One really, really long post...

After another busy month, things have finally settled down. So brace yourself for a lot of reading or just skip to the end to see pictures of Will. :)

We spent Father's Day weekend with Taylor's family at a cabin in Duck Creek (near Cedar) where we played games, went hiking, roasted marshmallows, and visited an ice cave (it stays cold all through summer).

Two weeks later, we packed up our apartment and headed for California. Taylor drove the moving van and towed his car, I drove with my mom and Will in my car. (Thanks again to my wonderful mom. I don't know what I would have done if I had to drive by myself with a baby!) We stopped in St. George and got to be part of Taylor's dad Steve and his new wife Kim's wedding. The ceremony was short and sweet, the food was delicious (Cafe Rio), and I can't wait to see pictures! We are so happy for them both.

The next day, we arrived in California. We stayed with my parents for the first few days (we had to wait a day to sign our lease, then we had to get a bed, etc.) and before we could really unpack everything suddenly it was the weekend again and we had family staying with us for Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium! President Uchtdorf threw the first pitch and guess who was the umpire for it? My dad! It was pretty exciting. Unfortunately, the game went sooooo slowly as the Dodgers lost miserably and Will fussed. The whole game. It was a long night. But I'm still glad we got to go.

Taylor's family left that Sunday, but my extended family started to trickle in throughout the week of July 4th. All of my siblings and their families, all of my dad's siblings and at least part of their families, my dad's mom, and a bunch of my dad's cousins and their families gathered together for a big Hamilton reunion. We went to the beach, had several BBQs, watched fireworks on the 4th of July, made smores, played games around the fire pit, went swimming, watched the boys make up random games/contests in the pool, went to Paramount Ranch (where they used to film old westerns and Mash), Venice Beach (don't need to go there again...), and Tito's Tacos. We also sanded down homemade toy blocks for a service project, skyped with my dad's uncle in Europe, watched my cousin Jon play the piano and my sister Brooke play the harp, learned about our genealogy and saw a bunch of old pictures of my dad's family and older generations. I learned a lot of new stuff about my family and got to meet some second cousins for the first time. It really was a lot of fun. We were sad to see everybody leave.

On the bright side, I was finally able to finish moving into our apartment! Taylor started going to his office in Venice everyday last Monday, so I spent the week unpacking, organizing, and making this place look like we actually lived here. :) I also realized how few pictures I had taken of Will lately so I went a little crazy. Here's what our little boy has been up to.

His facial expressions make us laugh every day...

He has the world's most kissable cheeks...

He sucks on everything. Like his toes...

...his bottom lip...

...and his fingers.

He now eats bananas, sweet potatoes, apple sauce, rice cereal, and oatmeal. He's usually pretty good at it, but sometimes his meals just end up like this...

He's learning to sit up by himself. (As long as he's looking forward... if he looks or leans to either side he falls right over.)

And finally, he's a little escape artist. Yesterday, I left him buckled in his bouncer chair, left the room for a few minutes and came back to this:

He was fine, but I have no idea how he got out!

He is growing up so fast. It is so fun for us to watch him learn new things (and taste new things) every day and to see his personality already coming through. We sure love this little boy.