Our Utah Summer

We had a wonderful time in Utah this summer! We were able to do almost everything that we wanted too and for the most part all of us stayed healthy! That's saying a lot for us.
I have a lot of pictures so lets just get started.

First off, meet Nova. While my mom and dad are building their new home, they are living out in the country at my Grandma's and Grandpa's house. My Aunt and Uncle and some of my cousins live out there also and this is my cousins dog. Brinley decided to adopt her for our trip. Everywhere this dog went, Brinley followed. She loved her and she loved living in the country. I don't blame her, I use to go once a week when I was a kid and loved every minute of it. There are so many farm animals that the kids got see and it was fun for me to get to see my girls enjoy doing a lot of the same stuff I did when I was young.

 

Soon after arriving in Utah, we went to one of our favorite places in the world, Bear Lake! We have a cabin up there and all of us LOVE going.

 We pretty much just sit and relax, eat good food and play games!
This time, we also went to the Marina and let the girls feed these giant Carp that are swimming around. They had a lot of fun. You can even stick your feet in the water and have them nibble your toes.( A little weird feeling.)

We also went and checked out the new City Creek center in down town Salt Lake. It was so neat! I'd love to spend more time there sometime. The girls had the most fun playing on the escalators.

Then of course we had to go see beautiful Temple Square.

We also had a lot of fun at Grandma's and Papa's house, playing with all the cousins!

 We love the hot tub!

 Julianne helping Papa clean the windows!

My Mom and Dad took us to the aquarium in Sandy. I didn't even know Utah had one of these! It was actually really neat. I didn't take a lot of pictures inside, because they all turned out dark, but here are a few.

After many years, I was able to get together with some of my roommates from college! I love these girls so much and it was so fun being able to catch up! My girls had a ton of playing with my friend Shalise's little girl Kierra.

This year we were lucky to be in Utah for one of our favorite holidays, the 4th of July! We had a big BBQ on Greg's side on the night of the 3rd and then went to fireworks. Then on the actual 4th , the girls got to go to a parade with cousins, we had a yummy BBQ on my side and then went to our favorite place to watch fireworks!

Another favorite event that we were blessed to be at was the annual Auger river trip! This is always a favorite. 

 The girls all ready to float the river!

 Julianne's first time! She loved it!

 Playing by the fire pit!

We love The River!

After we got back, we headed right to another family reunion on my moms side. It was at a water park. Julianne didn't want to go swimming, so she stayed on the side and watched. Brinley, after a long time of convincing, finally went down her first water slide. She was so scared to do it, but after only one time, she wanted to go again and again!

Then, the last day we were in Utah, Aunt Geri and Yia Yia came over for a last visit. The girls love aunt Geri to read to them.

 All of us with Yia Yia.

 Our last night we got together with the "fab 8" to celebrate Greg's 32nd birthday! Happy Birthday Honey. We had a great time!.

Let Summer Begin!

We have had a wonderful couple weeks enjoying all the fun things summer brings!

Brinley had her last day of pre-school for the year! She will go back again in the fall, and then start kindergarten the following year. I can't believe that!
Just before school let out, they had a bike-a-thon, where the kids got to bring their bikes and ride around the school parking lot. It was a lot of fun.

They had snow cones.

Even a place to wash your bike.

I also had a wonderful mothers day. Brinley gave me her first homemade school gift, a flower vase that she painted, it was darling. Julianne's present to me was saying "Happy Mothers Day Mom" about every 5 minutes and singing the song "mother dear I love you so" that she learned from our primary CD. Greg also did a great job at making the day great. He gave me a food processor that I've been wanting and then made a wonderful dinner.

One hot day we went to this awesome splash pad in the city. It was a lot of fun!

Here are the girls on Brinley's last day of school. I can't believe how big they're getting!

We've also been doing a little joy school this past year with some of the kids in the area. Here they are on their last day. Brinley, Peter, Miles and Isaac. They were a fun group.

And of course we've been spending a lot of time in our swimming pool, now that it's opened.

Brinley with her friend Anna.

Brinley and Peter

I've also been meaning to write about some of the funny things the girls have been doing. For starters, Brinley has found her first little love. His name is Peter and he lives next door. Whenever they play together they pretend that they are going to the temple to get married. She use to always say that she was going to marry her dad, but now she tells me at least once a day that she is going to marry both Peter and Daddy. Heaven help us! Good thing he is adorable and we love him and his family.

To make things even more interesting, Peter also has a little brother, Sam, who is Julianne's age. Theirs is more of a love/hate relationship. They  either flight over toys the whole time or play like they are best friends. It's really sweet to watch them when they are being nice.

I feel so blessed that my kids have so many wonderful friends to play with in our area. We've enjoyed getting to know them and their families.  It makes me sad to think that we're all here for such a short time and then we'll all go our separate ways. I just have to enjoy it while I can.

We are leaving for Utah soon, so I'll post pics of the trip when I get back! Happy Summer.

Happy 2nd Birthday Julianne!

 Our baby has become two years old! We had a fun day celebrating with her. In the morning we went to the store and she picked out a cute princess balloon and then we went to McDonald's for lunch. She was much more interested in playing than eating.

After her nap we played outside and Brinley decided to give these "lovelies" to Julianne for her birthday. Both gross and sweet at the same time.

Then we had a little get together, with some good friends, to have cake and ice cream.

I have to say that Julianne's cake looks nothing short of pathetic. I really did have the best of intentions to make a cute Rapunzel cake, but it just did not end up happening.

Lucky for me I was the only one who cared.(It sure did taste good though).

After cake we had Julianne open presents. My mom and dad came a while back and got her a cute new bike, but sadly we do not have a picture of it yet. But she also got a new play dough set, princess figures and a Rapunzel doll with matching dress up for her (that she is wearing).  She loved it all!

We sure LOVE this girl. Happy Birthday!

Titanic Party

So we have the sweetest, most fun apartment managers ever! After living in many apartments, since being married, I'm just totally amazed at how generous and giving this office staff is. They let us make as many colored copies as we want, send and receive faxes, rent movies, provide areas for anyone who wants to plant a garden and throw amazing parties!

On Saturday they invited all the residents to a Titanic remembrance night. They had the club house decorated as if you were a first class passenger having dinner in the grand ballroom. It was so pretty!

When everyone first arrived we had appetizers and visited. Then our "captain" had us all go out onto the balcony and "Bon Voyage."


I must say it felt very authentic overlooking the swimming pool and "life" boat.
Then we came inside and they served us a thirteen course, first class dinner. No lie it was really thirteen courses.

Here was our table. The Hintize, the Cheany's and Southwicks. So fun that everyone dressed up!
They even went as far as researching real life first class passengers and giving everyone their names for the night. Greg and I went as Mr and Mrs William Ernest Carter. I did a little research on them and it turns out they both lived! Yay! But what was even more interesting is that they were residents of PA in Bryn Mawr, which was only like 20 minutes from where we lived!
And what Titanic party would be complete without a Titanic cake? I love the glob of white cake as the iceberg.
It was a really fun night!

St. Patricks Day and Disney on Ice

Who gets to live in a place with a St. Patricks day parade? Apparently I did most of my life but never knew. My father in law, who is the down town mail man says that SLC has one every year. I had no idea!
Well, in St Louis it's a pretty big deal, so we decided to brave the crowds and see what it was all about.


It was pretty good. I think a one timer for us, but always good to try something new.

For the girls' birthday we got them Disney on Ice tickets. This time they were featuring Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, and Tangled.

Here's my little Rapunzel and Cinderella. They were so excited!

It was so cute! I haven't been to Disney on Ice in such a long time, but they really put on a great show. We lucked out and had awesome seats and the girls were glued the entire 2 hours.