Friday, July 8, 2011

My camera was Hi-jacked!!

It was June 11, 2011 and Richard and I were headed out for our week-long honeymoon. We had to stop and fill up the gas tank at Smiths before hitting the road. So while Richard pumped the gas (What?!?! It's HIS job, don't judge me!) I decided to take a look through the camera. You see, the camera was at the wedding but we didn't know if anyone had taken any pictures with it.

Boy did I get a surprise! Richard got in the car and I was laughing so hard I was near tears. When he asked what was so funny I handed him the camera. The girls had stolen the camera and taken over 100 pictures of themselves and their world.

 A couple of very cute close ups!









Some Facebook style photos or ones they took of eachother!















There were about thirty pictures they took of their TV playing snow white while they watched.




And lastly I found possibly the sweetest most heart-melting picture ever.

Honestly! How could I have been mad that they stole the camera?!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Our very first family vacation!

In January Richard had a long 3 day weekend. These things almost never happen. So we took advantage and decided to take our first ever family vacation to sunny St. George! (Hey, baby steps people!)

The girls had never been on drive this long before. In fact, they think the hour long trip to Papa D's house is REALLY far away. We did our best to prepare accordingly. We packed lots of snacks and drinks and got some portable DVD players to keep them occupied. (Truth be told, these were promptly wrapped in their original packaging and returned to the nearest Walmart when we got back to town. Shhhh!)



They did surprisingly well! I was impressed. I think the only whining happened literally 2 minutes from our destination.




Richard drove a large chunk of the time and was obviously a little tired by the end. We had a lot of fun doing our thing though. We got to talk a lot and sing loudly to our favorite songs. I think long drives in the car are some of my favorite times with him.






We stayed with Richards sister Teressa (one of my favorite people) and her husband David. It was a full house between us, them, their kids, and Grandma LaRue but we managed to all fit comfortably. We spent some downtime while the kids all played together. Us women watched the food network and took naps while the men played video games. After all that resting we got out of the house and did some awesome hiking.


Seriously, this guy is such a hunk! He climbed up every scary looking, super high thing he could find and then stood on it just like this.
 Caydance tried to find every hole that she could climb up to and then sit in so that I could take her picture.



Athena really liked the running and hiking part but was more mellow when it came to climbing. She stuck by her Richard most of the time.
The weather was amazing. It was January and I was hiking in a tank top without any complaints. It was in the high 50's and sunny. I talked about how great it would be to live there. When I went back in June I realized that when you start that warm you can only get more and more hot. Blech!

Discovery Gateway farewell trip

Forgive me. These posts are gonna be out of order for a bit but I want to get up all the pictures and stories.

Christmas 2009 Mom and Rog gave our family a one year membership to the Discovery Gateway childrens museum. Richard had recently taken on a lot of responsibility with the girls and they thought it would be a good way for him to spend time with them and make some memories. They must have already known we were destined to be a family! (Truth behold he never went without me! LOL)

Well January 2011 rolls around and we decided to get one more trip in before our membership expired.
For those of you reading this that have never been to the Discovery Gateway, I highly recommend it. My kids will spend all day here if I let them. They may even consider moving in. I only have pictures of the one area they seem to focus on which is this little land for little people so they can feel big.

One of their favorite parts is the grocery store. While there you can just shop, buy your groceries, and take them home. (We will cover that in a minute)


 Another option is to put on an apron and take over one of the many jobs available in the store. 
Caydance is a big fan of stocking shelves. I think she gets some kind of happiness about everything being in it's place, I just haven't found out how to transfer the concept to her bedroom at home!

Athena really likes to be the cashier playing with the cash register and bagging the groceries. She doesn't spend much of her time in this are though.


Another hot zone for the girls is the little house. I would say Caydance spends 80% of her time in this area. She is a future domestic goddess I am sure of it. 
She carefully pulls each item out of her bag , analyzes it, and decides it's proper place in the kitchen. Occasionally she finds something another child has left in a place she deems inappropriate and spends a few minutes talking about how silly it is and "EVERYONE knows _____ goes in the ______!!"


Athena spends her time in the house looking in the fridge and making endless (seriously) food for her mom and Richard to eat. She also likes to play with the baby dolls and do the occasional vacuuming. She liked it so much that we made this her chore at home, apparently she doesn't love it as much as she though.
The final area of interest is the water cycle exploration table. This is where it's at for Athena. There are all types of tubes and tunnels to put ping pong balls in and see where they go. Also splashing is not only allowed but more or less encouraged so the potential for fun is THAT much greater.




Our family gift in 2010 was a membership to the zoo that we haven't activated yet. I was feeling a little guilty about it but then I realized the later we do it in the year the later it carries into the next. That means not only will little Dexter be able to join us but we will be able to see the new polar bear exhibit that is supposed to open next summer!



Let's play the blog catch up game!

The last time I blogged I was barely engaged to the amazing guy that is now my husband. A lot has happened between then and now but things got a little crazy busy! (and I got more than a little lazy some days too!) Let's get you guys caught up with some stories and pictures!

Caydance turned 5!(This kid grows WAY too fast!)
I have to start by saying this was by far my least favorite birthday party I have EVER thrown for one of the girls. Everything was taken care of as part of the package (which was SO pricey) and it left me feeling like the party lacked that special sparkle I always try to create on their special day. I also felt totally out of control and rushed. That being said, the kids all had a fabulous time!

We had the party at Jungle Jims playland, a place where her mommy and aunts had celebrated many birthdays back in their day. Everyone feasted on pizza and soda and that got hours of playtime and game tokens. The cake was made by The Fabulous Grandma Trish and was a dress up chest. She even made it Caydance's requested flavor, which I want to say was chocolate strawberry, but my prego brain is a little fuzzy. My mother is seriously talented.

 Caydance and her cousin Tukker riding the merry-go-round.
I had to post this pic of Mr. Mav. What is that face? LOL
 Caydance got seated with this boy she didn't know and they chatted just like this through the whole ride!
 Snuggles with Grandma Reata
 Landon and Gracie on the rocket ships!
 Hanging with her 2 non-related friends on the rollercoaster!
 Dallas and Mav on the spaceships
 I think they were pretending to be the drama/comedy masks. . .
 Hanging with Grandma Trish and Grandpa Rog
 Mav the tank trying to break the pinata
Finally breaking it open with some help from "Step-dad".