Chalk Art

Wow! It's amazing what some people can do with a little (actually a LOT of) sidewalk chalk. As we posted in a previous post, the organization where Dan has been interning- The Utah Foster Care Foundation, sponsored/hosted the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway Mall during Father's Day weekend. The weather was perfect and the artists were QUITE impressive. There was also a great deal of awareness raised for foster care!
Here's Dan looking quite official on a golf cart. He worked SO hard this weekend outlining the chalk art squares, running errands, distributiung gift bags from the foundation, and making sure the artists were well taken care of.

Here's some of Dan's family enjoying the art work. (The mother-pushing Joseph, Swa, Brian hiding behind Swa, and Brynn.)

Here's me with my sweet, awesome husband (with my baby belly and all).

This was one of my favorite pieces. A beautiful mermaid-all done with CHALK!

Here's a bunch of Dan's favorite drawings. Hope you enjoy!

These last two received the People's Choice Awards for Adults and Students, respectively.

FYI- The Foster Care Foundation has offered Dan a job, and he accepted! He will be starting as a foster parent recruiter with the Ogden office as soon as his practicum hours are done. Salaried and benefited with a baby coming is such great news!!
Sorry for the flippin huge post, but we hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Another day late

Fathers are so special! That's what our ward primary sang on Sunday and it's so true! I know I'm a day late (again) and I also realize my dad and Dan's dad probably rarely (if ever) read our blog, BUT I still wanted to pay tribute to these wonderful men who raised us!

The primary song says, "Father's are so special, with a very special love. They watch us and protect us. They guide us and direct us back to our home above." Our fathers have always set an amazing example for us. They have taught us so many gospel principles by the way they live. They are so smart financially and have passed some of that knowledge on to us (at least as much as we can understand). :) Growing up I would never want to do anything to disappoint him or let him down. My respect and love for these men is incomparable.

I'm also so thankful for my husband (future father!). I know he will follow in his father's footsteps as I have already seen in many ways. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Me and my daddy Mike
Dan's dad Dave (with Dan's mom). He had to be a cardboard stand-in at our wedding because he was serving as mission president in Brasil at the time.

Our WONDERFUL parents!!

Flowers, Reunions, and Chalk Art

Wow- I don't think any blog post will ever be able to top the last one as far as comments go. Thank you for all the congratulations and well wishes! We're super excited about our little girl!

I know I'm a little slow on this, but Spring has officially Sprung in our front yard. Last Spring/Summer before Dan's parent's returned from their mission, since Dan and I were "house sitting," we would spend hours and hours tending their yard. Maybe I'm just too thorough, but it would also take hours due to the size of the yard and the few number of hands Dan and I had. However, I actually enjoyed the work and more importantly I LOVED the results. No weeds and pretty flowers.

Now that Dan and I have a place of our own, we have the same opportunity to tend our yard. A few weeks ago we weeded our front "yard" (walkway), and then bought some flowers to plant. It took FAR less time than any of our yard work stints last summer and I'm still just as in love with results as ever! Check it out!

I don't remember the names of the yellow ones, but check out those purple daisies!
This is just a little bush thing. We needed something that looked nice and would take up space.
These are flowers that can grow in low sunlight. Nice huh?

I also had the opportunity this week meet up with some dear old roommates of mine! These girls are da bomb!! We are all married now, two are expecting babies, and each one of them are such good examples to me in many different ways! Because we all are spreading out more and more across the country, we only see each other about twice a year. Thank you girls for a wonderful evening of reminiscing!

In other news, Dan has been doing an internship with the Utah Foster Care Foundation this summer and has been very busy with it. This coming weekend is their 5th annual sidewalk Chalk Art Festival where 40-50 artists come to The Gateway in downtown SLC to help raise awareness about the need for foster parents. It is a great event, and the artwork done by these artists is amazing (there are some pictures of last years' event on the website)! If you've got some time, come down to the Gateway anytime on the 13th or 14th and check out the Festival. There's even a fun section for the kiddies to make their own sidewalk chalk art! Hope you can make it!