Pool Party

Last night, we attended our ward's yearly end of summer party at the local pool.

We started the night off with some games for the kids, and dinner. It was fun getting to talk to a few neighbors (I feel like after 4 years of living here, people are starting to finally see me as their neighbor, and not just the girl who babysat for them when I was a kid! I feel like such a grown-up...)

Savannah barely ate anything, she was far more interested in the volleyball sand pit, where she got sand in her mouth, hair and eyes, and was covered from head to toe in dirt. Every few minutes, she would come to me crying and asking me to wash her arms, or face or hands. And I'll apologize to our neighbors now for when Savy took a swig of water, then spit it out next to your food while trying to get sand out of her mouth...

This was her first time with water wings, she thought they were pretty awesome. While I was taking this, she said she was showing me her muscles. And afterwords, she kissed both of them and said "my muscles are so pretty..."

After dinner, we got in the pool. Savannah had a blast! This was the first time we have taken her to a pool all summer. With having Deagan in June, I just never found the time or energy to attempt to take both kids to the pool. Last year, when we would take Savy to the pool, she would be so scared that she would cling onto Bryant or I the entire time. This time, she was going down the slide backwards, and even took off into the deep end by herself (we went after her, no worries). She loved having the water wings and would swim around all by herself. She told me that she was flying like Tinkerbell.

 

(sorry the photos are all blurry, it was getting dark, and all I have is my iphone camera.)

 

Even Deagan got his toes in the water. I mostly carried him around while wading in the kiddie pool watching Savannah. Eventually, he fell asleep so I put him in the stroller and made Bryant watch him, while I went with Savannah to the deep end, where she enjoyed jumping off the side of the pool into my arms. 

When we got home, it was late and Savannah was exhausted, but I stuck her in the tub. It took me a good 20 minutes and about 4 washes to get all the sand out of her hair. I basically had to soap up her hair, then take a fine-toothed comb and brush through it, rinse and repeat. When she got out, I decided to double check her eyes, and sure enough, there was a giant glob of sand in her left eye, that had been in there for hours! I have no idea how it wasn't hurting her the whole time!

The pool party is always a great send-off to summer. Can you believe school starts so soon? Looks like I need to do a bit of school shopping for myself!

Salmon Supper

Every year we head down to Payson for their annual Salmon Supper.

Its a fundraiser and there is always a HUGE turnout. The line for the food wrapped clear around the park!

For 15 bucks you get coleslaw, a potato, a roll, corn on the cob, a bottle of water, a cookie, and a HUGE slab of Salmon, that was flown in the day before from Alaska (fresh fish is hard to come by out here in Utah, so that in and of itself is worth the money!) and then it's cooked over fruitwood fires right there at the park.

A-MAZ-ING!

 ^Droopy pigtails are too adorable!^

 ^Tree-hugger^

 ^Kenna is going to be such a cute Mom someday. She looks adorable holding DJ^

 ^Savy and her great Grandpa! (And chubby little Finn photo-bombing in the back!)^

 ^This girl goes a little crazy when people start wrestling. She gets this look in her eye that says "I'm going to beat the snot out of these kids" and she goes to TOWN! Don't be anywhere near her if she wants to wrestle. And yes, poor River is totally being clotheslined by Savannah's legs because he tried to jump on Sawyer's face right as he picked Savy up. Poor kid.^

The Salmon Supper is almost like a holiday for Bryant. He looks forward to it every year. Then it's all he can talk about for the week after.

It was good food with good people. A lot of my family members from my grandma's side of the family that I don't get to see very often came, and it's always nice spending time with them! We are looking forward to next year Payson!

Strawberry Days

Bryant and I both got completely blindsided by an awful summer cold this week. We both thought that we just had really terrible allergies, but then yesterday morning, we both were starting to feel achy and our symptoms got worse, and we both got terrible dry coughs on top of our allergy sneezes. Last night was miserable. I can't take any medication because I'm breastfeeding, and Bryant is one of those weirdies that "don't believe in medication". It almost makes me mad, here he is completely able to take some dayquil, when I can't, and yet he refuses. Gosh, what I wouldn't give for some cough syrup with some codeine in it...

Anyways, we spent all morning in bed with Savannah crawling all over us and Deagan being extra fussy because I'm trying to keep holding him to a minimum because I don't want to make him sick, and he's a cuddle bug who wants to be constantly held. And I was sucking down a vanilla coke at 8am, because I'm a sickie who can't take anything, so why not?

(Hanging out in bed all morning)

But then DJ spit up ALL OVER my side of the bed. Then, because we've been putting Vaseline in his diaper all week, his diapers don't absorb when he pees, so sometimes that leaks everywhere, like ALSO ON MY BED.

So we were forced to get up and out of bed so I could wash the sheets. Now Bryant is watching soccer, and I decided that I might as well catch up on my blog. You know, since it's 2:00 and I haven't even showered, or gotten my kids dressed for the day, and blogging seemed to take priority.

My town holds a week long celebration called Strawberry Days. Kind of like how some towns have founder's day festivals. All week long they have different events all over the town, the climax of which is the parade on Saturday. This year, because I have a tiny baby who I don't feel super confident about dragging around when I also have a toddler to chase, and no double stroller to stick them both in, we pretty much missed all of the activities.We did leave the baby with grandma and grandpa while we took a half hour to run down to the carnival to grab some strawberries and cream. When we were pulling up to the carnival, Savannah said "Oh wow! It's Disneyland!" (I can't wait to take her to the real Disneyland!) While we were there, we decided to buy some tickets and take her on a few rides. We did the carousel, the little car things, and Bryant even took her down the giant slide. I thought that would really scare her, but as soon as she got off, she asked to do it again. She got her thrill-seeking from her dad. I could barely handle the carousel without getting motion sickness!

 

 (When the guy working the ride when to help her out, she yelled "no stop! I go again!)

Saturday, we decided to go watch the parade.

We left Deagan with my dad and we took Savannah. We found a nice shady spot right downtown and had fun watching the parade. We saw 3 different pirate-themes floats, which means Savannah was in heaven, since she's been obsessed with Peter Pan lately. "Mom wook! It's Cap-pan hoo! Arrrgh matey!" Oh the cuteness of it all, I couldn't handle it!

Bryant ended up having to leave in the middle of it to get to work, so It was just me and Savannah. But after he left, she made a friend with another little girl and they ran around picking weeds and trying to make them stick onto a wall. Then they tried to feed them to an English Mastiff that was taller than them!

 (New hair cut and color! Thanks Kenna!)

After the parade, Savannah and I went to Taco Amigo for some strawberry shakes, because Strawberry days is not complete without a trip to Taco Amigo. Also, because ice cream was the only thing I could swallow with my sore throat...

I can't wait until this weekend, we leave for Mt. Shasta and we will be spending the 4th of July there, and blessing Deagan. They may not have a Taco Amigo, but the 4th of July in Mt. Shasta is my favorite!!!

(And here's a photo of Deagan, just because he's adorable.)

Slowing down

It's almost midnight and I should be in bed.

But about an hour ago, I realized that I still had a few assignments due by midnight for my online class. Ahhh! So I jumped out of my comfortable bed and rushed to the computer. The assignments weren't anything big. I had a portfolio I had to organize, polish and make sure it looked good, and that took the most time. Then I had to finish up a short "self-reflection" paper on how I've improved over this semester. Piece of cake.

And just like that, summer vacation has begun.

I've actually considered myself done with school since Monday afternoon when I handed in a final paper. And since Monday, I've just kind of been taking things slow. I've been slowly trying to get my house back in shape. You should have seen the pile of dirty dishes from over the weekend while I was stressing about finals. It had grown to epic proportions. I had a roommate once who didn't know how to use the dishwasher (true story, after months, she finally came and asked me to show her how to do the dishes!) but she liked to cook so the dishes were always this ginormous, almost comical pile of stinky filth in the sink. Yeah, my dirty dishes looked about as bad as that! 

But I am getting there. I cleaned most of my room today. I have a bad habit of putting things on the floor on my side of the bed. There were empty water glasses, books, clothes, chapstick, lotions, shoes, you name it, it was there. Now I can walk without fear of tripping!

I also got the guest bedroom cleaned up for my brother-in-law, who is moving in with us for a month tomorrow. And my laundry that's been piling and piling up these last 2 weeks is finally being washed. Bryant's been a good sport and has been helping out a ton. I feel bad because they have been so busy at his work, and he's been working about 10 hour days, then he comes home exhausted, but still helps me out and plays with Savannah, and 90% of the time, I put him in charge of dinner, getting her jammies on, bedtime books and bedtime cuddles. Then, because I toss and turn and wake up about a million times during the night, so does he, so he's on just as little sleep as I am! He's such a champ!

I've also been just taking my days slow. Because I don't have class to motivate me to get up and going, Savannah and I spend most of the mornings snuggled in my bed watching cartoons. I know I sound lazy, but it's so nice, so I don't mind if anyone thinks that.

Now that I'm not scrambling to get assignments done and turned in nearly every night, I feel like I can slow down my evenings with Bryant too. We get to sit on the couch and catch up on our shows, we lay in bed listening to audio books before we drift off to sleep, we get more family time with Savannah before her bedtime. It's perfect. Tonight, the 3 of us sat on the porch for a while, snuggled up together in a blanket covering our bare feet, and talked with Savannah about trees and bark and dirt and flowers and the mountains. I want every night this summer to be like tonight.

A few days ago, my sister graciously offered to babysit for us and we went out to dinner. We go out to eat a lot, but we always have Savannah with us. It was nice going out just the 2 of us. I didn't have to order what I thought Savannah would eat, I was able to order what I wanted to eat. And I left my phone at home, and Bryant didn't touch his the whole time. No toddler climbing all over me, no checking sports scores or e-mails or text messages on our phones, no trying to keep the mess to a minimum (have you ever watched a toddler eat rice? It's ridiculous...) 

We just slowed down.

And we talked.

We didn't talk about money, or work, or school, or bills, or what is stressing us out or making us worried. We talked about books, about our kids, about our goals, about religion, about history, about how much we love each other. About how we want to be together forever and ever. 

We didn't even mind when our food took a half hour to show up, or the fact that we were freezing because we were next to the door. In fact, we were having such a good time, we sat and talked for 20 more minutes after we finished our food and paid the check. We held hands on the drive home. We sat in the car in the driveway for 10 minutes talking about books again. We put Savannah to bed and cuddled on the couch and watched the history channel for a bit. We just slowed down and remembered how nice it is to have "us time" once in a while. It's so important to a relationship. It really is.

Just Some photos (and a few words)

 

Being clingy

Post-nap hair and big eyes.

 

A pretty window at the place Bryant and I had our reception 3 years ago!

Payson Salmon Supper!

Summer weddings!

 

 Watching Olympic beach volleyball. If you can't tell, she's thrilled...

She would swing 24 hours a day if we let her.

It's always nice having cousins around to keep Savy entertained at parties.

My new Bonlook glasses came!

Waiting for daddy to get off work! (and my dark hair! woo!)

We've been soaking up the last few weeks of summer before I start classes again. Lots of playing in the yard, camping, family reunion/parties, and movies with Sav. We have yet to make it to a baseball game (how did that happen?) maybe we can sneak one in this week. 

Also, It's my last week of work! And I have a cold.... *I think I can, I think I can...*

How are you enjoying your last few days of summer before you or your kiddos go back to school?

Summer Days

This summer has gone by way too fast.

I don't know if it's because I don't want to go back to school,

Or if I'm not looking foreword to cold weather and snow

Or the fact that I have a little girl that I think is growing up too fast.

It's been an amazing summer. My first summer as a Mom. 

And it was perfect.

There has been way too much going on this last month to write it all down, so I'll just post a few pictures so you can get the general idea.

There were lots of Owlz baseball games

 

(Savannah thought Hootz was a giant stuffed animal and kept grabbing him)

 

We celebrated my Grandma's Birthday

 

We love you so much Grandma!!!

There were a couple neighborhood get-togethers

 

Savannah even made a new friend! (What you don't see, is that right after this picture was taken, she grabbed his ear and pulled as hard as she could. Poor guy!)

There were a few trips to the pool

 

And there were a few hikes

 

Summer, I'll miss you. I love your sunny days and your warm nights.

I love your smells of BBQs and afternoon rain showers. I love your sounds of crickets out my window, lawn mowers humming on Saturdays, and the neighbor girls screaming and laughing down their slip-n-slide. I love your tastes of chocolate moose bars and strawberries and cream. And I loved your feel of sun on my face and Savy's slobbery kisses on my cheek.

Thank you for being one amazing summer!