For the 4th of July weekend we ended up going to Heber. It was a lot of fun for most of us. Amber really had a great time being spoiled by family and friends. She thinks Heber is this magical place where:
there are fireworks
she gets to stay up late
she gets to sleep with papa
she gets to ride horses
she gets to go down a really big slide with grandma
she gets candy and other goodies all the time
she gets to go outside during the day
she gets to play with the cats, dogs, and horses whenever
As you can tell by the list above she/we did a lot. Friday we had a more relaxed day and then we had a BBQ at my parents house and stayed up to watch the fireworks. Saturday was a busy day. Amber rode Duke, my dad's horse, for as long as we would let her. She had to take turns with her cousins Zach and Natalie. Then in the afternoon she went swimming with the family at the Kamas Rec Center. My mom was kind enough to get in with her so I could take care of Elle and visit with Lauren. Amber loved the big slide and had a lot of fun. Then straight from there we went to a BBQ at Aunt Bonnie's house in Kamas. Amber visited with everyone and loved all the attention. Elle didn't seem to mind that we were in a different place, she was happy as long as she was getting her naps and food. The hard part about the trip was Amber sleeping. It was hard on her because we were in a new and strange room that wasn't hers. She would cry and cry until J (mostly) or myself would go and sleep by her. We are still trying to get her back on schedule and back to sleeping by herself again. It was fun but it is nice to be home where we can get back to normalcy.
For my birthday J arranged to have pictures taken of Amber, Elle and me. We finally had them done on Monday by Amber at A Blue Iris. They are available for your viewing pleasure here. I really like the ones of the girls together. I was a little bummed that we couldn't get Elle to smile (she was tired) but I think they look cute anyway.
Oh how I hate the hot hot summer months in St. George. It is really hard when by 10:00am it is too hot to be outside anymore. That is for now anyway, in the next few weeks it will never be cool enough to be outside. So far this summer we have been going out to visit J or friends or have found something fun to go see or do but now that gas is so expensive and the car gets so hot we are not doing that anymore unless we need to go somewhere. I was trying to think what I did last summer to pass the time. Then I remember I took Amber swimming at the outdoor pool at our gym at least every other day. The only problem with that now is Elle is too small to be in the sun (she can't even wear sunscreen yet). We did meet some friends* at the new Washington Recreation Center to go swimming. It was fun but really hard with two kids - one whom didn't want to be there and the other so excited but not willing try anything by herself. So I was really glad to have Amanda there to help out. Enough complaining but if anyone has any good suggestions of fun things to do at home with a two year old I would love to hear them. *thanks Chrissy for inviting us
So I know that Father's Day was yesterday but I am just going to call this Papa Week. Yesterday J didn't get much of anything except a can of Shasta Root Beer (click this to see how he felt about that) and some sugar cookies. Amber, Elle and I did do something for him but it won't be ready until tomorrow because I didn't realize it would take so long to finish. But I would like to take a minute to say how much the girls and I appreciate you. Thank you for all the tickles, hugs, kisses, dances, laughs, knowledge, memories, wisdom, love, compassion, silliness and understanding. Thank you for working so hard for us, even when you would rather be doing something else. Thank you for being at all the doctors appointments or where ever else we need you. Thank you for giving me a break so I don't go crazy. We love you and all your craziness. Thanks.
Elle's blessing was yesterday and she was so good. I thought for sure that she was going to cry all day or at least during the actual blessing but she didn't. She did however poop on her pretty white dress right after the blessing. J said that she must be his child because he doesn't like dressing up either. It was so nice having family and a few friends come to be here for her blessing. We had a nice time this weekend and want to thank everyone that came. Here are a few pictures from the day. Lauren has some other pictures from the weekend here.
