July

 July was a very fun month filled with lots of exciting firsts!


At the beginning of the month Mia turned 12.  She is so much fun to celebrate!  We started off the day having crepes for breakfast.  

Then presents! Ripley was very helpful.  

Her big present was a new minky blanket.  She was very excited.  

She wanted to go shopping for her birthday so we headed to the mall.  It was lots of fun.  

Then we had dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe.  

Finally, we ended the night by seeing Toy Story 5.  It was a great day. 

Ripley is subtle about who her favorite is. 

Alex usually mows the back yard and it isn't always up to Brandon's standards.  Brandon was pointing out some of the spots Alex missed so Alex got some clippers to take care of them.  

Mia tried sleeping in sock curls.  It made her hair very curly in the morning! 

Ripley is the most cuddly dog!

Alex has dabbled in fishing a bit more in the past month.  

Just casually putting away the garbage cans. 

Mia wanted to try out the dot cake trend.  They turned out great and she did most of it herself.  

Cousins. 

For her birthday Mia wanted some fancy cookies from the cookie lady.  We ordered them a little late but she got them a little bit after her birthday.  She wanted a Jelly Cat theme. They turned out super cute and were delicious as always! 

We had a great 4th of July this year.  For the first time in many years we didn't host a 4th of July breakfast in front of our house. It was nice to sleep in a bit! We still celebrated Grandma's birthday and ate lots of food! 

We ended the night with fireworks. 

Finally we had Mia's family party.  This year she didn't a theme. She just wanted a color scheme. It was pink, yellow and teal.  She wanted Brandon to make a cake without fondant since she doesn't really like fondant. Brandon was happy to do less work.  Her cake still turned out very cute! 

It was a great party!

The next day it was time to head to dance Nationals in San Diego.  Brandon, Mia and I went and left Alex and Ripley home to fend for themselves.  

We wanted to make sure Alex took time to eat and take care of himself so we made him send us pictures of his food.  This was the first night.  He told us he included Ripley in the picture was we knew it wasn't AI.  

The week was jammed packed with dance but we had a few short moments to do some tourist things.  We happened to be in town during the San Diego temple open house after it was remodled we decided to go see it.  It was beautiful and so fun to see. 

First up was her solo.  

More proof of dinner!

This was the best Mia has performed her solo.  She did amazing! 

She ended up getting a Platinum ranking! It was a great way to end this solo.  

She had tons of classes over the week.

She also snuck in a little time with friends.  One day they had about an hour to swim. 

One night they had a "Hollywood Hoedown." It was mostly an insane party that was very crowded and crazy.  Mia had a great time.  

More classes and more eating on the floor. 

More dinner proof, although this picture doesn't really prove anything. 

I didn't get a picture in her Born to Lead costume but that dance did really well.  They got the highest ranking, "That's a Wrap" and got an overall ranking. Mia was the only one from her dance that went to the awards ceremony so she got to accept the award.  

Last day of classes.  

Classes ended in the morning so we let Mia choose how she wanted to spend the rest of the day.  She wanted to go to Sea World.  Half a day was the perfect amount of time to see it.  

The drone show at night was pretty cool. 

On Saturday they performed their last two dances. Nocnitsa and The Real Housewives of Synergy.  I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of her in that costume. 

Finally, Saturday was time for the Galla.  It was an extravagant ending show.  I thought it was really well done and Mia loved having something to dress up for.  

The day after we got back from Dance Nationals we headed to Young Women's and Young Men's camp.  They were doing them at the same time at campgrounds pretty close to each other.  We went to Flaming Gorge.  I have never been before and thought was beautiful.  Mia and I had to go a little late so she could make it to some dance during the week.  Alex, Mia and I all left early the last night and we were all sad to leave early.  We all had a great time.  

I have lots of pictures from the girls camp.  It was so fun to be there with Mia for her first time. 

Mia doesn't get to go to Young Women's activities during the week because of dance so I was nervous that she wouldn't quite fit in.  However all the girls were very sweet and she had a ton of fun!

We went river rafting one day.  The boys did it on a different day. 

I took a picture of Mia's tent while we were packing her up to leave a little early.  We had to laugh at her friends bed compared to everyone else's. 

We got to see Alex a little bit here and there.  We at a lunch together at the lake one day. 

Next up for the summer was Mikah's farewell.  He is headed to El Salvador.  He did a great job on his talk.  We will miss him! 

We finally made it to a Bee's game even though it is only 10 minutes from our house.  It was a very hot day but a lot of fun.  The new stadium is nice! 

At the end of the month Mia headed off to Oakcrest with her friend Zoey.  I was impressed at how  not nervous Mia was even though this was her first time really away from us for more than one night.  She was just excited and had a great time.  This was the before picture...

This was the after when I picked her up.  I was so relieved she had a great time. 

Ripley really missed her. 

A few more pictures.  Her counselor was in our Stake and Mia adored her.  

It was a great and tiring month!