The 78th annual...

UTE STAMPEDE!!!

You all well know that the second weekend in July is a favorite tradition in our family.  We (or at least I ) love going to Nephi for the Ute Stampede!  I love seeing a lot of my family and friends.  

One of the highlights this year was staying with my grandparents in the home my Dad was raised in.  Baylor really got to know my Grandma Zoma this year and just adored her.  He was constantly asking her to play with him, he even got her downstairs playing ping pong!  It made me so happy to sit back and listen to them.  I'm so grateful for such an amazing Grandma, and even more that Baylor and Alexis are getting the chance to know and love her too.  My Grandpa is awesome too, but nobody beats Grandma :)

B got to play with all the toys I used to play with on the notorious red shag carpet.  My friends and I may or may not have rode this blue hoppity horse down the stairs when I was in 8th grade... sssshhh.

Thursday morning we kicked off the stampede with the baby contest!  Sweet little Alexis got 2nd place!  I thought she looked so adorable.

Here she is modeling her crown ;)

 

That evening we watched the horse parade.  Baylor loved waving at everyone and clapping for them.

Lex was happy to be there too... and please check out her kickin' classic boots!!!

Friday quickly came and we headed out for the Mammoth parade, our favorite.  

Baylor was SO EXCITED.  Here he is jamming out to the marching band :)

 But as quick as it started, the weather got crazy!  The wind started bLoWiNg like crazy and then the rain started POURING!  No one ever remembers it down pouring during the parade like that.  We ran to our cars and watched as a few floats attempted finishing the parade.

 Russ got down there after work and we went down to the carnival.  Baylor isn't the biggest ride enthusiast, but he told us he wanted to try ONE ride.  And he did exactly that.  He rode the car, and he was done.  Lucky for Russ, someone HAD to use the rest of his tickets...

 Russ got to release his inner wild child and ride some rides with our nephew Braxton and my cousin Brady.

 Saturday the boys had a breakfast with my grandparents and the girls went to the craft fair.  

We also got to sit around and hang out with family.

Here's Alexis and my Dad.

 She started army crawling that weekend

 And the girls had our annual luncheon with my grandma.  This year's theme was dolls and cupcakes.  

That night we had tickets to the rodeo.  Baylor opted to go to my aunt Molly's house to play instead of come with us.

We were having so much fun, but before it was even half over- that darn rain started again.  It was seriously tsunami rain.  We tried waiting it out, but after about five minutes of being DRENCHED, we had enough.  We had to run all the way to the car in slamming rain, soaking wet, and sweet little Alexis  was just a trooper.  It was a pretty big bummer to have the parade and rodeo rained out, but I guess our state needed the rain more than we needed entertainment.  

Sunday we had a family reunion in Levan, the city my Grandma was raised in.  (It's about 10 minutes south of Nephi.)

We attempted to take a Painter family picture.  My dad comes from a family of 10 kids, so it's no easy task.  Everyone was asked to wear navy and khaki... and sadly  I don't have a group picture.

Just some good old fashioned family fun.

Me and my sisters with our fabulous Grandma Z!