun.

Elder Wand

Resurrection Ston

Invisibility Cloak- I laughed so hard at this haha

So good at quidditch

Goblet of Fire!

Hagrid's chair

BOGGART!

Mandrakes

We made potions

and told the future.

THE GRIM

Oh hey Anne Boleyn.

Henry's Highlights:

"He did some internal damage!" Henry about Rusty poking him

Adeline's Adventures:

My sweetest Adeline turned 8 this month! She is kind, loving, hilarious, smart and a true joy in my life. We love her dearly!
She has been so excited about her birthday, her party, and getting baptized! She wanted an underwater theme birthday party so that it could kind of be like mermaids but not mermaids because then her best friend Thomas would feel weird because that's a girl thing. Della always thinks about other people.
She got a turquoise swim suit with a little skirt from us for her birthday and we let her open it early so she could wear it for her party and she was absolutely ecstatic about it. And she wore it with her fancy sunglasses from Grandma.
Della is loving being part of activity days! She loves feeling like she's a grown up. This time they hiked to the top of Memorial Hill!

Amelia's Updates:

Always says "Thank you for this pray" when she prays. And she always says, "Please bless that all the people that have bad days can have better days."
I'm full on my food side, but my dessert side is empty
Amelia fell and then stood up and said, "I did NOT get hurt!" Like "Don't worry, I'm okay!"
Henry: "You're not in this conversation!"