WINNING THE PRETTIEST IN NATURE AWARD

There are certain things that when you live in Utah you plan to do one day, but you never get around to them. Then when you finally do, you are like: Seriously? That was amazing and it is right in my backyard! Heading up Little Cottonwood canyon to see the wildflowers in Albion Basin is one of those things.

So we couldn't get up to the actual basin because there were too many cars, but we hiked around Alta and it was insane! I couldn't believe how beautiful all these natural flowers were. They were just doing their thing and blooming prettily and it was amazing. It just got prettier and prettier as we climbed higher up and I wanted to keep going especially when there were reports of a moose up ahead. Unfortunately, we got there a bit later than I had hoped so we had to head down before I was really done enjoying it. But next year I am going to be sure to make it up again to enjoy all the prettiness. This hike was on July 15.

SPARKLE

This year we had the always wonderful pleasure of a summer visit from the Douglas family. They stayed with us for a week right at the beginning of July. They had plans to drive home the night of the 4th so we decided to do fireworks on the 3rd. You can't light your own fireworks in California so it was a fun treat for the kids. However, since they go to Disneyland all the time, they have seen their fair share of explosions in the sky.

When we did sparklers it was a perfect opportunity to play with my new camera in the dark and see how it did, and I was so focused on the lighting and exposure that the composition suffered. However, there were still a few winners in the bunch.

On the actual 4th of July we got up early for the neighborhood breakfast and parade. This isn't my favorite tradition because my love of breakfast food is not greater than my love of sleeping in. But Stella loves it so we go. There were a couple of really cute pictures from the parade that I didn't post on Instagram.

That night we played it cool and watched our neighbor's fireworks. It was a quiet day, I had to recuperate from an insane migraine the night before so we just hung out. None of the Evans crew was around so I thought about going to a park, but after the fun with the Douglases the night before and some suspicious clouds I decided to stay in and it worked out great. Oh Summer Fun, I already miss you!