Tuesday, August 23, 2011

One last quick trip...*Cabriotti*

Every time we passed by SLC on the way to our ranch, my kids begged us to go to Cowabunga Bay. The summer really went by quickly for us this year and before we knew it school has started!  We decided last week that we could probably take one last trip up to SLC and do the Cowabunga Bay thing.

Our Last Trip of Summer 2011
For some odd reason my kids love to stop at Love's gas station when we go through Cedar City. It's probably because they sell toys there! Appeasing them and making this stop makes them easier to travel with though. Some may call it bribery but what can I say, we are suckers for quiet trips and this does the trick!

***Sadly I forgot to take any pictures of our first evening in SLC so I will just tell you what we did instead of the preferred method of showing you via pictures.
 My pregnancy cravings took over and I HAD to get me some lemon herb roasted chicken and Chad is well aware of the saying "Happy wife is a happy life!" so I got my wish to have The Cheesecake Factory for dinner! All you need to know was that it was DIVINE! We decided the best way to spend our first night was at the good ol' Drive-In movies!!! I used to go there a lot as a kid and I have a lot of fun memories there that I wanted to share with our kids. I mean what's not to love about a GIANT screen playing fun new movies while you enjoy the summer breeze from the comfort of your car? Our kids thought it was the greatest thing ever! The bonus was that kids were only $1(Yet we still noticed that people hide their kids to avoid paying more money! Cheapskates! It's $1, come on!)! I just wish we had a Drive-In closer to us. St. George is a great candidate for outside movies don't you think?!!


 The next day we finally made it to Cowabunga Bay, the water park my kids have dreamed of all summer! It was just too exciting with all the slides, dippin' dots, lazy river, and yummy pizza! We went with Chad's brother, Jon and his kids so it was really fun to go as a big group! The kids got there and just  took off with their cousins. 
Chase's favorite was the shallow pool with Chad because he could run in the water and jump and splash around.

 Emma and Taylor went on every ride they were tall enough for. I had to have a mandatory Dippin' dots stop because of those unavoidable pregnancy cravings again!    
 Chad was such a good sport with Chase despite the fact that it was really hard on his arm to be chasing him all day. 

Chad and his brother Jon 
 After 4 hours at the water park, the kids were still not wanting to leave. Bribery came into play again to persuade them to leave and go up Milcreek canyon for dinner. For our kids it works every time! Although Chase keeps asking us every day when we can go to "bunga bay"! I'm so happy they had so much fun, it makes the whole trip totally worth it!
We love going up the canyons for dinner and it is so much fun when we can get a bunch of family together to go too. We had our family, my Mom, my brother Mikey, my brother Chris and his family, and my Grandma Claire! Good food + good company=Good times! It started to get dark around 9:00 so we packed up and left.
Chad obviously was in no mood for pictures! ha ha I had to snap a few quick pics before we left the canyon though.

SCHOOL BEGINS!!!
 I have had a hard time dealing with the fact that my 2 sweet little girls are so big and both going to be in school each day! I keep making excuses for stopping by to visit them, to bring lunch, to drop off extra school supplies, to volunteer with reading, etc. 
This was my latest "excuse", a treat for Emma's whole class. I brought it at the end of the day for her to pass out to her class as school was getting out. I thought they were a cute way to say "Yeah, school has started!" I hope I won't miss them so much when they are gone! I guess I am going to pick up some new hobbies to distract myself! Any ideas? LOL

 Cabriotti's 1st day of Kindergarten!
 Because we have 2 girls, we try to make everything as "fair" as possible. So on Emma's first day she got pink pancakes and of course on Cabriotti's first day of school that's what she wanted as well. Oh ha ha this post may be confusing to some of you that know her only as Taylor, let me explain...The past few years Taylor has been asking me if she could be called by her middle name instead of Taylor because she liked it better. I kept telling her maybe later but she was very persistant. This year we made the decision to let her go by her middle name, Cabriotti. She loves it and says it so cute when she introduces herself to people. I have a hard time remembering to call her that but she quickly corrects me and says "You mean Cabriotti, don't you Mom, I guess you could call me Bri for short!" I just laughed ha ha. This is a big adjustment to make but we are trying our best!
 This is my beautiful little girls before we walked in to their classes!
 Cabriotti was not scared or sad at all, that really made it easier on me to drop her off!
 Cabriotti and her teacher we love so much, Mrs. Anderson (she was Emma's Kindergarten teacher)!
 
All ready for school!

I thought she looked adorable!!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Back-to-school!

As our summer was coming to an end, we made a list of things we wanted to do before school started and one of those many things was to have a huge play-date with all my kids friends. So we came up with a fun Back-to-school party at the Ivins splash pad. We had quite the crowd there and it was such a blast!
Back to School Party!
 Emma and some of her buddies
 My little ladies
 Chase-man himself!
 Emma, despite this being a "water party", decided she would bring her book to read. She just loves reading and I was surprised how dedicated she is in finishing this book before the end of the summer! I think maybe we should have just done a party at the library instead!
 Girls Havin' Fun!
My brother, Uncle Mike, came with me to the party to help and it was really awesome to have him there!  
It was really fun for me too to catch up on everything with the Mom's there. 

We all sat in the shade and so it actually was a pretty nice temperature. 
My kids ate so many otter pops...they were definitely a hit! 
 Take note in this picture what Emma is carrying around...
"CHEESE" 
The girls found a ladybug!  
Splash Pad fun!
 
The water pics were so funny!
 SHHH! Now listen to me...ha ha
We played some fun games towards the end of the party. 
 This was Red light, green light...
The kids got a bit trampled  
 They played this a few times before they were worn out and needed a new game... 
 So next we played a bubble blowing contest...first to blow a bubble gets the GIANT jug of bubbles!
 Let this be evidence of the true winner...
We handed out these crayons as party favors along with a bottle of bubbles.
It was a blast !!!!

Sue's Pet Castle
 Another thing on our list to do was to visit the pet store. I am allergic to cats and refuse to have any more pets other than our dog so the kids like to go and see the animals at the store.
They especially love the kittens! 
 This was such a sweet little puppy!
 Chase was fascinated by this bird and said "Birdie you eat that food? Don't go poop in it okay?!" I laughed so hard!

Out to dinner at Samarai 21
 My Mom and brother Mikey came down to visit this last weekend and we went out to dinner with them to "the Fire Place"(as my kids call it!).
 Chase was a little unsure if he liked the fire... 
 Uncle Mike teasing Emma!

The Fair/Demolition Derby!
Chase preferred to watch instead of ride the camel... 
The girls loved it of course! 
 Chad saw this laying on the ground and picked it up as a joke just in time for me to take a picture with the check. He sure thought it was funny!
 The girls went to the petting zoo there because...you guessed it...they LOVE animals! These were such cute Mini-horses! Oh and yes my girls chose to wear their Rapunzel wigs to the fair! All day people were asking where I got them or if the hair was real! ha ha
This Llama sure liked my Mamma! 
 and Chase too...
 another cool horse the girls liked...
They each took turns holding and brushing the kitten... 
 And then they got a picture as a farmer! LOL
 Tay wanted a picture of her on this! She thought it was pretty cool!
 The bubble tower...
 Our friends, the Campbell's came to the derby too!
Daddy and Emma :D 
My niece Lexi, nephew Brenden, and brother Mike all came too! 
Grandma Hula and Taylor...
 Daddy and Chase...
My brother and son are so handsome! 
 "SMASH THEM" that was our chant!
 Okay fine, I gave in at intermission and after constant begging we added a pet to our family...meet "Hermie" the hermit crab!
 After the derby we took the kids to the fair to ride some rides...
 Chase was all happy until...
 I asked him to look at me, then he hid and buried his face the rest of the ride...stubborn? I think so!

Emma's First Day of 2nd Grade!
 I was really having a hard time dealing with the fact that I would have Emma in 2nd grade and Taylor in Kindergarten this year...
They are my little buddies and I miss them when they are away from me! 
 She did look pretty darn cute for her first day though!
 I let her pick anything she wanted for breakfast, she chose pink pancakes! She also got to help cook them! (please pay no attention to my dirty stove...)
 MMM now I'm hungry!
She ate 3 pancakes! That's her record! 
 This is her with her buddy Maddy before going into class..
This is where she sat the first day too...  
 Then I took my other 2 kiddos out to breakfast at Kneaders...
We LOVE their French Toast! 
We joined some friends too... 

Then we went back to Emma's school to surprise her.
 She was just as excited to see me as I was to see her!
 It partly had to do with the fact that she was getting her favorite lunch and everyone else only had cold lunches so it made her feel extra special.
 I love you Emma to pieces and I hope this is an awesome school-year for you! And yes, I included a note in her lunch with some treats that said "I miss you, have a great day and share these treats with some new friends. Love, Mom!"






After school Chad helped the kids create this sweet fort in our living room which I would normally not allow due to my nesting-clean-up mode I am on...but I missed her and I wanted to see them be happy and giggle. I would say they definitely accomplished that! I hope Emma had a really fun first day of school!