Amber's First Day of School

Amber & Miss Dana

She was able to bring one item to share today. She chose her little stuffed animal (dog). It's funny she chose this dog. She hasn't played with it in ages. I expected her to bring her polly pockets. This happened last year too. One time she was asked to bring a picture of her family. I gave her dozens to choose from, and she chose the most random one that was by far the silliest photo. Obviously it was important to her.

What a cutie! We're so happy to be with Miss Dana again this year. Last year flew by, so I expect this year to be the same...and then it's kindergarten! Crazy!

One Last Summer Outing

For Labor Day we took a day trip to Whitney Reservoir. Matt had to work over the weekend, so it was just for the day. This is such a beautiful place in the Uintahs. It's about a two hour drive, but well worth it.

Here we are right before we got on the lake.

Here is Amber at the end of the day. We had caught five fish that were worth keeping between Grandpa and Dad. There were several others caught throughout the day, but these were the biggest. We've had good fishing days on Whitney, and bad days. Today was definitely a good day!

The chain was so heavy Grandpa needed to help Amber hold it up. She was so excited throughout the whole day. When a fish was reeled in, Amber would say things like "OH!! That looks like a good one! That's huge! It's a rainbow trout!" She would copy everything we had or would say. Parker was quick to copy her as well.

Parker fell asleep in the boat, so we woke him up to take this picture. He obviously wasn't as happy to pose with the fish. My favorite "Parker" comment of the day, is when we were headed to shore in our boat, and we saw three boats a head of us a ways just ready to dock at shore. Parker said "look at those penguins in those boats!" From far away I guess the people in their neoprene looked like penguins. Pretty cute!

Grandma, Amber and Grandpa right before we loaded the boat up. We had a fun day. It was windy and a little chilly, but other than that a good time! We all got sunburned. It was a fun way to spend our last day before school started for Amber.

Aubrey's Accomplishments

This is Aubrey crawling, or I guess "Army" crawling, but it's all the same to me. The point is she can get where ever she wants to very quickly! It also means I can't leave ANYTHING on the floor. I don't have a problem with that, but Amber and Parker on the other hand leave all sorts of treasures behind. This morning I found a peach pit camouflaged in to the carpet. This isn't from a lack of cleaning. I vacuum of kitchen/living room area three times a day (after each meal) for that reason, I don't want little crumbs left behind. In the last four days, she has still somehow found "stuff" on the floor. I've had to use the finger sweep technique each day. I've dug out Frito's, leaves, a beef bullion wrapper, and paper. She also is so quick to grab anything out of my hand. The other day she took a spoon out of the bowl when I was clearing the table. Before I knew it, it was in her mouth. She had put a spoon full of chili in her mouth.

And she can pull her self up in her crib! I've had to take out her bumper pads because she'd try and use them as a stepping stool. I swear this isn't normal for seven months! I guess she's almost eight months, but she's been doing it for a couple weeks now.

Stacie's Wedding

Anyone that knows me well, knows I had one best friend all through high school and post high school. Stacie Stevens has been my closest friend since 8th grade. We went to college together, ran the river together for a few summers, and spent every second we possibly could together in our younger years. I got married rather young, about nine years ago. So our lives have gone two different ways since then. Although we've gone two separate ways, I've still always considered her my best friend. She has made such an incredible effort to be part of my life and my family's life over these past nine years, so we have remained close. I know that she has so many friends in her life...TONS! I'm sure there are many, many people that say "oh yeah, she's one of my best friends!" but let me tell you all, that she is my best friend. I know she has lots of others, but she is the one person in my life that I have all my favorite memories with, I went to college with her, I told her EVERYTHING and still do! She knows me inside and out. She makes me laugh harder than anyone in this world. I honestly love her to pieces. So yes, she has lots of best friends, but she is mine! So I was so excited to be able to go to her wedding in San Diego. This was the highlight of the trip for me. My favorite conversations I'd have with Stacie pre-marriage is when she'd say "I met someone..." I'd get so excited and want every detail of their meeting, how, when, what...etc. I'd always make her dish out all the goods. When it didn't work out, she'd always say "sorry to get you excited about nothing." I always told her I want every detail regardless. I couldn't WAIT for her to say "I think this might be it." When she met JJ, she was so excited and told me right away something was different about him. I wouldn't leave her alone and was constantly asking her how things were going. It was so fun to meet him and see their connection. He is such a great guy. Stacie deserves nothing but the best. JJ is seriously so dang cool. I'll explain more later...

They honestly are so happy! They were both beaming.

She is such a beautiful bride!! Everything about her hair, dress, flowers, jewelry, it all was perfect.

Here is her cute family (minus Mitch, on a mission in Germany). I spent so many hours at their house when I was younger. I seriously considered them my second family. In the picture, Jake and his wife Lindsay, Gary, JJ, Stacie, Margaret, Scott and Nate.

Ashley, Brianne, Stacie and me
Ashley and Dave came from North Carolina for the wedding. It was so fun to spend the day with them too. I realized how much I miss them! They are so much fun, and made the day so fun too. We were able to spend a little bit of time with them on Thursday at Disneyland as well.

Me and Matt

for more wedding (professional) pictures, check out her photographer's blog:

http://michellesallayphotography.blogspot.com/

So it was awesome. Hands down fantastic! I was able to say a few words at the dinner that night. It was something I stressed about because I knew I could go on and on about her, but I knew that'd make her a little awkward and her family bored! They already know how great she is, and they'd rather have funny stuff said! So I was reading through all my journals to try and get a few stories I could share about her. I have the worst memory so I was hoping my journals would pull through. I had so much fun reading about our lives together. She is seriously so funny. After only a couple months of us first hanging out, I read that I had peed my pants from laughing so hard. That was the first, but most definitely not the last. With in a few more months, I had peed again. We went to Lake Powell in 9th grade together, and yes, again I wet my pants from laughing so hard. She can get me laughing like no one else. I had story after story of funny things she said or did. I realized quickly though, what a good friend she always has been. I am amazed she gave me so many chances. I read story after story of me me me and all they boys I liked or didn't like. I was selfish and so darn boy crazy. How could she even handle that? She really is an amazing person, who is so forgiving. I am so grateful for her, and for her friendship. I can't wait to get to know JJ better. After the SLC reception, I went to her parent's house after and hung out a bit. I was laughing so hysterically at them. They are so cute, so in love, and so dang funny. I just love JJ for Stacie. What a great pair they make! As I said earlier, she truly deserves the best. Many of the people that spoke about JJ at the dinner had such great things to say. It shed a little more light on the type of person JJ is. I know he will make her so happy, and will work so hard, and is a loyal guy. Stacie is a lucky gal, and he is a lucky guy. They really are so perfect for each other!

Matt and I both had such a great time, both at the San Diego and SLC reception. The Stevens know how to party, and Stacie knows how to dance! I have always told Matt that Stacie has good moves. He believed me, but didn't realize how good of moves I was talking about! After we left the dinner in San Diego, Matt said "you always told me Stacie could bust a move, but man that girl can dance!" It's true, I wish I would have caught it on my camera and posted it on here. She is amazing!

Disneyland

Matt and I had such high hopes for Amber and Parker at Disneyland. As we arrived both Matt and I had huge smiles on our faces. I even said out loud "this really is the happiest place on earth!" Soon I was yelling curses as the crowds got larger and larger. Me + crowds = GRUMPY! Add the scorching heat and I'm a basket case. The kids had a blast which is all that matters. We got to ride a few rides, but the lines were seriously so out of control that by 11:00 PM we had only ridden eight rides. We learned from our mistakes and will know how to do things differently next time.

After traumatising the kids on "Snow White" (that is seriously so scary! There needs to be a disclosure "for kids eight and older") we took them on the merry-go-round. We're making good time! It's only 3:00 PM and we're on the second ride of the day!



This was one of the highlights. Being able to control Dumbo was pretty dang exciting for Amber. We waited about an hour to ride this one. An hour to go in circles for about one minute.
Here is Aubrey waiting so patiently for us at Dumbo.

Parker was asleep for this one. That kid can sleep anywhere! Amber had a smile on her face throughout this whole ride. I loved it!

This was my favorite part about Disneyland...nursing in public (:

I was lucky, I had someone sitting within a few feet of me staring at me the entire time. She had a smile on her face, so I don't think she was grossed out. I think she was maybe remembering the good old days. It made me a little awkward. It's funny how things change. I never would have dreamed of nursing in the middle of a crowded public place with Amber, or maybe even Parker. Once the third comes though it's like "what ever!"
Amber was asking throughout this entire ride "is that real? Are those real? Are those just pretend?" Parker thought everything was real, and was pretty excited to see elephants, hippos, snakes, etc.


We didn't realize you needed to get in a spot to see the fireworks, so we tried to head over right before they started and there was no where to sit, and they were making us walk away from it all "keep moving, keep moving" was all we heard! We moved like cattle for the entire show, and caught glimpses of the fireworks and of Tinkerbell. It was laughable at that point. We had missed every parade, the Fantasia show, the Princess' and now the fireworks. What a day! When we asked Amber what her favorite part was at Disneyland, she said "seeing the princess'." We said, "how, we didn't get to see them?" And she told us "on Anna's camera." Anna Kelly was able to meet the princess' so Amber got to see them on Dave & Ashley's camera. What a sweetie, she was totally sincere and didn't realize what she had missed out on.

Until next time!

California #2

Here we are at Newport Beach. It was a lot of fun! This was our first day there, we had driven through the night Tuesday/Wednesday, so Matt and I were so tired, but the kids were as hyper as ever. We had so much fun watching them play. The waves were tiny so the kids had fun playing in them.


Amber took a lot of swimming lessons this year, so she felt comfortable in the water. She was so brave!

Parker isn't as comfortable with the waves, so we had fun making "stuff" in the sand and searching for sea shells.
We discovered the Aubrey loves to eat sand. She was grabbing hand fulls every chance she got. She was covered in sand, head to toe. It was caked in her hair. I have still been finding some tucked in cracks and in her ears. She was a maniac and was crawling all over the place to get her hands in it.
Amber had so much fun riding the waves. It was so cute to watch her. She literally looked like a natural. She rode several waves all the way in, totally on her own. It was awesome!



We stayed with Matt's brother and his wife, Aaron & Fitriah. This is their dog Louis "Louie." The kids had so much fun playing with him. He is such a good dog and let them pull his hair, and just rough house him. He got tons of attention. When we left to come back to Utah, Amber was crying and said she was so sad to leave Louie.

Aaron & Fitriah spoiled all our kids. They got gum, candy, Popsicles, and were able to watch TV all day if they wanted! Aaron and Fitriah watched our kids all day Saturday when we went to Stacie's wedding. I was totally amazed at how well they did with them. It'd be so tough to go from no kids to three for an entire day, especially little kids like ours. They went swimming, to Chuck-E-Cheese, and played lots at their house. They even put them to bed for us. I told so many people how impressed I was with them. I called a couple times to check in, and both times Aaron said "we're having fun! Don't worry about us! If we have any problems we'll call." WOW is all I can say. They made it a great day for us on Saturday. Just knowing they were in good hands, having fun, and getting spoiled!

Aaron was gone on business the first night we got to CA., so Fitriah let Amber sleep in her bed with her. She let her watch what ever she wanted in bed, and stayed up until 10:30! I think that was one of the highlights for Amber.
I can't remember what beach this was we went to, but it's next to The Ritz Carlton, just up from Laguna Beach. It was beautiful, and so packed! The waves were nuts too, so we didn't let the kids get in.

Here's Parker running from the waves.






Parker and Aaron playing "hit" as Parker calls it.




This picture was put in only to show the size of the waves, not my bum.

There's the Ritz just above the cliff.



What a good uncle. He and Fitriah played so much with our kids, they had a blast.