Birthday Breakfast and Fun with Mom, Dad and Stocky

Sitting outside IHOP, ready for her BIRTHDAY breakfast!

I can't believe she is 5!

Giving Hello Kitty a bath

So proud and happy of her new Hello Kitty (that she has wanted for months)!

The final product!

Awwww a new baby to love and hold

Annabelle's birthday was tricky this year. We planned a party for all her friends and family, but it was scheduled for a few days following her real birthday. Nevertheless, we still wanted to take her out and give her a gift from mom and dad before the party festivities began. The tricky part was that Annabelle did NOT want her birthday so much as mentioned until the day of her party--that was it, that was the celebration day in her little mind. Relatives called and sent texts on the big day and I had to tell them to call a bit later, after I could be sure she would be excited, thankful, and courteous in her response :) Thankfully it didn't take long for her to come around to the idea of having a mini celebration on her birthday before partying hard in a few days. The afternoon rolled around and she was super excited, taking phone calls, and eager to be the birthday girl! :)

Josh and I were very excited to take her to the Build-A-Bear Workshop! She had wanted to go there for so long! Each time we would visit the mall, her eyes would linger, her steps would slow, and sometimes if we weren't in a rush, I'd let her go in and browse all the fun animals and fashions. She would tell me which ones she would choose, and which ones she thought Stockton would like too :) I knew before we even entered the store that she would choose Hello Kitty! She ran to it almost instantly and told us she had made her choice. Josh started pointing out all the other options, and I just laughed inside because I knew it didn't matter what else was there--she had made her choice and she was in love! We stuffed Hello Kitty, gave her a bath, then watched the clothing selection begin. It was almost as fast as choosing Hello Kitty herself! Annabelle saw the blue satin dress, the sparkly pink shoes, and she was done! We offered to buy Hello Kitty more accessories: a purse, a cardigan, some socks, underwear? Annabelle couldn't turned down the underwear, but nothing else was needed :) Hello Kitty was absolutely perfect just the way she was! Less is more :)

Following breakfast and Build-A-Bear, we headed home for naps and downtime. And she still had the big party to look forward to! We LOVE you Annabelle!



Family Night at Bridal Veil Falls

Beautiful scenery! A storm was rolling in and the sky was amazing.

It was still warm enough for the kids to play in the water!

Happy and gorgeous

Feeding the fish with dad

Playing with rocks

Stockton LOVED the fish :)

Wading in the water and balancing on the boulders

He got a few to jump!

Dances everywhere she goes :)

In his element

The fish are pretty neat looking up close!

So happy and cute!

Ummmm...adorable!

Annabelle loves daddy's cowboy hat!

Yee-haw!

The beautiful trek back to the car. I get this view A LOT and I LOVE it :) The kids think their "Chiggy-back" rides are the greatest thing on earth! Josh definitely burns more calories than me on family outings! ;)

We spent a fun, relaxing family night at Bridal Veil Falls. Summer was winding down, and I always try to make it up there at least once during the season. It is so close to home and very beautiful! I love that it's close; I love that it's scenic; I love that the kids can play in the water; and I love the small little walk you get to take on the way to the falls. As we began to hear faint sounds of thunder, we decided it would be best to make our way back to the car. It ended up being PERFECT timing--the rain started pouring down just as we were buckling the kids in the car! Whew! We couldn't have planned it more perfectly if we tried. Not only did we beat the rain, but we got to drive home in the storm which is always fun for me (as long as it's not scary and all)! :) It was a fun night together as a family! And watching Stocky feed those fish was about as cute as cute can be! He could've been the subject in a "Snips and Snails" photo campaign! :)



"Feel the Thunder" Cheer Camp

Practice practice practice

On our way to the performance!

Waiting in line for her T-shirt

Strike a pose!

All dressed and ready to go!

So excited to be on the field!

Watching the players enter the field

The Thunder :)

Waiting patiently in her "train"

Performing her cheer with perfection (she was one of maybe 3 girls who actually knew the cheer) :)

Nice "T" Annabelle!

Blurry yet adorable. Couldn't bring myself to delete it :)

Rally!

The Simpson girls came to support and surprise Annabelle! Fun and post-game ice cream for everyone!

Woohoo!! I did it!

Annabelle was darling at the Westlake Cheer Camp! She loved it and had a blast. I was close to losing my mind throughout the entire ordeal, but she had the time of her life :) She not only fell in love with cheerleading (who doesn't love to yell loud and jump around like crazy, right?), but she also fell in love with the Westlake Thunder :) Still to this day the "Thunder" colors are among her favorites, and for Christmas she asked for a "Westlake Thunder" suitcase.

Annabelle was a good girl throughout the workshop process, but in all actuality it was complete chaos. If she hadn't been enjoying herself so much I would've asked for my money back and called it good. I think it's difficult for teens to teach a large number of little girls when they haven't had any experience teaching children. I don't believe the coach had any experience teaching children either, if I'm being honest :) The good thing was parents were allowed to stay and watch from the bleachers, so thankfully I could pick up the routines in my head and work with her at home. I was also grateful I was there during the moment when they told the girls to drop into their splits after warming up for 30 seconds--I am sure I turned a few heads when I went down, pulled her up and told her not to do that :) To make a long story short, it just wasn't very organized, much of the "technique" portion was not age-appropriate, the only reason she knew her parts was because I taught her at home, and lastly, getting out of that football game after halftime was a nightmare :)

BUT...look how happy she is! :) She had a great time and loved performing. When she was on the football field for her routine, she was darling and toe-touched her little heart out even when she was supposed to be sitting still :) She looked gorgeous, loved seeing her grandparents and cousins there supporting her, and had a great time eating ice cream and playing at Arctic Circle after the game. Her favorite cheer was this:

"Form the cloud, form form the cloud;
Make it rain, make make it rain;
Feel the thunder, feel feel the thunder!"
Rally!!!!!!

Great Job Annabelle! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
*Please don't be upset when we don't sign up for next year's camp. I hope you'll understand when you're older* ;)



The Hot Air Balloon Festival

The colors were so beautiful against the blue sky!

Annabelle and Stockton had never seen anything like it before :)

Stockton's favorite balloon was the big pink pig! He watched it from the time it left the ground until it was completely out of sight!

I was worried for this man :)

Taking it all in

More beautiful colors

This is a peaceful sight--both of them are so content :)

There is always something beautiful about the red, white, and blue in the sky!

This balloon was giving people little rides, but the line was huge. Josh and I discussed me going (because I really wanted to), but the line was just too long! Maybe next time :)

After the balloons had all taken off, the kids got their own balloons to decorate! Annabelle got to choose facial features for hers and tape them on. Stocky just wanted to color his with markers :)

What a beautiful morning! We got the kids up early and dragged them down to Sandy City for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. We had to be there by sunrise, but once we arrived it was all worth it! The kids were in awe, and it made me so happy to see them exploring something new and taking in the gorgeous sights. It is so hard for me to get up early when I don't have to; I have never been a morning person! Nevertheless, the mornings when Josh and I force ourselves to get up early in order to do something fun as a family, I always love it and want to do it more! Some of my favorite activities as a family involve getting up and out of the house early: 5K races, hiking, etc. This experience was no exception. We had a wonderful, relaxing time! Before heading home, we stopped at the grocery store for donuts and milk, then dropped in on my parents to visit for the afternoon. A perfect summer day!



Get up and Get out

"I'm too sexy for this pack"

Striding it out

Just a little morning rock climbing

Yep I'm a model :)

Happy to be sitting after a challenging hike

Every little boy needs do this with their dad during the summer! So cute! Stocky was in little boy heaven!

Relaxing playtime for the kids. I love how they just kind-of separated and starting doing their own thing in the dirt :)

Handsome husband and strong baby carrier :)

The lake!

What they did when I said to pose :) Liv posed with her stick and Annabelle threw up her arms. Haha

Sliding down dirt hills and loving every second!

Uncle Josh

Aunt Robyn

Parents and lovers :)

Hmmmmm...in hindsight...why was I allowing him to eat something with those dirty hands?!

Liv on the way down--still plenty of energy to spare :)

We woke up the girls bright and early to go for a hike up at Brighton. It was such a great little hike for the kids! Pretty challenging for them to feel like they really accomplished something, but not too challenging where they complained a lot. They all did great and especially loved the parts where they got to climb up the rocks! Josh was a trooper with Stocky on his back--I do believe this is the last hike Stockton will ever be photographed in the backpack :)

Activities like this remind me of when I was young and how much we loved going on little hikes and playing in the water in dirt. It makes me so happy to see children out hiking and experiencing nature. They are away from the city, getting dirty, seeing something they've never seen, and allowing their imaginations to guide their play with nothing but mother nature to use as "toys." :) Josh and I both talked about how we need to make an effort to do this much more with our kids in the summertime.

When we got back to the car, we had a lunch packed for each of the kids that they devoured on the car ride home :) We returned Liv back to her house ready for bed at 1:00 in the afternoon :) What a great time for the girls--they had a blast during their time together. And as always, we loved having Liv in our home!