Softball, Etc.

Tonight Megan played her last softball game of the season. It's been so fun to watch her play! She gets in there, pays attention & snatches the balls when they come her way, and it's been so great to see her having a good time. In the beginner league that she's in, the girls get up to 6 pitches, and can run to first base whether or not they get a hit. Megan hit every single time she was up to bat this season! The league was kind of different this year - they had a 10 year old on their team as well as 6 year olds, and Megan's 8. Softball isn't nearly as popular here as soccer, and it seems like they had to combine some leagues.
Here are some pictures:

We spent last weekend up at Brad's parent's house. His sister Rose was visiting from Texas, with her 3 kids.
Here are some cute pictures of Megan pushing her cousin Dima in the tire swing:

When we visit Brad's parents, we typically always visit his aunt Kaye too (who lives right there on the family farm). She had baby kittens at her house:

Our Summer So Far...

I think our summer's gotten off to a pretty good start. We've crossed off a ton of things from our summer bucket list!


We:
• Rode the Heber Creeper - they had a discounted weekend for locals, and we got an hour ride for $5 a person. It's always fun.






• Our library had a night for families to come watch the "Scales and Tails" show. The girls absolutely loved it. We got to see lizards, snakes, alligators, tarantula, etc.

Have I said about 50 times on this blog that we have the best library ever?! Megan and Paige also went to the library for their "Campfire Stories" activity the other day. They sat in tents, listened to a camp story, learned about constellations (and made their own with star stickers), got glow-in-the-dark bracelets, etc. One of my favorite things about Heber City is our library, as silly as that sounds. Our kids earn prizes practically ever week of the summer for keeping track of their reading, too.


• We set up the pool in the backyard:



• We've been watching Megan play softball. She's on the Cardinal team, and she's been playing really well this year. It's been strange this year because there is a 10 year old on her team, as well as a 6 year old that was in Paige's kindergarten class. I'm hoping next year she's in a more difficult league, and that they'll start teaching more of the actual rules of the game. This is year two of "6 pitches per girl", "every one gets to take a base whether they hit or not", and "no outs". During last week's game, a girl from the opposing team just walked all the way around the bases. She didn't want to run, so she didn't...and of course she made it all the way home!



• We did a really fun experiment with Ivory Soap. I TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS! IT WAS SO FUN! First I placed a normal bar of soap in a bowl of water, and we saw how it sank to the bottom. Then I placed a bar of Ivory soap in the bowl of water. It floated. We put the bar of Ivory soap on a paper plate, and microwaved it for 1 1/2 minutes or so. It grew like a giant marshmallow puff!



• We made star sun catchers (it went with a temple FHE), and marshmallow towers.





• I don't have a picture of this, but we had a family movie night in the garage the other day. It was hot, & crowded, but it was different...and fun. Brad folded the seats in the van in a cool way, and we all sat flat in the back. He propped his laptop on one of the folded seats, for our movie (we watched Harry Potter #2). We push-pinned up some blankets over the garage windows, and shut the doors so it was dark (which is why it was hot). Brad used an extension cord to plug a fan into the van so we'd have air blowing on us. The 5 of us sat there, eating our enormous bowl of popcorn, and had a fun night together.


• And best of all...we celebrated my 32nd birthday yesterday! I honestly don't feel that old. It's weird. Brad took me shopping for clothes, bought me these beautiful flowers, and got me a couple other things. Megan and Paige both gave me homemade bracelets, and AT LEAST 10 cards each. I love that part of having little kids. I had to show what Brad grilled for my birthday dinner. I was in heaven. He grilled corn on the cob too. I wanted brownies with homemade hot fudge sauce, because with about 9 family birthdays in the next couple of weeks, I knew I'd be getting my fill of cake soon enough!

Our Plan For Summer Fun

Thought I'd share the ideas I've put together for our summer, in case anyone is looking for ideas out there. Every time we do something, my kids will color the square. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer, our paper is super colorful! Happy Summer everyone!

School's Out 2012

It's been a really great couple of weeks. Being a parent really makes you realize how much teachers do. Paige has learned to read this year, Megan's becoming a terrific little story writer, and they have had really great experiences this year that I'm so thankful they got to have. My mom just retired from school teaching yesterday (after 25 years). It will be a huge change in our family! My youngest sister just graduated from Davis High school yesterday too! Since January, both Paige and Megan have been going to early morning choir practice from 7:45-8:30 on Tuesdays an Thursdays to practice for this patriotic program. I was so proud of them! Brad stood on the side and took pictures (since my seat wasn't very good), so all the pictures are from the side view. Paige waved to me 3 times during the program! It was so cute!

This is only showing half of the choir. Here's a picture of both Megan and Paige:

Last day of school photos!

Paige's kindergarten teacher did a graduation program. Here's my little graduate!

Paige's cute note to her teacher (part of me wishes that she'll write like this forever - it's just so cute!):

Brad and I and the girls got the chance to be with my sister McKenzie yesterday as she graduated from Davis High School!

I'm so glad I got the chance to volunteer in both of my daughter's classrooms this year. Megan absolutely loved Mrs. Gines, and Paige loved Mrs. Lloyd. Goodbye school year 2011-2012....welcome SUMMER!!

California Trip 2012

We just got back from a very fun week-long vacation in Southern California. Telling the kids that we were going was a big part of the fun before-hand. Brad and I told the girls when we pretty much only had one week until the trip, and their reaction was so priceless! I'm so glad we caught it on video. They were so hyper and excited, and were ready to start packing their flip flops the second they knew! Here's how we told them: TELLING THE KIDS: We bought 3 for 1 passes through Costco for Sea World, San Diego Zoo, & the San Diego Safari Park. We also wanted to do one day at Disneyland since it was so fun last year. I made a puzzle for each of the 4 parks we were visiting, and put each puzzle in a separate numbered envelope. Brad hid each envelope around the house with a stuffed animal that seemed to coincide with the park (i.e. the stuffed cheetah was holding the Safari envelope). Here's one of the pictures of the girls putting the puzzle together, along with the finished puzzle:

SEA WORLD: Megan and Paige as Penguins:

I loved these trees in San Diego. We met up with Brad's cousin Kandice & family (who live there), and her daughter was telling me about how she loves to climb trees. I can see why she would. I think I'd love to climb a tree like this too!

Ashlie's ready for the 3-D movie!

A worker kindly took this photo for us in front of the whales. They were fascinating to look at up close!

One of our favorites was seeing the dolphins so close! I remember as a little girl wanting to be a dolphin trainer when I grew up. I'm thinking that I must have come up with that career idea after visiting this park!

Touching the sea stars!

SAN DIEGO ZOO: My cuties!

I could have stood and looked at these orangutans for a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG time. They are fascinating!

I think I finally know what pet Megan would like! She seriously loves looking at the birds. Below I have a picture of the bird I'd choose if I could.

These are always some of my most favorite photos:

This one (and the penguin picture above) prove that Megan is Brad's little girl!

A porcupine just going for a little stroll:

Some of my favorite animals of the day:

What a beautiful animal!

The girls thought this turtle was hilarious with it's super long neck:

My little girl is growing up!

SEA WORLD DAY #2: With the 3 for 1 passes we bought we could return to Sea World for another day....so we did! This day was pretty relaxing, and we just took our time looking at our favorite animals again. Plus, this time we did all the rides and the kids play land. We had a good laugh as we looked at one another in the silly mirrors:

The girls had tons of fun playing in the bounce house, and running through these punching bags:

Elmo's flying fish!

My favorite animal at Sea World:

We saw (and loved) the Shamu show twice!

SAFARI PARK:

A couple of pictures that I took during the tram ride around the Africa area:

We took these pictures just outside of the bat house:

My kids like sticking their heads in things (I'm sure you've realized that by now)! :)

We waited about 45 minutes to see this cheetah run. We had a perfect spot, thanks to a tip from Brad's cousin.

DISNEYLAND: I didn't take many pictures at Disneyland because we only had one day there, and we just hurried from ride to ride. We all loved this day of our trip! We walked and walked so much during this trip that these girls definitely deserved these ice cream cones during their lunch at McDonalds on our Disneyland day!

Paige loves Little Mermaid, and she was pretty excited to ride the new ride! It didn't disappoint either. The Ursula looked incredible.

Rapunzel!

California Adventure Backlot:

LA JOLLA BEACH:

The seals:

A giant wave crashed over Brad while he was holding Ashlie on the stairs going down to the beach. Ashlie's hair was full of sand, & she and Brad were soaked. I put my jacket on her, but she didn't want anyone to hold her regardless of how many times we asked if we could. She let Megan walk by her:

FUN WITH KANDICE, SHAWN, & KIDS: Brad's cousin Kandice lives in San Diego & they kindly had us over for a BBQ our first day of Sea World (and they joined us there for a couple of hours). The next day they brought cupcakes over to our hotel and lit a candle for Brad. It was so cute of them! In my rush to get ready for our trip I made the world's ugliest birthday cake for Brad the day before we left, so this was very fun.

Kandice took us to Delmar Beach on our way to Anaheim. The kids loved this beach because there was more sand for them to play in. Here's Megan with cute Gabby:

MORMON BATTALLION VISITOR'S CENTER: This was such a well done visitor's center! The kids loved panning for "gold" at the end:

I'm thankful for wonderful memories! What a great trip!