let's talk about july

July was a busy month, friends.  And it shows in my [lack of] blogging.

Let's try to catch up.

It started out with a trip to my grandma's in CA, like it does almost every year.  It works out really nicely that Tim's work has a division about 40 minutes away from her house, which means we can go there and not use up as many vacation days.  Which can also be known as Katie-got-a-vacation while Tim-still-worked-his-butt-off-and-had-to-drive-an-extra-forty-minutes.  But let it be known that Tim did get a couple of vacation days, too, lest the pitchforks start flying.

Ellie and I loved the chance to spend time with my grandma and my aunt.  It's high up on our list of "favorite life activities."  And then, a few days later, the rest of my family showed up, so then we were really high up on our list of "favorite life activities."

Behold our Fourth of July celebrations:

 Ellie with my Uncle Paul.

Poor Tim.  Probably in the middle of saying something like, "Be happy, Ellie!" as she was obviously not listening. 

 Ellie with her Uncle Jeff.

 I swear, the biggest reaction I've gotten out of our family pictures is how tall my brother, Eric, has gotten.  It's true, friends, he's freakishly tall.  [Especially compared to the rest of us.]

My Aunt Ginny and my dad!  Siblings!

Can you believe that's actually a fairly small percentage of the pictures I took that day?

Don't worry, I have more.

We also went out to eat a lot that trip.  Like we do every trip.

Mexican food the first night.  Of course.

And then Red Robin.  [Of course.]

I have about a million more from that trip, but I'll leave you with these two of Ellie:

 Jewelry fun with grandma.

And fountain fun.  [She couldn't keep away.]

As soon as we got home to UT, Tim's parents and his niece came to stay with us!  And basically, Ellie loooved having a few more people to cuddle with.

We had a few fun day trips to Golden Spike, a museum, the tabernacle, and some cute shops.

Tim and I even got to go to the movies for the first time since before Ellie was born:

And visit Tim's grandparents' graves:

We love having the Devey grandparents visit!

Tim, Ellie, and I had a fun SLC day trip:

Ellie and I visited the SLC LDS temple grounds while Tim was at a work meeting. 

And then we all ate out and went for a walk:

And THEN there was Tim's surgery [I know, this is turning into the most annoying post ever]:

Ellie and I just hung out at the hospital during his surgery (which went really well, as far as we can tell), and I was almost disappointed when he woke up pretty coherent.  I need me a viral youtube video, dang it, Tim!

Here's what his knee looks like now, for your viewing pleasure.  Yep, he'll be on crutches for a few more weeks.

And FINALLY [before you get entirely sick of me], Ellie swimming lessons:

Ellie with her cute friend, Ashlyn.  My friends and I decided to put our kids in at the same time so we could do the Mom and Tots class together.  Way more fun that way!

"Mom, seriously?  A piece of paper?!"

Let's see, how can I nutshell this?  Ellie was pretty happy in the water!  As long as she was in the shallow end...with toys...and I didn't make her do...anything.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty great month!

Thanks for reading :)