Salt Lake Day Trip

We had not ridden the Frontrunner for a couple of years and thought it would be fun to go to Salt Lake before the summer ended.  We first went to the Clark Planetarium and watched a 3D IMAX movie about two people who saved endangered elephants and orangutans.  It was pretty fascinating and my kids loved it. We stayed in the planetarium for awhile after checking out all the interesting things they have (like walking on the moon!).  Then, we went to the Discovery Gateway.  I don't know how many pictures we have of the girls on their giant horse, but it is their favorite section!  They played for awhile and then we went to get dinner.  (I love that you can leave Discovery and come back later).  When we went back, the girls had their eyes on some stuffed snakes in the gift shop and they used all of the money they had saved to buy them each one.  It's always amazing to see what they get in their mind to buy.  Fun day!

More Summer Snippits

Summer always means fireworks and this year we found a new place to watch the Weber State fireworks.  It had a perfect view, wasn't too crowded and it was in the middle of the neighborhood so we could get to our car quickly.  We had season passes to Lagoon again and you would think with all the times we went there I would have more than one picture, but Brielle on the train is it!  I love any sleeping pictures!  It's so funny to me that Brielle zonked out in the middle of the day on her bean bag.  We played hard this summer!  My girls also won some fish at the Riverdale fun days.  I'm don't remember what the number four means that Emma is signing, but it was probably the amount of days our fish were going to last!  And if you want to know what to do with Jenga pieces besides playing Jenga, check out Brielle's cute letters.

St George Getaway

Our big getaway this summer was to St George.  We learned from last year the car ride could be long so we took some movies and books to read on the way down.  We stayed at a hotel that had free breakfast and the girls loved making their own waffles.  Every morning after breakfast we went swimming of course! It was the perfect time because we had the pool to ourselves and it wasn't too hot.  We would swim for about 2 hours and then we'd get cleaned up for the day and grab some lunch.  After lunch we went shopping or to the park or to the movies. (While we were shopping, we saw this little lizard on the wall and the girls were just amazed!) One night we went to see Aladdin at the Tuacahn Amphitheater.  It was fantastic! It had some parts in 3D which were really cool and they did the magic carpet ride right above our heads.  I worried it might be too long for Brielle but she was entranced through the entire thing.  Nick had never been to a performance there and he really liked it as well.  Next year, they have Mary Poppins there.  I think we might make this a yearly tradition because we just had so much fun and the girls loved being able to swim every single day!

Splish Splash!

It's pretty funny to look back at our summer pictures because at least half of them are swimming pictures.  We swam so much! The girls took swimming lessons at two different places; one at the Roy complex and one with our neighbor.  They learned so much during these lessons and got more comfortable swimming under water.  Emma wore her swimming suit and her goggles out by the end of the summer!  We also went swimming at Aunt Margo's house, the Roy Aquatic center, hotel pools and Lagoon.  So much fun!

Preschool Graduation

After two years of preschool, Brielle has officially graduated!  Her program was this month and they performed some really cute songs and received a portfolio of the activities they did and art projects they made.  Brielle was really excited to look through that and have two preschool binders just like Emma had.  It's kind of sad to see them grow up and weird to think they will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. How time flies!

Brielle's Dance Recital

It was Brielle's first dance recital!  She danced to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast (hence the tray of food she is posing with).  She also danced to "Teddy Bear" from Elvis (the boy in her class was Elvis and his grandma made him an amazing costume!)  Brielle loved getting her hair and makeup done.  She was looking forward to getting flowers after the recital and I think she enjoyed the experience until the last day.  They had performed at a dress rehearsal, an evening recital and an afternoon recital.  She was tired and didn't want to stay for the final number.  We talked her into staying, but as I went up to get her from the stage, she kept moving away from me and started to look nervous that no one had picked her up yet.  When I finally reached her, she was scared & frustrated and told me she didn't want to do dance again.  So, I guess this will was her first and only dance recital!

More of May

Mother's Day! I talked my girls into taking pictures with me since it was Mother's day and you can see they turned out a little silly.  However, I look at their beautiful faces and I feel so much gratitude for the chance I have to be their mom.  I keep praying they will turn out okay with all of the mistakes I make!  It is a tricky task....this relationship with daughters.  I know my relationship with my mom was tough at times because I was the only girl.  We have a great relationship now, but we had our share of fighting when I was a teenager.  I fully expect to have drama with my daughters!  Right now I will just enjoy these days we have fun together!