Utah Trip - Part 3

My sister lives just a block away from this great water park in Provo. We took the kids one afternoon and had a blast!

Gavin loved following the girls into the water as far as he could before it got too deep.

Erin and Gavin crawling in the water

Elaina and Gavin

The water was a little bit too cold for Isaac, but he still looked adorable in his little swim outfit

Jen took Elaina down the big slide a couple times. She loved it!

cute cousins

Not sure what Erin is doing here - "This Little Piggy" perhaps?

Isaac and Aunt Jen

Utah Trip - Part 2

We took a ride up Provo Canyon one morning and went for a walk and a picnic at Bridal Veil Falls. I have always lived close to a mountain range, and I realize that growing up I probably took for granted how beautiful the mountains are. I really enjoyed the beauty of the mountains while we were in Utah.

I love this picture of Gavin checking out Isaac!

Erin throwing rocks into the river

The girls had fun throwing sticks into the water on one side and running to watch it reappear on the other side of the bride

Gorgeous!

He enjoyed the ride in the stroller

We took off our shoes and walked in the freezing cold water

Discovering the waterfall

The girls were so excited to find the waterfall!

Me and my 3 (whoa!) kids

love him too!

Gavin wasn't quite walking yet and so this is how he would get around. It was so cute to see him walking through the water on his hands and feet like this!

The girls pretended to be Ariel on this rock

Jen and Gavin

Me and my tired little man

Building towers out of rocks

I love these guys!
We tried for a long time to get a good picture of the kids. It was pretty much impossible. However, I LOVE this picture - Elaina and Erin were sticking out their tongue and Gavin was just being a copy cat. He was always mimicking whatever they were doing and it was so darn cute.
Adorable cousins

Utah Trip - Part 1

In July we I went to Utah to spend time with Mike's family. The kids and I went up a few days early so that we could spend some time with my sister Jen and her family.

I wasn't too worried about traveling with the 3 kids since the girls are old enough to take care of themselves and Isaac is too young to cause much trouble. I'm glad they were good!

The girls are always so excited about all the different modes of transport on airport days: car-bus-train-plane.

When we checked in we realized that we would be on a plane with 2 seats on either side of the aisle. The infant always has to travel on the right side of the plane (because of the extra oxygen masks on this side) and so the 2 girls were left to themselves on the other side of the aisle from me. Thank goodness for portable DVD players and flights that last about as long as the battery life!

The only downside of this was that I had to sit next to a stranger. The way to fly with an infant is to nurse on the ascent and descent - it keeps them sucking so that their ears don't hurt. So I sat in my seat watching everyone come down the aisle, wondering which poor soul is going to have to sit next to me and my nursing baby. I hoped for a kind grandmotherly type lady (or at least someone who has been a Mom). Unfortunately (for him!) a 20-something guy sat down next to me. My first thought was "this poor kid." He squirmed in his seat as I pulled out my nursing cover and proceeded to nurse my baby next to him. I really felt sort of awkward, but at least it wasn't a screaming baby in the seat next to him!

I really enjoyed my time to sit with Isaac and smile at him and just cuddle during the 3 hour flight to SLC. We don't get as much bonding time as I'd like. This was perfect.

We had a lot of fun with Jen and her family. These two guys will become great buddies in the next few years. For now, Gavin was a little less impressed with Isaac - the girls were a lot more fun to try to keep up with!

Gavin would follow the girls everywhere and was always so excited to see what they were going to do next. They had fun playing Hide and Seek with him.

We went to the park down the street from Jen's house

Erin is so sweet with Isaac - I hope he likes kisses because he sure gets a lot of them!

Erin and Gavin.

Check out those beautiful blue eyes!

I had fun driving through Provo and looking at the two places where Mike and I lived after we were married.

This was our first house. It was a duplex - my good friend Jenna got married 4 days before me and so she and her new husband lived in the other half. I LOVED this house. It was so quaint and charming. It was very small, but perfect for a newlywed couple. The one bathroom was located in our bedroom, meaning that any visitors had to go through our bedroom to use the restroom. Also guests that stayed with us also had to pass through our bedroom to get to the stairs that led to the tiny bedroom in the basement. I'm sure our guests loved that! It was perfect for us. We drove a white truck the first year that we were married and so to see a white truck parked outside made me happy :)

This was our second house. A little less charming, but we have so many great memories here. We moved here after we moved back from Alaska. Elaina was born when we lived in this house. It is also a duplex, and we lived in the upstairs unit:

Hoseback Riding

Elaina went to a birthday party (way back in May, before my 4 month old son was born...that tells you how behind I am!) where they went horseback riding. She had so much fun! She kept going back to ride again. What a great idea for a bday party!

Guess who's rolling over?!?

As you can tell, he wasn't so thrilled that I left him in this position while I ran to get the camera so that I could document this milestone!

I Love My Elaina

I started writing this post for Elaina's birthday, but just realized that I didn't post it. Here's to my 6 year old girl on her birthday...

Elaina is my spunky girl!


She babbled all the time as an infant and hasn't stopped talking since. I love it about her!


Her mind is always working. Whether she's planning a party, or wondering about something she learned at school that day, or just wondering about the world around her, her little mind is always busy - from the moment she wakes up until she crashes in bed each night. Because of this she is a smart girl, and very observant about the world around her.


Speaking of her world, this girl loves geography. She got a map to go with her Leapfrog Tag for her birthday and it is amazing that a 6 year old girl is so fascinated in learning where Fiji is (because she learned about it in school once) or where Japan is (because she heard about the earthquake and Tsunami there) and where all the countries in Europe are (because, well, she has me for a Mommy). She loves to discover other countries and learn about their cultures. Of course I love that about her!

Elaina did dance the past 2 years and loved it. She's a good little dancer. This is the day of the recital in May. This year she and Erin both want to try Gymnastics, which starts next week!

The other day she showed me a piece of paper that she had formed into the shape of the CTR shield. Later I noticed that she had taped it on the wall beside her bed. I asked her about it and she replied that it would help her remember to choose the right...like if she goes to bed at night and forgets to say her personal prayers - it will help her to remember. I hope that the desire to be faithful always comes so easily to her.


Elaina is a party planner! Oh, the parties she plans! I've been invited to parties and celebrations and shows in the toy room on numerous occasions! She and Erin spend days organizing these events. Usually they include activity centers with carnival games, such as going fishing for prizes, or a pinata (one that she has taped together and hung from something), or tossing something into a bucket, etc. For Mother's Day I was invited to witness a fashion show that she and Erin put on. For her birthday party she had so many great ideas and was eager to be apart of the planning process. My favorite suggestion was that we do a "surprise party"...for her own birthday party. She suggested, "how about you have all my friends hide, and I'll wait outside, and then when I come in everyone can yell, "SURPRISE!!!"

Elaina loves to help me in the kitchen. She comes up with her own recipes too. Her first was this: "you take a piece of bread and then you cut up a banana and put it on the bread, and then you put another piece of bread on top. Then you make some soup....any kind of soup you want...and then you dip the sandwich into the soup." And so one night we made Elaina's recipe for dinner (I suggested that those who wanted could add peanut butter to the bread with bananas). And I made some chicken noodle soup because it was all I had. Elaina proudly dunked her peanut butter & banana sandwich into the chicken noodle soup and announced how delicious it was. The rest of us pretended, and she had no idea :) Since then she is always coming up with new "recipes" that we should try someday!

Elaina is determined. The first day of kindergarten a girl in her class tied her shoe laces for her. Elaina was impressed that this girl knew how to tie shoelaces already! Until she figured out his girl's name she called her "the girl who can tie shoelaces." Elaina decided that she was going to learn how too. So for that first week of kindergarten she practiced and practiced so that she would also know how to tie shoe laces.

Also at the beginning of kindergarten she decided that she was going to learn how to snap her fingers. I would observe her walking home from the bus stop concentrating on getting her fingers to snap. I thought her fingers would get raw since she spent every spare moment practicing this new trick. Within a week she had it down!


Elaina is always doing some sort of craft. She makes books for me with activities inside - mazes, or coloring pages, or connect the dots, etc. They are brilliant! She's made a computer out of paper, a telescope, a house. I wish I could save everything she's made because I love to see how her mind works and am amazed at how creative she is.

She is stubborn, independent, crafty, clever, smart, curious, strong willed, sensitive, funny, caring, happy, and just fun. I love her so much.