July

July's been a busy month for us, and as I haven't had a chance to blog in awhile I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with everything I wanted to write about! So I decided to simplify and not worry about including everything. There will, however, be several pictures, which for some reason aren't uploading well and look super pixel-y right now.

1. Fitt family reunion! This is for my Grandpa, all his brothers, and all their descendents.

Our side of the family all wore matching red t-shirts.

Even Livvy had a little mini t-shirt

It was a lot of fun to visit with everyone, but this next picture is an unfortunately accurate depiction of the trip.

(She really did have fun...but she had to be told NO an awful lot, and being out of her routine and all made for a tired baby--and mommy.)

This next picture I love. Here's Livia thorougly enjoying her great-uncle David.

Playing with her Great-Grandma. My Grandpa Fitt is there in the back, with the camera.

Some highlights of the reunion include old family videos (the really old kind, with no sound), 3 live snakes being brought into the area by some distant cousins of mine, one blissful nap under a tree taken by Livia, and a rattlesnake that was caught, killed, cooked, and subsequently eaten by almost everyone there--including myself! Yes folks, I ate a wild rattlesnake. Not bad...but not all that great either.

2. Two days after I got back from my trip, my little brother and sister came to stay with me for a week! Livia was in absolute heaven, and was so excited when she woke up each morning and they were still here! I always think it must be strange as a baby: to often wake up in new places, to never really know where you are, where you're going, why you're in a car for 6+ hours, and whether or not a person is going to be there for any length of time. I guess that's why so many have separation anxiety: their parents are the only real thing they can count on!

Anyway, we had a great time together, going to parks, the zoo, and swimming. Here's Livia enjoying her first frosty from Wendy's. Once she got one sip of it, she seriously would not let go of the straw until she had finished every last drop!

Here's Emily and David at a park near our home.

We went to a cute little zoo and children's museum that they all really enjoyed

We don't have tons of room in our apartment, so they got to sleep on an air mattress in our living room.

Wait, what's that you say? There are THREE people in that bed?? Yup. Chase got to enjoy some good reading time with his brother and sister-in-law.

We had so much fun with Emily and David, and hope they'll come visit us again sometime in the future! Livia sure misses having people in the house who have as much energy as she does.

3. I had a birthday, shout hooray! My main present was going to a Coldplay concert with Chase, which was a lot of fun. We planned on going out to dinner on my actual birthday with Emily and David, but as we walked up to the restaurant three different fire engines and several ambulances came screaming past us. Seriously? Our restaurant was on fire! We watched for awhile as they put out the fire, and though there wasn't any serious damage, we decided not to wait until they started seating people again, and got dinner at a little soup and sandwich place across the street. Not quite what I had hoped for, but it was still fun to be with family. My mom's so sweet though: when she heard what had happened she sent me a gift card to the restaurant so that Chase and I can go back sometime and try again.

Here are a few more pictures from my Utah trip:

The Oquirrh mountain temple. We went through the open house, and it was simply gorgeous!

Austin helping Livia strum his guitar.

Just loungin'

Livia and my sister Laura

Well, that about covers it! Sometime soon I'll have to post a video of Livia "singing" songs. She can make the hand motions to three different songs, and though she's a little camera shy and hasn't yet done them all for the video camera, I'm going to keep trying. It is so cute!