July......the Blur

July was awesome! It just flew by and was definitely filled with alot of parades.

The 4th

We had a great 4th of July weekend. We visited the Freedom Festival and saw the sights – the highlight being the frozen bananas. On the 4th we went to the Park City parade with the cousins and then to Stadium of Fire. Mayzie was not a huge fan of the fireworks, but overall it was a great celebration!

Yosemite 6th-12th

Our annual trip to YMR was a hit. The girls loved playing in the jeep, at the lake and hanging with their cousins. Can’t beat good food, family, and fun!

Steel Days Parade and Carnival 17th & 18th

The Steel days are always a good time. The kids loved the parade and Blakeslie loved even the “big” rides at the carnival. However, they had to stop the caterpillar rollercoaster to get Mayzie off because she was not a fan.

Pioneer Day 24th

We headed down to Fairview for the Parade and Derby on the 24th. Blakeslie’s favorite part is the Children’s Parade – she thought she was so cool riding her bike and throwing candy. The big parade is so awesome – there was so much candy the kids stopped chasing after it. Chip and Bean have gotten better every year in their water fight with the fire truck – but I’m not sure they win.

The Derby was everything we hoped for and more. For the first time in all my attending years they had a Champion’s Challenge. They invited all the old winners to come back and had a round of just champions. They gave the most aggressive driver an extra $1000. It was by far the craziest heat I had ever seen. We had a lot of first timers with us and I think they all enjoyed the show and atmosphere.

Highland Fling- 29th

We had fun at the Highland City Fling. Blakeslie did a fun run and then both girls participated in the Children’s parade. Poor Mayzie and I got stuck directing the kids with the fun run and so she missed playing at the splash pad and getting her picture in the parade (Dad and Bean had the camera.) They both loved it all and we will go back to the splash pad – it was definitely a good time.

Dance Recital

Saturday was Bean’s Dance Recital. After a very long week of pictures, practices, and dress rehearsals I was definitely ready to have the dance season over. Blakeslie loved every second of being dolled up and loved performing with her friends on stage. Her two cousins also performed and were very adorable. You gotta love little girls and dance recitals! Mayzie enjoyed the entire performance. She hardly moved on my lap and clapped and cheered for each group.

Beauty and the Beast

Bean and I went to see Beauty and the Beast at the Scera Outdoor Theater. It was so great and very well done. She loved every second of it. We were lucky that it didn’t rain on us. Most of the other nights had been rained out, but we had a beautiful night. Blakeslie got a real kick out of the fact that the show started at her bed time. We got home even later because after the show she had to meet everyone to get pictures and autographs.

Boise

We spent our first week of summer at home in Boise. Nothing beats going home. My poor parents.....we totally unload at their house, you can hardly see the floor in any room. They are so good to us. I love going home to just relax and hang out. We had fun swimming and playing and when the girls were asleep I scrapbooked. What could be better?

My parents didn’t get their pool open in time for us to come so we went to their club a couple of times. We had the pool to ourselves because the local kids hadn’t gotten out of school yet – pretty fun!
My Mom has this dragon statue in her backyard that was just Mayzie’s size. She was absolutely terrified of it, but had to walk by it to get to the playhouse. She would stand and eyeball if for quite awhile before daring to walk in front of it.
I took the girls to the Zoo one day and met my very dear, old friend - Andrea. We had a great time catching up and the girls loved playing with her 3 boys and 2 nieces.
The girls disappeared one morning and I found them hiding in the upstairs playroom corner. Don’t you love what flies when you are at Nana and Papas! I'm not sure which one was the ringleader?!

The beginning of one era and the end of another

Mayzie is starting the “I can do everything by myself” stage. I’m not going to lie sometimes it is very annoying like when it is time to get into the car seat or when we are changing a diaper. However, sometimes it is just stinkin’ funny - like this day when she wouldn’t let me help her get dressed. She fought me to get her shorts on so I finally conceded (notice the belt is in the back, she got them on backwards.) She wouldn’t let me put a shirt on her so for half the morning she was half-nakey. At some point she went into her closet and pulled out this dress. Since, it had a zipper she couldn’t get it down over her shoulders so she sported the “shawl” look and was very proud of herself. Oh, the joy of having a headstrong toddler!

The end of Preschool...
Blakeslie had her preschool graduation last week. She just loved every second of school and soaked up everything Ms. Barbara would give her. Graduation was so cute. They slowly proceeded in to the “Graduation March” and then had lots of songs and showed us all the things they had been working on all year. Blakeslie was in charge of showing the calendar. She even got a diploma and we ended with lots of treats! I’m so excited for her- she talks about Kindergarten everyday. However, I told Chip at her next graduation I’m going to be hysterical. I just know I’m going to blink and we will be at High School Graduation. I wish so much time could just slow down.

May Catch-up

Blakeslie said the only good thing about all the rainy days was wearing her raincoat.

Music Class
While Blakeslie has been at dance class I have been taking Mayzie to a Kindermusik class. It has been so much fun just having something for the two of us to do together. She thinks she is such a big girl and her favorite part is saying “hi” and “bye” into the microphone.

Cinco de Mayo
We had the cousins over for a little Cinco de Mayo party. (I really wanted an excuse to get a piñata.) We had fun eating Mexican food, playing games and busting up the piñata!

Mother’s Day Tea
This is my favorite part of preschool all year. Blakeslie made me the cutest card and crafts, they put on a program, and then we had cupcakes and “tea.”

What could be better?!

April Catch-up

We went to the Beach House for a couple of weeks in April and had a great time. We all loved the sun and heat. We missed a huge snowstorm at home that dumped 8 inches of snow.

We celebrated Easter and took advantage of being able to have a hunt outside – hurray! Blakeslie may have found more eggs, but Mayzie definitely ate more.

My parents came for part of the time and while they were there we saw more of San Diego than in all my previous trips combined. We had a great time exploring the coast and going to the Zoo and Old Town.

I think I’m going to let Blakeslie become the family photographer from now on. When Blakeslie has the camera Mayzie smiles!

Phoenix

We had such a good time in Phoenix for Spring Training. The weather was so perfect I truly thought about staying. We had a blast going to games and playing at the pool.


Eno was a good sport about taking Bean to the pool – thanks!

We went to a night game all together and loved it. The girls especially loved the cotton candy and the fireworks during the 7th inning stretch.

(The picture of Blakeslie yelling at the player is her heckling Coco Crisp!)

Chip got adventurous one night while Eno, Troy and I were out shopping. He took the girls to a night game on his own. Don’t you love how Dad’s don’t think about red slushies on pretty clothes? I got a text from him while we were out that said, “How much do you like the girls' clothes?” I love that he took a picture when he got home to show the damage – I have trained him well. (Amazingly, all the red came out.)

We celebrated St. Patrick’s day with a couple of visits from the leprechaun. Blakeslie was amazed with his sneakiness! Mayzie didn’t even seem to notice her green eggs and oatmeal - she just chomped away at her food.

In the evening the girls came home to a treasure hunt. Troy and Eno beat us home and Troy almost caught the Leprechaun. He was so close that he grabbed his pants, but the Leprechaun got away. (Does the idea of a half naked Leprechaun running around scare anyone else?) The girls had to follow the string all through the house. It ended in the freezer with gold and a few surprises. I love this holiday!

The running joke about going to Spring Training is Chip collecting souvenir cups. This is his collection and Blakeslie turned out to be the best helper. What are we doing with all these again?

Our final adventure of the trip was our drive home. We took highway 20 that crosses from Panguitch to Beaver. It started to snow as soon as we got on the 20. By the time we got to the top of the mountain the road had a couple of inches of snow on it. Long story short we got stuck behind 2 semis that jackknifed in the middle of the road, so we were stuck up on the mountain for over an hour. We finally got turned back around and stayed the night in Panguitch. The scariest/funniest part was watching Troy and Chip push cars out in shorts, t-shirts and crocks because they hadn’t planned for anything but Phoenix sun. The delay only added to the fun. We got a room, got the kids to bed and enjoyed another night of card games.

P.S. Thanks Moxie for Bean's B-day present!

Blakeslie the Rockstar!

Yes, this is Bean playing with none other than U2! We have been playing a little Rock Band since Christmas and Blakeslie loves to Jam! My awesome cousin made this picture for us- Thanks Lindsay!!! Blakes totally thinks she is famous!

Rock On!!!

My Baby is 5!!!

Blakeslie’s birthday was a week long event. It started with cupcakes for her preschool celebration, then on her actual birthday we went to the Discovery Museum, it ended with her High School Musical Fabulous Swimming Party! It was a great week, but Mom is glad it is over!

Last Winter Adventure - I hope!

I will not be sad to be rid of the snow and cold, but I am sad we did not discover this fun place until now. For Lynna’s birthday we went to Gorgoza Park in Park City to go sledding. It was awesome! The kids loved it- even the tiny ones who fell asleep in their twirling sleds.

Hawaii

Our Trip to Hawaii couldn’t have been more perfect. We played the entire time.

This is my most favorite moment of the entire trip.

We had talked about Hula Pie with Blakeslie for weeks before we got there. Obviously, we thoroughly enjoyed this one and many more. Blakeslie said, “This was worth the wait!” Mayzie didn’t say anything but, “More, more, more!” We had lunch at Leilani’s many afternoons and every time I said, “This is paradise…Hula pie, with my family and this view!”

This is Blakeslie’s Musical Début at Cheeseburger in Paradise. She bought her little Ukulele in the shops on Front Street right before dinner. She played from her seat the entire meal. She was so cute about wanting to play with the Musician. She said things like, “Mom, go tell him he can play awhile and then I’ll play awhile.” On our way out she finally went up and played with him. He was so cute with her and she was beaming. Afterward everyone was taking her picture and she got a standing ovation. She said, “I was so nervous when everyone starting taking my picture, but I just smiled.” What I wouldn’t give to make sure she had this confidence when she was in Junior High.

The slideshow doesn’t do the trip justice – thank goodness for the memories. We got there on Valentine’s Day so we got the girls red and white leis. There are pictures of our adventures at the blowhole, Hana, Sugar Cane Train, and the luau. The whale pictures are from our whale watching boat tour. February is the best time to go to Maui. There are approximately 12,000 whales in the Hawaiian Islands. The tour was great, but so is the show from the shore- AMAZING!

When Chip wasn’t leading the way on some crazy adventure we spent our time at the beach. We were all in heaven.