Torrey '09

Well, we survived Torrey this year and didn't come home with ANY stitches, so we're happy as little clams! We had a blast visiting with all our family and having lots of laughs, as we always do. The weather was a bit windy, but warm, and the scenery was, as usual, exceedingly beautiful.

For our little family, our annual Torrey reunion is a chance to reflect on the previous year and see how we have changed and grown. The girls are so much bigger now and getting to be so independent. It's amazing how quickly they are becoming little girls instead of toddlers. They slept so much better this year than previous years. They played in the pool and did little talent shows for us. They loved the dirt. At one point we looked over to find Gracie smooshing her face in the red dirt. I think she liked it because it was warm. Too cute. But Torrey also makes us wonder about the year ahead. What will have changed? What major events are on the horizon for us? It's a little daunting to think about, actually. Well, with a little luck we'll all be there again next year sharing s'mores and laughs.

My parents. Cute!

Tawny and Eli

This picture shows how windy it was. Yikes!

Tawny played with the girls in the pool.

Janie lovin' the water!

Aunt Nan got headlamps for all the kiddos. :)

Gracie snuggling with Uncle D.

Goobers! It is physically impossible for them to take a serious picture.

At Chimney Rock in Capitol Reef.

This is my favorite picture from the entire trip. Is she a doll, or what?

Beautiful baby with a blue sky behind her.

Gracie found this raised hill and called it Pride Rock (from The Lion King, her favorite movie). She said she was Queen Nala and Joe was her cub. He's supposed to be sleeping here, but I think he looks more like a dead spider.

Again with the dirt...

Auntie and Janie sharing a juice :)

We had sack races and Myles was the winner. But Denny was a close second!

A little sunburned, but happy.

Graice and Uncle D became buds :)

Quote of the Day:

"Why do your teeth have to hang out of those pink things?" -Gracie, on the drive to Torrey

Heritage Park

Joe's company gives us passes to lots of Salt Lake attractions each summer. We decided to use one of them yesterday and headed up to Heritage Park. It is a historic park where they have a monument marking the spot where President Brigham Young stood and declared that this was the right place for the Saints to build their city. It's really kind of cool, especially for young children. Ours loved it.

A big wooden train that the girls liked to play on.

The petting zoo was the real reason we came. They have a really large area with sweet little lambs and pigmy goats and bunnies. What more could two female ankle biters want? Janie kept patting them and saying, "It's nice! It's nice!"

Gracie liked the goats and thought that they all were pregnant because their bellies are so big :)

Too cute!

Janie kept trying to feed this poor goat sticks off the ground. For some reason, he just wouldn't eat them.

It was 96 degrees yesterday while we were there. Most of the lambs huddled together in this shady spot and napped. You can just see the heat in Jane's cheeks.

This little goat just stood in the middle of his food and gorged himself the whole time. No wonder their bellies are huge!

They had a mini-train ride that the girls thought was pretty fun :)

Cute peeps!

Quote of the Day:

"One hundred and fifty years ago our people were leaving Nauvoo and threading their way across the prairies of Iowa. None of us, I am confident, can appreciate the measure of sacrifice which they made in leaving their comfortable homes to brave the tempests of the wilderness on a journey that would not end until they reached this valley of the Great Salt Lake. Their suffering was immeasurable. They died by the hundreds for this cause of which each one of us is a part." - Gordon B. Hinckley, "Listen by the Power of the Spirit," Ensign, Nov. 1996, 4

song of the day, the handcart song, the children's songbook

Posession is nine tenths...

Janie's hitting her "terribles" I think. Maybe she's just teething some big molars. Who knows? She's been much grumpier the last couple of weeks and is giving Gracie something something that's been coming her way for a few years now.

One of the funny things that she's started doing is beginning words with "my" when it's something that belongs to her or that she wants. She has a little stuffed black cat that we call Halloween Cat. She now calls it Myloween Cat. Yesterday we went on a little tricycle ride to get in some practice. She calls it her Mycycle. You get the picture.

What's the deal with my children and riding bikes anyway? They absolutely hate it. All the other 4 year olds in our neighborhood ride two wheelers. Gracie shudders with fear at the sight of one. I'm really kind of frustrated and irritated that she doesn't want to even ride her tricycle for more than three minutes. Oh well. I guess we're just the wierdos of the neighborhood. Maybe I should just calm down and not want to fit in so much. (sigh)

Quote of the Day:
"The mother-daughter relationship is the most complex." ~Wynonna Judd

song of the day, kenny chesney, never wanted nothing more

A "Mom" Moment

Yesterday I had one of those profound "I am definitely a mother, and dang, I am awesome!" moments. Joe, Gracie, Janie and I had been out and about getting a few things at IKEA. We decided to go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants while we were in the area, so we sat down in a booth and immediately Janie says, "I'm poopy!" with that darling grin of hers. I took her out to the van because I don't carry a diaper bag with me all the time, but I do keep an emergency one in the car for occasions just like this one. As I was rifiling through the bag I began to realize that there were indeed NO DIAPERS to be found. I knew that I just could not let her be dirty for the next two hours (because that is the amount of time it was going to take for us to eat and then drive home). I was seriously desperate for anything with which to cover the poor thing's bottom. And then my motherly inspiration hit! I had a cloth diaper (which I used as burp cloths for them), all I needed was something to fasten it onto her. I grabbed our emergency kit that I keep in my car too, and found some medical tape. I put the cloth diaper on her bummy and wrapped medical tape around the waist of it three times. Ta DA!!!!! Instant diaper! I was laughing the entire time I was doing this, and so Janie was laughing too. It was a moment I don't think I'll ever forget, it was so funny. But hey, she was poop-free and feelin' fine for the entire dinner!

(By the time we left she had completely soaked through the diaper and her shorts. In retrospect, I suppose I could have fashioned plastic pants out of the shiny silver emergency blanket, but I really think that would have been going too far, don't you? ;)

song of the day, buddy holly, peggy sue

Such a good Daddy...

Here are a few shots from Father's Day this year. Joe is such a great daddy to his little girls. He loves them so much and they adore him in return.

He let Gracie decorate his face with Hello Kitty stickers :)

Whenever he gets home they immediately want to be in his lap. Poor guy can't get 5 minutes peace until AFTER they go to bed. Too cute :)

Quote of the Day:
"One father is more than a hundred Schoolemasters." ~George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

song of the day, it must be love, alan jackson

"Picture" Perfect

We broke out our art easel a few days ago and the girls had some fun dripping paint on the deck ;) I love this picture because it is such a idyllic scene...french doors thrown open to a beautiful summer day, two sweet sisters expressing their inner selves through painting, etc. A big part of me though was having a heart attack hoping that the paint would come off of the deck, the railings, etc. without much trouble. Why is it that I have to be so darn tense all the time when it comes to my children? So what if a paint splat made it's evil way into the house? At least my girls had a small moment of carefree, childish happiness. (Now where is that Magic Eraser?)

Quote of the Day:
"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." ~Lewis Grizzard

music of the day, sweet home alabama, lynard skynard

Janie Two-Spout

Here's a picture I took yesterday of my Janie. I think she is so beautiful. She is a perfect little messy porcelain doll. I'm afraid that she's growing up so fast that I'm soon going to be missing her when she was just like this...

Life has been good the last few days. The girls have been getting along fairly well and it makes me so happy when I see them chatting with each other or just sitting together sharing a few toys. They are both addicted to OtterPops, but other than that we're pretty healthy and happy !

I'm really enjoying both of the books I'm reading. Though I don't usually read "self help" type books, it's a good change from the hugemongous Gabaldon novels I've been into...and I have one more of those to read before the new one comes out in September. Oh well. For now I'm enjoying what I'm into. But I am worried about retaining all of the information that is contained in each of them. How the heck do you remember all the tips and advice you're given?

We're getting excited for our upcoming Torrey trip! I am a little worried about the girls getting into trouble and hurting themselves though. We had a BBQ at my brother's house on the 4th of July and Janie stuck her hand onto the grill lid not once, but TWICE!!! Whoever said that if you let them burn themselves once then they'll never do it again was out of their gourd. Janie is apparently of a scientific mind..."I wonder if this is hot. Ouch. I wonder if it's still hot. OUch. Hmmm. It's been ten seconds. I wonder if it's still hot. OUCH!" Poor thing.

Quote of the Day:
"A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after." ~Peter De Vries

(music of the day: listen to the music, the doobies)

Last Cruise Pics...

These are the last of my cruise pictures. It's nice to have all the ones I liked the best here on the blog. I'm planning on having my blog printed up into a book as a sort of scrapbook for our little family, so it will be nice to have them all together here. I haven't really "Scrapbooked" in years. This is a good substitute for me.

The ship behind her is the one from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Little Janie was plum tuckered out. She's taking a nap with mama.

Here's Ryck's Castaway Cay creation! Cool, huh?

Dining in Palo, the Disney Magic's gourmet restaurant. Yum!

At Palo.

I think Gracie's had enough vacation, hm?

Beautiful Florida.

Zoe and Leah playing with Janie for a few minutes while we waited for our shuttle back to the airport.

The twins! Cute!!

It's been a long week! We were all ready to be home after having so much fun on our cruise!

And one of my favorite Jimmy Buffet songs of all time for the finale...

(song of the day: Jimmy Buffet, Son of a Sailor)

Cruise...

I had a strange dream last night that we took a cruise with all the adults in Joe's family. It was one of those tiring dreams where you have to go over and over the same thing. I had forgotten everything except clothes (i.e. toiletries, underwear, swimsuit, books, etc.) and had to keep borrowing items from my sisters and mother in law. It was exhausting! I took it as an omen that I need to finish posting cruise pics ;)

Arrrrr!! Andrea brought a bunch of awesome pirate loot and shared with everyone. It was so fun!

I think the gold hoop earring is really workin' for Dad.

They were actually within strangling distance and paused in their efforts for a quick picture! Amazing!

Janie had this face for a large percentage of the experience...as did Gracie. LOL.

The kiddos were in LOVE with this huge lizard who wanted to bite their fingers off. Aunt Andrea flinagled a big piece of lettuce from one of the zoo workers so all the kids got to feed it. She's such a great Aunt!!

The Disney Magic is the boat on the right. (Our boat.) This is on St. Thomas at the top of the mountain looking down.

Cutie pie Janie!

This is such a cute picture, it's a shame that it's a bit blurry. Oh well! Isn't Minnie's outfit cute?

A chip off the old block...

Grandma Sue and Leah Sue in the Walt Disney Theatre.

"Those that say you can't take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip." ~Author Unknown

PS. "Thriller" is our music of the day in tribute to the awesome, the weird, the recently deceased Michael Jackson. (Let's face it, it's his greatest hit!)

Higher Education

I love this picture of Janie because she looks so serious...which is opposite her silly, carefree personality. I also love it because she's "reading" Homer's Odyssey. That's my girl!

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." ~Anna Quindlen