August 2016

This summer has been so fun to watch my girls- they have been attached at the hip and are just best friends.  I am dreading school starting because I know that is going to change.  McKenna never wants to go with my to stores or do errands anymore but now she will go anywhere because she wants to be with her sisters.  I love watching the things they come up with to do together, there were a few days they only wanted to be cats and ate lunch on the floor and slurped water out of little bowls :)

Richard also took the girls camping by himself, since I refuse to camp with a baby. I saw an idea on Pinterest to do campfire cones instead of smores and I think it was a hit! The night they got there was really fun but nobody slept much and then they went on a MUCH longer hike than they expected to get to a lake so I'm not sure how much fun the next day was but at least their camping trip didn't get rained out like last year. 

As usual we found as many free festivals to go to as we could.  This was a new one for us this year up in Powell and we got tons of loot!  Richard has definitely turned us all into free swag hunters :) This festival was fun because they had a lot of games and activities in addition to all the booths that were giving things away. We will miss all of our festivals in Columbus next year! 

My Grandma's health started to go downhill pretty fast and I was really worried that I would not ever see her again.  Richard was so kind in giving up his vacation he had been planning forever and using his only free week this year to let me fly to Utah to spend time with her while he took care of the kids here.  It was perfect timing because my mom had received special permission from the Church to fly up from Columbia for a week to spend time with Grandma as well and it just so happened that we could come on the exact same week!  It was so fun to spend time with the whole fam, eating some of my fav Utah foods, getting to catch up with Ju and her kids, crafting with Kristi, etc. The last day I spent with my Grandma, my mom and I spent about an hour taking all the glass and china dishes out of her hutch and cleaning them. She told us where all the pieces came from and what the story was behind all of them. Some of them have been in her family for generations! It was an unforgettable trip and I learned so much about my Grandma and the time I spent there with her will always be very very special to me. 

We have been promising Kaylee that we would let her feed the giraffes at the zoo once before we moved and since we're not sure when we're moving next summer we thought we better do it now!  I'm not sure if it was quite what she expected but it really was amazing to be that close to those huge animals!  Even Brooklyn fed them one of the leaves. Their tongues are crazy long! I'm glad we could fulfill one of Kaylee's dreams since giraffes are her favorite animal. 

 

We went to yet another kid festival at the Shops at Worthington and got pretty cool balloons animals, face paint, and our favorite free loot :)  They are getting harder to go to since Brooklyn thinks she is as big as her sisters and no longer wants to stay in the stroller! I really think she has no idea that she is different from them, she wants to do everything exactly the way they do it. 

I was so sad that it was time for Kaylee to start school again. It is really possible that I have a 1st grader?  She is growing up way too fast. 

Richard is once again the best hubby in the world and bought me tickets to see Wicked as a thank you for putting up with his being gone all the time while he was writing his dissertation and also because I read and edited his entire 200 and something page dissertation multiple times. I invited Holly to go with me and she was more than happy to drive over for the weekend to go.  Besides being able to see Wicked again with Holly, which was AMAZING, it was fun to have a girls day and just laugh and enjoy each other instead of running around with the kids.  The weather was great when we went inside but when we came out it was POURING rain and the wind was blowing so hard the rain was almost going horizontal. I had no idea when it would let up so we decided to brave the weather and run for our car while all the smart people waited inside the theater.  I took off my heels and we ran for it! The wind came in gusts so big that sometimes we would bump into each other and when we reached an intersection it was blowing me backwards so hard that I couldn't get to the button to cross the street!  I have never been outside in weather like that, it was INSANE and we were insane for being in it!  We had to scream to hear each other over the storm and we were both laughing so hard that we could hardly see so that didn't help us move any faster. I haven't laughed like that in a very very long time.  As you can imagine, every part of us was soaked by the time we got to the car and we probably looked insane. Of course as soon as we got in the car and started driving the rain completely stopped.  Oh well, at least it made for a fabulous memory! 

July 2016

Since the girls loved playing T-Ball and Richard wants to pass on his love of baseball, he took the girls to a game this summer. There was a splash pad close to where they sat on the grass so I think they spent more time playing in that than watching but at least everyone had fun! I love when Richard gets to take the girls to spend time with just him. 

Holly came for a visit and I convinced her to do one of her least favorite things- dress up with me!  We all dressed like cows so we could go get a free meal at Chick-Fil-A.  It felt like we fit in a lot on this trip.  

We spent an entire morning at Inniswoods Metro Park, which is gorgeous and has a lot of fun areas for the kids to play and explore.  Unfortunately, I was in a rush and trying to remember so many things that I forgot Brooklyn's shoes.  Which would be fine except we drove Holly's car which didn't have my stroller.... it was hard carrying her around the whole time but she loved being there anyway!

The girls asked for matching French braids and all wore dresses and they looked adorable!  I'm glad they are getting to love being with their cousins so much. We wanted to go mini bowling and found a place online that said they had it.  It was a little far away and when we got there they said they didn't have mini bowling anymore!  Lame. So the kids got to try real bowling for the first time and absolutely loved it!  

Emery played as much Wii as he possibly could, we got ice cream at a new place that has sells just the cup and then you can fill it up with as much ice cream, cookie dough, and toppings as you want. They were also able to come watch the girls play in their last T-ball game. 

The Polaris mall has events every single Friday during summer by the splash pad outside but we had just found out about it so we wanted to try it out.  The splash pad was definitely not for little kids and Brooklyn wouldn't go anywhere near it.  But the older kids had fun and there was plenty of treats and a few crafts and giveaways as well. 

There is some Indian caves about 30 mins from our house that has other fun areas to play in outside the caves- a petting zoo, playground, lawn games like cornhole and giant checkers, etc.  We also bought a bag of gems to pan for in the little man made river type thing.  The kids had a lot more fun doing it than I thought they would! We might have to go back there before we move. 

The day Holly went back home we went to a splash pad again, this time we had to go to the Bunny Fountains because it is Holly's favorite. It really is a good splash pad and we fit in so much on her visit this time, it was a blast! It's hard to think that we won't be able to do all these fun things with them again next summer. 

Last year the girls learned what water balloons were and really wanted to have a water balloon fight.  We bought them last year but I put them away somewhere on a rainy day and then we forgot about them!  So this year we had to make sure we did it.  We thought it would be more fun to invite a few friends to join in and we got a whole bunch of kids and then realized we didn't have as many water balloons as we would probably need for the amount of kids we had....but it was still really fun. They had fun throwing them, even if they rarely hit someone with a balloon but the best part was when all the balloons were gone.  One of the kids dunked their heads in the cooler where we had kept the balloons and then all the kids wanted to it. They stood in line and each took turns dunking their heads in and then laughing hysterically.  I couldn't believe how long that lasted!  Then it somehow turned into wet tackle hugs. Richard definitely had fun leading this crazy afternoon :)

And the best news of all- Richard finished his dissertation!!!! It is crazy that we are actually done with his PhD. He was so terrified that this defense would go like his candidacy exams had, with his committee just going at him. But it could not have gone better.  Every single committee member was complimentary and said he should turn it into a book and get some articles written from it right away. We had a party that night with friends from the ward and it felt like the biggest weight had been taken from our shoulders!  It was an amazing feeling and I was so proud of him for sticking it out.