May's Snapshots 2012

 May 2: I think Evie was having a hard time smiling for some reason, so when I told her to smile, she gave me this half-worried looking grimace. It was still cute though.

 May 4: Erica's birthday! We went up to the canyon to celebrate her birthday. We had pizza for dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yum!

 May 6: At the end of spring Evie loved wearing Dan's sweater from when he was a toddler. She called it Dad's jacket and asked for it all the time. In this particular instance, I believe she managed to put it on by herself after I put her down for her nap. If I remember correctly, I heard some screaming, and then she settled down to sleep. She was probably screaming in frustration as she tried to get the sweater on, but after succeeding the screaming stopped. And for some reason, she also decided to use Clifford as her pillow.

 May 9: This is a statue outside of our library. Anna and Evie love sitting with the kids and reading their books.

 May 12

 I think I was trying to get Evie to smile for the camera and she decided to stick her tongue out instead. Sometimes she is such a ham.

May 19

 May 25: Eating tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch with cheeser grins.

 May 30: With the warmer weather, we started buying more popsicles and ice cream pops. Following dinner, we would all go out to the backyard and have some frozen treat every night. I love it when my girls get along and sometimes that seems like more than enough reason to celebrate.

Campfire

On the last day of May, we met some friends at a nearby campground. Some stayed the night, but we just joined them for dinner and smores. If you look closely at the top picture, you might be able to see Anna's back as she runs away. She had a blast running around with the other kids and playing while Evie and I sat around the fire.

Evie looks a little dangerous with this roasting stick, but she didn't manage to burn anyone. If I remember right, she also didn't eat as many marshmallows as she roasted. I think she mostly liked roasting them and then feeding them to me. I didn't mind much.

I guess she ate one or two.

Memorial Day 2012

The girls and I spent Memorial Day with my parents and family while Dan enjoyed some peace and quiet at home. I think his hope was to work a few hours and get some yard work done, but there might have been more baseball watching instead.

We spent the morning putting flowers on my mom's ancestors' grave sites in the Brigham City cemetery.

Evie is never fully dressed without her tutu. I don't think this was one of our graves. It looks like Evie was scrounging for flowers.

After the cemetery we went up to Cache County for an extended family reunion at my Uncle Garth's house. They had a pot luck lunch and lots of fun activities for the kids.

Evie loved riding the horses. I think she would have done it all day long if she didn't have to share with other kids.

Then Grandma took them on a hay ride.

Garth's property also had a pond with a zip line and a paddle boat. Looking at that pond, I finally understood why they used to tell me in swim lessons so many years ago, that it's not safe to swim in ponds. It was a little too chilly for swimming though, so no one was tempted and no one fell in.

We loved this swing. There was a bench opposite the pond, and the swing was extra fun if one stood on the bench to get in the swing and then pushed off the bench for momentum.

On May 30, the Wednesday following Memorial Day, I took the girls to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. Evie was adamant that she ride one of the big horses and she was super excited to hop back in the saddle again.

Children's Discovery Gateway Museum

I love the Children's Discovery Gateway Museum. I just think they have the greatest exhibits for imaginative play. Honestly, I want to get in there and play with all the stuff myself, but since we went at the end of the school year (May 23) the museum was packed with school kids when we first got there. It didn't seem right for me to be elbowing my way in to get my hands on the toys with so many other kids waiting for a turn. Plus, I was there with my friend, Dawn, and her son Will, so talking to her kept me busy. 

 My kids mostly wanted to send the blocks down the tube in this area. They weren't too interested in actually building anything. At one point, Evie was playing at the bottom of the yellow tube. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw her slip right at the bottom and fall into a pile of blocks. The lady next to me said, "Did you see that? That little girl just went down the yellow tube!" as if that was extra silly to her. I gathered that she was talking about Evie, but I wasn't certain since I thought she had fallen at the bottom of the tube, instead of sliding down it (and really, would that be so crazy for a kid to use it like a slide?). Of course, Evie doesn't look so much like me, especially when I'm not standing right next to her, and it's not obvious that she's mine. It was sort of a funny situation as it dawned on me that she had no idea she was talking to Evie's mom about Evie. I have a feeling that I am going to have more of those experiences.

 Evie loved putting paper and pipe cleaners in this tube and watching them blow out the top.

Even the rocks outside the museum are fun! Anna and Will had fun climbing and dancing on this one.

Spring Gymnastics Meet

When Anna was two, I started her in dance mostly because her friend Avery would be in the same class. Last year we decided to try gymnastics out. Anna had her final performance meet on May 19. She really liked her coaches and had a good time at her meet.

Getting on the beam 

Her ta-da after dismounting from the beam 

 the floor routine

 Anna was excited to see that Grandma and Grandpa and Lauren made it.

Anna dancing and holding her ribbon.

Even though the plan was to try only gymnastics this year, Anna kept asking to do dance again, so in February I signed her up at the studio next door. After her spring recital, I wanted to switch her to a studio that focused on ballet. I thought Anna really liked dance, but after trying out the ballet princess camp, she told me she didn't want to go anymore. Now we are trying out soccer. Maybe next year we'll go back to dance or gymnastics. We'll just have to see.

Ryan Comes Home

On May 16, my little brother Ryan came home from his mission, the England Birmingham Mission. His last area was in Wales, so we had to add some Welsh into our welcome home posters. Katie flew in from Vegas to be there at the airport. It was tough to get Ryan home. He had a short connection and missed it, but the airport managed to get part of their group, including Ryan on the last flight of the evening home. My mom was so grateful.

Anna is wearing a Minnie Mouse dress that she received at a birthday party that week. Ryan's flight got in pretty late, so Dan stayed home with Evie.

The next day a few of us took a short hike/walk up Rock Canyon.