A Little Bit of July

July started off with having lunch with a dear old friend from medical school, Elena Daniels.  She was in town visiting her extended family, and she contacted me to see if I was available to get together.  I'm so glad I was!  We enjoyed chatting and catching up while having yummy salads at Cubby's.  I wish I had thought to take a picture with her.  

The 4th of July weekend was fun in Provo.  We walked a couple miles down (and back) to the Freedom Festival balloon launch.  Good exercise with a fun reward!  Definitely will become an annual thing for us. The balloons didn't ever launch that morning due to some threatening thunderclouds.  Maybe next year we will add in the parade too.  Later that night we watched the Stadium of Fire's fireworks from Sertoma Park which is in our neighborhood.  Some neighbors also set off some impressive fireworks right before the big show.  Provo does Independence Day pretty well!

We had some friends, Stephanie and Freddie Nicerio, from Guam stop by our house for a short visit.  They were on an extended vacation of the West with their three teenage daughters, Freddie's sisters and mother. The other man in the pic, Christian Hidalgo, grew up in Guam.  He was 13 when we lived there.  His wife and child are in the picture too.  They are such an amazing family!  It would be so fun to go visit them in Guam.  Guam friends are forever friends!

To celebrate Pioneer Day, on July 24th, we went to the Days of '47 Rodeo.  So fun despite being super hot and feeling a bit crowded.  Before it began, we ate the best corndog that we've had in a long time.  We enjoyed the bucking broncos, lasso competitions, barrel racing, bull riding...all of it.  

July ended with a hike up to Stewart Falls near Sundance.  I love a good morning hike with my love.