Utah Trip Part 2-with Daddy

After a week apart we were MORE than ready to see daddy.  It was a very happy reunion when we met up in at my parent's 2nd home in Hurricane for the 4th of July weekend. 

The first day we headed to a local family fun center where we played all morning.  Our kids had never done anything like this so it was very exciting.  Bumper boats, mini golf, go-carts, arcade and kiddie carts.

Natalie had a hard time steering her car so David had to help.  Cyrena went around and around independently.  

You can tell by her face that she loved doing this with her dad.

We went to see The Little Mermaid at the Tuacahn theater.  Cyrena loves going to plays so this was fun for her.  It's a large outdoor amphitheater and it doesn't start until dusk--8:45!  We didn't make it home until midnight. 

My parents home is close to "Grandpa's Fishing Hole"  We didn't catch anything.  But we sure had fun. I don't remember the last time I've gone fishing.  David and I had a lot of laughs at my casting abilities.  I finally got it though.  Cyrena got really good at it also.  There were some older men and women there who shared some live bait with us and also let Cyrena reel in one of the fish they caught.

Grandpa has an ipod touch--fancy! :)  We don't have anything like that so Cyrena was a bit obsessed. Grandpa and Cyrena worked together to pass several levels of Angry Birds.

The girls lived in this pool in the yard

Check out those thighs!

 On the 4th we rented a wave runner and headed to one of the reservoirs that's about 5 minutes from my parents house.   I hadn't been on one in years and it was SO fun.   Everyone had a great time.  It was nice and calm and not too crowded.  The girls loved every minute of it and they each got several rides.  At the end I took both of them with me and we had some crazy girl time with lots of screaming!!

Building sand castles with plastic cups and spoons...that's how we roll.

Grandma was nice enough to hold and shade Anna so I could have fun

Take a bite, you know you want to

That night we BBQ'd and had a small fireworks show (the $10 pack from Wal-mart)

Natalie got burned by the sparklers-ouch.  She also discovered these light-up singing Belle shoes at grandma's and she was done for.  She rarely took them off.

One of the teeny-tiny fireworks in the pack

The girl loves to light the fireworks, she did a great job!

We came home exhausted and penniless but we are so grateful for the awesome memories we made!  Thanks to my parents for their generosity and for all the good times with family!

My dad also took some great pictures.  He'll be sending me a cd soon so I'll post some more.

Utah Trip part 1-without daddy

We returned last week from our big Utah trip.  It was an adventure and oh so much fun!  We got to spend tons of time with family which was our ultimate goal.  The Utah County part of the trip was minus David which was sad for us but we carried on!  We played in the hot tub, went to a movie, had family night at Chik-fil-A, went to the nearby brand-new splash park a couple of times, met and bonded with Baby Vivienne, stayed up way too late, enjoyed a rainstorm and played and played and played.

The girls had a lot of outside time with grandpa; walking the property, picking and smelling flowers, mowing the lawn, shooting hoops, etc. 

We spied this HUGE butterfly.  I've never seen anything like it.  My dad and I were mesmerized and I took several pictures.  It was loving the lilac bush so it was a willing subject.  

We went in the hot tub a few times.  We turned the temperature down so it was the perfect bathwater temperature.  Here the girls are with cousins Elise and Jacob and they had just turned on the huge volcano that comes up the middle.  

One morning I happened upon another HUGE animal.  This squirrel was so big it almost looked like a jack rabbit.  He was also willing to pose for several pictures.  We saw him on a few occasions; I guess he finds plenty of things to eat on my parents property.  

Another hot tub night with cousins Ty and Isabelle

One night cousin Elise did a princess party with the granddaughters.  They painted nails, put on pretty jewelry, curled their hair, and put on some lip gloss.  Natalie was in heaven. 

Natalie, Isabelle, Naomi, and Elise

Cyrena refused to participate in the princess party.  Instead she played 2 on 2 with cousins Ty, Luke and Jacob.  She held her own pretty well and learned all about 'fouls and defense' from Ty.

Natalie and Isabelle had SO much fun together.  They never really referred to each other by name, just as 'friend'.  "Mom, I can't find my friend"  "Oh, there's my friend!"  They were adorable and always holding hands. Isn't Isabelle gorgeous??

One morning I headed up to Salt Lake to visit with David's grandparents.  It's always wonderful to see them.  They always have fun toys set out for the kids and they make sure to send us away with bags of treats (and Dove bars of course!).

 

 

 This is baby Vivienne, my brother Chad's youngest.  This was our first time meeting her.  She's adorable and a wonderful baby. It was very fun to finally get to meet her. 

Natalie watching grandma get her vitamins and supplements ready for the week.  I found it amusing so I had to take a picture. 

Father's Day and half birthdays

A lot of celebrating has been going on around here.  We've had Father's Day, Anna's half birthday, Cyrena's half birthday and our 9th anniversary.  Whew!

Father's Day started out with the annual dogpile, followed by a requested breakfast

This dad sure loves his girls and they love him LOTS.  He is so so good to them.

Anna is now halfway through her first year of life.  It's very bittersweet because I love watching her grow and change, but it is definitely going by too quickly.  

Anna's favorite things:

*any dangling toy...especially rings and including mom's curls

*pureed squash 

*oatmeal

*her sippy cup and any cup of water that we drink out of

*tangling her fingers in her sisters' hair

*her blankie

Anna's 6 month stats:

weight- 19 lbs

height- 27 inches

head- 17 inches

And this little girl turned 5 1/2 today.  She's pretty darn excited.  I had ordered piano books for her and saved them for today.  She was very happy!  I can't believe she goes to kindergarten in just over a month.

Up North We Go

Last weekend our amazing realtor whom we love offered us the use of her cabin up north.  It was so generous of her and we politely accepted. :)  It was great to be among the large pines and for it to actually be chilly in the morning and evening.  We still didn't need pants or jackets though.  The cabin was AMAZING and we really relaxed, it was wonderful. 

Checking out her sliver

The girls had a blast and got along very well

In the main room there were two very comfortable recliners where David and I spent most of our free time.

We headed out for a morning walk and within 50 feet Natalie tripped and scraped both knees, both palms and both forearms.  Luckily we have a first aid kit in the car for these occasions. 

After our walk, we had a Cheez-its and strawberries picnic in the loft while we watched a movie and Anna napped.  Can anyone guess what movie it is?  (hint: it's about a brown-haired princess who loves to read and a figurine of her is on the floor next to Natalie).  Behind where I'm taking a picture is a really comfy futon that the girls slept on.

We went on a picnic for lunch at a local park.  There were several elderly motorcycle gangs there and their conversations were funny to listen to.  By the way, this little girl is heading down the road of daddy-worship...

That afternoon David, Cyrena and I played our favorite card game...Skip bo Jr.  You have got to check it out!  We play it a few times a week and it's perfect for Cyrena's age.  She got it for her birthday from Grandma Barb.  Again, we broke out the Cheez-its and added some chocolate to the mix.  Cyrena had yet to be initiated into the 'eat candy while you play games' routine....she was pretty darn happy about it!

That night we drove 25 miles further north to Snowflake to see some of our favorite friends- the Ordyna's!!  On the way in, we stopped to check out the Snowflake temple.  It is gorgeous and sits on a large hill overlooking a beautiful valley.  It looked busy; it's always great to see a busy temple.

It was wonderful to see the Ordyna's.  We hadn't seen their kids in almost 4 years!  It was fun for us all to reconnect.  Cyrena and Jarom were born just weeks apart and they picked right back off where they left off when they were 18 months!

David and Jake have always enjoyed each other's company.  They worked for the same company for a few years when we first moved to Arizona.  We call him the gentle giant, we're big fans!

Alyssa has always been a role model for me.  So many times, when I'm having a hard time with something, I ask myself, "what would Alyssa do?"  I'm not kidding, I really do!!  She's the mother of 5 great kids, and look she even gave me a break and held my chubalub! 

We had a great weekend.  Thankfully time went slowly so we got to enjoy every single minute.

David's favorite quote of the weekend (recorded for journaling purposes):

As we were walking into the park for a picnic, some people had started BBQing.  

Natalie:  "Wuss that fells, dad?  Cokgogs?"

translated:  "what's that smell dad?  Hot Dogs?"

She says "wuss that fells?" very often, especially near the meat department in the grocery store.  She's got quite the sense of smell I guess.  And it really really makes us laugh.

Summer so far

The local dairy has a farmers market every Thursday evening during the summer.  We decided to go before the hot hot hot weather hit.  We headed over with the Spencers and there were several vendors to watch and samples to be eaten.  There was a $1 hay ride/tour of the dairy and a petting zoo.  All in all, a great way to spend an evening-especially since it wasn't too hot!

Heading out on the hay ride

Natalie was very eager to feed the goats and they were very eager to oblige.  Cyrena just observed/threw feed through the holes in the fence.

They had stacked hay bales to climb.  The girls got very dirty and didn't want to leave. 

Cyrena and Natalie just finished up a round of swimming lessons.  I did not realize when I signed Natalie up that her class required parents to be in the water with them.  Ummm...I have an infant to take care of too....so I was a little unsure of how it was going to work.  Luckily I have a great friend, Alison, who was willing to help me out!  She's 7 months pregnant and said it sounded great to her to get in the water.  So we suited Anna up and Alison and I were in the water with both Anna and Natalie most days.  Some of the days Alison was kind enough to watch Anna at her house.  I don't know what I would have done without her!!  

Both girls did great and progressed well.  By the end, I had Natalie jumping into the water to me (going under and coming back up) and Cyrena had  perfected her back float.  Cyrena is now taking private lessons from a 15 year old girl in our neighborhood. 

And just so you know we really do have a baby around here, enjoy this little video of her latest trick.

Memorial Day 2011

This past weekend we had a great time!  On Friday, we went swimming with the Cox family.  The girls had fun and worked hard on their swimming skills (armed with major flotation devices of course).

Natalie refused to come out of the pool for lunch, she wanted to swim "a 'lil bit more mom"

On Monday we packed a picnic and went to Falcon Hill Park where they actually had a tire swing!  The girls loved that.  Then we went on a little hike up the hill.  We couldn't really find a trail so we just wandered up.  We didn't make it to the top since it was close to nap time.  

Here David is defining the word 'steep' for Cyrena since she was using it to exaggerate the climb.  

After naps we broke out the slip 'n slide and had a BBQ with the McKays.  Great food and great company.  What a way to kick off the summer.  

Earlier in the day we were talking to Cyrena about Memorial Day and what it means, why we have it, etc.  She talked about soldiers on 'our team' fighting for our freedom.  Then she talked about how lucky we are to be on 'Nephi's team' and fight for Jesus and Heavenly Father.  I love this girl.

In other news, the chore chart goes on strong.....