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?!

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!

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".