Riley-isms the piano version

So dad has taken over giving Riley piano lessons.Today Riley was struggling with playing both the top and bottom hands at the same time and was telling me about how it was a lot of pressure to play both at the same time. First he told me that: "It feels like I have an egg in my chest under boiling water and the egg is about to crack." Then as I explained how pressure can be a good thing because it can take a piece of coal and turn it into a diamond he tells me: "I just feel like I'm the only piece of coal in the whole coal yard that can't be turned into a diamond."
Boy that kid is good with the metaphors. And I love him so much. And guess what? He ended up playing both hands and did a great job.

I LOVE A PARADE

The 24th of July is just around the corner and the big "Days of 47" parade in down town SLC is coming up.  They previewed the floats that will be in the parade at the Expo Center in Sandy so we went up to get an up close and personal look at the cool floats.  Here are a few of our favorites.  They had a face painter there for the kids and Riley got a tire track painted across his face.  When we got home he insisted that we make it look like he had been run over and then send some pictures to Adam, Rachel & Andrea so they would think he was hit by a car.  This boy is so dramatic.  He is definitely his mother's son!

GRANDMA PETERSON'S 85th BIRTHDAY PARTY

July 13th was Grandma Peterson 85th Birthday.  We went to Loa and had a birthday party for her complete with lunch and then some cake & ice cream.  Here are a few pictures of the event.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

Our 4th of July celebration this year started out with the traditional Hot Air Balloon raises.  After the balloons we went to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel and then went home and hung out just enjoying each others great company.  We had won 4 tickets to the Stadium of Fire for that evening so we headed back to Provo to see Scotty McQuery - THE BEACH BOYS - and some awesome fireworks.  He are a few pictures of the fun fun fun day.

ADAM & RACHEL IN NEW YORK

Adam's work sent him to New York for a couple of weeks to help develop an emergency preparedness website for NYC.  While he was there Rachel arranged to work out of their New York office so she could hang out with Adam for a couple of nights.  Here they are in Grand Central and then the next night the met up with Kevin and had dinner.

Texting by old people...

This was a text I received from mom today: "Maybe we better go now so I don't get distracted and forget do you and riley want to swim sluttle I can cine back over to gay uyou later"
Translation: "...do you and Riley want to swim a little? I can come back over to get you later."

A MOTHERS DAY GIFT OF LOVE

I'm telling you - Nothing says I love you quite like a new tiller.  Grandma is one lucky babe.

WATER BABY

Riley took swimming lessons this summer and he really took to the water like a fish.  He keeps trying to talk grandpa in to diving off the diving board - Grandpa says, "Dream on bud cause it aint gonna happen."

THE NEWEST CUB SCOUT IN SANTAQUIN