"It's a Wonderful Life!": September 2013

Monday, September 9, 2013

The beginning of the next 20 plus years...

And so it begins, the next 20 plus years of her life will now involve schooling. Abby started Kindergarten last week and is loving it. I thought she would be timid when I dropped her off, but she sat right down and started coloring and chatting with her friend. When I went to give her a kiss she happily said, "See ya mom." Well ok, I guess she was fine. Gratefully she got in the same class as her friend from church and I think that really helped the transition. She even rode the bus home that day and felt pretty cool getting off with all the kids. Abby loves to feel grown up. She chatted away about her day and loved it. Now, I will say that the first week wasn't all 'peaches and roses.' The bus comes to pick up Abby at 7am and doesn't drop her off until 3pm, making it a bit of a long day for a 5-year old. We had our fair share of meltdowns from exhaustion, which I hear is pretty normal and it just takes some time to adjust. Until then, we will try and find ways to help her relax when she returns at the end of a long day.

Kate misses her sister, but I do think she loves having full reign of the toys at home and has a little more one-on-one mommy time. It is fun to see her when Abby gets home. She lights up and says "I missed my sister!" It's fun to see Abby start a new chapter in her life and I'm glad she loves school.

Checking out the school the week before...

Abby and her good friend Ryland.

Here she is the night before all in bed waiting for morning, she was so excited.

The first day arrived. She sat right down and started coloring with Ryland.

She made it off the bus...success!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Lucky 7

Brett and I celebrated our 7-year anniversary on the 23rd of August. I must confess we were pretty boring in our celebration this year because we had 'Back to School' events during the day. But, don't worry, we are going on a date this weekend to make up for it. :)

It's been a great 7 years with challenges and blessings that have brought us closer together. I am so grateful for this good man. I married my match and I love him dearly.

While we were in Utah he took me on a date to the place where he proposed 7 years ago. It was fun to chat, kid free, and reminisce of the past years. There was an awesome sunset that night. We even caught some pictures on our phone of us all sweaty from the hike. I must say he picked a good spot to propose.

Utah

Utah started off with the annual festivities revolving around Utah's Pioneer Day on July 24th. We were able to meet up with family and also some friends from Virginia. The girls loved being doted on by family and being reunited with their East Coast pals again. They wouldn't leave the sides of their friends for all of the parade and it ended in tears when we had to leave. It was great to see them several times during our visit to Utah. I'll always be grateful for the amazing friends we have met as we have lived in different places, they really do become like family.

Brett, Spencer and Reese ran the Deseret News Half Marathon on the 24th and they were awesome. We had a great time cheering them on along the sidelines. All the celebrations of the day concluded with a nice trip up Millcreek Canyon to see my dads family. We had to miss the big reunion last year so it was great to see everyone there and catch up. The girls loved having ice cream and smores in the canyon and they definitely experienced a 'sugar rush.' Phew.

We obviously couldn't get enough of the mountains when we are out West, so the following day we headed on a quick trip up to the Uintah Mountains. I have a lot of fun childhood memories in the Uintah's with family. My mom was extra nice and got a cabin for our trip, which was a definite bonus. The cabin was right next to a stream, and there was even a swimming pool. The girls were in heaven because they could swim AND go throw rocks in the stream til dusk. Plus, there were nice beds to sleep on. When it was too dark to play outside, we all returned to the cabin for a good round of games, an amazing dutch oven dinner, and star gazing. The night was complete with fresh cookies out of the oven to munch on. Talk about a vacation, we were in heaven. The next morning we hiked around Mirror Lake and Moose Horn. My mom had brought along a raft to float on the lake which was a huge hit. We are lucky the raft didn't sink as we ignored the weight limit and piled everyone in. It was Spencer's birthday while we were at the lake so my dad made his famous upside down cake in the dutch oven. Mmmmm. It tasted heavenly other than the wax that happened to melt inside it as he blew out his candles. Opps, my bad. The day ended with the traditional visit to the fish farm. Nothing like the thrill of catching a fish in a flat 20 seconds. Gratefully no one lost their eyes as hooks were flying everywhere and girls screaming. Hopefully the girls have since toughened up for next year.

Later in the week we were able to visit with Brett's cousins in Logan. The girls always look forward to time with their cousins and they love the attention. Angie was nice to make her famous dutch oven potatoes and grilled up a yummy dinner. Our favorite of the day trip while there was going to Bear Lake. We played in the water and found cool rocks in the sand. The water was FREEZING at first, but we adjusted and waded through the blue water. I love that Bear Lake is naturally crystal blue. I also never realized that you can walk about a half a mile out into the water and still be touching the ground, the girls loved that aspect. The trip to Logan ended with a fun visit to Brenda and Keith's berry picking patch. The girls came out of that visit with traces of blackberry smeared all over their faces, they loved it. Our visit to cousins was far too fast, but we are grateful for the chance we had to see family and visit.

The remainder of the trip was full of visits with grandparents, birthday parties, lunch with friends and weddings. I didn't think would fly so quickly in the 3 weeks we were there, but it cruised. We loved stopping by to visit Spencer and Nadine in Provo before we went home. Spencer gave us a cool tour of his work at the BYU Media Center and we even ran into some 'Provo famous' celebrities are in the show "Studio C," which is apparently popular there. We also got to see Nadine's new classroom where she is teaching and the girls loved getting a tour. Our Provo visit ended with a fun hike up to Bridal Falls, which was beautiful. We had such a great trip! It's always hard to leave because we love our visits out West. Thanks everyone for a wonderful time. It was so fun to see everyone and enjoy some 'cooler' weather.

As you can see, my brother Dave got a hold of this picture and did some editing.

Trip to the Unitah's:

Fishing was hilarious.

Games at the cabin

Spencer and Nadine were really nice to take the girls to the zoo for the day. They had such a great time with their uncle and aunt.

Kate feel asleep in his arms...so sweet.

Typical night with Pops getting the girls to walk on his back.

The girls love stories with Nani.

Making cake with Sippy

Lunch with my good friends Sarah and Amy, and below, Reese, Kimi and Marcia (She had to leave before the picture.)

Abby, Kate, Mallory and Emily dancing at the park.

I wish I could have gotten pictures of the Parke and Bradley girls but sadly my phone died at that point.

Kate won first prize at the Sidewalk Sale in Bountiful. She felt pretty cool.

The picture below is from a run I took in the morning while we were in Logan. It was so pretty I wanted to get a picture of the sun coming over the mountain. Well, I went up close to a fence to get a good and angle and little did I know it was an electric fence. Yep, not my brightest moment. It jolted me and I quickly left. Oh boy.

Here you have it...our newly-wed apartment in Logan. I didn't realize how much it really looks like a cellar instead of an apartment, no wonder we had so many spiders. It was Home Sweet Home so it worked great for us. :)