Summer Dump

I was pregnant and nauseous for the rest of summer.  For some reason my gag reflex was easily agitated and a threw up on occasion.  Brian loves the sound of my gag.  That's my excuse for throwing 3 months together for this post. Here's the summer synopsis.  

When we got back we were blessed with a fun bag of girls' hand-me-downs Here they are modeling some of their favorites for me.

 Scarlett finished the last few weeks of soccer, without much improvement of attitude Here she is crying and wiping the tears from her cheeks before they take the group photo.

 Brian at City Park on a Sunday afternoon.

 Girls and I at a $2 swim day at City Park Pool.  Alice's little body gets cold real fast.

 Next day, we hit up the splash pad.  The girls could swim every day.

 In fact, I think we did swim almost every day this week.  These were taken on July 16th, 17th, and 18th.  The 18th we went swimming with our old ward at a friends' pool.  Scarlett and Alice wowed everyone with their diving board skills.

We got free FroYo for the girls who completed the Iowa City Library Summer Reading Program.  She was VERY  eager to get frozen yogurt right away.  Alice peed her pants right before this. Typical.

Alc

 Alice working on a masterpiece and peeing on the potty.  Unfortunately, potty training has been put on the back burner since she really despised it when we got back.  We gave up at the end of August.  It was a battle that we couldn't win.

"Mom, we're sleeping. Take a picture!"  @Kiwanis Park. 

 Backyard Pooling.   I think they popped it this same day so we bought a larger one.

Children's Museum Blue Room forts built by Scarlett.

 Chick Fil A always accompanies a trip to the mall.

 This was just after Scarlett took an awful spill off er bike riding down a fairly steep hill.  She had scrapes on her face from the sidewalk and a terrible bloody nose.  She was so traumatized she fell asleep when we got home.

 Enjoying Free Lunch in North Liberty.  Alice is a big burger fan.

 This picture was taken after we went in to the clinic to have the nurse check baby's heartbeat at around 16 weeks.  I was nervous when we struggled a little to find it, but it was there!  We all felt like this:

 Scarlett took this picture.  So cute.

 Scarlett snuggle time while Al-Pal naps.

 Play dough creations.

 We went to this fun festival to support the North Liberty fire department.  Alice got her face painted for the first time.  Scarlett as a butterfly, Alice as a kitty.

 We walked over to the Iowa Power Bridge in Coralville.  Scarlett demanded to bring the tunnel.  

 I'm amazed we didn't go home completely wet. 

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!