July in the Pedersen Household

Warning: photo heavy post!

From mid-July through the end of the month was a crazy few weeks at our house. It was non-stop fun, and I can honestly say, "I am EXHAUSTED!" It's a good exhausted though. If you want to see any photo in this post larger and in more detail, just click on it.

As you know, I headed to Anaheim for the Close To My Heart National Convention on July 10 for about a week. It was so much fun! Being a part of a company that provides such a wonderful income, on top of fun and friendships (and did I mention fun?) is such an honor and privilege! Here are a few photos from that week of fun.

My crazy team in our matching pajamas (thanks Lynette for all that sewing. I love ya!):

Opening Session (Disney-liscious!):

My sweet friend, Amy and I:
My Monica and I (great taste in wardrobe, right? It was fun to see each other that day and see
how we unintentially dressed almost identically! lol)
Monica and her grand entrance at the opening session:

After Convention, it was home for a couple of weeks with Kori, Rick and Daci who came to visit from Chicago. Rick only got to stay for one week because he had to get back to work, but Kori and Daci got to stay for 2! I enjoyed every second of having them here. I wish Chicago weren't so far away! We are so excited for the twins to arrive. Kori is due on Feb. 2 so we are hoping to make it to January at least.

Kori and Rick. I'm so grateful that Kori made such a wise choice in her husband!
Rick's sister, Sophie competed in (and won) the Alpine Distinguished Young Women Program.
Kori was her back stage help. I was a "cheerleader" in the auditorium with the rest of the family.

The next day we had a cookout with Dan's sister, Cindy, her family and Dan's dad.
It was lots of fun. Daci was not a fan of the fireworks!

Easton came up for a day for a good friend's wedding and spent his free time
blowing bubbles and playing squirt guns with Daci.

Dan's friend, Jade Lyon (from South Dakota) was in Spanish Fork to compete in the rodeo (calf roping). We took everyone over to watch the preliminaries. Daci decided she liked rodeos!

I love my Dan-the-Man!
Here we are (Dan, Easton, me, Dawson and Daci--Kori is taking the picture) watching Jade.
As you can tell, we were pretty much the only ones there for the preliminary runs.
That night, at the 'real' rodeo was a whole different story. Tannon would have loved it!
Kori, Daci and I went down to stay with Easton and Daysha for a few days so we could watch Daysha perform in Grease and Little Mermaid at Tuachan. She was awesome! Here are Easton, Daci and I arriving for Grease. For a little girl who usually goes to bed around 7:30 pm, Daci did great at the shows (they start at 8:45 pm and run about 3 hours).

Easton, Daci and Kori by the show signs on the way into the theater.

Here are Kori and Daci (can you tell Daci is wiped out?) with
Daysha in her crazy Cha Cha costume after the Grease performance.
Night #2 at Tuachan for Little Mermaid. Daci loved it!

Here we are after Little Mermaid with Daysha (she was the orange mermaid sister, Arista.
I should have had Easton take this picture further away so you could see her mermaid costume).
After 3 fun days in Cedar City and St. George it was back to Springville for a few days before Kori and Daci had to fly back to Chicago. We had a 'send-off' cookout the night before they left. Easton was here again because another friend got married (I love it when his friends get married! He comes up for the wedding and we get to have him for a couple of days!). Unfortunatley, Daysha couldn't come because she had performances. Darn!

While we were all partying in Utah, Tannon continued to serve his 2 year mission in Spain. Here is a photo of him from last week with one of his favorite families in Spain, the Castos. They take good care of the missionaries and feed him at least once a week. We moms sure appreciate families like this who can love and take care of our boys while they are away on their missions and we can't!

Kori and Daci flew home a couple of days ago and life is just about back to normal around here; just Dan, Dawson and I doing our normal, every day routine. I think I miss the chaos!