It's a Frog Party?!

Taylee had a great birthday this year. She is old enough now to understand the concept of a birthday, and especially a birthday PARTY! For weeks prior to her birthday she informed me she wanted a Minnie Mouse party. Unfortunately, she was a little confused about the difference between her actual birthday, and her birthday party, which were on two separate days. On Thursday (her actual day), we went to Boondocks, had some dinner at Wendy's, and got to enjoy the most adorable Froggy cake. She kept asking, "where is my Minnie Mouse party?!" I explained to her at least 15 times that her minnie party was on Saturday. Saturday couldn't come soon enough!

In the jumpin' cage at Boondocks!

Fierce Competition!

Birthday Girl!

This was super fun! Til she got squirted in the face. Then it lost it's appeal. She loved the Go-Carts though.

A wagon for my babies?! Super cool!

Super cute, huh?! She looked at it and said, "it's a frog party?!!"

Camping! My Favorite!

As a child, my parents took me camping all the time. I loved it! I don't know what happened between then and now, but somehow the appeal of camping has been lost to me as an adult. Sad, but true. I suppose it is because all the little things about camping that I don't like, doesn't bother kids. Like, being dirty, cooking outdoors, setting up and taking down camp, sleeping in the cold (and I mean cold!), the list goes on and on ...

Alas, I now feel the responsibility to give Taylee the experience of camping. So, we planned a camping trip with Kent's entire family. Best decision I ever made! (not the camping of course, the invitation to Kent's family!) His sister is an experienced camper and provided all sorts of luxuries I never expected, his mom was a fabulous camp cook, and pretty much every member of the family is hardworking.  So the experience (camping in the rain!), was as good as it could possibly be. Sure love those guys! And Taylee was thrilled to have all her cousins to run and play in the dirt with, when she wasn't dragging mommy on quests to find her imaginary friends in the woods, or her baby reindeer (don't ask me?!). . .

So, remember that rainy weekend a couple of weeks ago? Yes, that was our camping weekend. Nice. We headed up on Friday, were happy to have pretty good weather for the afternoon, and we even snuck in some smores before the rain started in the late evening. Saturday had quite a bit more rain than we would have liked, and it was pretty darn cold. But, we managed to spend some time in the tent trailer, and some time around our campfire. It was not too bad, all in all. Sunday morning, unfortunately, brought lots of rain, which made for a pretty miserable experience taking down camp. Three easy up (not so quick) quick shades, two tent trailers, one tent, and ten camp chairs took three hours in the rain to disassemble. Of course, once we got home, we had to reassemble everything, rinse it off, let it all dry, then take it all down and pack it up again. Oy!  

I guess I will have to plan my camping weekends better in the future. Who would have thought mid-July would be a bad weekend for camping?!

Me and My Girl. Proof that I was actually there.

Skyler was lost without cell phone service to text his girlfriend. He was forced to interact with all the rest of us. Poor kid!

Cutest cousins. And bestest friends.

Playing on the air mattresses in the tent? Super fun!
Remaking the bed after your children and nephews destroy it?
Not that fun. Especially the 8th time. :0)

Kira tried to resist our camping fun. Luckily, she didn't last long!

Look who's outgrown his grandma?! And his dad. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone. Especially Kent.

Cute Kenzie.

Thank you Scott, for the fabulous camp spot. And the Tent trailer protection. And the wonderful quick shades covers!

Once again, lost without his phone. He sure liked the campfire though!

Possibly the cutest camper I have ever seen!

Stuck in the tent trailer. :0(
Thank you Uno!

See those baked potatoes? I put those deep in the hot coals. After an hour and a half we had charcoal briquets wrapped in foil, rather than baked potatoes. Guess it was a little too warm.

The Narrows

It's been a very busy month, and I am falling behind in my blogging (ie. journaling), but anyhow, back in June, Skyler and Kent were finally able to travel back to Zion and redeem themselves by hiking the Narrows. (They tried last year, but found it was running too high and closed when they were there). I think I missed out on a very cool experience. Maybe next time. Stinkin' work! Ahhh well, you win some, you lose some.

So, they spent one day in Zion, hiking the Narrows, and one day hiking in Bryce Canyon. I was sure happy to have them home after two nights!

Our Fence . . .

Is in!!

Hallelujah!

We are a little (a lot!) poorer, after the fact, but very grateful to be able to corral one precocious three year old in our back yard.

Oh my! Oh me! Taylee is Three!

Taylee Brooke is 3 TODAY! It feels like only yesterday that this little bundle of energy came into our world and turned us upside down. And she has been rocking our world for the last 1,095 days. Is that really all?! I just can't remember what life was like before this little girl came into it. Taylee is full of personality, but she definitely makes you work if you want to get to know her. She is extraordinarily shy when it comes to new people, even sometimes people she knows. Even her aunts and uncles really have to charm her each time they see her to earn a hug, or even a smile. But once you have made her favorite people list, she is full of silliness and fun. She brings a smile to my face every single day. I am so grateful to have my sweet Taylee Bug, and I can't wait to see what kind of amazing person she grows up to be! But not too soon Taylee, stay little for a while longer, please.

Happy Birthday to You! 

Tayleeisms

Lovable, silly, funny Taylee is quite a little talker these days. Some silly things she has said lately, so I never forget her cute little personality:
* When she is trying to talk me into something, she points her finger straight in the air and announces "I have good idea!" and lately, it's "I have GREAT idea!" She then expects confirmation, by asking "it's good idea?"
* While I was getting ready for work she told me "mommy, I don't want you go to work." I told her I had to go to work to take care of the sick babies. She replied "mommy, that's not your problem!" Haha, I wonder whose problem it is?
* Apparently we are always late, and I am known to tell her to hurry up. Repeatedly. Every day. She now tells me at all random times. "hurry! we wunning yate for the party! It's six o'clock!" No matter what time it is.
*I gave her a small sip of an orange soda. I have trained her that coke is yucky! (which I can't believe she buys into, since Kent and I obviously drink it regularly. Sad, but true.) When she tried the orange soda, she looked at me, pursed her lips and said "ewww, that's spicy!"
*She likes to "fix" my hair. She reported to me yesterday "I gonna do your hair. I need some cash money!"
*Our neighborhood still has a few houses under construction. As a result we have a porta potty in residence on our street. It is happily named the "honey bucket." Kent and I occasionally reference using the honey bucket while we are out walking with Taylee. She decided a few days ago that she needed to stop and wash her hands in the "money basket!", ie, the honey bucket. If only the money basket had a sink . . .
*We went camping last weekend. On our third morning, I was changing her into her clean clothes, including undies. When I pulled off the pull-up that I made her sleep in, I found a couple of pine needles, some dirt, and a small twig. She quickly caught on that I was surprised by what I found and decided to check it out for herself. As she leaned down to examine her girly parts, she crinkled up her nose and asked me "what smells like?!" (which is code for "what's that smell?!")  Ewww. Apparently, even toddlers are a little less than fresh after camping for three days!!
P.S. More to come on our little camping trip soon!

Happy 4th of July!

What a fun and fabulous Fourth of July we had this year! We were lucky enough to bring together Kent's parents and brother Scott and his friend Ranae, with my parents and my whole (little) family- even Skyler! We spent the day at Cherry Hill, soaking up some fun in the sun and lots of water. The Lazy River proved to be a great place for our little group, and we went around, and around, and around. And afterwards, we were famished! Lots of M&M's cookies were consumed! Especially by Miss Taylee. We caught her picking out the M&M's and dropping pieces of cookie on the ground, "cuz the birds are hungry!"

Grandpa Terry wasn't sure about this lazy river business . . .
But Grandma and Nana were sure happy to chat the river away! 

Once the sun went down, we watched the West Point firework show, which seemed to malfunction about midway through, and came to an abrupt end. No finale, no nothing. We left feeling a little disappointed after waiting for 15 minutes for the finale. Well, it finally came about 20 minutes after we got home, while we were tucking Taylee into bed. Too bad we missed it! Ahhh, well. We'll catch another firework show later this year, right?!