End of July in Utah

The day before we left Cheyenne we watched The Incredibles and decided that Quinn was a perect representation of Jack Jack.  Today when I caught her grinning ear to ear with a pair of Alex's underwear on her head I had a flash to the movied Lilo and stitch and realized that she was more like Stitch.  This shall be her new name.

Last week we took advantage of a warm Tuesday and went up the canyon with friends to have a picnic and chat.  The girls spent hours in the shallow creek and running around the grass.  It was perfectly summer and just about heaven.

Thursday was Pioneer day and we convinced Grandma and Grandpa to join us for the Mapleton city Parade.

It was awesome.  The girls were really excited about Pioneer day and a parade and wanted Pioneer dresses.  So we went to DI and found some charmers for $2 a piece and the girls were in heaven.

The parade was the perfect size and there was PLENTY of candy to go around.  We went home for a BBQ with Kara and Finn and then spent the evening across the street chatting and watching Strawberry shortcake.

Friday we got up and headed straight to Willow Creek for the Brady Family Reunion!  There was a smaller crowd this year than in the past, but it was fun to spend time with each family and enjoy the activities and cousins.

This was probably the cleanest Quinn was the entire time.  She entertained herself in the rocks every waking minute.

Toby, Scout, Alex and Heidi were joined at the hip and went everywhere and did everything together.  It was fun seeing Heidi hang out with kids her own age and not have to tag along with the older girls all the time.  We fell in love with Scouty all over again.

Finn was a camping natural, I don't think I ever heard a peep out of him.

There was boondoggling, necklace making, games, candy and lots of laughter.  I loved being able to let the kids just be, and not worry every minute about where they were or what they were doing.

Lots of babies this year!

Quinn did great in the tent.  Well, in the pack n play in the tent.  We shared an 8 man tent just the 2 of us because the girls wanted to sleep with Grandma and Grandpa SO bad.

Alex was super helpful as usual, hauling Quinn around to play and keeping her safe when I was busy.

Quinn sort of owned that place and everyone there.  She wasn't shy about joining any conversation.

Watching Heidi sleep deeply despite all the noise and bright sun reminded me of myself as a child.  Except I also remember Dad dumping me out of the sleepingbag as I huddled in trying to hang out to every minute of sleep and warmth.  We let Heidi sleep until it was getting hot in the tent and it was time to pack up, then fed her chocolate doughnuts and strawberries for breakfast.  That's camping.

I didn't get a picture of the whole group, but here were the stragglers who hung on till late morning before heading out.  Heidi, Toby and Alex were up at the zip line of course.

I was convinced someone was going to be sent to the hospital, but 2 years makes a big difference and these girls owned that zip line.

Alex figured out a way that didn't require climbing on the platform and sitting on the seat.  She would drag the rope up the hill, sit on the knot and ride down.  The only snag was that the momentum didn't take her far enough up the next hill to get down on solid ground so she got pretty good at climbing down the rope hand over hand until she could drop.

They called themselves Tarzan and played for hours  upon hours.

Heidi needed help on and off, and if there had been enough willing adults she would have ridden that thing all day.  It was a fun time and sure made us miss all the family that wasn't able to make it!

July in Utah

 A few days into the Utah portion of our trip we got to spend the day with cousin Ryan!

With his bleach blond hair he perfectly fit in with my girls and he was a seamless fit between Heidi and Quinn.  We discovered that boys play differently than girls, and Ryan taught us that any small thin lego could be turned into a lightsaber.

We also got to FINALLY meet Finn!  Grandma thought we might be a help when she tended Finn,

turns out we just added 3 more needy bodies who want Grandma at all times.  Some of those bodies can get pretty cranky when not the center of attention.

Another fun adventure was when we were able to meet up with the girl's Pittsburgh best friends for a park date!

They melted together seamlessly and were back to all the old games in seconds.  It was a bright spot in our trip and helped remind us that the fun isn't going to suddenly stop when we head back East.

Alex is pretty obsessed with Finn.  She begs to hold him all the time, and once she got him and ran off down the hall to hide and prevent him from being taken home.

Quinn gets pretty excited when he comes to play.  We get to see him 3 days a week and are all falling in love with those chubby cheeks.

Quinn seems surprised at times that he doesn't fight back, but she does have a good 7 months on him.

She has perfected her scowl and gotten pretty good at tantrums when forced to be kind to the gentle giant.
   We have been able to squeeze in multiple adventures a day and it seems that there is still not enough time for all the fun, book clubs, school, friends and parks we want to visit.  We've been here 2 weeks and I still haven't had cafe rio.   I have been able to make it to the Temple twice and had wonderful experiences both times.  I miss the luxury of having live in babysitters, or babysitters period.  The girls have molded themselves back into pre-Utah mode and could easily live here happily ever after.  I've enjoyed living across the street and down the street from wonderful friends and loved all the run in's and play dates and girl time, although we are starting to miss Tyler pretty badly.  

Almosta family picture

Got these this week and my heart melted.  Sort of missing those awesome bridges, but so happy to be out West.

 Heidi no longer has that hair (and neither do I) and Alex is missing a tooth now!

 Don't know where this innocent little girl went!

I have a feeling we will be trying again next year, hopefully with Daddy in the pictures!

4th and more

I remembered on the 4th that it was exactly a year ago that we were starting our trip to Pittsburgh.  I had gotten in the car wreck on the 28th and we were in Cheyenne for the 4th of July.  We had a picnic with my Mom and Grandma and Quinn got her first sunburn.  What a year it has been!

I had to forgo my usual 4th of july homemade attire but I threw together some cute festive outfits the day before with the help of Walmart.  We were by far the most red white and blue people around that day.

We headed out to Terry Bison Ranch so the girls could go on a pony ride and we picked up some fireworks afterwards.

They were in little girl pony heaven.

We also decided to take the Bison train tour again, because it was so fun 2 years ago.

Quinn was hot and bothered and was letting everyone know it.  Alex and Heidi were having fun but wouldn't feed the buffalo, and I hand fed a few bison and had my entire hand inside one's mouth, kind of creepy.

The weather was perfect until it wasn't.  Story of Cheyenne.  About 5 minutes after the tour ended it started to rain cold rain.

We were up on the scaffolding at the time and ran to the car.

The girls wanted poppers and sparklers and smoke bombs, so that's what we got.

These two are just adorable together.

Quinn was super interested in everything and wanted to touch and eat everything.

Alex is my right hand.  Don't know what I would do without her but I'm pretty sure Quinn was the 3rd born because it takes 4 of us to handle her.

Heidi informed me that she wanted to be a baker but it's to bad because she is going  to be a cowgirl when she grows up.

I have such a wonderful family.  The other day Alex said "Wouldn't it be CRAZY if we had ANOTHER girl in our family!"  It really would.

Quinn fell off the curb and scabbed up her eye, again.  Daddy ran her around the block to cheer her up and then gave her a sparkler.

This one has spunk.

She get's it from this one.
Friday night we had a picnic and then went to a field to watch the fireworks.  Once they started, Quinn clapped her hands and smiled and walked in front of us all to sit down and watch.  It was priceless.

Because Friday wasn't exhausting enough, Saturday we took Tyler to Vedauwoo and had another awesome and completely different experience.

We decided to try and hike UP this time and ran across a mother moose and her baby.  This sent us farther UP to avoid them and we got to see that our kids are actually really good hikers!

We also discovered that when you pay $20 for a baby bjorn knock off, you get your money's worth.  Tyler ended up carrying her in his arms the last 3/4 of the trek.

Tyler saved us from a rolling boulder.

And then Heidi totally upped him by lifting it with one finger.

Quinn is pretty well entertained by anything as long as we leave her alone.  She probably would have walked off, joined a pack of wolves and been entirely happy if we had let her.

In our pathless wanderings we found a path and some people and discovered that there was a great lookout and a fun path to follow.

So we did, and it was so cool, except we were suddenly afraid the girls were going to fall off a cliff and die.

Heidi loves her father.

And he teaches her crazy things.

It wouldn't be a family outing if all the children weren't begging to be carried back to the car.

All except the one who actually needs to be carried.  She ate cherries, it's not blood.

There may have been a melt down when it was discovered Daddy wouldn't be carrying a certain child ALL the way down the mountain.

Quinn was ok to walk.

We returned to the car and the girls disappeared to chase chipmunks while Tyler and I bet how long it would take him to climb that mountain.  I bet 45 minutes, it took him 6.  It's further away and larger than it looks in this picture.  I was impressed.

Our last week in Cheyenne was spent trying to slow time down and enjoy every minute.  This of course included parks and treats and movies and fun.

The girls spent hours in the secret garden.

Quinn especially.

We even ran into a cousin!  What a treat to discover great friends in cousins, and also a sadness to say goodbye!

Quinn loves to be wet. Just soaking wet all the time.

The girls finally got to go swimming in the lake and they loved it.

We took those puddle jumper floaty things which are heaven sent, that way I don't have to go in the water.

Quinn was content to eat pretzels and be photographed.

We had a read a book about Esther Morris and her CAN DO attitude. Then we discovered this statue and I began brain washing the girls into loving Esther more than Cinderella.  We aren't quite there yet.

we said goodbye to Daddy and Grandma Friday morning and there were lots of tears.  He headed to Montana and we started West.

The girls were so excited to get to Utah that they never wanted to get out of the car!  We stopped ONCE to go to the bathroom.

My body was not quite as resilient and we had to stop once again so I could stretch my body.

They would have stayed in Echo canyon all evening chasing prairie dogs and climbing hills if I would have let them.
This is where I discovered that marshmallow rat's nest in Quinn's hair.