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| Brigham City Temple Open House |
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| Thanksgiving Point Gardens |
- Started out summer with DisneyLand in June. Super fun, but being the third time in a year, I was getting tired of it. Thankfully, we flew so we didn't top it off with two days on the road.
- Much more moderate in our visits to 7 Peaks. Whereas we used to go 2-3 times a week, we probably only went a dozen times this summer. And that's okay by me! I only went 3-4 times without Brett. Katie was great and a pretty good swimmer. Amanda thinks she's as good as Katie, which terrifies me. Ellie is clingy and I can't do or see or help anyone else! The first time on my own, I lost Amanda (she left the pool "looking for Mom") within 5 minutes, Ellie fell of the crocodile (I caught her but she freaked out anyway) and while I'm frantically searching for Amanda and starting to panic, Katie is desperate to go to the bathroom. I didn't dare leave the pool, but I also didn't dare send Katie to the bathroom alone. I vowed to never do this alone again (even though I did).
- Amanda (and by extension Ellie and Katie) took tumbling tots. Once again, I'm amazed at how strong, flexible, agile, and balanced these girls are! It only took Ellie watching Amanda once for her to try and do all that the big girls do. Katie's love for tumbling was rekindled and I wish we had time/money to chase that dream more.
- Katie begged me to teach her to play "I am a Child of God" on the piano. She's memorized the first 3 bars or so. I want to start her in lessons, but she's got a big school year ahead, so we're trying to pace the addition of new things all at once.
Thanksgiving Point Gardens - Amanda spent the summer talking and singing constantly! She makes up songs, she narrates her play stories. At one point, Brett and I worried that she didn't talk at much/early as Katie. She's making up lost time. She still doesn't always speak terribly clearly, and tends to get emotional easily, but she's got a lot to say! (Like calling hand sanitizer "hanitizer" and belt loops are "Belt pockets".)
- Ellie has grown a passion for climbing over the summer. She climbs up on the table and drinks everyone's drinks. She climbs up on the counter from the bar and terrorizes whatever she can get to while I run to get her! She has also started an independent streak. About 3 weeks ago, she refused to be fed or helped feed. If she's not feeding herself, she's starving and throwing a serious fit! Meals times just got a lot messier (and they weren't that neat to begin with!)
- Katie went to Chinese Immersion Summer camp. She had a week of Chinese and learned so much! She had a program at the end of the week and those kids had learned songs, colors, numbers, enough to present to the parents. I'm impressed. Where I worried it would be too much for her, I wonder now if she hadn't been in the program, she'd be bored!
Rodeo! - Katie solidified reading over the summer! She ended school with mid-level readers, and she's now reading a chapter book and similar! I'm so impressed. She is really a brilliant girl and I'm so proud of her! (in more ways than one!)
Farm Country Pony Ride - Amanda started preschool and loves it! She wakes up early with Katie and is so excited to put on school clothes and get her backpack. I've never seen her so compliant with getting dressed, coming for hair styles, etc. I'm so glad my girls love school.
- Ellie is such a tag along. She does whatever Amanda does. She wants to play trains with Katie (but still destroys a fair amount). She wants to ride bikes with Amanda. She wants to read with Katie. Last night, Ellie woke up at one a.m. (very unusual) and was frantic to find Katie. She struggled to get out of my arms and ran down to the kitchen, then family room. Finally, I had to take her into Katie's room and show her that Katie was in bed asleep before she'd calm down. Then she had to find Dad (again, family room, then bed). I wondered if she was spooked somehow. Anyway, Ellie loves Katie. Katie loves to cart around Ellie (and Amanda tries too as well---argh!)
- Ellie has also lately grown a love for a certain baby doll. The very same, Katie's first doll (that I got at a thrift store!) The funny thing: Katie loves that doll and is usually very protective of it. She won't share it with Amanda or friends-which is often a source of contention. But, Katie hasn't tried once to take it from Ellie or limit Ellie with it! I can almost see the sibling love! Amanda, on the other hand, steals the doll from Ellie all day long!
- We went as a family to the Thanksgiving Point gardens (always so lovely) and the Dinosaur Museum (such a crowded zoo!). I took the girls to Farm Country and stood in line for almost two hours for pony rides. Ellie was terrified of the horse, so I basically held her at arms length, over the horse, for a couple of laps around the coral. The things I do. . . . . :) Amanda and Katie loved it, but they were ready to melt by that point. We all loved the mini goats, the sheep, the horses. We took a tractor-drawn wagon ride (the horse-drawn had a crazy line). The girls then made friends with the driver, who let them sit in the tractor seat.
- Brett spent a lot more of the summer working that we've been used to. That was definitely a benefit of the student status--summers were either lighter or had intermittent breaks in between things. We missed him on a few of our adventures, but we're glad he could come on some.
- Amanda had her first "friend" birthday party. It was a princess dress-up party and it was a hit! We had all Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel. They had fun making crowns, pinning the kiss on the frog prince, and dancing the "musical chairs ball". I'm glad we had a no gift policy, and we almost at an entire cake this time. Almost!
- We took the girls to see an outdoor play of "Wizard of Oz" and "All Shook Up". They loved dancing at All Shook Up, but not too impressed. Wizard of Oz, however, was a huge hit! They loved it and recreated it for weeks after.
Car Show at the Fair - Brett and I also went to the outdoor showing of "Fiddler on the Roof". It was great-complete with rain and packed crowd. I'm glad it was just the two of us and we enjoyed it. Brett and I also went to Capitol Theater to see "Wicked" (thanks Lauretta!). It was amazing! I loved it and wondered how soon we can see it again (or when they'll make a movie!). Really, so great!
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| Amanda's birthday build a bunny-Rapunzel | . |
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| Katie's Chinese Teacher: Tong Lao Shi |
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| Car show at the Utah County Fair |
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| County Fair |
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| Thanksgiving Point Gardens |
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| Farm Country |
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| We love Hootz the Owl! |
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| Jedi battles. |
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| 7 Peaks |
PS-Please forgive the horrible layout--I've had issues for the past 2 hours trying to get pictures to upload properly, and now I'm giving up!
