Fourth of July

Last year, I decided the Fourth of July is my new favorite holiday. I love Christmas and all, and the meaning of it is obviously of paramount importance, but the busyness, materialism, and cold of December just doesn't quite compare to the sun-up, sun-down celebrations of Independence Day -- all done in the warmth of the sun. And now that Clay can be home celebrating with us instead of playing in his annual Fourth of July BYU soccer game, it's that much better. Although, we both miss his days with BYU soccer. 

Anyway, back to the Fourth. There is nothing like celebrating it in the heart of Provo. Watching the parade in the morning is a tradition I love, especially when good friends let us crash at their place to watch it. (Love you, Dayna and Steve!) But this year, we started the day's celebrations even earlier with Ellie's first real race -- a 1 mile run around Kiwanis park. She was so hyped up about running a race and talked about it all summer. She had hurt her knee the day before and was limping a little on the big day, but she was so determined to run as much as she could. When she had to stop and walk or have me hold her, she said, "It's OK if we don't win first." Atta girl. 

It was so cute to watch her cross the finish line. She said, "Mom! When I was running, my leg hurt a little but when I crossed the finish line, it stopped!" We walked to the runner's station and got her medal, which she was thrilled about, obvs. That night, when she was going to bed, she said, "I loved my race, mom." Looks like this might have to be added on to our annual festivities. 

We got smart this year and rode our bike to our friends' place on Center Street to watch the parade. It was nice to get a little workout in pre-holiday food gorging and to ride past all the people celebrating. Once Ellie spotted her best friend, Jayne, she was in heaven for the next couple of hours we spent watching the parade. Our friends were kind enough to let us borrow one of their cribs, and Camden eventually, miraculously, took a little snooze mid-bagpipes, canons and marching bands. My favorite float this year was Get Air Hangtime's, which had a trampoline float with people doing flips on it. Cool. 

After the parade, we went home to give the kids naps and do some prep for our family barbecue. When everyone arrived we ate good food (Bam Bam's brisket), the kids played on the Slip n Slide, and we visited with our next door neighbors and their family, who we are close friends with, and watched their annual firework show, which we call Cul de Sac of Fi-Er! (Sung to the tune of Stadium of Fire's theme song, of course.) These guys don't mess around. Their fireworks come from Wyoming and are super awesome. Once the sun started going down, we put a fussy Camden to sleep (he was asking to go "nigh-nigh") and walked over to the stadium to watch some of the Kelly Clarkson concert on the mega-tron. She has a pretty impressive voice, if you ask me. Then we got settled on our front lawn and watched the firework show. 

Ellie and her cousin, Kate, were fascinated, but would not unplug their ears. Haha. Little Camden snoozed through the whole thing, amazingly.

It was a fun, fun day and night. I love America. And I love Provo. There, I said it. 

Lake Powell

Clay has been going to Lake Powell with his family ever since he was born. 

My first time going to Lake Powell and trying watersports was when Clay and I were on the verge of engagement. We have gone almost every year since and I love this family tradition. 

Camden took a turn at the wheel on the drive down. 

Ellie and dad getting ready for bed with a sunset backdrop

                                                               Ellie and her cousin, Kayda

My favorite part of our Lake Powell trips is just riding on the boat. 

It's so relaxing and the scenery is breathtaking. 

This man clung onto Clay or I whenever the boat started going. 

This girl loved nestling in at the very tip of the boat and watching the boat glide through the water. 

Something about my husband driving a boat is very attractive to me for some reason.

My father-in-law, Jed gives some crazy rides on the tube. We call one of his moves the "Spiral of Death."

Ellie was so brave about hopping on the tube for a ride with grandma Ann.

Camden didn't mind getting filthy in the sand. 

Clay is a pro on the slolem. 

                                                                    I love waterskiing.

                                        There was a lot of fishing off the back of the boat.

                                    Ellie made her first catch (a catfish) with daddy's help.

Love these handsome boys.

                                                     We already can't wait for next year's trip!

Life lately

Oh hello, little blog! I haven't been here for about four months. Posting pictures on Instagram has seemed to replace my desire to blog, but I do want to document our lives in a little more detail. I hand write in my journal pretty regularly, which I have been doing since I could hold a pen, but I can' help thinking how devastating it would be if I lost one of those journals. So, here I am.

I'll break down our last few months with some highlights. I realize this might be more information than most people want to know, but this post is about writing down some things I always want to remember. 

March 

My best friend from Australia, Eleasah, visited with her husband, Dave, and their 2-year-old girl, Willow. We had never met each other's kids, and it was so fun to watch Ellie and Willow become instant friends, like Eleasah and I did when we met on my first day of high school 11 years ago in Queensland, Australia. 

We had so much fun showing them around. Utah seemed to become so much more exciting with Aussies to show it off to. Oh, and I turned 29 while they were here. :) I celebrated with a Favorite Things Party and dessert waffle bar. Eleasah helped me make my first batch of homemade vanilla, and between Australian IDs and a certain liquor store closing at 4 p.m. on a Friday night, we had a heck of a time getting hold of some Vodka to make that vanilla with.

 

{Eleasah and I}

                           {Eleasah's daughter Willow. Love her cheeks and little Australian accent}

                                                              {Favorite Things Party}

April 
Easter was really enjoyable this year. It was fun to see Ellie start to grasp the meaning of the Atonement. Also enjoyable was the fact that we skipped all of the craziness of the local Easter egg hunts (we learned our lesson last year) and just had a family one.

{Easter}

{The Tulip Festival}

May 

Ellie started swimming lessons and she loves them. I have really been wanting her to become more confident in the water, and the lessons have worked wonders for her in only a few short weeks. She went from crying during the lesson and fearing going under to jumping off the diving board and going under the water by herself. I feel a lot better about our upcoming Lake Powell trip now. 

{Ellie and Kate}

Ellie at 3 1/2 years old 

The highlight of this month was definitely when my sister Jen came to visit from Arizona. Ellie is best friends with her daughter, Kate, who is just a few months older than her. Ellie had been asking when Kate was coming for months. They squeezed in as much playing time as they could in three days and then said a hard goodbye. Ellie was genuinely sad about watching her sweet friend and cousin go. It broke my heart but made me grateful she has that bond with her cousin at the same time. 

Ellie has also been spending a lot of time with her BFF Jayne, my good friend's daughter who I started a preschool co-op with in September. Jayne and Ellie love pretending together and dressing up. It's kind of funny to watch how competitive they get sometimes. That will be a plus when they become soccer stars, right? :) 

Ellie has learned a lot over the past year with preschool. She knows the alphabet and the letter sounds, her numbers, and she can write her name and a few other words like hi, mom, dad, poo . . . you know, the essentials. She is great with scissors and loves drawing stick people with big heads and no necks. 

Ellie is extremely social and always wants someone to play with her. She has started asking that question I remember always asking my mom as a kid: "Mom, what can I do now?" 

She has such a sweet spirit and is very sensitive to her own and other people's emotions.

{Sweet Ellie after I gave her a haircut}

Camden at 10 months old 

I just want to squish the kid all the time. He is so snuggly and I love when he comes up to me or Ellie and attacks with an open-mouthed kiss. When Ellie laughs, he joins in with a fake laugh. When Clay or I tackle Ellie, he wants to be part of the fun so he crawls over at hyper speed and lays a wet one on her. He has just starting pointing and waving. He pulls himself up onto everything and is very active. We can't get enough of his big blue eyes, his dimples, and his chunky bum. Sorry. That's just how it is. He says, "mama" and "dada" and "ah dah" (all done). 

Camden is a good eater so far. He has had reactions to a lot of foods (dairy, gluten, nuts) so we make his baby food and he chows down pretty much anything we give him. He got over his bad spout of colic at about five months old and is now sleeping through the night with one feeding. Finally! 

He is an extreme mama's boy and I love it. Clay reminded me about being worried that I wouldn't have as strong of a bond with him as I do with Ellie but I do have such a close bond with my boy. 

Ellie and Camden are really starting to play with each other and it makes me so happy to see them have fun together. Ellie's obvious need for buddies was one of the reasons we jumped on having kid number two when we did, so this stage is fulfilling. Ellie often says, "I'm going to marry Camden Jed." She specifically asked me today if he can be her husband when she grows up. How could I say no? She will overcome the desire to marry her brother pretty quickly so for now, I'm letting it go.

{Camden at 9 months}

{Me and my babe}

The last of Florida

 Here are a few more pics from our trip to Florida. 

 Ellie kept asking to take a boat ride at our hotel. I might have been a little nervous about the sign by the water that said: "Danger! Do not feed the alligators." But Clay said he could wrestle a croc with the best of 'em, so we went for it.

 He just keeps getting cuter. 

 Cousin besties. They love their matching Cinderella jammers. {Thanks, Jen!} 

 We enjoyed some shopping at the premium outlets. 

Needless to say, we loved our little family vacation. A few days after we got home, Ellie said,

"Mom, you know where I wanna move when we live in a new house?"
I said, "Where?"
"Somewhere really special. Florida."

We can always hope!