On Sunday, we celebrated Beth's birthday as a family. We had hamburgers and funeral potatoes, Beth's favorite! We opened presents and sang Happy Birthday and blew out candles. Sixteen candles do make a lovely light especially for our lovely Beth.

It was fourth of July this week! We had a hard time making plans, but our neighbors, the Kogers came through for us once again! They invited us to take our paddle boards to the lower Provo river, a thing they've done often. It was so fun and so beautiful and not even crowded! We brought our canoe and two paddle boards and Beth, Ben, and Mariah. We paddled up to a spot that had a rope swing and we watched the younger crowd swing into the water. That night we went to the Kogers for a barbecue and watched hundreds of fireworks cover the valley from their back porch! Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came, too!

In other news, Ben painted my kitchen for me this week! It took two coats, but he kept at it and it looks great! We still need to take off the tape and put the blinds back up so no pictures yet. He is making steady progress and I'm super excited for my new kitchen!

Saturday evening, we went to the temple with Sarah, McKay, and Megan to do sealings. Going to the temple is always special and I always feel close to heaven while I'm there, but this time was extra special because we got to do work for someone we know and love and that was super cool.