Whoa- where has summer gone?

We've had almost two months of summer and I've posted once- WHAT IS THE DEAL? The funniest thing to me about it is that I really haven't been that busy, but when I get into the summer groove (or lack thereof), I don't do much. Anyway here's the synopsis of the summer:

May: Chad found out on the 18th that he was needed to play in the Tuacahn orchestra for the summer- rehersals started on the 19th. I was slightly bummed because we had some travel plans that had to be postponed indefinately, but it has turned out ok. School ended on the 22nd! The last couple of months are always so busy and stressful, but I'm always sad when it ends. My mom and grandparents were able to come down for a quick visit (22nd- 24th). It was really nice to be able to host my family at our home. That is one thing we absolutely LOVE about our home- hosting! We left on the 24th for a trip to Las Vegas and So. Cal. We enjoyed a BBQ at Doug and Kay's home with all of Chad's brothers and their families! It was very nice! On our way out of Vegas (Memorial Day), we hit some MAJOR traffic a little south of Vegas at the Primm exit (mental note: don't travel south out of Vegas on a holiday weekend). Well, being in a manual car, Chad's left foot was killing him with all the stop and go traffic, so we stopped and wasted some time at the factory stores there (I totally didn't mind!)! While we were there, we RANDOMLY ran into my cousin David- awesome- didn't know he even worked there! It was FANTASTIC! We eventually got back on our way to L.A. We then spent 3 days at Disneyland! We met up with one of Chad's fellow workers @ Tuacahn and his sister while we were there and had a BLAST- they were a lot of fun! I also made Chad take me to the beach! It was wonderful! We spent a few hours on the beach and then drove up to the Newport Beach Temple. It was very relaxing!

June: Chad Resumed rehersals for Footloose when we returned from our vacation and I had a few conferences to attend- one in St. George and one in Las Vegas. Both were fantastic and really helped the time fly by for the first few weeks of summer. We headed to Vegas for a Father's Day and Max's birthday BBQ. The last part of June was VERY uneventful and VERY boring. We left on the 27th for a week-long trip to Salt Lake to visit my family. We took Hayley's two oldest kiddos with us. We had a blast! We were basically non-stop for 8 days! We were able to:

-go to Kangaroo Zoo (indoor blow up slides and such)
-visit the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (via an open house)
-visit Discovery Gateway and play in the Olympic Fountain
-shop at some fantastic stores :) including IKEA- LOVE IT!
-go to Chuck E. Cheese (which I was wary of because I remember them behing super ghetto, but it was SO enjoyable!)
-go to Jungle Jim's (an indoor amusement children's park- kinda ghetto, but super fun- adults ride for free if they can fit on the rides)
-attend the birthday party for Darek who is now one- and TOTALLY adorable (but I'm not biased)
-go to Hogle Zoo with family and our great friends David and Veancha!
-watch fireworks at the annual Eaglewood Golf Course 3rd of July celebration (hadn't been in 4 years- good times)
-fly in dad's plane with Dad, David, Veancha, and Mallory (Chad got to take off! So cool)
-watch some freaking awesome Cake Boss totally obsessed) and some random (awesome) Japanese Reality show with Americans on it (help me out Mandi).
-play with fireworks and eat good food on the 4th of July
-relax

The trip lasted from June 27th-July 6th and it was fantastic! We had hoped to do some more "adult-ish" things, but with nieces and nephews around, it was a bit difficult. Everything was well worth it! Oh, and Chad made a friend- Truman- the 18month old that Mandi babysits! It was adorable!

July: We got home on the 6th and decided that it was time to have a Harry Potter party. We got a new TV (flatscreen, beautiful) and have gotten a bunch of BluRay DVDs since Christmas- including the first 5 Harry Potters. We had slowly been watching them and invited our friends, The Rowley's and their kids to come over for dinner and watch the 5th Harry Potter. Colby and Stephanie had also been planning on coming up to see Footloose, so they came, as well as Kendall- a friend of Chad's from his Greenshow days. We made lots of food and treats and had a great time watching the movie and playing the Wii! I also found out that my home wasn't completely baby-proofed- although I did do a good job. The only thing I forgot about was the fridge, but Ryan helped me take the things off that he shouldn't be able to reach! We had an unexpected, enjoyable visit with Chad's parents. We went out to Springdale and had lunch at Oscar's and had a great time chatting with them. We met up with them again at Grandma Baker's home for dinner and the whole crew (minus Thomas, Baylee, and Jax) headed to Tuacahn to see Fooloose. Colby and Stephanie stayed with their kids until Monday (the 13th) and we had a really enjoyable time with them- as always. We visited the St. George Temple Visitor Center (a first for Chad and me) and it was very uplifitng and inspiring. Max and his friend Jessenia have been visiting since Thursday (the 16th) and will stay until Monday (the 20th). They are all at the play tonight, so I had time to catch up- and I think I'll try putting together a slideshow of our summer stuff! It has been very fun to have family around so much this summer and build friendships with people in our ward.

Chad and I are gearing up for another school year already. We are less than a month away from school- we start on August 13th. Chad goes back for meetings beginning on the 10th, and I have meetings beginning on the 5th. As short as the summer has seemed, I am excited to get back into my groove, it'll be a new groove, but every year is! I'll be the department head this year as well as the advisor for the Student Council. I'm very excited! It will be a fun year!