Moab, Arches, and Camping

WARNING: This will be a long post with tons of pictures. I tried to narrow it down to my favorites...but there are still a ton!


This weekend we went down to Moab to go camping for Paul's birthday. We went with my sister Wendy, Spencer, and Roman. After driving down on Friday afternoon and setting everything up we went on a short walk with the girls while we waited for Wendy's family, and then went to dinner in Moab. After we got back from dinner we had a little cake for Paul and sang "Happy Birthday."

Saturday

On Saturday morning we drove over to Arches first thing in the morning so we could hike to delicate arch before it got to hot. Amazingly we convinced the kids to hike to it. Kaylee hiked almost the whole way and Gabby hiked quite a bit of it. After we got back to the car and looked at the map we noticed it was marked as a strenuous 3 mile hike...and they did it!!! The guys (Paul, and Spencer) wanted to hike all the way to under the arch but...we stayed at the overlook and the guys went by themselves since there were dropoffs and steep ledges.

After we got down from delicate arch we were all hot, tired, and hungry. So, we went to Sand Dune Arch where it was cool shady, and yes, sandy. We ate lunch and let the kids play there for a while. They jumped, buried, each other, climbed rocks and walls, and pretty much anything else they could think of, and that was just the "Big" kids (also known as Spencer and Paul). They started digging a hole and wanted to see how deep they could get before they either had to give up, or hit rock. We figure it was about 2-1/2 feet deep when they gave up.




After we left the Sand Dune Arch we headed back to camp. I was dumping sand out shoes, socks, pockets, pants, hair...IT WAS EVERYWHERE! The kids were exhausted but had a blast!

Sunday

For some reason the kids thought that they needed to be up at 6:30 this morning!!! WHY?!? They finally dragged us out of bed and we got going for the day. We got everything packed up, put away, and back in the car. After camp was all taken down, put away, and everything else we headed back to Arches for a few more hikes. At one of the arches I told Kaylee she could take some pictures...so, the picture that is everyone (except Kaylee) is the picture she took. Today we hiked to Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch, North Window, and Double Arch.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Happy Birthday Paul! Paul is getting OLD (at least that's what he tells me). He is turning a whoppin' 28 years old today. We have some fun stuff planned for his birthday and I'll update my blog about it probably Monday. Paul got to open his birthday gifts and then had fun playing with them. above: The girls got him a BIG singing card...it was really funny and cute

above: This was his really good reaction to a Santuko Kitchen Knife that he has been wanting for a long time.

He had been in a pretty grumpy mood...but after he was done opening gifts he was a much more pleasant person. He tested out (and broke) his new toy helicopter (He taped it back together). He's excited to test out some of his other new "Toys".

Dinner at our house

Since my parents are gone on vacation some of my family came down to my house for dinner. It was fun having dinner at our house. Jaren has been really wanting to come to our house to see our dog and play with Kaylee. So, Janeene and her kids came and then Marla, Chris, Steve, and Tiffany came too. Paul made some chicken enchiladas, and beans, and then we also had a wide assortment of food that everyone else brought.

After dinner the kids (college kids and little kids) went outside to play on the trampoline. There is one HUGE problem when you have 4 kids on the trampoline...someone is bound to get hurt. Kaylee and Savannah ended up colliding. Savannah was fine and continued playing, but Kaylee got hit right above her eye and it got really swollen. By the time I took this picture it is looking TONS better. I'm hoping that it will continue to look better and better and not bother her.

Hair-do of the day

Since school started last month I have had fun looking at hair blogs, and other little girls hair and experimenting on my little test subjects (I mean...my daughters). My favorite hair-do on Gabby lately is doing a braided "X" on the top of her head. It is so simple but I think it is cute. I decided to experiment a little bit more with this do and make 2 X's on the top of Kaylee's head today. I got this hairstyle from a little girl in nursery except her X wasn't braided, it was just hair pulled across to make an X (Still cute on this little girl). I put sponge curlers in the girls hair today and here is my experimentation of the day. If anyone is interested in more cute hair-dos I have some hair blogs in my blog list on the side of the page. If you are interested in seeing other experimentations on my little girls let me know and I will try to take pictures before I take them to school (Because they usually don't last by the time they get home from school).

Cinderella and Sleeping "Cutie"

I am NOT a big fan of Halloween. I love that kids get to dress up and play, and I love autumn (Harvest, leaves, etc.) I do not like gross mummys, vampires, tricks, or sending my kids around begging for candy. I like the halloween parties at school that have cute costumes...but I have to say that Halloween is probably my least favorite holiday of the year. My kids dress up all the time anyway. Halloween is a good excuse for them to get a new costume and for them to wear it to school. I don't mind kids trick-or-treating to my house, I just feel like I'm kinda teaching my kids it's okay to go door-to-door to beg for candy (or other things). Maybe I'm just wierd but that's how I feel about halloween.

The last couple of months Gabby has really been into Sleeping "Cutie"...that's right, she is no longer Sleeping Beauty, she is now Sleeping "Cutie" according to Gabby, and if you call her Sleeping Beauty chances are that you will be corrected. It is also "Cutie and the Beast." So, since Gabby has been so into anything Sleeping Beauty I bought her a dress, crown, and shoes.

Kaylee's favorite princess is Cinderella. If it is anything that has to do with Cinderella she loves it. She was Cinderella for Halloween last year but she informed me that she would like to be Cinderella again this year. I pulled out her dress and tried it on her and it fits perfectly. I bought her some new shoes and now she's set.

Now we have Sleeping "Cutie" and Cinderella. We are also going to the Disney on Ice show and I told the girls that they could wear their princess dresses to Disney on Ice (They were beyond thrilled!). Kaylee wants to have a princess party for her birthday this year with princess dresses so they are going to wear these dresses for that too. So, these dresses will be well used this year and I am really excited about it.

State Fair

Ever since I was really little we have gone to the state fair just about every year. This year was no exception...Paul and Spencer have been super busy at work, so Wendy and I took our kids to the fair. The kids were so excited about going to the fair, it made me even more excited to go. We started by walking around all the exhibits (Crafts, photography, art, etc.) and then the booths. We found a funny carrot board to put faces in...so Kaylee, Gabby, and I put our faces in (Roman was asleep in his stroller).

We found this cool car in the Mount Olympus water booth. Gabby was Totally posing...it was so cute.

Below: This is one of my kids absolute favorite places to go at the fair. It's "Little Hands on the Farm." The kids have to perform a bunch of farm tasks and then go to market and they get a fake dollar to spend at the store. It's really cute and fun. The only problem this year was that there were a bunch of older kids (tweens) that were totally trompling the little kids.

Below: This is their other favorite thing to do at the fair. They absolutely love the pony rides. I got a cute video that I will see if I can put in here too (Wendy will have to help me with that part).

This is one of Kaylee's absolute favorite people. She has even told him that if he doesn't marry Tiffany she is going to marry him....I don't think that will work out (She's 5 and he's like 23). This is Kaylee's "Bestest Boy" Steve (and yes, my kids love him). He is my brother Chris' mission companion from his mission in Mississippi, and Marla's roommate Tiffany's boyfriend...Congrats Steve! You made it onto my blog.

Anyway...We met up with Marla, Tiffany (Marla's roommate), Chris, and Steve just before we were ready to leave the fair and went on the big yellow slide with them. The kids each got to go twice with different people. Gabby went with me and then Marla, and Kaylee went with Steve and then Chris.

Nothing much

I noticed that it has been QUITE a while since I posted on my blog. I haven't had anything super exciting to post about. Our reward system that I described in my last post has been working beautifully. The girls LOVE earning marbles and getting mystery gifts. They have already earned one mystery gift each and will each have another one by Saturday (or sooner). They both love school and even do their homework really well (most of the time). They love the different workshops at school (Art, Science, Computers, Music, Kitchen, History, and Foreign Language). We have just been doing everyday events...go to school, do homework, play, etc. Wendy has come down to visit us a few times since Spencer has been working in Provo lately.

Today was one of the days that Wendy came to visit. I took both the girls to school and then met up with Wendy. After we picked the kids up from school we went to the mall. Wendy and Marla gave me a PF Changs gift card for my b-day and I still hadn't used it so Wendy and I decided to have that for lunch. We got it "to go" and took it over to the mall food court so we could get the kids some lunch too. After lunch we thought it would be funny to put Kaylee, Gabby, and Roman in a photo booth for some pictures. First the camera wouldn't go low enough for the kids so we had to have them stand on the bench...then it got interesting. It kept taking pictures when we weren't ready...Gabby got bonked and started crying, then Kaylee was trying to hold Roman up. Here's the pictures we got.