Six Years Old? Really?

Ahhh...six years ago (yesterday) the loveliest baby girl was born. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I can't believe how much better my life is because she is in it. She brings so much happiness and joy to our family. From the funny things she says to the animated way she moves, she's constantly making us smile! Despite being away from most of our family (Grandma is visiting), she had a great birthday.

Having lunch with Grandma at school.

Anna's cute little friend made her a candy-gram. So sweet!!

SO much to update!

I'm having such a great time back in the great state of Utah that I haven't had time to update my blog. Many, many pictures are coming but for now this will have to do.

I can't believe we've been her for three weeks! THREE WEEKS!! Time is flying! It's been so great to spend time with family and friends! Here's a super quick rundown of our trip so far....made it out here safe and sound (the drive really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!), had a little welcome home party waiting for us when we arrived (thanks Kristi! and everyone else who came!), went camping over the fourth of July, spent time with Aaron's family who were here from Virginia, California, Washington, and of course his family here, we've gone to the zoo, movies, waterslides, a demolition derby, hiked Mt. Timponogas and went through the caves, hung out with friends, gone to several parks, drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon and walked around Silver Lake, ate at some of my favorite places, met my new great-nephew, and SO many other things! There's still a lot to squeeze in to the time that we have left but we don't mind. We love it!

Anyway, I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer as much as we are!

Whoa - What a Swim!

Parker and Anna have both become quite the little swimmers. I only have video of Anna because Parker wasn't feeling that well. We'll get his skills next time! =]

Dumb Jellyfish!

We went to Galveston on Saturday and had a little lesson in beach safety! If the lifeguard stations are flying blue flags, be cautious! There is potential for marine life to cause a hazard to swimmers. Now we know! =\

Park was out a ways with Aaron and started screaming that he was being stung. Aaron brought him out of the water and we ran him to the lifeguard station and they told us it was a jellyfish sting. They gave us a paste made with vinegar and meat tenderizer and told us he would just have to wait it out - it would take about 20 minutes for the pain to stop. Really, I'd say it was closer to about 40. =(

After that, we stayed in the shallow water where we could see what was lurking around us. We caught about 7 jellyfish and took them to a close-by rock jetty and put them in pools where they couldn't escape until the tide rose.

The picture below was from today - 3 days later. =(

Houston Zoo

Easter

Sorry y'all. I'm a bit behind on my updates! We had a fabulous Easter! I was worried about it because it was our first big family holiday here without our family but luckily, Kristi was here! I know it was a sacrifice for her since she didn't get to spend it with her family but we're sure glad she was here to spend it with us.

On Saturday our little city had an Easter egg hunt, although I really wouldn't call it that. It was more like an Easter egg pick-up or an Easter egg grab! There was no hunting involved!

That night we dyed eggs - it wasn't quite the ordeal like it was at Grandma Julie's but they still had fun. Beautiful sparkling eggs. Now tell me again, what does that have to do with Easter? Anyway...

Easter morn' the kids woke up to new bikes! I thought they would be SO excited! Instead they rummaged through their Easter baskets looking for their DS's. Apparently, that's what they were hoping for from the Easter Bunny. Oooooh! Now, we will be having many discussions on GRATITUDE!

But now, after a couple of family bike rides and them zooming around with their friends, I think they are pretty happy with what they got.

It was the darkest Easter morning I've ever witnessed. Literally. We had a pretty good rainstorm, a tornado watch and it was very dark outside! This picture of Parker and Anna on the left was taken in our backyard right before church which starts at 12:30. It looks like night! Anyway, we went to church and by the time we were done, it was beautiful! Everything was clean and fresh and there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

Below is a picture after church. Amazing!

We still missed our family! We would have loved to spend time with them but we definately made the best of it (and like I said before, having Kristi here definately helped! Thanks Sis!)

Fun with Aunt Kristi

My sister came to town and cheered us all right up! We did lots of fun things, ate at yummy places and had a great time just being together.