1st & 5th

After our Utah trip, Talia was ready to go back to school. She dreaded the unplanned 6 weeks left of summer. Several days after we returned, and we stayed home all day long, Landen just about flipped out of sheer boredom. We passed our time dilly dallying at water parks, having friends over for morning swims, eating popcorn & Icee's while shopping at Target, summer clearance shopping at Dillard's followed by a pretzel w/ cheese and playing at the mall playground. We smelled all the sweet signature lotions at Bath & Body Works and later tested our sniffers' memory by taking turns doing blindfolded "smell tests" on the 5 fragrances we brought home. (Talia got all 5 right!) We went camping with our beloved cousins. Talia and I bought songs off of iTunes, had fashion sessions and did pedicures together. We read our way to the ballpark (library summer reading program). We just had a lot of beautiful togetherness. The four of us just found our way together into such a harmonious union. Everyone has been looking forward to their kids starting school. And I have too, really... But now they're gone, and I really, really miss them. :( So anyway, without further adieu, I give you...

THE KIDS' FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

Here are our traditional 1st-day-of-school-out-in-front-of-the-house pictures...

Talia woke up at 6:15 to plug in the hot rollers for her hair.

My new favorite picture of Landen...

...not one to be left out.

...on our way

Daddy took the reins in finding Landen's class meeting spot.

I can't believe he's in 1st grade!!!

LTB with his teacher.

Talia with her sassy friends...

Talia wasn't very supportive of my click click clicking. Apparently, 5th graders don't like to be photographed throughout the process of the 1st morning...

"Go away, please."

"MOM!!! BEAT IT!!!"

Madilyn says "Tomorrow, I'm going to school. But I'm not gonna meet any teachers." Any guesses what that means?! She sure was a cute little supportive sister.

2.5 hours until they come home. I can't wait!

II

Alright... On to Part II. And just to warn ya - It's action packed.

We spent Landen's 6th birthday while in Utah. My mom made him the traditional fancy cake, and we sang all THREE verses to "Happy Birthday." ;)

That night, Tom, Landen and I attended a SLC Bee's baseball game. "Bumble," the team's mascot signed Landen's birthday shirt "Happy 6th Bee-day. Bumble." He was SO excited!!!

Also on Landen's birthday, his grandpa gave him a nice, short, safe ride on a Harley.

On the first night we arrived in Utah, we celebrated my grandparents' 55th wedding anniversary. They are a truly amazing couple with an incredible legacy.

My mom made up a song set to the tune of "Clementine." It has 5 verses and was SO cute! Here are the words to the chorus:

Paul and Cheren, Mom and Dad, Grandpa, Grandma,
How you’re loved!
You have blessed us all our lives and
We’re here because of YOU!!!

Here are a couple more pictures of our Ogden Dinosaur Museum. (That's not what it's really called in case you ever try to look for it)

I love Madilyn's sweet little face in this one.

Upstairs, there is a really cool dinosaur robotics exhibit. Madilyn absolutely freaked out and refused to be in that room... until she noticed the little baby dinos (that weren't moving) and seemed to be saying "Hi." But she still stayed as far away as possible from the gnarling biggies.

On Father's Day, we went to Bridal Veil Falls. Talia climbed way up that waterfall.

One night, my mom and I almost drove ourselves crazy figuring how to go to see Beauty and the Beast at the Murray Amphitheater. (Someone freaked us out by telling us how disastrous the traffic was afterwards AND we thought Madilyn wouldn't do so well.) But, my sweet darling proved us wrong, and sat completely still on my lap throughout the entire 3 hour play! She was absolutely entranced. She couldn't stop talking about the Beast and the wolves for weeks.

We also enjoyed the Murray City swimming pool. Landen was going down the slide and jumping off the diving boards almost non-stop. It seems like they've taken out most of the diving boards around our house. I even re-lived my old diving days by doing a couple inwards & back layouts.

I've heard about the game Ticket To Ride over the past year, but for some reason, I had it in my head that it'd be lame. But it's not. In fact, I dominated the board in 3 of the 4 games we played. :)

On out last night in Utah, we had a grand fireworks show right in front of my parents' house. The neighbor across the street is a fireworks dealer, so he kindly gifted us some super fancy explosives. Madilyn handled the show quite well - as long as I was pressing my hands over her ears.

One last little nug for ya... At Wheeler Farm, every evening at 5:00 you can milk a cow for 50 cents! So we stood in a 20-kid-deep line for a bit... Finally Landen was first in line with Talia right behind him when... The cow pooped. Not only did the cow poop... It splattered. That's all I'm gonna say about that.



Well... There are three huge events that I haven't even touched on yet... Any guesses what those 3 might be?

Utah Part 1?!

I've been meaning to blog about our trip to Utah, but have been a bit overwhelmed on where to even start. We had an action packed three weeks that can't possibly be fully appreciated in one blog. Unless I spent like 3 days on it, which I don't intend to do. So here's the shortened version...

I've been calling this vacation "The Vacation of Thrills." I just felt like a kid most of the time. We went repelling, rode down a zip-line and alpine slide, dived off diving boards, swung on bars, rode bikes & motorcycles, went on hikes, rode roller coasters, milked a cow, went to museums & a HUGE family reunion... I just loved every second.

Landen was finally tall enough to get to ride on the roller coasters at Lagoon this year. Here is his first ride on what we call "The White Roller Coaster." (Old fashioned, herky-jerky)

Going up the first hill...

"Mom, we're going higher. Mom, we're going really high. Mom, this is

TOO HIGH!"

...and his sweet little face going down the first hill..

Last year, Alaina and I snuck our 20-month-old babies onto "Tidal Wave." They didn't like it. This year, we gave them a break and took them on "Dino Drop." It's a kid-sized free-fall ride. They didn't like it. Here are their sweet little faces before they knew what was going to happen...

We also went to this cool dinosaur museum in Ogden. It was really fun.

This picture fits. :)

That's all I have in me for now. Maybe this will turn into a 3 day thing. NOOOOOO!

MRB's ABC's

Sadly, 3rd children's milestones are often somehow overlooked... :( I remember vividly when Talia first sang her ABC's. It was a month before her 2nd birthday, and she'd sing "ABCDEFG-KKK-LMNOP..." It was SO cute! Madilyn wasn't quite as early a bloomer as Talia was. I knew that at her 2nd birthday, she was nowhere near being able to sing her ABC's. Somewhere between 2 and 2.5, my baby magically learned her ABC's. It must've been from her electronic car! About a month ago, I turned the camera to video mode, pressed record and was shocked at what came out of her mouth...

Creek Camping 2

We discovered another fabulous creekside camping spot about an hour and a half away from our house. AND it wasn't a developed campsite, so it was FREE. AND we got to have a campfire. Triple bonus. :) (Does that sound 80's?!)

MRB's rock-hopping position

Madilyn got SO dirty. Here's how...

Frisbee 5-year-old boy style

I'm in love with this man. :)

A Dream Come True

I'm kind of one of those obnoxious moms that always tries to play on the kids' playground... I get really excited when I come across a chin-up bar at a park. I hop up there and twirl around a couple of times. I just can't help it. I can "Skin the Cat" and do "Dead Man's Drop" with the best of those 6th grade girls!

So I was talking with a girlfriend a couple weeks ago, and I mentioned my desire for playground equipment geared towards adults. She told me about this fabulous park that's only TWO miles from my house! It's my dream come true. I spent a total of five hours at this park on my birthday this past week. I met a friend and her son there in the morning, then dragged Corey & Sally's family there in the evening.

This park has huge shade trees (important in AZ), a huge grassy meadow (great for cartwheels & handstands), frisbee golf, a path with exercise equipment alongside it (including my chin-up bar!), a lake, ducks and TWO playgrounds - a regular one, and a FUN one with all these cool spring-loaded surf boards & balance tracks & stuff. Here is my favorite piece of equipment...

I think Corey loves this thing just as much as I do! He cracks me up!

Run Away to Utah

I just had the most wonderful weekend getaway EVER! I got away from home - completely alone for the first time in 7 years (no kid under 2 to fly free with me!) - for 72 blissful hours. I headed north to Salt Lake City for a long weekend of family fun. Corey, Sally & girls drove up and Erica & Baby T also flew in.

I think the part of my trip that I most looked forward to was finally getting to meet Trenton. He is such a doll! And a chunker! It was so cute to see Erica as a mother. She's much less high-stress than I was when my kids were that age. I didn't end up with any pictures of Erica & her babe, here's the gorgeous Rachel & her nephew...

I'm so glad I got to be there to experience a "first" in Trenton's life - his first TOOTH made its appearance while we were there.

My dad, sisters and I sang in church, accompanied by my mother. It went great (except that I sang the wrong words on my solo!).

I got to see my Grammy twice and also met my cousin Kendall's fiance, Josh, for the first time. Somehow didn't snap a single picture that evening. Can someone please send me some?

Corey was quite the Guitar Hero.

I completed my second half-marathon this weekend. It went SO well. I didn't even turn my Ipod on until Mile 11. I was just enjoying the scenery while cheering on the cheerleaders. Erica ran her 1st half-marathon, and Sally did the full. Erica sure pulled me through those last few miles. She was amazing. Here's us at the Expo...

The Army had a rock wall at the Expo. I'd never climbed a rock wall before, so I was excited to get check it out. (I had to give them fake info on the release form so they can't recruit me!)

Here's us in our SLC Marathon race shirts...

...Sally whooping me at a handstand competition...

And finally, THE RACE! My dad and Corey caught us a mile 4.

The full marathon runners ran the same course as the half for the first 6 miles, except for having an extra loop through Sugarhouse Park. We just happened to converge with Sally on this corner where the photogs were standing.

Sally looking strong...

The photogs...

We actually got to see Sally cross the finish line. The announcer was randomly cheering on the runners saying "Strong finish #2580!" As Sally came across, my dad shouted up to the him "It's Sally! Sally Williams!" The announcer said "Nice run, Sally. Sally Williamson crosses the finish..."

Corey made us laugh.

G&G's place was within walking distance from the finish. (We had them come pick us up anyway!) We hopped right in their jacuzzi. It was GREAT! I'm so thankful to have come from such a loving, supportive family.

It's amazing how having the opportunity to miss husband and kids really makes you appreciate them. Tom did SO good with the kids. I came home to a clean house and happy, well fed children. Good job, Tom and thanks Mom & Dad!