Lou's Birthday

Our sweet Lou has turned three - energetic, silly, smiley, giggly, teasing, noisy, sweet, chattering, funny, and intense three! She has amazing amounts of personality and is always making us laugh. To celebrate her birthday, she woke up to a birthday display which included a birthday card with sticker's from Oma. Curly graciously offered that Lou could wear her pajamas and her princess panties since it was her birthday.

We spent the morning swimming with our friends, the Wrights and ate Lou's choice (mac n' cheese) lunch with them also. Lou got to go out for dinner with just mom and dad. She requested "Old McDonald's." Our outing could have been an ad for Mastercard and McDonald's. Happy Meal - $3.50; Two Big Macs - $5.00; Seeing your three year old constantly alight with joy and excitement - Priceless.

Lou asked for a "Sleeping Beauty" cake for her birthday. Obviously mom mixed up her Disney princesses (shame on me) and she ended up with a Belle cake. She didn't seem to mind.

Much of the day was spend anticipating and preparing for our trip to Utah and Idaho. Lou excitedly discussed all the grandmas, grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins that we would soon see. That was probably her best birthday present. It was a happy day! Sad that birthdays only come once a year. But fortunate that we had so much to look forward to.

The day after Lou's birthday we got up early and headed for Utah. The trip was relatively calm - thanks to new birthday gifts to entertain the girls. Our first stop was Grandpa and Grandma W's house where we got to see my cousin Elsie - who happened to be visiting from DC and also happens to be due the same day that I am - November 4th. We of course had to take a baby belly shot. She is having a boy and we are having a surprise.

We also got to have dinner and visit with my grandparents and B and J Lake. Grandpa and Grandma have the most beautiful garden and we spent an hour outside picking raspberries, eating them and visiting - oh yum!

The Magical Age!

Anyone who has talked to Curly in the past month knows that she celebrated her birthday this week. To her, it is the most anticipated event of the year. She has had the mental image of her cake planned out for weeks - "A round cake with white frosting all over and blue writing that says 'Happy Birthday' and pink and purple butterflies."

There are many privileges that come with turning five, attending kindergarten being the most exciting. As parents we decided to take full advantage of the birthday hype and have been adding privileges to the list - when you are five, you cut your own pancakes; when you are five, you get a new chore chart; when you are five, you can't throw tantrums anymore!
We celebrated the grand event by going swimming and making crafts. In the evening Curly got to go out for dinner with just mom and dad to anywhere she chose. We all enjoyed some high quality white meat at Chic-Fil-A. When she announced that it was her birthday they threw in a free ice cream sundae. Curly mostly ate the sundae - and since it was her birthday I didn't enforce the "Eat all your food to get dessert" rule.
The cake was apparently NOT everything Curly dreamed it to be (though I thought I did a pretty good job) and she pronounced, "Well this isn't exactly how I wanted it, but I like it."

The euphoria of the occasion created a very happy and polite girl and Curly was so excited to talk to all her birthday well wishers and happy to share her gifts with Lou. I was happy to have such a happy five year old (that's a lot of happiness) and thought maybe there is something magical about turning five (I was wrong - today was a four year old day :)

Even so, I am amazed at how my oldest little girl has grown. Pardon me while I take a walk down memory lane.

New on earth - a few weeks old

One Year old - playing on the beach. I love this moment

Two years old

Three years old - She made a great Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween

Four Years old - This picture is classically Curly - all dressed up with so many imaginary places to go!

Oh how we love her!

Sun, Sand, and Shivery Surf

Photo courtesy of T-man

Some of my favorite childhood memories are the summer weeks we spent at Lake Powell with cousins and grandparents. This year I was more excited than on previous adult trips to LP because Curly is finally old enough to really have fun with her cousins and remember it. This was a quasi family reunion for my siblings and parents. Nate and K-Rae couldn't make it, but we got to spend time with my T-man's family before they move back east (everyone is so far away :( and meet Paisley's boyfriend. This trip was also much colder than previously...maybe I am officially an Arizona wimp, but that water was cold!

So without further adieu, here is the visual story of our week at Lake Powell.

I have never driven to LP from the South - it was scenic and interesting. We drove through Monument Valley (home of many western film shoots) and Natural Bridges National Park. For several miles, the paved road ended and we drove up these graveled road switch backs to the top of the plateau.

I am demonstrating to Curly how to pose as if you are holding up a natural bridge - but it looks more like I am "raising the roof" :) woot! woot!

Lou's not so sure how she feels about Lake Powell

Helping grandpa drive the boat

Curly and Lettie having girl talk - aren't they cute.

Grandma C came prepared with fun crafts - including painting this sheet hung over the beach.

Getting ready for a ride on the tube

Paisley and Rockman on a wild ride

Defiance house ruins - just up canyon from where we camped

Letty demonstrating how to roast a 'mallow'. Mom demonstrating how to eat one. I am not sure what JG's arm is doing.

A common sight all week. Curly a.k.a "the sputtering fish" jumping into the water, swimming to the ladder and repeating the process over and over again.

Fisher helping Curly try out the knee board.

Go Curly!

Fisher showing his stuff on the knee board

My dad the slalom king. He taught me everything I know about slaloming
(and a few other things)

Brrr.... a cold night, but don't we look snuggly

JG finally getting up the courage to do a backwards dive. We used to do these in unison, I have lost my desire to risk back flopping into the water.

Grandma C. helping Curly brave the big slide. She did it!

Fisher and I heading out on the sail board.

Playing on the beach. Lou made an octopus.

Time to go home : ( The ride back to our car at Hall's Crossing.

Our drive home was delayed three hours by forest fires. We ended up having to drive along the south rim of the Grand Canyon which was cool,
but not for two tired, sandy girls.

The Little Mouse

There is a little rhyme my mom used to tell us. Sometimes I use it to wake up my girls. Sometimes they pretend to be asleep so I will do it again and again... today was one of those days.

"There was a little mouse, who didn't have a house...

SO, he went... right... down...

in there!"
Then the tickling fingers find a neck or arm and the girls giggle!

Trekkers

Fisher and I had the amazing and unique experience this week of being part of a Pioneer Trek in our Stake. Back in October, we were asked to go as a ma and pa on the trek. But because were are expecting (have I mentioned we are having a baby) the Stake Presidency decided it would be better for us to go as camp cooks. At first I was disappointed, but now, after seeing how difficult the trail was, I can admit that I was wrong and it would have been very hard for me to keep up the energy required to be a pioneer ma.
As I said the experience was wonderful. We worked hard, but we rubbed shoulders with amazing people. We weren't on vacation, but the people we worked with made it feel like we were. Everyone was happy, ready to help, and quick to laugh. We met people that we probably would never meet - like the head cooks (pictured below) who planned all the food (we were their helpers).
To give you an idea of the group - there were 280 "trekkers" divided into 20 families. There was also a back up camp crew of about 30 people (4 woman and lots of men). The dedication of this crew is what continually amazed me. They spent hours and hours planning and preparing for the trek months in advance. Then, they happily took a week of their time to prepare, run, and clean up the trek. On top of that, most of them volunteered their resources and supplies - semi trucks, forklifts, rhinos, pickups, trailers, water trucks, camp kitchens, camp gear, materials to build handcarts, a small temple replica, crates, pioneer games, a stage... I could go on and on. It was incredible to me to see the sacrifice of so many people to create this 4 day experience for 200 youth.

But, it was worth it! I saw the changes that happened in the youth and heard them share the testimony strengthening experiences that they had. I know it is an experience that they will never forget, and neither will we.