Happy Birthday, Daddy!

So Big B's birthday didn't turn out quite as we thought it would.  He takes the train into work every morning, and the day before his birthday, the train workers decided to strike.  Sad.  So instead of an hour-and-a-half round-trip commute he ended up with a five-hour commute by bus.  Which landed him home just in time to blow out his candles and put the kids to bed. Poor guy.  But I think he still enjoyed himself.

Happy birthday, Big B!!!  We LOVE YOU!!!

Art

As promised, I've immortalized all of E's artwork on this blog before sending it to be recycled into your next birthday party invitation.  Here are the most recent additions, mostly from her under-the-sea themed school open house.

This was a turtle, but I'm afraid he's missing a few limbs.

"Our State Fair Is the Best State Fair"

Okay, so it's actually the county fair, but I can never resist a showtune. 

Recreating a picture from last year. 

They've grown so much!

E got sunscreen in her eye (seems to be a habit for my girls...what am I doing wrong!!!??!?!), and we had to go to the first aid station and get it flushed out.  But she got a really cool hat and badge out of it, so all was well.  And all the firefighters made a big fuss over her.  Must have been a slow day.

Loved that right behind this was all the deep-fried Twinkie and funnel cake booths.

E's five seconds in the petting zoo.

Enjoying the animals with a protective barrier inbetween.

Little L was the only one brave enough to stay in.

My favorite.

Little B checking out E's hat.

Can you see the ominous clouds?  Time to head home!

Book Worms, Part 1

In an attempt to keep my kids occupied daily during the summer, we've planned something for pretty much every day of the week.  Our favorite so far has been our day for library visits!  Now, this is different from our usual weekly trip to our local library.  These visits are to new, exciting libraries that are foreign to my kids.  Luckily, we live in a place where we are surrounded by great libraries.  So many, in fact, that it was hard to choose.  So we stared with the closest. Here are my two favorite shots from our first library visit.

" Come to Zion, Come to Zion!"

The same day everyone left from my brother's reception, we left too!  Big B took an early morning flight home from Utah where he was attending his sister's wedding, and we picked him up at the airport and went straight back to Utah for B's family reunion at Zion National Park.

Wow.  That place is amazing!  We pulled into the park right as the sun was setting.

It was great seeing all of B's family.  They are seriously awesome.  We all stayed together in this HUGE, beautiful house right outside the park gate.  

Most of the family went on one of the harder, scarier hikes early the next morning, but the two families with little kids opted for an easier hike and bus ride through the park with Grandma.

That's my man!

The girls being awesome!

We stopped for a picnic at the lodge, which was surrounded by gorgeousness!  And E was happy to finally have a cousin her age around!

Little B with her same-age cousin.  

Both sets of cousins!

After lunch, we hopped back on the bus and went to hike Weeping Rock.  It was a short hike up to AMAZINGNESS!!!  Wow.  Absolutely gorgeous.

There's an overhang of rock, and water just pours down over the side of it.

You can see a little better in this picture how big it is.  And the view is amazing!

Grandma with some of the grandkids.

Trying to catch drips of water on her tongue.  She reminds me of Wendy from Peter Pan in this one.

Big B's brother (say that three times fast!) and some of his family

Playing down by the stream on the way back from the hike.

Little B hanging out on my back.

Now on to the obligatory family picture.  This is one of the test shots when I was trying to make sure the self-timer feature was working right on the camera and everything was framed up properly.  I wish you could see them all and click through them like a flip book on here.  Because they're hilarious.  

Grandma made all the little girls these matching nightgowns.  And of course the little cousin wanted in on the action too.

We have a tradition (we've done it twice, so that means it's officially a tradition now, right Mom?) of getting these two matching outfits for the reunion.  Think they'll still go for that when they're 15?

We LOVED being with family and had a great time!

On the way home we took a stretch break in Vegas!  It was fun to show the girls the fountains and some other landmarks. But two hours was enough for all of us. 

Poor Little B conked out on Big B's back.

Great trip!