Undressing

Two mornings in a row now, I've entered Ashlyn's room to find her shirt off and a big smile on her face. I can't believe she's started undressing herself already.

Taylorsville Dayzz

Taylorsville Dayzz was fun as always. This year was different, however, because it was just our little family. Everyone else was out of town, but the girls had a blast anyways. Kali practically danced the entire time we were there and most of it by herself. She's a little goofy when she dances so we just watched her for our entertainment. She even started dancing with complete strangers. Ashlyn was happy as long as she had a bag of snacks to munch on. Most of the time she wanted to sit in her stroller and eat, and occasionally she would put her arms in the air and wave them to the beat of the music. When she was down, she was usually trying to escape into the crowds. Sadie spent the majority of her time climbing on us or cuddling with us. The firework show was probably the longest one we have ever seen. It lasted about a half an hour. It was so long that even though Ashlyn was scared to the point of crying with the first few fireworks, she was asleep by the time the show was over. It is by far the best firework show around.

5K

For those of you that don't know, I am an avid exerciser. Over the last 2 1/2 years I have exercised between 3 and 6 times a week. The only weeks I did less than that were when I had the swine flu, the week Ashlyn was born and one week in December. I have been lucky to be able to attend Zumba and kickboxing classes at a church nearby and on the other days I jog or use my elliptical. Jogging hasn't ever been on the top of my list as far as "fun" is concerned, but it helps me maintain my weight the best and provides me with a challenge. Recently, Josh set a goal of jogging a 5K for a work fitness program. I typically jog 3 to 4 miles each time I jog and never considered a 5K to be much of a challenge but decided it would be fun to participate in an official race so I signed up too. I decided to push myself by jogging it faster. I was jogging 3 miles in about 42 minutes (according to my treadmill, which we think is off) and worked my way down to about 33 minutes. I would jog an hour at a time so I was typically putting in 5 1/4 miles each jog. As the race neared, I was a little nervous because I rarely jog outside. The 5K we would be jogging was at Sugar House Park and I knew the inclines would have an affect on my running as well as the temperature. My goal was to complete the race somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes. Well, I did. I ran it in 28 minutes 33 seconds and came in 4th place in my age group. I was only 8 seconds shy of coming in 3rd place and would have gotten a prize. Next time I just need to sprint that last little bit. I'm really glad Josh ran with me otherwise I don't know that I would have done it. I've wanted to do a half marathon for quite some time but am glad that I started out with the 5K. Now I even think I had better do a 10K before the half marathon just for the added experience. What fun.

Sprinklers

Now that Summer is officially here, both in temperature and on the calendar, the girls can finally enjoy running through the sprinklers. Sadie and Kali spend half of their time on top of the sprinkler head, while Ashlyn stays as far away as possible.

She couldn't even stand the fact that Kali was touching her while wet. The poor girl doesn't know the fun she's  missing. Now we just need a slip 'n slide.

Lagoon

Today was Josh's work Lagoon day and as always, we had a blast!!! This year was especially fun because Kali is now tall enough to go on most of the rides. We went on the Bat, Wicked, the Rollercoaster, and the Screamer, just to name a few. She loved all of them and immediately wanted to do them again. She's got a little of her mother in her.

And Sadie has grown out of her fearful stage. She used to need Kali to go on the scary rides with her, but now she'll go any of them that she can. As a matter of fact, she was more excited to be on the Ferris Wheel than Kali was. Ashlyn was scared to death while on the Ferris Wheel. She kept whimpering and saying "please" because she wanted to get off. Hopefully she doesn't end up with a weak stomach like her dad. Josh went on Wicked with Kali and it was too much for him. He was feeling pretty queasy the rest of the day.

The Wedding

Brady and Jordan got married today and they couldn't have picked a more beautiful day. I'm so excited for the two of them and the girls couldn't be more excited that Jordan is officially their aunt now.

As with every wedding, not everything can go perfectly. Right after the luncheon, we had a little mishap. Well, I guess I shouldn't say "little". While leaving the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Sadie asked to go through the revolving doors at the front. We thought it would be fine and sent her through. The only problem is that after she got out, she stepped halfway back in while contemplating whether or not to go through again. Her head got squished in the door. Those doors are so heavy and have so much momentum behind them when turning that it was pretty nasty. The employee on the main level saw it happen and got security who in turn called in the paramedics. It was probably a good idea. In the picture, you're looking at the best part of the injury. I couldn't really get a picture of the other side because it was under her hair, but she had an area that swelled up very large and turned blue very quickly. I was nervous because it was right at the temple of her head. After a good cry she was pretty mellow which made me wonder if she was just exhausted or had a serious injury. The paramedics looked her over and told us their opinion. They thought she would likely be fine, but told us to watch for nausea or dizziness and to make sure we could easily arouse her from sleep. After a blessing, we all felt better and Sadie started acting better. By the end of the night she was back to her old self again and full of energy.

    

The reception was held at the Loggia Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was beautiful. The girls looked so cute in their dresses and had so much fun dancing around and spending time with family. What a wonderful day.

Dandelions

We went on a walk today and Sadie told me, "I just can't wait until our yard has dandelions." I smiled and said, "No, we don't want dandelions. They're a weed and just make our grass yucky." She then said, "but every one else's has them." I love the way three-year-olds think...if only dandelions were a beautiful flower and not a weed. But I'm not three, and anyone that knows me knows that I love yard work and that I have had to work very hard over the last couple of years to get our lawn to look like this. I spend a lot of time outside and it gives me a great sense of satisfaction. I prefer yard work over house cleaning and that's saying a lot since I'm a clean freak.

Good Idea / Bad Idea

Josh and I had the brilliant idea of going to The Gateway tonight to do some window shopping, only we hadn't thought through the fact that we'd be passing by the water fountain. Normally it wouldn't matter much, but it was a little on the cool side. I warned the girls that they would be freezing if they got wet, but that didn't stop them. They got soaked and had to walk back to the car with a cold wind blowing and dripping wet clothes. Thankfully we had some big blankets in the back of the van that they could wrap up in for the ride home.

Even Ashy got into the action a little. She ran into the middle of the fountain once. Thankfully it wasn't when a ton of water was shooting up. But by the time I got her out, she was content to stay on the side and move her arms up and down when she saw the water shoot into the air.

Twirling

Ashlyn has discovered that she can twirl and it's hillarious to watch. She can barely stay on her feet even though she puts her arm out front in an effort to keep her balance.

Hide and Seek

Over the last couple of weeks, the girls have developed a new fascination with the game of hide and seek. It's kind of cute because they've involved Ashy in it. One of the girls will hide while the other counts in a different room with Ashlyn. Then they try to help Ashlyn find the person that is hiding by calling out, "make a noise". The person hiding then squeals or makes some sort of noise that Ashlyn can easily follow. If they don't find the person within a few seconds they again call out, "make a noise" and repeat this process over and over until they are found. Ashlyn loves the game just as much as Kali and Sadie do.