July 3rd/4th. - The Festivities Begin...

This is why we go up to Provo every year!  It is so fun to celebrate the 4th of July with all the festivities, starting with the Stadium of Fire on July 3rd.

My brother Archie and sissy Andrea came with us to the SOF.  They were great company!

Maddie just about downed a whole big bag of kettle corn! And Archie just didn't want another picture of him.

Stadium of Fire dancers

This year's entertainer was Carrie Underwood - her voice is awesome, and she didn't disappoint. 

My favorite part is when the jets fly over the stadium, that never ceases to make me feel proud of our country, especially when the jet fighter pilots come through the video feed, and talked to the whole stadium.  There is nothing like it!  There were so many eagle scouts in the Stadium since this year they inducted a whole slew of Eagle Scouts as part of the show (the largest Court of Honor yet), and all these young boys held American flags as they marched through the field, and all the Eagle Scouts in the audience stood up to welcome them.  Amazing sight!
And to top it all off, some great fireworks.  I love America!

After the show, we walked back to our house and hung out until the traffic died down.  It was a great way to kick off the July 4th celebrations.  

Sunday July 4th

Sunday, July 4th, we visited our old ward, Edgemont 3rd.  It was great to see people we knew.  Since it was fast and testimony Sunday, Allie got up to bear her testimony and persuaded her friend Alyssa to do the same.  It was great to hear her coaching her friend, and after they got back to their seats, it was even greater to hear them talk about how good they felt inside.  Allie was so happy to see her Provo bff!  

We drove around Provo (well, the parade route, really) and tried to save a spot on the parade route, but of course, University Avenue had just about every blanket and family out on the street, with all possible "save-able" spots taken, and University Ave. hadn't even been officially closed for the parade.  We spent the rest of the day making dinner at home with Archie and Andrea, and then spending a quiet night at the hotel.  

July 2 - Drive to Provo

We left our house at around 5 a.m. and it was already 95 degrees outside.  No kidding.  The kids were so excited to be leaving that when we woke them up it took them only a few minutes to get dressed and teeth brushed.   They're not usually up at 4:30 a.m., but these guys didn't fall asleep again until after we got to Flagstaff.

The sun was just rising from behind the mountains north of Phoenix on our way out of town:

I thought it was so beautiful, and Kevin told me that I miss so many sunrises because I never wake up early enough to see them.  Kevin sees them every day, since he goes to work before the sun is even up.

Kevin is so into the scenery when driving so once in a while he would nudge me to take a picture.  We crossed the UT state line around 10:40, and then got to Provo around 3 p.m.  We made it in just over 10 hours and since it was early enough and we needed to print our Stadium of Fire tickets, our first stop was the BYU Wilkinson Center.  The weather was so nice and cool to us right away, even though my sister Andrea kept saying it was so hot.   We told her it was hotter when we left Phoenix early that same morning than it was at the moment.  Then of course it cooled down even more as soon as the sun set!

Kevin and Collin got haircuts at the BYU Barber Shop (tradition!!) while us, the girls, shopped at the BYU Bookstore where we found this cute Folkmanis puppet for my preschool - Allie appropriately named him "Phonog-RAM". Mr. Ram is going to be helping with phonograms.  :) Of course we stopped at the BYU Creamery on 9th for burgers and ice cream, just like old times, told the kids all about our college life and how Deseret Towers (where I lived) doesn't exist anymore, etc. then stopped by our house and hung out with Aireen, Danny, Andrea, and Archie for a while before we checked in our hotel.

Allie's one backpack is full of the stuffed animals she can't part with, even on trips.  And they all had to bring their special blankets.

Maddie's Princesses

I had forgotten about these!  These were taken back around the middle of May.  Back when Miss Maddie had longer hair. :) She likes anything princess, but she LOVES Tiana, and the movie Princess and the Frog.  She goes around the house saying "Gumbo Gumbo in the pot!" and repeats some lines from the movie like "I would ever, ever, never kiss a frog."

Off to the North

We're off to Utah for some quality July 4th festivities and family time.  It will be fun.  Stadium of Fire. Carrie Underwood. The Grand Parade. Creamery.  BYU Bookstore.  J-dawgs. Brick Oven. Dairy Keen. Park City. Alpine Slides. Swimming.  Downeast Home. Forever Young Shoes. Kneaders.  Best of all, Utah summer weather. 8 more hours of driving. We can't wait!

Double-Digits Part 3 and then some

Boy she really cashed in on this no-friend-party birthday!  For dinner Allie chose to go to Cafe Rio - where she ate her favorite Grilled Chicken Salad with House Dressing.  Grandma and Pop came to help celebrate. Then we headed home to open the rest of her presents.  I'll let the pictures do the talking...

She's been begging for one of these since forever ago.

Now watch closely...the following photos are in sequence - 45 seconds from here to the last one you see:

This one is really special.

Allie has no clue; In 5 Seconds, Grandma Lorraine's jaw dropped!

Studying the card closely

She gets it!  And this is her pure absolute first reaction, 35 seconds later.

She still can't believe it!

Before I give it all away, any guess about what she got?  

OK, for those of you that know, please hold the comments (DO NOT give it away, I repeat!) 

until I get back from Utah.  But you can comment on how awesome it is.

But all I can say is, it was the best present ever!

Double-Digits Part 2

So...continuing with Allie's celebrations...

After babysitting and cooking classes, I took Allie and her friends to Grimaldi's for a girls only lunch.  Allie's birthday crown was a hit at their classes -- everyone wished her a Happy Birthday (even the crossing guard).  She was so glad about that!

Well, as you can see, these girls have so much fun together.  They tell me they are BFF's, even exchanged BFF necklaces to set that in stone.

A little fun with cheesecake:

Double-Digits for Allie - Part 1

Miss Allie turned 10 (yes, 10!) on June 16th.  I can't believe I have a 10-year old.  She was such a fun little baby, and being our first, I wanted her to learn everything and do everything as early as possible!  Now that she's 10, I want everything to slow down.  She's growing up way too fast.  She tells me every year she just wants to stay 9!  But being 10 is awesome.  Even though I will miss her little kid years, I think the next 10 will be a great adventure, too.  10 years has flown by (seems like a blink of an eye!), and I am so grateful she was sent to us first.  She is such a great big helper at home, LOVES her brother and sister to pieces, and has a very cute personality to boot.  Not to mention the awesome talents she's developing.  We love her so much!

This year, she chose a family trip instead of a friend party.  She had a long list of things she wanted to do for her birthday - starting with breakfast in bed.  She wanted pancakes, cheesy scrambled eggs, strawberries and cream, and a glass of chocolate milk.  Collin and I brought her breakfast in her room, and of course, she didn't have bed head anymore.  Miss Allie had gotten up and done her hair before we got up there so she would look "cool" for her pictures.  Funny!  She opened her first present of the day, this one from Collin, who was so thoughtful when he went shopping for her.   She loved it and tried it on immediately, made herself a birthday crown, and went to her babysitting and cooking classes.

Here's June 16 a.m. in pictures:

Collin's Turn

Wow, these pictures are fairly old.  What has Collin been busy with this summer, you ask?  Well, he's been reading a few books (still working on that How to Train Your Dragon), attending Lego Classes, swimming classes, and going to Lowe's every other Saturday to build something.

When he's not doing that, he's playing Legos at home, swimming, and playing with his friends.  Mr. Collin did pretty well this round of swimming classes - he's ACTUALLY SWIMMING! Last year he did okay but was too scared to even practice outside of swimming class.  At the beginning of the summer, I told him if he learned how to really swim before the end of the summer, he gets to pick out a new set of Legos.  He's pretty happy about achieving this summer goal.

A custom plane designed by Collin - he won a small box of Legos for being the most creative when he turned this in for one of his assignments in Lego Class - everyone used the same Lego bricks but had to come up with their own design.

All About Maddie

So here are pictures of THE NEW hair.  She looks like a whole new kid.  But we love it!  These pictures were taken at swimming class, but this is Maddie's summer look.  Since summer began, she's been in her "swim soup"  (it's too cute, we don't dare correct her).  You would think we had a pool because she runs around in her "swimsoup" all day!  The other day she put on a shirt and shorts, and I realized she hadn't been in clothes all summer; rarely, if ever.  She's either in her undies or her swimsuit. :)

Maddie's also been in swimming lessons the last two weeks and did so well.  She learned how to swim out to her teacher and back to the steps, to the side of the pool and climb out.  She loves to do "spider-man" along the side of the pool, I think that was her most favorite thing to do at swimming class.

We've been out swimming a couple of times since swimming class ended and she swims out to me and back to the steps.  I would put her back in her floaties and she would keep her head in the water just like she was taught and would do her flutter kicks and arm reach and pulls.  It is so cute to watch!