Oh the things they say...

I love it that Mikayla's new catch phrase for things is, "My bad..." and "oh snap." It totally makes me laugh!

Yesterday I was reading stories to Megan on the couch when she jumped off quickly and looked back at the couch quizzically. "Pee pee??" She said looking and sounding very confused. I looked and sure enough she had peed a little bit on the couch so I sent her into the potty to go finish up. On her way there Trent asked, "Megan, did you just go pee on the couch?!" Accidents are VERY rare for her so this was a surprise. She looked at him and sighed and said, "Oh Man!" She stuck out her bottom lip, hung her head down, hunched her shoulders forward, and walked to the potty saying "Oh man" and "oh no" over and over. It was so funny! We were way more surprised than upset, but she was sure upset with herself!

Bodega Bay and the Redwoods

We took a fun kinda spur of the moment weekend trip to Bodega Bay and to the Redwoods. Here's our family in a tree!

The girls did great hiking through the woods.

We found a fun fallen tree that we turned into a slide for the girls.

My little rock climber! That's Mikayla way up there! Uncle Josh harnessed her in and she scaled that wall as high as Mom would let her! When it was time to come down she leaned back and bounced her feet off the wall in true rapelling fashion--made her uncle proud. I was amazed she wasn't at all scared and wanted to do it several times.

Here she is all harnessed up!

The girls roasting marshmallows at night.

Megs flying a kite with Daddy on the beach.

Mikayla getting brave enough to touch the sea "enemies." Anenome was a little tough to pronounce!
Dusty with the massive crab we pried out of his hiding spot near the rocks.

Megan holding a starfish.

Chloe and Megan tended to like to walk along the beach rather than pick up slimy creatures!

Uncle Dusty with Megs in the forest.

We LOVED the tidepools! Megan was a little unsure of the sea creatures, but finally touched a starfish Papa was holding.

Mikayla and I with another starfish we found. They were everywhere! We found tons of anenomes, starfish, crabs, and other fun finds.

The whole gang: Dusty, Magaw, Papa, Josh, Chloe, Me, Mikayla, Megan, Trent. The coast was beautiful and we loved watching the waves crash into the rocks. I was quite surprised how cold it was for the middle of July though!

Mikayla flying a kite while laying on her back taking a rest.

Uncle Dusty being a good sport while the girls do his hair! We stayed in a lofthouse in Bodega and really had such a fun trip. It was nice to get away and do something different and fun and new for the weekend. The girls had never been to tidepools or the redwoods and it was fun to experience it with them.

I asked Mikayla how the vacation was and she said, "I had so much fun I think I might explode!" So, take that for what it's worth, all in all, a good time was had. :)

My Little Fish

These pictures bring pure JOY to my heart! It shows just how far Mikayla has come this summer with swimming. All the way from barely blowing bubbles for 2 seconds and needing to jump off the side of the pool into my arms to jumping off diving boards, going down a 10 ft. water slide, and jumping off a 6 ft. platform into a pool with NO HELP from ANYone!!

She has gotten brave and can get herself to the side by herself now too. The furthest she has gone is about half the length of the pool at the gym. It's not a real pretty swim, but she's getting stronger each day.

Megan even went off this slide several times too, they loved it!

Posing off the platform! We go swimming pretty much everyday and she just loves the water and is getting more confident in her abilities each week. I'm so proud of her!

Pizza Night!

We made our own pizzas for dinner. The girls love spreading out their own dough and adding toppings galore!

Please excuse the naked chefs!

Then for dessert we made sugar cookies and topped them with fruit for dessert pizzas! Mikayla had fun choosing all of the shapes for the cookies.

I added a little cream cheese frosting to the sugar cookie and loaded them with blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

De-Lish!

National Cheesecake Day

We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory last night and thought I'd share that they're celebrating National Cheesecake Day on July 30th, all day. You get any slice of cheesecake 50% off, dine-in only (but who says you can't just go and eat only cheesecake or order and then box it up to go?). We had an amazing slice of the 30th Anniversary Chocolate Something Something Cheesecake and I plan to try a new one next week! Hope you have a restaurant near you! Can't pass up 1/2 off cheesecake slices! :)

First Trip to the Dentist

First of all, I could kick myself for not bringing my camera!! I am sooo mad. We took the girls to the dentist today and it was Megan's first time. She wanted to be first and went right on in and climbed up in the big chair. The dental assistant said I might want to hold her in my arms in the chair and may need to help with opening her mouth. I know my Megan though. She is so good for all doctors and any appt. we've been to that I asked her and she said she wanted to sit there by herself. She started pointing to her ears and I laughed and said, "No, they're not going to check your ears!" She's so used to having her ears looked at and checked and her hearing tested that she just assumed that's what this was, but no, that appt. is tomorrow actually.

The dentist came in and asked her to open up wide and she did and sat there perfectly still while he counted them and looked for any decay or decalcification. She passed with flying colors and was quite happy to get her balloon at the end of it all.

Mikayla was excited for the dentist for some reason and climbed up into the chair and was a perfect model of a dental patient. I'm so glad they weren't nervous at all and enjoyed their visits. She also had no cavities, or decay or anything wrong. So far, they think the dentist is just a nice man who looks at and taps your teeth.... just wait till they get their first cavities! The world will come crashing down I am sure...

Pioneer Hoedown!

Here I am after our Stake Youth Pioneer Hoedown tonight.

In preparation for our church's Pioneer Trek we had a hoedown tonight to teach some pioneer-type dances to the youth and the adults. We wore our pioneer clothes and at one point Heather went on stage to say we'd be showing them the next dance. Well, everyone was in for quite a surprise! They expected some jig or reel, but instead... we gave them a show!

It really was a lot of fun and the kids were cheering and were totally surprised to see some of their leaders(awesomely cool ones I might add) up there dancing and having fun.

I'm the one in the purple. The large, plumpish-looking one (they really don't make maternity pioneer clothes!). And yes, thank you very much, I am dancing at 6 months pregnant and doing quite well. :) And that's after teaching 2 water aerobics classes today and dancing for an hour and a half tonight at the activity! This baby is gonna be shaken up and stirred around and better be ready to join our crazy little family!

A Long Summer...

The other day we made pancakes for a family breakfast, went for a stroller walk/bike ride in the neighborhood and over to the park to play...

Came home and finger painted....

A LOT!

Ate watermelon in the backyard and played in the sprinkler, and did all this before lunchtime!

This has been a long, fun summer but I think I am getting ready for school to start. It is tiring work trying to find fun things for the girls to do to keep them away from the t.v.! Which, if they had their choice, is what they would do all day!

It sure is nice that I work at the gym though, so we go there a lot to play while I work out or teach and then go swimming. The girls would swim every single day several times a day if they could. That is the nice thing about summer is how active we are, but still another six weeks of this?! :)

Fun on the Fourth

Happy 4th of July! You knew the girls would be matching didn't you? :)

Megan was excited for the bike parade at our church pancake breakfast.

Mikayla was excited to ride her bike with NO TRAINING WHEELS!! She worked on it all week and is now riding sans lil wheels and is doing great!

Having fun in the hot tub in the afternoon. Seriously, hot tub in July?!

Another summer achievement for Mikayla is going off the diving board all by herself with NO LIFE JACKET!! She's getting braver and it is so much more fun to take her swimming now.
She loved the sparklers and all the fireworks, Megs just kinda cowered under a blanket on my lap and wasn't a huge fan. We had a fun time though!

Happy Canada Day!

My half-Canadian cutie!

Can you tell we were having a little argument about who got to hold the flag for the picture?!

Daddy with his girls

Baby and I got in on the Canada Day fun too!

I made maple leaf cupcakes for our little Canada Day party!
Mikayla posed us with the flag and took our pic--not totally centered, but it is clear!

We made a Catch Phrase wheel with famous Canadians and Canada words(like "hockey, Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, province," etc. How many Canadians can you name?)

We ate poutine, a Canadian dish made of French fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds. It actually was pretty darn good! We drank Canada Dry and had fruit and veggies too.

Some more Catch Phrase, it really was fun! It was fun to share some Canadian trivia, play some games, and all wear red/white in spirit of the holiday. Not surprisingly, no one had celebrated Canada Day before so it was fun to do something different with family and friends!

Girl's Camp 2009

I had SO MUCH FUN with these ladies at Girl's Camp!! Girl's Camp is for 12-18 year old girls in our church and we go to Camp Nauvoo for a week. The theme this year was "Basic Training" and it was such a great theme and such a great week. Megan and I had the 15 yr. olds and we were the Air Force, and Dawn and Kelsey had the 14 yr olds and they were the Marines. Also represented was the Army, Coast Guard, Navy, and Special Forces. We had fun with our "costumes" and decorations and the four of us got to go on the overnight hike with the girls and had a blast. We got the girls all to bed around 11pm and stayed up laughing and talking for a few hours, so fun! I only have a few pics from camp but they have a cd with hundreds more that I should be getting soon!
My cousin Samantha and her mad archery skills.

My favorite night! Bishop's Night! All the bishops and stake pres. come up and talk with the girls and sing silly camp songs and do skits and it really is so much fun to have them all there.

At the end of the week each level makes a "boat" out of the decorations and we send it down the river with girls on both sides singing church and primary songs. Ours was definitely very cool.

This year, being 5 months pregnant, I opted out of the water ball dodgeball game with the bishops. So instead I ended up babysitting 2 phones, 6 pairs of sunglasses, and a camera for others who were playing. And yes, I rocked the braids for 3 days. I would shower and rebraid them because honestly, what's easier than braids when camping? Thanks goodness for long hair! Even though I came home dirty, exhausted, and tired, it really was a fun week overall and I'm glad I got the chance to go. I just love Girl's Camp!