Utah Trip/ 4th of July

 We road-tripped it to Utah for a 1 1/2 week stay over the 4th of July and it was just the best.  The girls were incredible on the road and we made it 13 hours to Laramie before we stopped.  There was a lot of snacking, playing, and sleeping.  I'm so proud of them.

 The  second night there, we attended Brian's 10 year REUNION!  It was fun for me, too to see the grads I know from his year.

Brian is cute. On Saturday morning, we went to the Ogden Farmer's Market. I was less than impressed with the assortment of vegetables-in comparison with Iowa FMs--but the entertainment was plentiful.  Here we are riding the little trolley train.

 We also visited the Children's Treehouse Museum with some friends and Grandma Maureen.  The little tigress is Alice.

Pres. Carson

We started the 4th with an over-saturated bike parade; the starting line was really stressing Scarlett out, but the girls made it all the way down to the finish line and back to our spot.  Well, I ended up carrying Alice and her bike about a quarter of a mile at the end.  It was very grueling.

 
We watched the parade from the shadeless view of 7/11's parking lot.  We got slurpees which made it bearable.  Scarlett isn't really too into parades, so she sat in the shade of my body and played games on my phone. Smart girl.

Nielsen cousins were in town from Idaho, and Hallie and Scarlett really hit it off this year.  Hurray!

Morning crafts on Grandma's deck--a total paradise in the early mountain air in nothing but undies.

Grandma Davis arranged some new pictures (gotta update every year will all dese babies).  

Luckily for us, we came out unscathed.  Others weren't so lucky.

We visited the SeaQuest Aquarium in Layton.  You could pet almost everything.  So cool. A little gross. 

 We tried out a $2.00 Hurricane.  Alice did not enjoy the experience.

We visited the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, 1st time since I moved to Utah as a 10 yo, I believe.  After,we swam.  We swam all over the Wasatch Front while we were there, but our favorite by far was Classic Waterslides in Riverdale.  No rules, fast slides, super cheap, and fabulous (not pictured).  

The girls made their own family picture set-up, Scarlett's idea.  As the oldest cousin, they would follow Scarlett to the ends of the earth. I don't think Scarlett understands the scope of her power just yet.

   On Tuesday, we said our goodbyes and headed onto the forever road.  We got this smurf guy at Burger King and he was not allowed to be tranferred to another location even though he kept falling down.  Alice was ruthless.

Until she fell asleep, that is.

    We ate at Chick Fil-A for lunch both ways.  They're food, service, & play places just can't be beat.  And we had to take advantage of Cow Appreciation Day.  We enjoyed our free meal earned by tearing out our printable ears and taping them in the car.

This place in Cheyenne went all out with balloon animals, cow-dunk tank, and face paint. Like, woah.

 We arrived at our hotel in Kearny, NE late and tired, but we still swam at the hotel in the morning before heading home.  It was such a fun visit.  There is no one better than family!

House Updates

With our downstairs hotel being so busy and successful this summer, we've decided to move on with our House Wish List.  These wood blinds were falling apart.  The far left window's didn't open and the big front window was missing the turning wand so we had to spin it open at the very top by hand.  And they made the house really dark.

 So we bought and installed these new white faux wood blinds. They're cordless too, which is pretty neat. I feel like it makes our room a lot brighter!  I did have to slim the bigger blinds down, saw off the edges which took a lot of stamina I must say.  They turned out great! Best of all they work!

Next on our wish list was these broken old storm doors.  The front door handle required to much thumb pressure for Scarlett to open. The pressure brake part had broken off so it just flew open and shut and made a very loud creaking sound.

 The back door was really heavy and it slammed shut loudly when our guests would come in and out. It was nice that the girls could open it because it didn't ever lock shut.

  I couldn't leave out this cute lipstick face.

Here are the new doors.  I also spray-painted that aluminum bar by the door to match our numbers and door.  And I got a cute new rug from Target.  Target decor is my favorite. I can't decided if I love or hate the  bright blue paint on the foundation of the house and the stairs. I've thought about painting it a different color, but the idea just now makes me tired.  I wish Mona had left more bright blue paint

downstairs so I could at least fill it in where its chipping, but for now I'm trying to embrace the color.

 We also replaced this little lamp in the back because the old one didn't work. We are starting to become well versed in DIYs.

Alice's 2nd Birthday

Alice didn't have a big party, or even a cake for that matter...whoops!  We were all pretty much caked out lately, so I made this raspberry jello salad.  In later years we'll probably just combine their birthdays, since they're not even a month apart. They'll love that, right?

Brian caught the hilarious sequence on his phone.  Scarlett "helped" her with those difficult candles.

 Alice loves all things that are "pittee". She loves to have her hair done, wear dresses and spin, find bows and have me put them all in her hair.  She knows what she wants to eat and often finds her breakfast or lunch before I've had a chance to prepare it.  She loves to climb and bike and swim and wants to do everything Scarlett does.  Anytime we ask if they want to watch a movie, she says, "MANA!" (Moana).  She loves to be outside, and loves to say, "Bye dad. See ya later. I love you."  when dad leaves in the morning.  She's the sweetest.

Alice is also  incredibly independent and stubborn!  She is FINALLY sleeping well at night.  It took two years for to quit consistently waking up and often needing a lot of help and coaxing to get back to sleep. I'm SO grateful that she has started to enjoy sleeping. We were prescribed a children's allergy medication because her lungs were always raspy and she often woke up coughing. It seemed like her colds lasted forever.  The meds really changed things around.  Hallelujah.

The next day Scarlett rode her bike to the park while I ran with Alice in the stroller.  Scarlett didn't like when I would run because she felt like she was losing the race and kept whining that she was "soo tiired."  It was pretty comical.  Then we took Alice out for a doughnut date.  She seemed to be pretty into it.

And just look at this sweet video Google made for me.  I hadn't even recalled taking some of these photos. So precious. 

Scarlett's birthday

We have a 4 year old!  We had a really low key potluck and invited some of her friends and their families the Sunday after her birthday on April 30th.  She is obsessed with birthday parties and always talks about her next one.  

 She requested a "rainbow cake" . This was the easiest cake I've ever prepared. Cheesecake from Costco with Skittles.  It's not a bad combination.

After singing we played with long balloons animals that we only knew how to make into swords without popping and watched Moana.  I'm not a very exciting birthday party planner, but the food was good.

A few days(maybe even weeks) before Scarlett's birthday we found a great bike for her on Craigslist. I've never been good at waiting and hiding presents. We started riding right away.
 I was a little concerned that it didn't come with training wheels, but she picked it up her second day of riding. She's quite impressive!

Alice picked up the balance bike like she'd been riding it forever. She still hasn't worked out how to drag her feet to brake it.  All of Scarlett shoes are scuffed on the front from doing that.

Cruisin'.

Her Grandparents spoiled her and sent us packages full of cute presents from Utah.  Grandmas are the best.

Brian and Nat go to Prom

I was asked a little while ago to help out with the Multi-Stake LDS Prom for the 16 to 18 year olds. I decided to ask Brian to come with me w/ a good ol' fashioned Promposal. I've never called it that before, it was just the word I learned from the laurels at Young Women's and I thought it was hilarious. Other little sayings I've picked up from them:  Lit, Mo-Pro,Single Pringle, and they say "That's Awkward" for every short silence and unnoticeable weird moment.

Brian didn't answer right away so he could come up with a way to answer back, as is the old high school custom.  This eventually turned into him on one knee when I was in the bathroom getting ready 20 minutes before our date and him whispering to Alice, who whispered to me, "yes". Totally cute.

Don't we look sharp?  I'm loving Brian's hair cut.  He looks like Gordon Hayward, which is exactly what he was going for.  Although I think Rudy Gobert is his true Jazz role model.

I was so happy we got a baby sitter so we could go feel the insecure silly atmosphere that is a high school dance, nay, a church-high school dance.  We talked about how lucky we were that we got to be on date with someone we actually liked, (like, REALLY REALLY liked) instead of an all-day date marathon with the guy/girl you haven't even talked to for longer than the extent of 5th period Math class.  Getting our confidence up to dance like the crazies we used to be took a little loosening up. And we didn't really go all out, because we're dignified now.  We'll save those moves for when we want to embarrass our kids later on, when we have a defined motive. 

House Updates

With our lovely tax return, we were hoping to purchase a new HVAC system for Lil' Ol' Blue (that's a fresh new nickname for the house that I probably won't use again) and pour a new cement driveway.
 We were very happily surprised and mostly blessed to be able to afford both.

Also, little AirBnb business update:  We've had a steady flow of visitors downstairs and we are so happy with the amount of interest we've received.  Currently we have a young woman staying for the month who recently graduated at the university and is working at the hospital.  Its been nice and chill. Alice sort of stresses us out with her mid-night wails once a week, but soon she will have all her teeth and never wake us up at night again, RIGHT?! Then we can stop worrying about the comfortable sleep of those below.

So, yeah lemme show you some great before, afters, and durings.  Ready. Set. Go!

Here's the old gravely driveway.  Never could we step outside with bare feet. Never!

First, they dumped a bunch of gravel at the end of where our driveway would go.

Then they dug some dirt out with a bobcat and made everything level. They also lifted away our old walkway that was uneven and coming apart.

The guy who did most the hard work, preferred working with his shirt off. I always felt like a major creep watching the driveway progress when he did so.  Taking this picture may as well have been the confirmation of my fears. I weirdly mumbled, "My husband wants to see what it looks like," as I raised my phone.

 As soon as we could ride on it, we went and got Scarlett a bike.  She's picked it up so fast!  She needs help getting on, but everything else comes naturally.  Alice is already starting to pick up her legs on the balance bike and sit in the seat correctly.  My girls are so talented!!!

One of Scarlett's first times riding. 4 days later she was off and biking far down the street without stopping.

Alice is cute.  She gets easily distracted when she's riding, and when Scarlett passes by her, she stops, claps, and says, "Yaaaaaay!"