Primary Activity May 29, 2010

Our Primary had an activity on Katie's birthday. They decorated bikes, then did different games with smaller groups of kids. They also sang Happy Birthday to Katie, which she loved.
Here are Katie and Abby, comparing bikes:

This is Corbin Tharp. He unofficially adopted Elayna for most of the activity. He pushed her around a lot, and made sure she was happy and felt involved. He did a great job. Elayna was a little tired by the time we got ready to leave, but I think she had fun.


This is Abby, with her bike decorated:

And Junior, with his scooter all decorated:



And Elayna's push/scooter/thing decorated:


And Katie's bike decorated. Notice the brand new birthday helmet:

GG's party

My dad's mother, who my children call GG, had a summer/school's out party for her great grandchildren on May 27th. She gave each of them a water bottle with their name on it. This was a huge hit! My girls love them. Here are Katie, Bekah, Abby and Gracie waiting for the pizza to arrive:


We ate some pizza, then the children went outside to play. GG has a merry-go-round that I remember playing on as a girl. It is still there, and all the kids love riding on it. We usually try to have an adult nearby, just because the babies will get on, and if it gets going too fast... Thankfully nothing serious has happened so far.
Nathaniel, Sadie, Bekah, Abby, Gracie, Katie, Elayna (see the pigtails behind Hannah?) and Hannah:


GG, Naomi, Amanda, and I sat on GG's back steps and watched while the kids played. Elayna wanted to go inside and jump on the small trampoline that was in there. Hannah joined her after a little bit. Sadie and Gracie were on the porch with us too, for most of the time. This is the look Elayna gave me as she was going inside. I'm not sure if she thought she was in trouble, or what:

This is a picture of Katie, Bekah, and Abby way way out in the back field. I don't know how large of a plot of land they have, but walking out to take a picture, then walking back to the porch, then walking (well, I actually started racing Josh the last half of the walk) to the farthest tree away to get Hannah unstuck from the tree, then walking back to the porch, etc. Wore me out!

After the kids had played for a bit, we called them back inside to roast marshmallows.
It was lots of fun, and soo yummy! I love perfectly roasted marshmallows that are roasted on a real fire. A light brown crust with a melty inside. Yumm. It almost makes me want to go camping, just to roast some more. Almost.
Katie, Nathaniel, Bekah, Junior, Ben, and Abby:


All the children had lots of fun roasting their own marshmallows. Katie claims she liked them kinda burnt, but I don't think she ever had to patience to eat a lightly toasted one. I offered one to her, but she didn't even want to try it! She's missing out!


Elayna didn't even have the patience to roast them. She liked them raw and whole! That girl sure makes me laugh:

April Photos:

Katie and Elayna wanted to help Grandpa Jerry and Daddy fix the riding lawn mower:

Katie and Elayna playing outside:


Katie fell off her bed the other night. Remember she sleeps on the TOP bunk. Ryan and I heard a Thump!, then a short cry, then nothing. We ran to the door, but she didn't seem to be crying, then...Whahhh! We went in, and she actually seemed more upset that she was awake and on the floor than hurt, thankfully. We put her back in bed, and she went right back to sleep. Elayna didn't even wake up at all.

Elayna is speaking in 2-3 word sentences
"I numing" (I'm coming)
"nilk" (milk)
"bess you" (following a sneeze)
"Daddy home want" (I want Daddy to come home)
"hep me pese" (help me please)
"hep me hep me hep me" (help me help me help me--when you take too long to help)
"hold you?" (Will you hold me?)

I was singing to Elayna, and I couldn't guess the song she wanted, so she kept saying, "No.......no..... no... no nonononono" until I stopped. She loves to sing, draw/color, play outside, jump, see people she loves, carry her purple rabbit ("Layna's babbit") around, have me undress and dress Barbie dolls, and play by herself. She entertains herself very well.

One night after Elayna cried, I put her back to bed. I gave Katie a kiss, and she woke up and said, "What are we doing today?" Poor thing, she had only been asleep for about 5 minutes.

When it was getting close to my due date for Elayna, we started having Katie sleep at the Bowman's house, so it wouldn't be so hard when we were in the hospital with Elayna. She actually slept there once a week for about 6 months, I think. Then she would get sad, and call for her Mommy and Daddy, so Jerry told Irma that she was being mean keeping Katie there.
May 12, 2010 was the first time she has slept over since then. She had so much fun. She wasn't sad to see us leave, and she enjoyed every minute of it. I asked her when she got back if she had missed me, and she said she had, a little.
Since then, I have been instructed on how to make scrambled eggs, repeatedly. Grandma Irma is the only person that can make them right, apparently.

Speaking of "apparently", Katie was at my parent's house, and she stepped on something sharp. Grandma Paula said "sharp things aren't supposed to be on my floor". Katie replied with "Apparently there was, Grandma". Apparently I use that word a lot. ;)

Katie was throwing a tantrum the other day, and I heard her yell, "You're not my favorite Mommy anymore, ever ever again!" It made me laugh.

Katie has been wanting to give a talk in Primary ever since she realized that the children take turns giving talks, saying prayers, and reading scriptures. The Primary Presidency hands out the slips of paper with assignments on them the week before. Katie was sick May 2, so she went home early. The next week, May 9, when we got into Primary, Abby was sitting at the front of the room, ready to give a talk. After Abby informed Katie that she was giving a talk, and Katie wasn't, Katie started just bawling. We went to the back of the room and asked the Presidency if she could read a scripture. They, of course, were delighted that she wanted to participate.

May photos:

I wanted a picture of Katie playing with her cousins. This is a picture of them playing on Naomi and Dennis' playhouse in their backyard. Nathaniel,Sadie, a neighborhood friend, Hannah, Bekah, another friend, Katie, and Elayna's hand.
After I took the above picture, I realized you couldn't see Elayna at all, because of the beam. This is from the other side of the playground set:

Naomi took this picture of Gracie, Hannah, Sadie, and Elayna playing together at my parent's house:

Zion National Park: April 23- 25, 2010

We stayed in this cute cabin in Marysvale, UT. It is about 2 hours from Santaquin, and about 2 hours from Zion National Park. (I worked at Zions Bank for many years, and it is incredibly hard to just say Zion. With no "s".) It was nice to have a short drive, relax for the night, then wake up Saturday morning and drive out to Zion.
The kitchen was a little crowded, but it was nice and cozy.

At the entrance to Zion National Park. Jerry was there too, but someone had to take the picture.We hiked this first trail, but Jerry will be disappointed in me, because I can't remember what most of the trails, hikes, and rock monuments are called. This first hike was 1/2 mile to a lookout point, then you came back the way you had come before. Katie wanted to run the whole thing, but we tried to keep her mostly in check. Elayna walked half of it. That's a half mile for a 20 month old! I was really impressed that both of the girls did so well.

A lizard we saw on the first trail. We saw some deer later also. That was the extent of the wildlife.
Waiting for the shuttle that would take us to trails and monuments not accessible to public transportation.

The buses had 2 sections to them. We sat at the front of the 2nd section, so it looked like the girls were driving the shuttle. They had lots of fun with that.


Weeping Rock. (something like that) It was beautiful. You stand in this alcove, and look up. There is a constant "rain" coming off these rocks. Evidently the water is seeping through the entire rock until it comes out here.

Katie playing at Weeping Rock.



A very tall and impressive Waterfall.


Matthew gazing in awe at the Waterfall.

The waterfall turned into a river that the girls wanted to play in, even though it was freezing. We jumped onto this little island in the river, and they had fun throwing rocks into the water.

Then they started picking up dirt and throwing it in.


The aforementioned river.

Sunday morning was nice and relaxing. We had all gotten a good night's sleep, and we didn't need to leave until 11 or 12. Irma, Jerry, Matthew, Katie, and Elayna all went for a walk while Ryan rested (played on his computer) and I took a shower.
These pictures are from the walk, so I don't really know where they were, or what was happening. But the girls are sure cute!

This is a swing in front of the cabin.

Walking down the dirt road that led to our cabin.


Elayna laughing.


And then being "shy".


By a river....somewhere.



Sunday was mostly spent driving. Jerry wanted to wander through the old roads of Utah, to see new things.
This was the "Scenic View". This was about the best thing we saw. Not extremely impressive after Zion. Especially since it was really windy and cold. There were some really cool mountains that looked like they were old buildings made of rock rising out of a pile of sand. I didn't get a picture of that, although I'm sure Matthew or Jerry got a picture of them. They both took about 300 pictures each. And we were gone 2.5 days, total.

It was nice to wander along the roads though. A lot of talking, and wondering what people did, and why they lived out in the middle of nowhere.

Somewhere along the way, we saw these really strange ..mountains, I suppose you would call them. They looked man-made.
The columns were eroding faster than the top, plus there was a distinct line between 2 different types of rock, so it looked really odd.

Some of them were hollowed out . This is a picture inside one of them. Notice how the top of the area is a completely different looking rock than the sides?


A picture of Katie and Elayna in their matching pajamas. This was at the cabin.

We had so much fun. I'm grateful the Bowman's invited us to go with them.