Birthday Girl

I know you're all shocked.  I've posted more in the past 2 weeks than I have in ages!  Get ready for another good one because this little girl just turned 4 years old today!  What????  I know you're flabbergasted just like me, but let's try to move on.  We dragged out the celebrating as long as possible and went to dinner on Thursday night at Red Robin.  Do you love her earrings?  Sydney does all her own accessorizing (in case you ever wondered).

 The next morning Sydney came running in and said, "There's a bunch of balloons in the hall!"  I had spent the night before blowing up about 50 balloons (yes, my cheeks hurt) for her.  We were going to put them in her room to surprise her, but she sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and I knew if that happened and she saw balloons in her room at 3 AM, all would be lost.  So we left them in the hall overnight, but she woke up before we did and found them before we got them in there!  It turned out perfect because we shut all the doors upstairs and they treated it like a ball pit!  They were diving in the balloons, throwing and kicking and sitting on them.  They had SOOO much fun with these that they're still there!  I have to wade through balloons any time I want to get to my room.  Less fun, but still totally worth it!  

 Next were the family presents.

 Then a trip to the zoo.  On your birthday you get a button that says, "Happy Birthday Sydney!" (or whomever) plus a free ice cream cone and carousel ride.  During her carousel ride the zoo personnel even sang Happy Birthday to Sydney.  She was soooo happy.  Mady cried because no one was singing to her and she was convinced it was her birthday too.  Sigh.  When that girl's birthday finally gets here she is going to be overwhelmingly happy.  Sydney did share her birthday ice cream most willingly, so Mady made out just fine.

 Sydney L-O-V-E-D hanging out with Daddy (happy day!)

 Today we had her birthday party and it was so entertaining.  I love having that many toddlers in one place.  It's always hilarious.  We were going to have a pool/water balloon/slip n' slide party (per Syd's request) but it was a teensy bit chilly, so we scrambled and threw together some party games at the last minute.

 Of, course, we had to have the pinata.  And our smallest munchkin learned the hard way why you have to stay away from people swinging at a pinata.  Ouch.

 Sydney got crazy spoiled and got more presents than she's ever seen.  She had such wonderful and fun friends.  They were all perfect.

 And we ate mass quantities of "Sause" (sausage) pizza.  Her shirt can prove it.  I think it might be permanently stained orange.  At least she was happy!

We had so much fun with Sydney and all her friends!  Thanks to everyone who wished her Happy Birthday and who came!  She loved every minute of it!  We are so glad to have her in our family!

As an added bonus, here is a video of the girls with the balloons.  Four of them (because Sydney is 4 years old) had $1 bills in them and after Mady accidentally popped a balloon, Sydney was bound and determined to get the money out of those things!  It was hilarious and seriously entertained her for AT LEAST 20 minutes.  This is definitely a new tradition of ours.  Enjoy.

More Summer Fun

We've had loads of fun with our silly girls this summer!  They sure love being sisters and always have fun togethere!  They've been up "napping" for 3 hours now and haven't stopped chatting the whole time!

 We're so proud of Sydney!  Here she is getting an award at the Ward BBQ for memorizing 6 Articles of Faith.  Great job Sydney!  She's not even 4 yet!

 We got a slip n' slide for the first time ever last week.  So hilarious.  Sydney caught on pretty quick.

 Mady not so much, but she still has fun!



Grandparents Visit

While my parents were here we wnt all over the place!  We took the girls back up to the Butterfly Pavillion and had lots of fun.

 Some of us were very brave and held Rosie the Tarantula (Jess, I added these pics for you!)

  Mady said No freaking way.  Sydney held about 10 butterflies.  She was so good at holding sooooo still!

 We finally got Mady to hold 1.  She is NOT a fan of creepy crawlies, even the pretty ones.  She just kept begging for lunch.

 After the bugs we found a play area.  Mady was thrilled!  But her real love...

 Was the zip line!  We finally got Sydney to go on it twice.  She had a blast and then decided to be terrified of it.  This girl does not like heights.

 Mady must have gone on this thing AT LEAST 6 times.  She LOVED it.

 Two days later we went to the zoo.  We got to feed the birds (Not tuppence a bag though!)

 A

After that we watched the baby tigers forever.  They were chasing each other, one had a boogie board he tried to balance on, and they had a firehose they were playing tug-of-war with!  It was so fun to see them playing and jumping and enjoying life.  It was incredibly fun.  Thanks Mom & Dad for coming to visit!

Rocky Mountain National Park

A few weeks ago my parents came to visit.  We took a nice little day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  It made for a long day and a long drive, but it was worth it!  First we went hiking up to Nymph lake.

 Here's my handsome folks.

 And my cutsey family

 Then we continued up to Dream Lake.  Here's my Dad and Aaron.  Does that view look familiar?  Go check out the Colorado state quarter.  It's this view right here!

 Yay we made it!  Did you know we've also been married 10 years now people?  10 years!  That's a whole decade!  Happy Anniversary to us (not on that exact day, but I was just thinking of it).

 We drove up Trail Ridge Road and went to check out the Alpine Tundra hike.  As you can see, it was windy.  It was also cold, and a lot freaking longer than it said it was.

 Aaron and Sydney did this one last year (a part of it) while I watched Mady sleep in the car.

 Here we all are at a mere 12,000 feet above sea level.  I knew the landscape up there was fragile, but there were signs up there telling us that at their upper limits, trees only grow an inch in diameter ever 100 years and that if you damage the landscape it could take hundreds of years to grow back!  Let's definitely stay on the path! 

We had lots of fun!  I'd been dying to get up there, so I was so glad we did!  Hopefully we can make it again this year!

It's Your Birthday - 80's style

My good friend threw me a birthday party a few weeks back.  We partied like it was 1985.  Hilarious.  Here are the guests:

  The cake (and guest of honor back in the 80s!)  You know you're jealous of those glasses.  There's a reason my mom AND the eye doctor both tried to talk me out of them.  I stood firm.

 Some of the rockin' decor

 Even a mirror ball!  All we needed was a roller rink!

 Our lovely hostess and host and their matching baby

 The bonfire.  Know what's great about my outfit?  Most of the accessories were actually mine back in the 80s.  T-Tie?  Mine.  Sparkly ginormous headband?  Mine.  Some necklaces and the earrings and the 100 bangles?  Mine.  Yeah, I'm sort of a pack rat.

Thanks to everyone who came/put it on.  We had a blast!  Now we have to figure out our next party theme...

Yellowstone National Park

We were in Idaho on my birthday and I realized there was something I wanted to do that I hadn't for a long time - go to Yellowstone!  I grew up 2 hours from Yellowstone National Park, and my mom made sure we went there OFTEN.  We were there every Memorial Day, every Labor Day, and a lot of days in between.  It was fun, but we live sort of far from there now, so we haven't been in years, and neither of our girls had ever been.  We decided to take a VERY last minute trip up there.  We left at 1pm.  I know, we're crazy, but we had so much fun!  We ate bambinos on the way there, and saw 5 moose (including twin calves) on the way in!  Hooray!  Mady declared the moose "beautiful" and was very excited to go in.  We stopped at the Firehole River to dip our feet in.  Sydney was terrified she was going to fall in, so I held her tight.

 She ended up being fine.  It was Mady that fell in!  Oh my gosh, it was hilarious.  The water had been very high previously, so there were holes all over where the buffalo had come down to drink.  Mady (not the most graceful child anyway - you can tell she's mine) was running toward me and went straight down in one!  She sank up to one hip before Nana yanked her out and set her on solid ground.  She started cry/whining and said, "I fell in the muddy!"  She took ONE STEP toward me and fell in another hole! (like I said, not the most graceful!)  When rescued again by Nana she informed me, "I fall in the muddy again!"  Oh silly little girl.  We dipped her in the river and she cleaned off!  Good as new!

 Here we all are!  (Aaron had to work, so my mom took us up! - Thanks Mom!)

 Here's Sydney by one of the beautiful pools up there.  When we pulled into the parking lot for this place, Sydney excitedly announced, "This place is wonderful, and AMAZING!  I LOVE this place!"  I loved sharing a place with them that I had grown up with.

 In my family we generally like the northern loop of the park better (more animals and less tourists), but it's longer, and we didn't really have a lot of time.  So we did the tourist thing and went to watch Old Faithful.  The kids were not overly impressed by this.

On our way out of the park we saw a grizzly bear!  I love seeing wildlife that is still wild and it was fun to see it.  Sydney wanted someone to make it hold still so she could see it, and I had a hard time explaining that this wasn't like the zoo where they all had houses and keepers.  We were in their house and we had to be careful.  She didn't get it, but we had oodles of fun!  We'll definitely be taking them back there!

Idaho

We couldn't go to Utah without going to Idaho too!  Both of our parents live there as well as my brother and one of Aaron's.  My other sister was also coming over to see us, so on the 1st we drove up to see everyone.  We had lots more fun having cousin time, went to an impromptu family reunion when Aaron's aunt and uncle from Nauvoo, IL came to town, got to visit with Aaron's grandmother, and had way too much candy!  Here are the girls at the Rexburg parade with their cousins, 2 aunts & uncles, 2 grandpas, plus mom, dad, & nana.  We had quite the entourage!  We also got to see my SIL's family from Mexico!  We hit the family jackpot while we were there!

 The got so much candy. And then I bought them shaved ice.  And bambinos.  If you don't know what those are, we might not be able to be friends anymore.  Or we might now be best friends because once you figure out what they are you'll realize there was a void in your life you never knew about, but now it's filled.  They're that good.  Ahhh.  I love those things.  Then we went back to Aaron's parents house and tortured the cat.  Thanks Uncle Garth.  He pretty much loved it.  If not the first time, then at least by the third, right?

 We did sparklers and pops while waiting for the fireworks and my kids each had about 10 glow in the dark necklaces, bracelets, and anklets on.  We couldn't have lost those kids if we had tried.  Which is great, since we're rather fond of them.

Then we watched the bestestestest (no really - largest West of the Mississippi) fireworks show.  Oh, excuse me, Boom Boom Show. (Mady)

 We even got to hang out with one of my friends from high school.  We did musicals together and are still besties.  We went to the zoo with Alli and her adorable little guy Grant who is A-Mazing.  He was born with only half a heart and had just had his (last? - cross your fingers!) heart surgery!  He's 2 and he's had like 8 or something, so I think he's due for a hiatus.  Click here if you want to read Grant's story.  Go grab your Kleenexes first though, he'll wait.

 We played with our cousins some more.  Sydney and Kayden are 4 months apart and had such a blast together. 

 Mady found someone to play Playdough with her (her favorite activity)

 While Sydney chased Grandpa around the yard

 I got to see my brother more than I have in ages - wait, you didn't know I had a brother!!!!  Surprise!  I do, he's just a little less gregarious and social than I am.  We had a blast.  His wife just had baby #2 on Sunday, so I'm an aunt again!  Congrats to them!

See what I mean about Sydney and Kayden?  They were crazy together.  My girls decided to dog pile Kayden and they were a pretty even match (together) for him!  He's big and crazy strong so it took both of them to hold him down!

We had so much fun visiting everyone!  Thanks to everyone who traveled and for making the trip awesome!