Summer Fun!

Jarred and I have had a great summer so far!  Here are a few of the highlights:

We went to Bear World with Jarred's family in June.  We had a blast with the kiddos as they rode the rides, played at the petting zoo, and fed the bears!  One bear even figured out how to open one of the car doors!  Jackson didn't really like the rides and either cried or didn't care.  Hopefully that changes in a year when we head to Disneyland.

We bought a new car!  Well, new to us.  We bought a 2005 Buick Terraza.  Yes, it is a minivan.  No, we are not pregnant.  Even though it is a minivan, I really do love it.  It drives very smoothly and has tons of space.  We also had the great joy of buying this vehicle off of EBay!  The van was located just outside of Memphis, Tennessee and we decided to have Jarred and his dad fly out there and drive it back rather than ship it to Rexburg.  This wasn't the first choice because apparently shipping companies don't want our business even when they say they do.  Oh well, water under the bridge now. Jarred had quite the adventure getting this car.  He ended up driving to Salt Lake, flying to Phoenix, flying to Charlotte, and then flying to Memphis.  It literally took him all day to get from Salt Lake to Memphis.  However, it was worth it because we saved mega $$$!  He made it back in one piece just in time for July 4th fireworks!

This summer was also Jackson's first "real" July 4th celebration.  Last year he was only a few months old and we didn't do anything, probably due to sleep deprivation.  We bought a bike trailer about a month ago, so I loaded Jackson in it and we saw some of the parade.  He loved any of the big trucks that went by and kept pointing to them with a big smile.  Then we had lunch in the park and checked out all the vendors and tents set up.  Later that night we had a BBQ with Ashley, Andy and their kids.  Afterwards we let the kids throw some "Snaps" on the ground before we started the "big" show.  Jackson loved to throw them, but he usually didn't throw them hard enough because half of them didn't pop on the ground.  Oh well, he still loved it.  Then we lit off our fountains that we had purchased.  The kids loved them, even when they didn't really work.  Jackson kept saying "Ohhh!!!"  Super cute!

We recently had a lot of fun with my family at our first official Karlsven Family Reunion.  My family is just starting to get big enough to do our own reunions.  We ended up renting a couple cabins in Island Park (about half an hour south of Yellowstone).  We had fun riding four wheelers, riding our bikes, site seeing at Yellowstone, and singing/chatting around the campfire.  Speaking of campfires, if you haven't tried s'mores with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, you simply haven't lived!  Try it, seriously!  Anyways, Jackson loved riding on the four wheelers with us.  We went super slow and held onto him really tight, and he just loved it!  He also loved the dirt and playing outside.  He even wanted to play outside when it was raining.  Crazy kid!

The most recent adventure was a Bookstore conference Jarred went to and I tagged along.  Our families watched Jackson and we had fun at the Zermatt Resort in Midway.  I didn't plan on going to the conference classes that Jarred went to, but I actually found them to be really entertaining and interesting.  We just enjoyed the classes, the good food, and being child free for a couple nights.  It felt so good to sleep in past 6:15am.  It was glorious!

Jackson also loves playing at the Rexburg Splash Pad and being a little cutie.  Hopefully we keep having fun like this all year round!