My mother-in-law has 9 granddaughters...and no grandsons!! So of course we have lots of princess fun! One night Grandma thought it would be fun to get the girls together for a princess picture so they all had Grandma time to get their hair and nails done and then dressed up for the pictures. Afterwards they each wanted an individual picture...here's the fun!!
I don't even know where to start! :) We have been having a lot of fun here...it still feels like we're on vacation and so we've been doing all sorts of fun things with both families and therefore have tons of pictures. I've been having fun digital scrapbooking again so in an effort to catch up here are some of my almost finished pages.
One of the things we decided before we moved here was that we would get a summer pass to the "Legacy Center." It is an awesome city run sports center with gymnastics, basketball, rockclimbing, indoor track and most importantly an indoor pool. It's great...one entire wall of the HUGE room is just huge metal garage doors that they leave open all day so you have the convenience of an indoor pool (no sunscreen...YEA!) but still get the fresh air. It's awesome. It's a zero entry pool with a big playground in the middle, then a deeper section which the bigger girls can touch the entire length this year and then a 5 year and younger pool with some slides and shallow water. It's fabulous and well worth the money. It's right near my parents house and they and my sister have passes and we've been there lots this summer...too much fun!
(You can click on the picture to see it blown up...)
We started our camping trip off a little rough. We were at Nunn's Park in Provo Canyon. There is a river at one edge of the campground which is running really high and really fast with campsites all along the river. With our little girls we chose to go on the other side of the road right along the bike path that goes through the canyon. Shortly after our tent was up and we were getting ready for lunch we heard some screaming in the river, sirens, and then a sheriff's vehicle went flying through the small campground. We heard more and more sirens and found out that a little girl had fallen into the river a little upstream from us and they were trying to find her. There was an amazing amount of police and search and rescue action literally on both sides of our small campsite. We quickly determined that our girls needed to stay on the picnic bench to keep them out of the way and we sent Daddy off to help look for the little girl. I can't describe what it is like to sit holding your little girl and surrounded by your other daughters while looking at the river knowing that someone's little girl is in there. By the time Daddy got there they thought they had found her so he got out of the way. I sat there amazed at the number of police and rescue vehicles that continued to go by, at the helicopter flying amazingly low and slow over the river, and all the people out there wanting to help...all for one little girl. Life is amazing and it was so wonderful to see SO many people out there doing their best. And grateful for people who spend hours training and preparing for theses tragic situations to go in and save the one. Eventually we learned that the little girl was 8 years old and was found and pulled out alive, although we learned she had been in the river about 1/2 hour, had gone down the river about 1 mile and was found face down trapped in debris. A few other family members were treated for hypothermia trying to save her. A previously trained rescue civilian happened to be near the area and found her and with the help of search and rescue they were able to get her out and lifeflight her to Primary Chidlren's Hospital, however she passed away a day or so later. I later learned her parents weren't even there and that they were trying to get to her as soon as possible...I'm grateful she lived for awhile, hopefully long enough for them to get there. How horrible and tragic. You can bet we watched our girls extra careful and I have to admit it was difficult walking around Bridal Veil falls and seeing where she most likely fell in...it could have happened SO easily. SO easily. She was eight...the same age as my oldest who I tend to try to trust a little more and maybe not watch quite as carefully my 2 year old. But they're still kids and the edge by the river is steep and the pathway narrow and sometimes crowded...all she had to do was stand there and get bumped a little or bend over a little too far and she was gone. Life is precious and fragile. I certainly looked at my little ones a little differently after this experience. Give yours an extra hug and say a little prayer for the family of this little girl.
Yes, I know, I've skipped other important events to get to this one, but that's the way life goes today :) Hooray for graduation! At first it seemed a little anticlimactic since he technically graduated back in December but since we were still in Davis we figured we do the ceremony. It was nice and we were glad we did. The day was crazy though since it was also the kids last day of school but we had some AWESOME friends who helped watch the kids (THANKS AGAIN!) and it all worked out nicely. The fun part was that they showed it online so our parents got to watch and even the kids got to watch Daddy on the computer live when it was his "turn" to get "hooded." Pretty cool! These pictures were actually taken the next day (I just ordered the "professional" pictures a minute ago, which is why I'm in the mood to do these pictures now, which does not explain why I am rambling...)
I had to get the "hood" I thought it was pretty cool...love the colors :)
Afterwards our awesome friend told us to go out so we enjoyed a nice dinner and went to Daddy's FAVORITE electronics store (for the last time...he was sad...they need one here!). It was a great day and WE'RE SO PROUD OF YOU DADDY!!!!!!
I have a lot of catching up to do...but not tonight :) All things considered we had a good move. The truck was too small but we knew it as soon as we saw the truck and were able to leave enough of our "hand me down" furniture to the side of the truck to get everything else to fit :) We had such awesome friends who watched kids, helped load the truck and helped clean the next day...you guys are seriously the best...THANK YOU!!! And let me tell you...I'm missing you!!! :) My inlaws flew in and helped us finish the cleaning and make the drive to Utah. They were such a great help...with all the craziness of the several days before we moved (the kids last day of school festivities and Daddy's graduation) we were pretty tired. We made it and had awesome family to help us unpack, somehow fit ALL of our stuff in a tiny storage unit (with room to spare...I am still amazed!) and watch kids so we could unpack. And through all of that we survived everyone getting colds. I'm glad that it's all done and we're settling in. It all doesn't seem real yet though since we're used to being here for a week or two for summer vacation...it's hard to believe we won't be coming back!
There are lots of graduation pictures and such to post but instead I'm putting up pictures from a few nights ago...it was a warm evening and we had finished dinner and were going to play outside. I found our squirt bottles and filled one up for everyone (including daddy) and positioned the girls outside the door to get him. He instead run upstairs, filled a bowl of water and dumped it on me. An all out water fight ensued. Daddy got the hose. From the safety of inside I taught the girls how to kink the hose so I could turn the hose off. Let's just say Daddy didn't like that and the squirt bottles were forgotten and all got wet :)
And last night we were house sitting (cat sitting) for my parents and enjoyed this beautiful rainbow! Hooray for thunderstorms :)
Our family is officially moving to Utah next week so Daddy can begin working for Dr. Westenfelder at the University of Utah. Their research lab is currently conducting a phase 1 human clinical trial investigating the use of mesenchymal (adult) stem cells as a treatment for acute renal failure (kidney damage). Daddy approached this professor over a year ago because he was excited about being a part of this research and we're thrilled that he will be able to join this lab! We'll be living with his parents for the summer while we look for a place closer to his job before the kids school year starts, we're thinking maybe the Sandy area. We're REALLY sad to leave our family and friends and life here but we're looking forward to living closer to the Utah family and friends. We're not sure how we feel about Daddy working for our rival univeristy but at least either way "our" team will win the football game :) We'll keep our same email addresses and can get you updated address that way (especially for the kids...they would LOVE some mail!!!). We're grateful for the wonderful time we've had here in Davis...we'll miss you guys!!!
Mg was invited to a friend's birthday party and the older sisters were welcome to tag along...M had lots of fun on the water slide...
E with the birthday girl's sister (one of E's best friends)
Mg with the birthday girl and her dad...the party was during A's nap so I took the girls and Mg had a great time with her friend's dad who was so awesome to play with her! (I brilliantly left my bathing suit at home...hello!!!)
M, E and the birthday girl's older sister...the three of them play at school together all the time...such a great family!! We're grateful for such good friends!
Now that we can get our bikes on the car we're enjoying exploring more places...this time we rode to a park by Arroyo pool and had fun on the climbing wall...
Notice she is taking off his sunglasses...a favorite game of hers...
The family sitting on a UFO that crash landed in Davis (they spent the rest of the day discussing what might have happened to the aliens...thanks Daddy!)
May was bike month here in the area and each Wed after school they had a bike activity...this day they got to try out the old fashioned bikes with the huge front tire...
Isn't she cute! She is growing up so fast! She's starting to use words more and is getting better at imitating her sisters...they have caught on now and love to do silly things so they can watch her try. A loves to make people laugh so she laughs as much as they do! I love it! This is her special kitty that Grandma gave her when she was a few months old (and it was about as big as her!). She always goes to sleep holding the kitty's tail (and the tag which she would rub and recently fell off...so sad!)
The highlight of the afternoon is watching for Daddy to come home...as soon as he is discovered the yell goes out and there is a mad stampede to the door so they can ride his bike around to the back of the house where he locks it up...small things but they love it!
Yes, that is all 4 on his bike :) and yes the oldest is pretending to read her book...
The girls loved making their own pizzas one night...hooray for Fridays!
Our neighbor had a birthday and his mom thought it would be fun to put out a sprinkler and enjoy popsicles...we never thought to have them put bathing suits on so through the sprinkler they ran and had a marvelous time!
"What's this?"
"I like it!"
Um, thanks big sister!
They found a mud puddle so off with the muddy clothes and into the bathing suits!
And after awhile they decided that washing the cars would be fun!
Maybe they should wash themselves, too :)
Happy birthday Ben!
