Basically Bairds: Part Three

Utah Valley was definitely our favorite vacation destination, because that is where we got to stay and visit with our four daughters, our son-in-law, and three sweet grandchildren. We were able to do lots of fun things together in the all too short time we were there.

We went into Salt Lake City one day to try the waffles and pomme frites at Bruges Waffles and Frites.

It was soooo good!

Next door to that was Tony Caputo's, a gourmet food market. We were thrilled to see our hometown of Woodbridge, Virginia represented by our friend Ben Rasmussen's fine chocolate that he makes in the basement of his home, just three blocks from ours. Just below Ben's Potomac chocolate was the Amano chocolate display. That chocolate is made in the town where Laura lives - Orem, Utah.

Beth, Owen, Emma, and Aiden (famous explorer)

We love those three smiles so much!

It was fun to see how much they had grown since we saw them in December. Owen especially had learned so much. He was talking a lot, repeating everything you say, and insisted on doing almost everything himself!

"My do it!"

Aiden has really grown up a lot as well. He's six now, and has just finished his first year of public school. We watched him participate in a summer Lego Robotics class. He has such a great imagination. I had fun one afternoon playing police and bad guys with him. He has a "real" police uniform, so of course I had to be a bad guy. We were able to go with him to pick out his birthday present - a new and bigger bicycle that he's hoping to learn to ride soon without training wheels.

Aiden and Grandpa hanging outside a bakery near Tony Caputo's and Bruges.

Beth lives in Las Vegas, but we were so happy she could be in Utah with us while we were there.
She's such a fun aunt to Aiden, Emma, and Owen, such a great sister, and daughter as well.

We spent Father's Day evening with Kart's parents and family. We had a delicious dinner reminiscent of Laura and Kart's wedding reception with chicken salad croissants and Skip's meatballs.

Kara outside the Barnett home. They have such a beautiful garden. I love the hollyhocks!

Beth looking great outside the Barnett's garden.

Emma and Owen enjoying some ice cream.

Emma loves the "Belle" dress she got from her Barnett grandparents for Christmas. She also loved the frilly aqua dress we brought her, and wanted to wear it everyday. We had to talk her into wearing play dresses, and to save the frilly one for Sunday.

Laura is such a fun Mom. She lets the kids "help" at the car wash vacuuming station.

One of the reasons we wanted to come to Provo/Orem in June was to see Natalie graduate from the Aveda Institute. She's been working very hard for the past year and a half learning how to do hair and other cosmetic skills. We got our hair cut by her soon after we arrived. She did a great job!

Natalie's graduation was a nice event. She found a really pretty new dress and shoes for a graduation gift. All the graduates got to say a little something about the highlights of their time at AVEDA. Natalie's highlight was fashion week in NYC of course. I'm glad we were able to support her in doing that, and finishing school there. After the graduation we all went out to dinner at P.F. Chang's and had a fun time eating family style. We're so proud of Natalie!