We went boating yesterday and Grandma Hale brought some yummy chocolate chip cookes. Emma got one and just dug the chocolate out of the cookie. I caught her in the act in the middle of the seats in her Grampa Craig's van!

We had the Hale Family Reunion over the weekend. It was so much fun! We went camping and had lots of fun at 5 Buck Pizza, bowling, bullfrog racing, and just visiting with Aaron's Hale family. We always love spending time with the Hale family!

Emma loved the bullfrogs so much that she had to give this one a hug before putting it back into the bucket.

Emma loved camping. Here she is posing on a rock!

Part of the reunion involved bowling. Aaron was nice enough to let Emma help him with his game. And their score was better than mine!

As part of the family reunion, we went to Five Buck Pizza in Brigham City (which Aaron's Uncle Bob owns). Anytime there is a family gathering here, Bob makes funny signs. (see above and below!)

Looks like Grandpa Hale gets a free pizza!

Bob was kind enough to show everyone how the dough was made, and taught us how to throw the pizza dough up in the air like real pizza makers. Looks like Aaron didn't catch his dough and Grandma was in the wrong place at the wrong time! (She's such a good sport!)

During one part of the Hale Family Reunion, we had bullfrog races. Emma and Aaron were on a team representing Craig's family and their bullfrog won its race!

Emma really liked her gigantic bullfrog. I guess this is the first time she has seen a bullfrog. Of course she has played with tree frogs in Tennessee, but nothing like this!

She finally decided that she liked it so much, that Grace would love it, too. She was so nice to show the frog to baby Grace!

Emma is having so much fun on the mini tire swing!

When we left Tennessee in late June to come back home, Papa loaded us up with tomatoes from his garden. He and I carefully selected the tomatoes that were not quite ripe yet so that we could still enjoy his garden tomatoes. We had eaten all but the largest, most perfect for slicing, prettiest tomato that Papa had sent home with us. I had gone to Costco and gotten a large box of diapers for Emma and just left them in the kitchen while I unloaded the rest of our stuff from the car. When I came back in, this is what I saw. Emma had pushed the diaper box up to the counter and got the last tomato and was eating it like an apple. Oh well, at least one of us got to enjoy it!

This is Emma's dress that she will be wearing for Sampson and Brittany's wedding pictures. She had so much fun trying it on and dancing around! I thought that she looked so sweet in it.

LAS VEGAS!

I have never been to Vegas before. So, considering it is only about a 5 hour drive from Provo, Aaron decided that we would take a little trip! He got us tickets to see the show "O" performed by Cirque du Soliel, which was absolutely amazing! It was in a theatre in the Belagio hotel/casino. If you have never been to Vegas before, I suggest you don't go into the Belagio first. No other hotel/casino that we saw compared to how nice the Belagio is. This is the famous fountain located in front of the Belagio that synchronizes music and water acrobatics. (Ever seen Oceans 11?) We had a good time while we were there, but it was actually kinda nice to come back home.

I guess that since Las Vegas has become somewhat of a tourist attraction, they started to realize the value of non-casino type attractions. There is an M&M World which is several floors of everything M&M. It was cool to see, and we even bought a few bags of M&M's. Right next door to that is the Coca Cola store, which is only 2 floors, but was pretty cool to see as well.

This is Emma and me sitting on the lap of the coke bear in the Coca Cola store.

We walked around and saw several really neat hotels/casinos. This one is New York New York. If you look closely, you can see the roller coaster track winding through the "city."

Here are Emma and Brittany (Sampson's fiancee) in an "alpaca items" store.

Emma is hugging a display of alpaca fur (do they have fur?!?) teddy bears.

This is Emma on a Sunday morning in a dress that her BB got for her. She loves having her picture taken in her Sunday dresses!

Here is another picture of Emma in her polka dot dress.

Well, for those of you who look at my blog and have been waiting for me to post new pictures, I am over whelming you with them now! We decided to stay in Utah for the 4th of July this year. We knew that it would most likely be our last one for a little while, so we wanted to make the most of it. Provo always has a very large parade in the morning of the 4th, so we went to that. Russell, Sampson and Brittany joined us there. Then, we went back home and had a cookout with them as well. Provo also has a Freedom Festival with the downtown area full of different vendors with food, crafts and other fun stuff, and we went to that. At the end of the day, we went to the Stadium of Fire which is a Freedom celebration at the BYU football stadium. It is a really neat celebration with a military tribute, a concert, and a great fireworks display. If you are ever in Provo around the 4th, you should try to go to that. It is a very memorable show. Here is a picture of Emma that just melts my heart! She had such a big day. It was so hot, and we were sitting in the stadium with the sun in our faces for almost an hour. She was such a little trooper!

I have never been able to picture Emma as a five or six year old-I just couldn't imagine what she would look like at that age, but I think that this picture has done it for me. She looks like a big kid here, and I can just see her Kindergarten picture looking something like this!

This is a picture of Emma and I at the BYU Stadium of Fire Fourth of July celebration. There was a great tribute to the people serving in all of the different branches of military, a concert and a huge fireworks show. They gave everyone flags (Emma is holding ours) to wave at certain parts of the celebration. It was very moving and I got quite emotional a few times!

We decided that Emma would love to go to the Provo 4th of July parade. Russell, Sampson and Brittany came and shared a blanket with us for the two and a half hour ordeal! It was so hot, but we were able to snag a spot in the shade.

We got lucky and found a spot near the end of the parade route in the shade. People reserve their spots days in advance for this parade. Two or three days before the parade even started, there were chairs and blankets lining the streets of Provo. We were really lucky (and excited) to get this spot!

Here is a picture of Emma chowing down on a piece of dried mango during the parade.

Here is Governor Huntsman and his wife. They walked in the parade.

The main performers at Stadium of Fire were Brooks and Dunn. If you don't know, they are country music singers. They put on a great show! Here I am in front of one of their many tractor trailers!

Emma was so tired by the time the fireworks started, that she fell asleep half way through the firework show! It was kind of sad that she didn't get to see it all because all day long she kept saying "fireworks?"

I got a new camera for my birthday that has a really neat firework setting to take pictures of fireworks. So, here is a picture of some from the Stadium of Fire.

We spent last weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Hale's house. They have a beautiful garden in their backyard that is full of raspberry bushes. Emma loved to pick the raspberries, but she wouldn't eat them!

Here is Emma having a rest on Grandpa Hale's hammock. Her eyes are so blue here!

I know, I know. I haven't posted anything in quite some time now. Almost 2 months, I guess. We have been so busy though. In June, my mom and sister came out to visit, and then Emma and I went to Tennessee for a week, and then Aaron came out as well, and we stayed another week and a half. We were very busy there, taking pictures for my dad's new nursery catalog and entertaining Emma. Keep watching for the pictures of Emma in Tennessee. I promise that I will post them soon!

Lately Emma has a thing for cooking. When I cook supper, she always wants me to pick her up and show her what I am making. One day, after her nap (hence the crazy hair) I found her in the kitchen making this creation. When I asked her what she was doing, she said that she was cooking. Notice the contents of the bowl: popcorn, animal crackers, my Sam's Club card and lots of salt and pepper!

Sometimes Emma will just walk up to me and say "pitcher?" and then go strike a pose somewhere. I guess she is modeling her new pajamas in this picture!