The beginnings of our summer

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in over a month.  

We have been having a blast!  Lots of fun, some sad things too though.  

This is going to be a long one, so hang on for the ride.  

So, what have we been up to?

I finished our bathroom cabinets.  I actually finished the same week I blogged about it, but never posted, so here you go.  I love them.  I can't wait to do the kitchen!

Abbey got sunglasses.  She is super cute.

Abbey made some messes. She's always pretty happy about them.

We enjoyed our lilacs in our yard.  I had fresh lilacs for nearly a month in my kitchen.  It was delightful.

We visited Bear Lake over Memorial Day.  It was SUPER cold. This was Abbey's first trip out to the water.  It was short.  This was also J.J.'s last trip to Bear Lake.  He loved Bear Lake.  More about him later.

Grandpa tore a tendon or something in his arm a while ago (perhaps years ago?) and so now when he flexes it's like Popeye's muscle. This is just random and funny to me.

Abbey's been working hard on growing her hair out :)

She finally has enough for piggies!

She is not as excited as I am about it.

She spent a lot of time just being beautiful.  She crawled backwards for about a month and a half before she figured out forwards. (Forwards just happened about 2 weeks ago.)

Abbey started giving kisses.  She is more generous with them towards her teddy bears and her reflection. 

We went to Park City for Zach's birthday and our anniversary.  The hotel we stayed at had a wonderful indoor pool so we took Abbey swimming for the first time.  She looks grumpy here, but actually she really loved it.  She just kicked her legs the whole time trying to make herself bounce.  To. Cute.

It was so nice to get away.  We love staying in hotels. It's wonderful to have maid service and room service.  It was such a treat!  Look how happy it made me :)

This is quite sad.  J.J. got to be too much for our little family to deal with.  We just felt like he wasn't a great fit anymore.  It was a really hard decision to make but we decided to find him a new home, a new family to love him.  But when we took him in to get his shots our vet said that he really isn't the ideal family dog.  She said that J.J. would bite someone one day and that he had no fear.  She recommended that he be euthanized.   It was a really hard thing to do, but we would have felt awful if Abbey or anyone else was hurt.  These shots are of J.J. on his last morning with us.  He rested for most of the morning, but before we left he got to play in the hose in the back yard which was his favorite thing in the world.  Then on our way to the vet we stopped at Arby's so he could have a roast beef sandwich all to himself.  And that's all I have to say about that.  We miss him.

The next day we went to Bear Lake with our friends the Peterson's.  It was just what we needed, we had a marvelous time.

Zach taught us how to play Kubb (pronounced [kʉb).  It is a cross between bowling and horseshoes.  It was a lot of fun!

But it started to drag a little and Rachel and I started talking about throwing the game.  You can see how excited we are.  It really is a lot of fun, but I would suggest putting a time limit on it. 

Then we headed to the beach for some reading and golf.

My handsome hubby :) I'm so lucky.

Abbey was cute some more.

This is one of our favorite faces she makes. If you look at this face from above you can see that her lips come out past her nose.  It's very impressive.  This face is usually accompanied by a lot of spitting. 

She showed off some by pulling herself up on just about everything.

She loves having grandma around to read to her whenever she likes.  She loves her books with babies in them. 

It was a beautiful day that Saturday so some more friends, the Hamatake's, joined us for the day. 

There was both digging and throwing of sand and water.  It made for good times.

I love Fox's little swim trunks.  He thought it was hilarious to collect and throw water on his mom.

So darling. Dad and son.

Harper kept trying to tidy up the beach.  She kept pushing sand back in the hole saying "it's a mess."

Then there was break to rest and get warmed up.

So cute!

The next day we took Abbey down to wade in the water and check out the sand.  She didn't seem to care that the water was so cold (in the 40's!) and wanted to dive in.

She had her first slow and short ride on the 4-wheeler. 

And then we came home.  So happy to be home.  This is Abbey's squinty happy face.  She does it mostly in the morning at breakfast.  She looks like Genie from I dream of Genie because she nods her head and blinks.  It's so funny.

 This week we had mom and tot swim lessons.  She had them with her best friend Emerie and cousin Bronson.  It was so much fun!  She learned to blow bubbles, hang on the side of the pool, sit on the edge and jump in, and she tried really hard to pull herself up and out of the pool.  We tried to teach her to spit out the water but after the first day at the pool the only time she has decided to spit has been at breakfast. Yay me.  Abbey loves swimming.  As soon as her feet hit the water she grins from ear to ear.  I'm so glad she loves it and isn't afraid :)

And now we are pretty much beat and it's only July!  

We hope you are having as much fun as we are :)

xoxo, 

the Gibson's