The long lost blogger has been found

I want to apologize for not blogging for so long. I have checked up on a few blogs, but I haven't taken the time to post, I've been too busy enjoying my summer I guess! I want to thank all of you who have on your blog how recently your contacts have updated...it helped motivate me, the one month mark was a pretty sad sight!

July 24th- The Allred Family Reunion
What a great time in Flaming Gorge.(sorry no pics) Our first day Hailee did pretty good on the trip out-until the last hour. After the rainstorm we all rafted down the green river, a nice relaxing trip, I haven't been rafting for awhile, so it was fun. Then the rest of the weekend was spent with family sharing stories, eating great food, trying to avoid the afternoon rainstorms and just vacationing. Too bad Hailee isn't that fond of camping-I mostly feel bad for Jeremy, Taryn, Dustin and Nathan who I'm sure were annoyed by Hailee's frequent wake ups! Thanks Karol for planning a great reunion. My family never did long reunions like that (that I remember) so I love having family reunions!

August 6-8 Girls Camp
What a different experience to go as a leader rather than a girl! Thanks to all my leaders who put up with me back in the day! Really it wasn't all that bad, but it was a lot of work! Thank you Emily G-the bestest camp director ever- she made it wonderful! We went back to Flaming Gorge and camped on the beach near Manila. Our tent was 15 ft from the water-how relaxing to fall asleep to the waves! The girls spent most of the week in the water. We had plenty of food. On Friday we rafted the river-two trips in two weeks-fun stuff! We had afternoon rainstorms everyday, but I don't think it made it any less fun for the girls, they seemed to have a great time. We had a great turn out-15 girls, the most ever attending a YW function-that I've been in charge of!

Aug 11-12 Hall Family Reunion
I'm really glad that Reed and Nadine have decided to have a family reunion, I think it had been a great tradition. We a great time. On Tuesday we went on a "short" hike to coldwater lake...a lake that only Reed found. A hotdog roast at a nearby park. A luau with games and prizes for all. On Wed we went up the canyon and shot 22's and shotguns, with a picnic afterwards. I haven't been shooting much, and I didn't do that great, but I had a great time. That evening we went to Willow Park zoo where Hailee practiced hopping like a Wallaby-it was so cute! She crouched down, grabbed her pants and tried to hop, but really just stood up, it was so funny! Then we had a great dutch oven dinner made by 'Grandpa Hall'
Hailee loved Grandma and Grandpa's new swing set, and of course she fed the cows with Grandpa every morning!

Aug 13-16 Hall (extended) Family Reunion
We just staying in Logan on Thursday and headed up to Bear Lake that afternoon for the next reunion. We actually stayed up a canyon in Paris and spent just one day at the Lake, but what a great reunion. Jessica & Blake did an amazing job of planning and executing this massive family reunion. We went to Bloomington lake for the Polar Bear Plunge-which was amazingly quite warm. I even jumped off the rope swing! Reed told some great stories about Grandma and Grandpa Great and their kids around the campfire. Hailee slept through the night the first night!!!! On Friday we headed to the lake, it was a windy day, but it was still fun. I have never ridden a wave runner, so I tried that out with Mindy. We tipped once and couldn't get back on until Stephen came a saved us in his boat, after that, I gave up and drove back to shore-I think I bruised my ribs trying to climb on so many time! Hailee loved the water. Heath held her hand and she waded out until the waves hit her neck, then she turned around and said "G-ma" and walked back toward the shore. She was constantly shivering from the cold, but didn't understand that it was the water making her that way, because she cried when we took her away from it. Then we took her for a boat ride, she had a pretty sea sick look on her face most of the time. She never cried, but I'm not sure that she enjoyed it too much. BUT she hadn't ever signed boat until after that trip, so something good came from it!
Saturday was the "BIG" day...Heath left Friday night so he could catch a flight to Denver. He got invited to the Denver Broncos game on Saturday-who can pass that up? Hailee and I stayed at the reunion and had a great time. Most of the extended family was there and for good reason. We had fun games and great food, what a great way to celebrate G-ma and G-pa Great's 60th anniversary.
There was a ball pit, which Hailee absolutely HATED until her cousin Dustin showed up, then she kept walking over to it and wanting in. There was a fishing pond for prizes, a tug-o-war with all different kinds of teams some honest, some not so much., and there was the MONEY PIT! Hailee loved the sawdust, she found money and threw it back in, I managed to keep 55 cents of it. The adult contest was gonna be a small crowd until word spread that Uncle Jerry put in a $100 bill. After that I barely had any room to look, I was smashed between a bunch of greedy boys! I came away with the $10 bill-the next biggest, about 14 dollars total- so not too shabby. After that week of reunions Hailee came home and slept!
Highlight of the trip: Flat tire at Bear Lake-so we drove to Montpiliar and bought 4 new tires-it needed to be done, we just were planning on doing it this fall, rather than in the middle of the reunion!

Aug 28
My 25th birthday! I convinced Reed and Nadine to stay for dinner on Wednesday to celebrate my birthday. I made tiny spicy chicken and chocolate cake- who would refuse! Then I sent Heath and Reed to Lowes and had them hang some sheet rock in my basement to get me more ready for preschool-thank you sooooo much! My birthday was a pretty simple day. My neighbors took me to lunch and I shopped for chairs and preschool stuff at IKEA-what a fun big store.
Heath brought my home a huge bag of Reese's-yummy. My real present is coming this weekend. Heath and I are spending the night in Midway and shopping the outlets on Saturday. I've never been to the outlets-so I am excited for this shopping trip-too bad i'm inbetween sizes so I don't know what end to buy for-I guess a little of each! and some for Hailee too! She gets to spend the night at Grandma Gardner's while I go play! Thanks Grandma!

Aug 30 Labor Day weekend
We ended the summer camping season by camping at White Rocks out by Roosevelt. It was nice to be able to visit Grandma Allred for awhile and to just relax in the great outdoors. Hailee loved the dirt and just wandering around. We went on a walk/hike and she loved getting down and choosing her own path! She was covered in dirt and happy as can be...until the sun went down and we closed her in a tent! It was still fun to go camping at one of Heath's favorite childhood campgrounds. Maybe one day she'll learn to like a tent!

Sept 2 Preschool begins!
My first day of preschool went extremely well. I almost cried when at 8:45 I only had one student (we started at 8:30) but people just didn't realize what time it started. So after three days, I think it's going to be a lot of fun to have a preschool. It will be A TON of work, but I'm excited to be doing something that I've wanted to do for so long. I have a neighbor on either side of my with kids in my classes, so I love hearing feedback from them that their kids had a great time! One week down, and so far, so good! If anyone had cute arts and crafts or preschool ideas, I'm always open for suggestions! Anything to help improve the preschool!

Sept 4th DUDE!
Wow! I made it to today. With only the basic highlights of summer you can tell it's been busy and fun! I had a great summer and tried new things. Hailee has grown so much this summer. She is learning so many things and mimicking people all the time. Today she learned a new word. My neighbor Megan finished cutting Colby's hair and Hailee heard her say "Dude" then she repeated over and over again. I heard about it after preschool and asked her to say it-it sounds sooo cute. Her first slang word!
I'll try and be better about blogging, but I make no promises! It would be easier if I had internet during the day, but we're cheap-so I take what i can get-and that is what I give to you!
Oh yeah-an update on the pregnancy. I have felt really good, so it's hard to remember that I'm pregnant. Now that I'm four months my pants are starting to feel tight- I guess maternity clothes are coming sooner this time. I have a bit of a baby bump now. Hailee's nickname in the womb was "pickles", this babies nickname is "cricket". So I have felt cricket more a few times, mostly at night, but it's still a cool feeling! We find out if cricket is a girl or boy on Sept 19th, so we'll let you know soon. Heath is positive it is a girl. I'm not really sure, but I'm excited for either one!