I think the summer is finally coming to a close. We spent Labor Day weekend up north. On Saturday we did some shopping, we met my mom and picked up Hailee who had spent a few days with her doing all sorts of crafty things, she made an Angry Bird and turned a too tight T-shirt into a pillow. She painted pictures and watched some movies, went out to dinner and had a fun 3 days!
We picked up a picnic lunch and went to Mindy's house to spend time with them and new baby Thomas, G-ma, G-ma, Uncle Chris, and Nathan. We went to Discovery Park and my kids had a wonderful time exploring and playing at such a fun park. Hailee wants to go back to the 'wood park' soon!
We spent the night at my parents house and went to church with them. After church we drove to Hooper to see baby Camille who was born on MY Birthday!!! What a great birthday present:) I hope she enjoys sharing a birthday with me, I'm sure glad I get to share it with her! Heath's family was there again and we enjoyed a nice dinner and visit with all of them (except Mindy's family:( )
Monday, Heath and I went furniture shopping-we are on the look-out for new couches. Our free hand-me-downs are about ready to call it quits!
Now I don't have any plans for the next little bit. I'm sure that can change quickly, conference weekend is coming up and we don't have TV! Until then we shall try to stay home. We did this weekend and it was really nice, I didn't get nearly enough done, but it was good to have a chance to try.
Happy Day I feel updated!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
August
August started off with Spencer heading to Logan for Grandparents weekend. Taryn picked him up on Thursday on her way home from Flowell. She dropped Dustin off at our house to stay the weekend with Hailee. Spencer was very excited to have a sleepover in Dustin's bed. Grandma picked them up Friday morning for a weekend of fun.
Thursday night Jeremy and Josh came down to our house and Friday morning the guys headed down to Zions (National Park #2 for Heath) and hiked the Narrows on Saturday morning. They almost didn't get passes,Jeremy convinced the guy in front of them to go on Sunday instead so that they could have the last three passes for Saturday. They hiked it in 10 hours and came home Saturday night very dirty and very tired!
Friday morning Mindy drove down to spend the weekend with me and the kiddos. She brought some things to make a ooey gooey treat, she played playdough and tag at the park and was an all around good sport for being nearly 9 months pregnant!
Sunday after church we packed up for a trip to Yellowstone and drove to Logan to pick up Spencer and drop of Alyssa for her Grandparents week.
Sunday after dinner I drove us all up to West Yellowstone for more vacation fun! My family had planned to go there all together but it ended up that everyone either couldn't or didn't go. So my little family had the condo to ourselves for a few days then Devi, Jeremy, Mom and Kellee came up Wednesday and finished off the week. We had a three bedroom condo so the kids each took their own room and we made ourselves at home! We arrived just after 11pm so we just unloaded, looked around the condo and headed to bed. Monday morning we slept in a little then got ready and headed out for a day at Yellowstone (National Park #3 for Heath #2 for the rest). It was a slow start getting into the park which Heath informed me was normal and would be common throughout, but we got stopped for about an hour waiting for road construction. I got out with the kids and we met dogs, climbed on rocks and went exploring while we waited. I have been to Yellowstone before but I was probably 5 years old and don't remember it, so it was another place on my vacation list to visit someday. We stopped at a few hot pots and saw an Elk or two. Then went to Old Faithful and had lunch and waited an hour for it to go off. It was pretty neat but the kids were sick of it by then, and Heath and seen it before, so as soon as it was over we joined the happy throng of tourist and got back on the road to see some more. We stopped at the falls and the kids had fallen asleep. I told Heath that we could just take turns going to look at it. I watched him walk over to the path that said trail and then the kids woke up so I hurried and got them out to catch up to Heath. We started hiking down the trail and calling out for Dad, but never caught up to him. We made it all the way to the bottom (about 3/4 of a mile and about 15 or so switch backs). The end of the trail is right at the side of the second waterfall. It was really pretty, the kids even thought it was cool-but Heath was NOT at the bottom. So I was now DREADING the hike back. It went kinda like this.
Me: Let's race to the bench up there!
Kids: Okay!...a few steps later...
I'm tired Mom, hold me.
***repeat that about every switchback or so, picture me carrying both kids in different uncomfortable positions, add a couple of comments from passersby
ie-"Oh wow!, you've got your hands full"-
Get the idea?!
Well we finally made it to the top, I was Very hot, Very tired and later realized Very sunburned. BUT I still feel like it was worth it, I think that waterfall was Awesome! If I ever go back to Yellowstone, I am going to the falls and doing some of the other hikes that overlook the falls. It was my favorite part, I was only sorry that Heath wasn't there. He realized that the trail was 3/4 of a mile (I obviously did not) and turned back to an overlook-oops I didn't see that and should have waited:)
He decided to just wait by the car since he didn't know where we had gone, poor guy had to wait quite awhile! We then finished the rest of the loop and headed home to...you guessed it the pool!
Tuesday morning we decided to go to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center just across the street from the condo. It was fun chance for the kids to actually see grizzly bears and wolves up close. Even at an interesting place like this our kids lasted just over an hour. We finished up and went back to the condo for lunch and...swimming:) After naps and dinner we headed to town to look for souvenirs (which are very hard to find unless you want to spend lots of $$$) We came away with a ninja sword and a small stuffed dog in a cage.
Hailee informed us that she didn't need something that reminded her of Yellowstone because she could just remember it in her head!
After some ice cream we headed back and the next morning we packed up and headed back to Logan to get Alyssa and head home.
About the time we passed Springville, Mindy called and told us that she had her baby! Baby Thomas was here! We decided rather than turn around that we would just go visit her the next afternoon.
The next weekend we went with our new friends Shelly and Jimmy to Capitol Reef National Park (#4 and #3 on the NP visits-look at us go! Don't worry after GC we realized we'd be visiting alot and bought a pass, so there are more NP to be visited by us in the next year!)
Shelly and I took the kids, tents and food and headed out around 12 on Friday so we could be sure to get a campsite. The guys and one school-goer were going to leave after work. We made it to the campground fine, but it was raining and muddy so we decided to get ice cream and wait out the storm. Well the kids fell in the mud first thing out of the car! After ice cream it had dried up a bit so we started to set up tents.
While we were setting up a nice older couple camped next to us asked me if we had brought shampoo (after telling us they had been camping for several days) I thought it an odd question but said "no".
They then pointed at Alyssa and said "Well, You're gonna need it!"
Spencer had so lovingly plopped piles of mud on her head...but as you can see, she didn't seem to mind too much!
Well it was very muddy and dirty after that, our clothes and coats were with the boys so there was nothing to do but let them keep playing! And they did, all that night and the next morning too!
We went on a hike, the one we wanted to had been washed out by the rain. We saw some petroglyphs and went for a drive. We also went to a U-Pick orchard where you can pick and eat all the apples (or fruit) that you want while in the orchard and pay about $1 lb for anything you take out. Hailee LOVED picking apples, she doesn't like to eat them though and she wasn't always good about picking good apples, but she got a few and we took them home!
I asked Hailee what her favorite part was. "It was playing in the mud, but you wouldn't let us do that Mom!" -Well it's true we kept telling them to get out of the mud, but it's not like they listened:) Sorry Hailee!
The next weekend we picked Heath up from work on Friday afternoon and by 4:15 we were unloading the car at Oak Creek campground in Oak City. We only camped there once while living there but we really enjoyed it and wanted to go back, and since it was my birthday weekend, that is what I chose to do. We can also get to that campground faster than we can get to one up Nephi canyon since we don't have to wait for Heath to get home from work, so it's a new favorite place. We were the only ones in the entire campground. We did a little hiking, some base ball, soccer, exploring, cow finding and complaining:)We also dipped our feet in the creek right by our campsite, but Hailee had a run-in with Stinging Nettle nearby and that is probably where part of the complaining came from. She is now writing a book about stinging nettle. (It is about a page long and so far I've done all the writing!)
I would like to say that we didn't bring enough for them to do, but we did and they only wanted to do each thing for about 5 minutes or less. It was just a one nighter and we packed up and had lunch at the Oak City Park. It was fun to be back in O.C. but I guess I am still glad that we live closer to everything over here in Nephi!
Whew! What an August!
Thursday night Jeremy and Josh came down to our house and Friday morning the guys headed down to Zions (National Park #2 for Heath) and hiked the Narrows on Saturday morning. They almost didn't get passes,Jeremy convinced the guy in front of them to go on Sunday instead so that they could have the last three passes for Saturday. They hiked it in 10 hours and came home Saturday night very dirty and very tired!
Friday morning Mindy drove down to spend the weekend with me and the kiddos. She brought some things to make a ooey gooey treat, she played playdough and tag at the park and was an all around good sport for being nearly 9 months pregnant!
Sunday after church we packed up for a trip to Yellowstone and drove to Logan to pick up Spencer and drop of Alyssa for her Grandparents week.
Sunday after dinner I drove us all up to West Yellowstone for more vacation fun! My family had planned to go there all together but it ended up that everyone either couldn't or didn't go. So my little family had the condo to ourselves for a few days then Devi, Jeremy, Mom and Kellee came up Wednesday and finished off the week. We had a three bedroom condo so the kids each took their own room and we made ourselves at home! We arrived just after 11pm so we just unloaded, looked around the condo and headed to bed. Monday morning we slept in a little then got ready and headed out for a day at Yellowstone (National Park #3 for Heath #2 for the rest). It was a slow start getting into the park which Heath informed me was normal and would be common throughout, but we got stopped for about an hour waiting for road construction. I got out with the kids and we met dogs, climbed on rocks and went exploring while we waited. I have been to Yellowstone before but I was probably 5 years old and don't remember it, so it was another place on my vacation list to visit someday. We stopped at a few hot pots and saw an Elk or two. Then went to Old Faithful and had lunch and waited an hour for it to go off. It was pretty neat but the kids were sick of it by then, and Heath and seen it before, so as soon as it was over we joined the happy throng of tourist and got back on the road to see some more. We stopped at the falls and the kids had fallen asleep. I told Heath that we could just take turns going to look at it. I watched him walk over to the path that said trail and then the kids woke up so I hurried and got them out to catch up to Heath. We started hiking down the trail and calling out for Dad, but never caught up to him. We made it all the way to the bottom (about 3/4 of a mile and about 15 or so switch backs). The end of the trail is right at the side of the second waterfall. It was really pretty, the kids even thought it was cool-but Heath was NOT at the bottom. So I was now DREADING the hike back. It went kinda like this.
Me: Let's race to the bench up there!
Kids: Okay!...a few steps later...
I'm tired Mom, hold me.
***repeat that about every switchback or so, picture me carrying both kids in different uncomfortable positions, add a couple of comments from passersby
ie-"Oh wow!, you've got your hands full"-
Get the idea?!
Well we finally made it to the top, I was Very hot, Very tired and later realized Very sunburned. BUT I still feel like it was worth it, I think that waterfall was Awesome! If I ever go back to Yellowstone, I am going to the falls and doing some of the other hikes that overlook the falls. It was my favorite part, I was only sorry that Heath wasn't there. He realized that the trail was 3/4 of a mile (I obviously did not) and turned back to an overlook-oops I didn't see that and should have waited:)
He decided to just wait by the car since he didn't know where we had gone, poor guy had to wait quite awhile! We then finished the rest of the loop and headed home to...you guessed it the pool!
Tuesday morning we decided to go to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center just across the street from the condo. It was fun chance for the kids to actually see grizzly bears and wolves up close. Even at an interesting place like this our kids lasted just over an hour. We finished up and went back to the condo for lunch and...swimming:) After naps and dinner we headed to town to look for souvenirs (which are very hard to find unless you want to spend lots of $$$) We came away with a ninja sword and a small stuffed dog in a cage.
Hailee informed us that she didn't need something that reminded her of Yellowstone because she could just remember it in her head!
After some ice cream we headed back and the next morning we packed up and headed back to Logan to get Alyssa and head home.
About the time we passed Springville, Mindy called and told us that she had her baby! Baby Thomas was here! We decided rather than turn around that we would just go visit her the next afternoon.
The next weekend we went with our new friends Shelly and Jimmy to Capitol Reef National Park (#4 and #3 on the NP visits-look at us go! Don't worry after GC we realized we'd be visiting alot and bought a pass, so there are more NP to be visited by us in the next year!)
Shelly and I took the kids, tents and food and headed out around 12 on Friday so we could be sure to get a campsite. The guys and one school-goer were going to leave after work. We made it to the campground fine, but it was raining and muddy so we decided to get ice cream and wait out the storm. Well the kids fell in the mud first thing out of the car! After ice cream it had dried up a bit so we started to set up tents.
While we were setting up a nice older couple camped next to us asked me if we had brought shampoo (after telling us they had been camping for several days) I thought it an odd question but said "no".
They then pointed at Alyssa and said "Well, You're gonna need it!"
Spencer had so lovingly plopped piles of mud on her head...but as you can see, she didn't seem to mind too much!
Well it was very muddy and dirty after that, our clothes and coats were with the boys so there was nothing to do but let them keep playing! And they did, all that night and the next morning too!
We went on a hike, the one we wanted to had been washed out by the rain. We saw some petroglyphs and went for a drive. We also went to a U-Pick orchard where you can pick and eat all the apples (or fruit) that you want while in the orchard and pay about $1 lb for anything you take out. Hailee LOVED picking apples, she doesn't like to eat them though and she wasn't always good about picking good apples, but she got a few and we took them home!
I asked Hailee what her favorite part was. "It was playing in the mud, but you wouldn't let us do that Mom!" -Well it's true we kept telling them to get out of the mud, but it's not like they listened:) Sorry Hailee!
The next weekend we picked Heath up from work on Friday afternoon and by 4:15 we were unloading the car at Oak Creek campground in Oak City. We only camped there once while living there but we really enjoyed it and wanted to go back, and since it was my birthday weekend, that is what I chose to do. We can also get to that campground faster than we can get to one up Nephi canyon since we don't have to wait for Heath to get home from work, so it's a new favorite place. We were the only ones in the entire campground. We did a little hiking, some base ball, soccer, exploring, cow finding and complaining:)We also dipped our feet in the creek right by our campsite, but Hailee had a run-in with Stinging Nettle nearby and that is probably where part of the complaining came from. She is now writing a book about stinging nettle. (It is about a page long and so far I've done all the writing!)
I would like to say that we didn't bring enough for them to do, but we did and they only wanted to do each thing for about 5 minutes or less. It was just a one nighter and we packed up and had lunch at the Oak City Park. It was fun to be back in O.C. but I guess I am still glad that we live closer to everything over here in Nephi!
Whew! What an August!
July
July started off with Hailee heading to Logan for Grandparents weekend. Her and Dustin had a wonderful time as usual.
While she was gone, the rest of us had our own good time at the Nephi City Park July 4th celebration. Heath and I played in a Volleyball tournament in the morning. Then we had fun taking Spencer and Alyssa to play some carnival games. Spencer LOVED having all the attention on him. He tried the bounce houses, carnival games, jail rides, train rides. We had lunch at the park and watched some of talent show. Then we went home for naps and planned to go back for dinner. Turns out dinner was more of a to-go affair. Everything was cleaned up and you could eat your dinner at the park if you wanted, but otherwise it was handed to you in a plastic sac!
We picked Hailee up at Jeremy's house on the 4th. We got there in the morning so we could watch the parade that passed right in front-it made for some great seats. Alyssa loved the candy and had three or four otter pops! At lunch we went over to Uncle Jerry's for a pool party with the Hall family. Hailee found a life jacket (and had just gotten done with swimming lessons the week before) and was in heaven floating around the pool with all the cousins. Spencer was a little nervous (he did NOT like swimming lessons) and just stayed at the edge with me. Alyssa enjoyed the stair for a bit as well. I think Hailee was the only one too busy swimming to enjoy all the food, but we sure did. There is always plenty and it was all good!
After swimming we went back to Jeremy's for dutch oven dinner and fireworks. The city firework are close to his house, so he has a great view from the backyard. Pretty nice to enjoy it all from home!
On the 16th we went to the Ute Stampede. I have never been to a rodeo before, and this one is a BIG DEAL around here. Alyssa didn't come and the kids lost interest pretty quick. I missed some of the best parts because I had to take the kids for bathroom breaks, but it was fun to finally go to a rodeo-it's funny that I've never been since the Strawberry Days rodeo was every year and close to my house, but it was worth the wait-I had a great time!
Over the 24th we went to Vernal and Roosevelt for the Allred reunion. We met at Grandma Great's to help clean up her house and yard a little. Then we drove over to Vernal to check into our hotel along with G-ma, G-pa, Nathan, Jeremy, Taryn, Dustin and Laney. We all went swimming-Yay! Then got changed and drove over to Altamont for a small town RODEO! It was lots of fun. Very different from the Ute Stampede the week before, but with cousins around our kids lasted a bit longer. My favorite part was the cowhide racing. They had kids jump on a piece of conveyor belt (cowhide) and get pulled really fast through the dirt by a horse! We still didn't stay till the end, it just kept going and going and going! We left just after 9 and headed back to Vernal where we watched a 'show' then went to bed!
The next day we headed to the dinosaur museum, visited at Clark's house then drove to Whiterocks for a hot dog roast at our favorite campground. It was lots of driving around the basin, but it was a fun reunion and good to see all the family.
The next weekend the kids and I met up with Alisha, Sydney, Mom, Kellee, Jenny and Emily and drove to Boise for Makayla's baptism and Amryn and Malia's baby blessings.
We played with Becca's kids and couldn't get enough of it! Once again we stayed in a motel and went swimming and watched shows-I think my kids are getting addicted! It was fun to have all the sisters together and I felt like the weekend went by much too fast!
Hailee turned 4!
On June 29th my little Hailee turned four years old! My kids are growing up so fast. The night before her birthday I made sure to take a picture of all three. They are 3, 2 and 1! Also that night I told Hailee that I was sure going to miss my three year old Hailee. Her solution: Draw a picture of a 3 so that I would remember her! The next morning when she woke up I told her Happy Birthday.
She said, "My birthday is today?"
Yes.
"Mom, do you miss your three year old Hailee?"
Yes I do I said.
"Well you better make your picture today!"-what a cutie
I also asked her what 4 yr old Hailee would be like, I asked her if 4 yr old Hailee would cry less.
She said, "I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see!"
She really is a fun girl and I have loved having her as my daughter. She loves to color and write. Lately she is really into writing down words (a bunch of letters on a page) She goes through lots of paper. Her drawing is really improving as well. One day she was getting really frustrated that her people didn't look good -their arms were coming out of their heads- and within a few days she was drawing regular looking stick figures.
She is starting preschool in the fall and is very excited about it. She put her backpack away and doesn't want to play with it as a toy anymore. It is for school!
Her favorite color is pink. She loves movies so her favorite one changes often. Her best friend is Caroline Garrison. (she often asks if we can be done living in Nephi so she could go back and live by Caroline) Her favorite food right now is Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches, more often than not she has that three meals a day. Her favorite treat is mine too, Reese's and candy corn! She loves to play pretend and pretend that she or her friends are a dog and someone (usually me) is the owner. She would love to have a real dog or cat, we have rabbits and I think those are great! She loves books and doesn't let me miss reading her a bednight story. She is a very good helper and enjoys helping me cook and do whatever craft I am trying to work on. She like to play chess with her Dad. She likes to have dance parties in the family room where we all dance to the music. She enjoys FHE-the most when she is activity or treat! and she loves to give the talk in Primary. All year she has been looking forward to the program so that she can talk into the microphone in the chapel.
We sure love having Hailee in our family and are excited to see what 4 year old Hailee will be like!
She said, "My birthday is today?"
Yes.
"Mom, do you miss your three year old Hailee?"
Yes I do I said.
"Well you better make your picture today!"-what a cutie
I also asked her what 4 yr old Hailee would be like, I asked her if 4 yr old Hailee would cry less.
She said, "I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see!"
She really is a fun girl and I have loved having her as my daughter. She loves to color and write. Lately she is really into writing down words (a bunch of letters on a page) She goes through lots of paper. Her drawing is really improving as well. One day she was getting really frustrated that her people didn't look good -their arms were coming out of their heads- and within a few days she was drawing regular looking stick figures.
She is starting preschool in the fall and is very excited about it. She put her backpack away and doesn't want to play with it as a toy anymore. It is for school!
Her favorite color is pink. She loves movies so her favorite one changes often. Her best friend is Caroline Garrison. (she often asks if we can be done living in Nephi so she could go back and live by Caroline) Her favorite food right now is Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches, more often than not she has that three meals a day. Her favorite treat is mine too, Reese's and candy corn! She loves to play pretend and pretend that she or her friends are a dog and someone (usually me) is the owner. She would love to have a real dog or cat, we have rabbits and I think those are great! She loves books and doesn't let me miss reading her a bednight story. She is a very good helper and enjoys helping me cook and do whatever craft I am trying to work on. She like to play chess with her Dad. She likes to have dance parties in the family room where we all dance to the music. She enjoys FHE-the most when she is activity or treat! and she loves to give the talk in Primary. All year she has been looking forward to the program so that she can talk into the microphone in the chapel.
We sure love having Hailee in our family and are excited to see what 4 year old Hailee will be like!
June
We didn't go anywhere the first part of June. We did meet some new friends in Nephi and started spending almost everyday together. Shelly has three kids that are 6,4, and 1 1/2, her 4 yr old is only two days older than Hailee. She doesn't have any boys but Spencer is a good sport and enjoyed dressing up in Princess costumes with the girls (maybe a little too much??? We will have to break him of these habits sooner than later). We went to the park, school playground, swimming in our yard and playing inside where it was cool.
We also had the Reed Hall Family Reunion. This year we went to Manti and stayed at the Temple View campground. It also had Yogi Bear at it and Hailee enjoyed being at "Jellystone Park" (we had just seen the new movie before coming here) As soon as we got there Jeremy, Taryn, Chris, Heath and I headed over to the Manti temple for a session. This is the temple Heath and I were married at and we had never done a session here. Wow! I was so amazed! I really enjoyed the live session and all the paintings and decor, I could have just stared for hours, it was wonderful.
We came back to camp and had a weekend full of swimming, good food, cowboy games, birthday cupcakes for Dustin and fun hike up Maple Canyon in Wales, more food and a picnic at Lake Palisades where we rented paddle boats and just relaxed. We have been having Reed Hall reunions for a few years now and they are always fun. I really enjoy getting together with Heath's family and I am glad we get to see them so often. (not often enough for Grandma though!) *sorry no pictures of this, I forgot my camera and will have to get some from others* found one...this is what happens when Doggy Blanket touches Uncle Josh's hot lantern! -he had reconstructive back surgery when we got home! He feels much better:)
We also went up to Logan for Father's Day this year. Heath had purchased a gift for his dad in February and was SO excited to give it to him in person. We hadn't ALL been up since Jan. so it was fun for everyone. We met Maria goat and had a chance to feed her. Grandpa fed the kids some "strawberries" that turned out about how you'd expect! Heath, Hailee, Spencer and Reed went fishing and Spencer caught 2 Rainbow trout! (Hailee was a little disappointed, but we'll keep trying. The boys cooked them up and ate them for dinner. Spencer tried a piece and didn't really like it, but if you ask him he would probably say he did like it. I don't think you could get him to taste it again anytime soon though!
May
In May we went on our First Big Family Vacation! I was really excited because we hadn't really been anywhere other than camping and family reunions (at least that's how I felt) We decided that since Heath's cousin would be coming home to Arizona from his mission that we would make Arizona our destination.
We left on a Thursday afternoon and drove to Page Az. We made it all the way to Kanab before we had to stop, and Hailee refused to get out of the car. So we made another two stops shortly thereafter. One on the side of the road, with no luck and another a short distance later where there happened to be a port-a-potty :)
We had hoped to go swimmming but it was an outdoor pool and a bit too chilly. Instead we met Grandma Great Allred, Karol, Kathy and Kylie and saw the Glenn Canyon Dam, and then went to Denny's for dinner. (That place always looks more appetizing than it ends up being!)
*tip* if you click on these picture pages they should enlarge for easier viewing.
The next morning we headed out to the Grand Canyon! I had never been and was really looking forward to it. We drove and drove and drove and finally made it to our first stop, The Watchtower. We went all the way to the top and came out on a landing to overlook the Grand Canyon and heard Hailee say, "Okay, can we go now?" It was also very cold at the GC and since I packed for Arizona weather I didn't think to bring jackets. At lunch we had a picnic and layered the kids in clothes to keep as warm as possible. Then we hiked a little ways down the rim with Hailee on Heath's shoulders, Alyssa falling asleep in the pack on his chest and Spencer falling asleep in my arms. We didn't go too far before deciding we'd be better off to call it a trip!
We made it to Scottsdale on Friday afternoon and went swimming and had dinner and watched TV (by the end of our summer travels we found that our kids loved the pool and TV more than anything else we had planned-go figure!)
Saturday morning Grandma and Grandpa Hall and Nathan met us and we headed to the Phoenix Zoo. It was a really big, neat zoo. The animal enclosures were much bigger than Hogle Zoo and they had more things to see, so it was fun to go to a different zoo. However not far into that trip Hailee was asking to go back to the pool. That afternoon we went swimming, ate dinner, then headed to Uncle Ted's house for a homecoming party for Alex.
Sunday was the homecoming talk, we stayed and had lunch and visited for awhile then headed back to Page for the night. On Monday we drove through Cedar City so I could stop and see my friend Sara. On the way home from Cedar the kids slept for about 2 1/2 hours-the longest length of time they slept in the car during the entire trip!
It was a really fun vacation and I am glad that we went (in May on a cool week for Arizona!).
We finished off the month by going to Grandma Hall's Fancy Hat Tea Party! Grandma worked so hard to make fancy tea party foods. We all dressed up and wore fancy hats (maybe not for long, but we did have them at some point!) We fed the kids and got our own food and all enjoyed some wonderful food and wonderful weather. We spent the night at Grandma's and had a fun time! I think this is a new tradition and I am looking forward to next year.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Alyssa's First Birthday
She is ONE and such joy! I got her pictures taken at target last week and she started off shy and ended up with faces like these. The photographer said, looks like we got all her emotions except crying. I replied, nope she doesn't really cry, so it looks like we got them all! It is so true, she is such a great baby. I love that I can go places with her and she is so content to sit and play. She loves her brother and sister and is constantly trying to follow them around and be involved with what they are doing.
Aunt Alisha gave Alyssa this cute shirt and bow for her birhday (the skirt we borrowed from Sydney for the pictures-so cute, right!)
This dress was Nadine's when she was one and she wants all her grandkids to have a picture in it when they are one. Isn't she adorable in it.
Grandma and Grandpa Hall celebrated early when they came to visit. They brought Alyssa a baby doll with accessories. She is very into feeding the baby and loving the baby. If you show her what to do, she will copy it.
Her actual birthday was the same day as my Grandpa's funeral which was nice because the family was all together for it. I made her cake...it was supposed to have a fondant bow and be really cute, but I need to learn how to do fondant first! Then I made mini cupcakes which turned out great for all the little grandkids running around-less mess (not no mess, just less!)
I loved watching her open her presents...mostly because it involved so much help from others. Spencer helped open several and Sydney found the ones that suited her and took off with them. She got a baby doll from Grandma Gardner and was bouncing up and down waiting for Heath to get it out of the box, it was so cute.
I love how she devoured her cake! It took her a minute, but as you can see she really got into it and made a great mess!
Happy First Birthday Alyssa!
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