Summer Fun Part 1

So far our summer has been really fun and really busy! We started things off by spending a week in Park City. During that week I turned 30 (I still can't believe it!). My dad took Megan on her first ever ride on the Alpine Slide, which was definitely a highlight for me. I thought she'd be really nervous, but she LOVED it - I was so proud of her!

Here's a cute picture of her riding up the ski lift with my family:

Megan and my dad coming to a finish:

We couldn't wipe the smile off her face!

June and July is Birthday Mania on the John side of our family. Along with father's day, we have my birthday, Jordan, Alyssa, Brooklynn, my mom, Julianne, Megan, Paige, and Ashlie -- all within 3 weeks of each other. My parent's decided that they wanted to spend time with the grandkids for their birthday present this year (especially because Brooklynn was up from Arizona), so they created an itinerary called "The Birthday Blast that Lasts and Lasts". We kicked things off by going to Temple Square. It started off great, and then Megan scared us all by fainting (we're assuming from the heat). She was completely pale, her lips were blue, and she was totally limp in my arms. We had to lie her down in the entryway of the visitor's center, where the missionaries hurried and called and got us some help. My brother-in-law Paul ran and grabbed my car for me (Brad wasn't with me) and I hurried Megan home to my parent's house. After that my parent's were wondering how the rest of the activities would go, and I'm happy to say that everything else was great.

Paige at the Salt Lake Temple:

My sister McKenzie did Megan's hair (and Brooklynn's & Alyssa's). They were all gorgeous!

Later that night Brad was with the kids and they went in the hot tub, roasted marshmallows, and camped out in my parent's backyard. Where was I? AT ECLIPSE!!! It was so fun! I got to go with all four of my sisters. The release of the movie was midnight eastern time, but we got to see it at 8:45 because my sister got tickets through her work. LOVED IT!!!

Paige in the hot tub:

Megan ready for the tent (with swimming hair!):

In the morning we all went out to eat for breakfast at Granny Annie's in Kaysville. Most everyone ordered hot chocolate & scones. The scone was more than I could eat. Then we swam at the Roy Aquatic Pool.

Paige working on the whipped cream atop her hot chocolate:

On the third day of all our fun, my dad took the grandkids to see Toy Story 3 in the theater, then my mom took the kids to Boondocks to miniature golf. The kids had such a fun week, and made lots of good memories.

We've now celebrated both Megan's 7th, and Paige's 4th birthdays. I'll post some pictures of Ashlie's birthday hopefully next week. She'll be one!!!
Ashlie and I enjoying Megan's birthday breakfast:

Brad and I were sure surprised with how much she loved her new sandals for Church! This photo reminded me of some of mine when I was younger (the cheesy smile):



Her cake:


She got lots of fun presents, but her favorite (which was also an early b-day present for Paige) was the trampoline waiting for them outside! Brad set it up late at night after they both went to bed the night before.

Yesterday Paige had a very happy 4th birthday:

Paige loves Aerial and Sleeping Beauty, so I kind of went with a Little Mermaid themed birthday for the most part.
Here's her cake:

This has to be her favorite of all of her presents. Her birthday was just yesterday, and I know she's done this puzzle at least 10 times. Probably more. When Brad and I woke up this morning Paige was in on the kitchen floor already working on it. It's 3 feet wide.

Both Paige and Megan got beach towels for their birthdays, and Paige decided last night that it would make a great blanket:

Megan wanted me to take this "freaky" picture (those are her words):

Well, with all this fun, we managed to squeeze in the Kaysville fireworks, and the Provo parade. We'd never been to that parade before, and though it didn't toss candy, and though we barely got a 4 foot wide space to sit, the floats were really great at this one. We were impressed. Plus, as we drove into Provo we saw 9 hot air balloons (including a giant pig and smokey the bear). We see hot air balloons all the time at home, but these were different and fun to see.
Paige, ready for the parade to begin:

I loved these balloons. I know there were at least four different ones:

Everyone stood for the flag of course, but also when the LDS missionaries walked by!

They had some great floats:

We hope all of you had a GREAT 4th of July!

Love, The Woodwards

Megan's First Grade Report

Today Megan turned in her first ever "Report". Everyone in her class got to choose an animal to research, and she chose "The Owl". We read about 5 owl books and she chose her favorite parts from each that she wanted to write about. Brad and I were super proud of her. She was begging every day to work on it! Anyway, here it is - today she gets to share it in class:
Cover:
Page #1:
Page #2:
Page #3:
Page #4:
Page #5:
Page #6:

It's Over...

Here's my shout-out for LOST!!! For six seasons now Brad and I have watched it without fail. We never missed a single episode in six years. Last night I got all teary watching the finale (yes, I'm admitting it). Teary more because it was over than anything. It was on Saturday for 2 hours & again on Sunday for 4 1/2, and we loved every second of it. I'm SOOO sad it's over. It's crazy to think that we started watching it clear back when Megan was just a baby! I'm going to totally miss that time with Brad each Tuesday. All my fellow twilight fans - you'll love these characters just as much. It was so good, & I'm missing it already!!

Another Great Mother's Day

I sure got treated well yesterday! This photo makes me laugh - I received all of these lovely gifts while at church yesterday. I could barely carry everything out to the car! :) The potted plant is from Megan's primary class, the pillow is from Paige's class, and the two ceramic pots with flower seeds are from Sharing Time, and the candy bar is from the bishopric. Church was definetely the place to be yesterday!! :)

Brad made me a yummy breakfast in bed which included scrambled eggs, ham, orange juice, a heart pancake & small XOXO pancakes. It was cute. I guess I was too hungry to stop and pick up the camera. He made a super delicious dinner of halibut & gourmet salad. He was making candied walnuts to go on top of the salad, and he was creating his own special sauce for the fish, which was super tasty. He's a great cook. I love it when he cooks for me. I asked him earlier on if he'd thought of a dessert (because that's what I live for you know), and he was like, "uh, no". So I made myself some chocolate cookies to top off his yummy meal. What's a Mother's Day meal without dessert, right? He treated me special all day long. I love Mother's Day!

Megan took this photo of us, & it makes me laugh because Brad's all red & sweaty from running around the kitchen like crazy! He was grilling, slicing, dicing, keeping his eye on the walnuts in the oven, & on the rice, etc. He was cute! For all those wondering, yes, I helped when I saw that he was trying to multi-task a bit too much! :)

To top the whole day off, Brad got to talk to his brother Brian, who is serving a mission in Texas right now. Brad's family all did a big conference call, so they had Brad, his siblings, his parent's, and his aunt Kaye all on the phone with Brian at the same time. That was definitely Brad's favorite part of the day, I'm sure. Not only did he get to talk with all of his family, but it got him out of doing all of the mother's day dishes!!! :)

Saturday we spent the day at my parent's house, and it was a rare occasion when our whole family was together. Not the best of circumstances brought Julianne & Paul up for a visit, but it was great to see them & their kids even if it was for only a few hours. It's fun to see all of the grandkids together...See our three 2009 babies!

Our Heber Creeper Train Ride

We just had a great morning! The library story time group was able to purchase tickets for the train at an amazing discount (amazing as in $12.00 for the 4 of us!!). Brad spent from 10:15 - 1:00 with us, and it was super fun to have him along. It was his first time on the Heber Creeper, since he was in Pennsylvania for work the last time I went. Miss Sally (who does story time) had a train hat for each child, & some fruit snacks, and sang some fun train songs while we were on our ride. It took us halfway down Deer Creek Reservoir, which was further than I'd gone before. As I said before, it was very fun.
This is Paige, Ashlie & I with friends from our ward - Pam & her daughters (her baby is 10 days younger than Ashlie), and Kitty & her daughter. Their daughters, Lydia & Miriam are Paige's age.

Paige & Brad - she was so glad he could come!

Posing by one of the parked trains:

Paige & her seat buddy & good friend, Lydia:

Snow Woes

Excuse me for just a moment while I vent a bit, but I JUST CAN'T HANDLE IT ANYMORE!!! I need some sunshine! I just went shopping to Smith's, and came out and had to scrape 2 inches of snow off of the car. The car said it was 29 degrees outside. Can I live with you for a while Julianne? Please?!

Some funny Megan stories

Sorry about all the posts in one day, but I want to share these stories...

A couple days ago Megan came home from school and told me that at morning lunch she picked up litter. While doing that with friends, she found a quarter. Her friend suggested that Megan turn it into the lost and found (only a six year old, right?!). So, Megan went to the office to turn it in, and the sweet secretary wrote her name down and said that she'd keep the quarter for a week to see if anyone claims it, and if not, the quarter's Megan's to keep. Funny, huh! I'd never think to turn in a quarter. That good secretary taught my daughter that what she did was the right thing to do, and Megan was so proud of herself. She's secretly hoping that she's 25 cents richer in a few days though... :)

Megan started soccer for the first time last week. She's having a blast, but she's of course new to it all. So she and another girl were goalies the other day (they have 2 at a time), and while being goalie the other team kicked it right passed her into the net. Megan had this huge grin on her face as she retrieved the ball from the net and tossed it out, as if that was her purpose as a goalie. It was so cute. She was proud of herself for retrieving the ball!! Six year old soccer is not a thing to be missed...it's great!

Someone's nearing ripe old 32!!!

This Friday Brad turns 32. I remember when my dad was in his thirties & I thought my dad was young and handsome, so maybe that's what Megan and Paige think of him. I think he just gets better with age. We're so much alike & life's just good. I know that Brad's my perfect match. Happy Birthday in a few days Brad. I love you!
(Ashlie loves him too):

Saying goodbye to amazing friends

This past weekend Brad and I said goodbye (temporarily :) ) to our amazing friends, as they moved their family to North Carolina. Life has a crazy way of matching you up with incredible people, then sending you all in different directions. This move will be a great blessing to their family, but Brad and I will miss them terribly. It's strange to think that a few years ago we hadn't even met them yet. Terry & Tiffany have had us over for dinner countless times, he's helped to frame our garage and install our windows, lent us his truck, helped lay our sod, taken Brad skiing, been our good buddies on all our trips, given us TONS of clothes for the kids, been Brad's fishing partner, etc. We've spoken so much about them with family that I thought I'd help put a face with their name by sharing some photos from our Costa Rica trip. Good luck in North Carolina you guys!
Tiffany and Terry on the catamaran:

Brad and Terry after scuba diving:

Photos of our "art room"

I recently posted that we have turned what was our computer room into our "art room". A while ago we painted the room blue, because what fun is an art room with white walls, right? We put our old kitchen table in there, along with all their art and creative "stuff". I thought it was a fun touch to fill mason jars with pipe cleaners, tissue paper scraps, googly eyes, buttons, pom poms, etc., and they've had fun using it all. I'm learning that yeah, I may have all of this stuff for them to use, but if it's in a large storage bin they'll never use it. The funnest part was that Brad and I have all of this art that we did back in high school that has been sitting in our art portfolios. We chose a few that we scanned in order to make them all uniform in size, and its fun to have a few hanging up.

Our Small Spring Break Outing

Well, since Brad's not a teacher, he unfortunately has to work during Megan's spring break. But he did take off Wednesday, and we called it our "Fun Day". We went to Provo and had a good time with the girls. We went to the Paleontology Museum just across from the BYU stadium. It's small, but free and fun.




Once a year Brad gets a birthday coupon from Tuchanos Brazilian Restaurant for a buy one get one free. Kids under 7 eat free, so it makes it so we can afford to take the whole family. It was a yummy lunch! Brad's just in heaven there. It sure is a popular place -it was a Wednesday, and we had to wait 45 minutes to get in.


I found a little hidden treasure in Provo. This building has like a mini Thanksgiving Point style garden behind it. You go through the building & sign their guest book and you just can wander in the back. It was beautiful and in Northern Utah things are just starting to bloom, so I'm sure when the trees actually have leaves it'll be super pretty. They have ton of rose bushes that will bloom later too. This first photo is of this AMAZING water fountain they have in the lobby of their building.







At the end of our day we shopped for some soccer clothes for Megan. This upcoming Tuesday will be her first game. After getting home from Provo she immediately tried on everything, and even asked us to get her the soccer ball for the photo. She at least looks like she knows how to play! We'll see if she even has a clue come Tuesday. Can't wait! :)


Last weekend we were up with Brad's family & we got to see his sister Becky & her husband and kids. (I got to see my niece for the first time that's now over a year old, and the whole weekend I couldn't get over how CUTE she was!!! I LOVED her!) Our girls had tons of fun because Brad's sister has 4 daughters. It was a house full of girls! While we were at his parent's house we got to see a baby calf get born!! We saw the front two legs and then the momma seemed to be stressed that so many of us were watching, so we went back inside the house so she could do what she needed to do. When we came back out the mom was licking her baby clean, and we got to see the calf learn to stand and take it's first steps! I WISH I would've just run inside and grabbed my camera, but I didn't. This photo is of my nieces and my girls looking at a baby calf that is 3 days old. At the time we had no idea we'd get to see a momma cow deliver 2 days later!

My AMAZINGLY handy husband!

Here are a few of the things Brad has helped make happen lately. I LOVE that he is so handy. He seriously will attempt just about anything. I'm lucky!
We have a small kitchen, so our table / chairs were visible from the front room. I jokingly asked (though really meaning it) if he could maybe add on to the wall. He added 10 inches to the living room / kitchen wall & it looks SUPER!

I had some ideas to make the toy room work better for us, & he made it happen. He built some shelves for the toys (not attached to the wall so that they can be removed), and he built a little shoe rack for the girls' dress up shoes. Now my girls play dress-ups ALL the time!




We've also been painting. We've turned our computer room into the "art room". I'm excited to post some photos of it, but it's not done yet.

Vote For Us! Here's the Link

The voting for the Lion King contest actually started today. Please vote for us as many times as you can. The prize is so awesome, and we're having a hard time catching up with the person in first place. Go to http://studio5.ksl.com and click on contests. We are contestant #4 (Camille). We're the chin people! Thank you everyone! Pass this link along to EVERYONE! - Camille

Lion King Contest - Vote For Us!!

There's a local TV show called Studio 5 that is holding a contest to win 4 tickets to The Lion King at the Capitol Theatre, along with $100 dinner gift certificate to a steak house, and a night's stay at a hotel in SLC. To enter you had to submit a youtube video of you singing one of the Lion King songs. Megan and I painted our chins and made them into "chin people" and sang "I Just Can't Wait To Be King". We made it to the top 5 submissions, but now they are leaving it open to the public to vote for the winner. To vote for us go to http://studio5.ksl.com between Friday and Tuesday March 2nd. They announce the winner next Wednesday, and tomorrow at 11:00 (channel 5) they will be announcing us in the top 5. I'm so excited that we even have a chance because this production looks amazing. Our kids would LOVE LOVE LOVE it! If you have a second, please vote for us!! By the way, our youtube link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-mcrYpX4TM
Thank you! - Camille