Summer Dance Recital

Hello, dearest party people. Brooke finished out her summer dance class this past week, and starting this year they have a recital at the end! Brooke had been doing hip hop flip flop, and I think most people who read this have seen her sick hip hop moves over the summer! Here's her ending pose to the dance. To get the pose right, her teacher asked her for a food she didn't like, and she said mushrooms. When she went to do her pose she was supposed to think of us trying to give her mushrooms for dinner and think "you're giving me mushrooms!" As you can see, not a big mushroom fan. The recital was great, and I'll put a link to the video of it down with some other pictures from the dance. Brooke did superb, and we had snow cones after dinner to celebrate!

Rewinding back to last Sunday, we had family in town! We headed over to the creek to play in the water. I think we've been down there before, but never really played in the water. We had a lot of fun, and I've asked the girls if they want to go back, but so far no one will go with me :(.

While we were there, Winry was in flip flops so she walked on out into the stream... and then started walking down stream. She was just going to keep going past where our "beach" was, but I called her back. She said it wasn't too deep, and she wanted to keep going....

After some fun in the water, we crossed the bridge and headed to the rock circle. The kids had fun running around. Brooke tripped and scraped up her knee, so we cleaned it off, and then played in the grass at the park for a little. We all practiced our cart wheels!

Winry found a really special rock! I don't think it made it home, which is probably for the best. We ended up staying at the park until my family call was starting, so I put Winry up on my shoulders and joined the call. Winry and I got to talk to everyone while walking back to the car.

When we got home there was a bunny in the front yard, which was very exciting. Brooke grabbed some really good pictures of the tip of her finger with the bunny, and here's everyone getting as close as possible before the bunny ran away.

Over the weekend I cut and stained shelves along with some other projects around the house. I also worked on a new mantle for the fireplace, and towel racks. The shelves look really nice, and it's amazing how much more "finished" the bathroom in the basement feels now. I didn't think they'd make such big difference.

Jelly continues to help me work. This past week she was super intently staring out the window like there was something moving around. The only thing I ever found was a grass hopper, but it was on the opposite side of where she was looking... Anyway, good work distraction.

Sticking with Jelly news, this past week I turned the water on for her to get a drink, and she put her head under so it was hitting her right on the top of the head! She typically tries to avoid getting wet, but I guess she was just too thirsty this time.

Brooke and I have continued to go on walks around the neighborhood. She is starting to get pretty good at riding her bike. She's good at steering and staying on the sidewalk, and can keep a pretty consistent pace all around. She isn't struggling pedaling up the hill, and she's learned to gently push the breaks to just slow a little, instead of completely stopping every time.

On Friday morning we had muffins for breakfast, and after Monica mixed up the batter, Brooke helped fill the muffin tin! She loves doing this, and she does a really good job too!

On Saturday I got out Monica's old tablet from college to see if I could set it up as a digital picture frame. I finally found a good app that can pull a photo album from Google photos to run a slideshow. The girls like to watch the pictures, and it's been pretty cool so far. The plan going forward is to make a frame for the tablet so it looks nicer, and then we can let it run!

Saturday was Brooke's dance recital! She did a super great job. You can watch the whole thing here!

Halfway through, the back and front switched, so Brooke was up close when she did the coffee grinder! That's been a favorite move to show over the summer!

After the dance, Winry greeted Brooke with a big hug! Brooke got a flower from her teacher for being so great!

This picture got put in a little out of order, but this was Winry and me waiting for the show to start. There's a week off dance before the fall class starts, and Winry will start then too! I'm so excited for Winry to get to start dance class! She loves to dance with Brooke, and tries to learn all her moves! Get ready for double recitals!

Today's been going well for us. Today was the first day we could have gone back to church. We instead watched a zoom broadcast. They muted the video during the sacrament, and we did our own then. It was pretty nice to get to do a slightly more normal church. Right now the setup is that half of the ward will meet the second Sunday, and the other half the fourth. So we could technically go once a month, but we'll be able to watch it twice a month.

That's all I've got for this week. Have a wonderful week!

Mask Mandate

Hello hello!  It was definitely time for the pool this past week, however, it had water in it for the last few weeks, so we had to do a bit of cleaning before we felt safe letting the kids in...  But we're glad we did because they had a wonderful time!  This included going down the slide head first, while listening to "head first."

Jelly found this an ideal way to relax on the stairs. I thought it looked pretty silly, but she stayed there for quite a while.  If only her front legs were a little longer she could have been "laying" flat.

We received a wonderful package this past week.  This is how we found it on the front porch.  If this is deliverable, I'm really curious to know what my packages that were "undeliverable' and sent back automatically looked like.  Everything was in the box, and nothing was damaged, so I'm glad it made it, but the appearance was rather striking.

With Colorado's mask mandate in full force, masks became exciting again this past week.  Winry even tried her mask on again!  She didn't actually go anywhere, but you never know when your family might cough on you.

Brooke and I went running together on Thursday morning.  Brooke was really excited to wear her gaiter so we could be twins!  She got out and ran twice.  Her hair wasn't in a ponytail, so the first time her hair was getting up in her face the whole time.  So for her second run, I used her gaiter to hold her hair out of her face, but didn't put it up high enough and it kept sliding down over her eyes so she couldn't see!  She was able to keep running safely as she was holding onto the stroller handle.  We had a great time together!

Winry is moving up in the world, and decided to climb in her chair to fall asleep this past week!  This is a huge leap up from laying face down on our carpet...  The carpet upstairs is real bad, so I'm sure this was much more enjoyable.  Also, Winry won't let us put her down for naps anymore.  She insists she doesn't need them, but does frequently fall asleep in her room playing.  At least she'll put herself down when she gets tired.

Brooke has really been wanting to ride her bike lately, so we headed out for a walk around the block to ride (I walked, she rode).  She did great!  She has ridden the bike once or twice before, but never for very long.  This time she rode around the whole neighborhood all by herself!  We went out again the next day and she did even better!  She'll be in love with riding her bike in no time!

In the evening the girls decided they wanted to jump on the tramp, and while out there, ultimately decided they wanted to do somersaults.  There wasn't really enough space for a full roll, but they were able to get over their heads and then get back up.  Little less jumpy, little more tumbly.

Monica took Brooke out to Target on Saturday to pick a present for her friend for her birthday.  They wore their masks, including Brooke's new Norwex kids mask.  Brooke was SO excited to be in a mask matching mom!  Brooke just loves masks.  While Monica and Brooke were out, Winry and I were partying at home.  Winry wanted to do Brooke's recital dance all by herself!  It's been a bit since she's done the dance, so she didn't remember it as well as before, but she still nailed it.

This picture got out of order... but on Friday night we had hot dogs.  We cooked them on the grill, and then had a picnic on the floor.  We ate a little on the early side as it was family moving night, so we needed to get to the show.  We watched Finding Nemo, and the girls enjoyed it.

Saturday morning I woke up and headed out for a run.  In the morning, Monica ran around with Brooke for a bit, and I did some chores around the house.  When Monica was home, I spent the day out in the garage working on a slew of projects pictured below.  I worked on bunk beds for the girls, a new mantel for over the fireplace, towel racks, and shelves for the bathroom in the basement.  I was able to get everything (but the bed frame) ready to be stained.  Hopefully I'll have some good pictures this next week of completed projects.

Saturday afternoon/evening Monica's mom, sister, and kids arrived to spend a few days with us before they continue to head east.  They're planning to head out to St. Louis to visit Melanie, and then to Illinois to visit Michelle.  We've all been having a great time together, and the girls LOVE having their cousins here!  Also, we're super popular today as my sister and dad reached out and asked about stopping by!  I don't know what to do with such fame!!  To my adoring fans, adieu!

Mermaid Sisters Always Have Your Back

Helluuu!  Well, I would say we've recovered from all of our car riding of last week, though I'd also say recovering took a toll on doing things... or at least on taking pictures.  But don't think that means nothing happened!  There definitely was a mermaid party!  I totally missed this, but it looks like the girls had a great time.

While on vacation with my family, Jerusha handed us our Christmas present a little early.  The plan was to use it there with everyone, however the fridge didn't have an ice maker, and so there were no snow cones until we got home!  Now it's snow cone party every day!!  Ok, not every day, just 3 times in the past week.  But let's not rule out tonight yet!  It is pretty loud to run, but it produces great ice shavings.  It feels just like snow.  In fact, if you come to visit, you'll never be safe from a snowball!  I think at some point we'll have to try shaved ice style deserts with fruit, evaporated milk, and maybe a little ice cream.

The girls were super excited!  I think they've only had snow cones once before, and that was last year.  It doesn't matter if they remember them though, they knew it was a treat, and so they were excited!

All of the flavors included are great!  There are even 6 more flavor concentrates for once these first ones are gone.  It's been a great gift!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Two weeks ago when the Checketts stayed with us for an evening, we put a blanket up in the window in the office to keep the sun out in the morning since we put the pack'n'play in that room.  That blanket was still down there, so I folded it up and left it on a box of secrets on my desk.  Jelly came to help guard the secrets, and slept there all day long while I was working!  She's a pretty great coworker.

On Wednesday night, Brooke somehow ended up staying up late.  Monica needed to make muffins for breakfast the next morning, so Brooke helped.  Monica helped with getting ingredients and mixing, but Brooke filled the whole muffin pan all by herself!  The muffins were terrific!

On Saturday night, I opened the box of secrets and pulled one out for date night.  It was Escape Room in a Box!  Since we can't go to an escape room right now (and even if one is open, I don't know that the best place to go is a small, confined room designed for everyone to touch EVERYTHING) I brought one to us.  So first things first we had to open the box!

And then unpack it!!  When we were done it was a total transformation of our dining/living room!  Now we were ready to try to escape!  We had a lot of fun.  I'd say the only downside is that it's pretty much a one time use item.  There is a pdf you can get online to reprint papers you wrote on, etc. and instructions to repack the box, but we're gonna have to leave that in our game closet for YEARS before we/I forget the puzzles.  Also, my understanding when I ordered this one is that it had 3 in it, but it doesn't really.  It has 3 "paths" to get to the end, and you have to do all of them.  So if you do separate paths then you could replay it and only do the paths you haven't seen before.  However, we did enjoy it enough that we'll probably get another box. Though I think next time I'll get one that does have multiple "rooms" in one box.

Look at all those great adventures we had this week!  Monica and I even evaded being eaten by a werewolf (escape room)!  I hope everyone is safe and has a wonderful week ahead!

Idaho or Bust

What a great week!  We spent this past week split between Utah and Idaho (and a little Wyoming) with my family for vacation this year.  To commemorate COVID (cause why not?...) our commemorative item for the year was a face mask (buff) that my mom embroidered with a cool bear pattern.  Here's the whole family together staying safe!

We spent Monday and Tuesday at my parents house in North Salt Lake.  I went out for my run on Monday and it was raining on me, so I decided to grab a picture.  Yup, that was the rainy weather.  It started raining again a little later in the morning, though this time there was at least a rain cloud above us in the sky.  The rain was pretty minimal both times, but it was still pretty bizarre due to the mostly blue skies and sunlight. 

My sister went to the store to get some groceries, and also grabbed a watermelon for everyone to enjoy.  She grabbed the biggest one she could find, and the lady at the register had to get a special scale to weigh it because it was so heavy.  It was ~41 pounds, or 1 Brooke.  There was a LOT of watermelon to eat.

One day I was looking for Brooke and Winry in the basement.  They had gone down to play with their cousins, but I couldn't see them.  Amelia told me they were in William's house, and led me there.  She was out getting flashlights for everyone.  William's house was under the stairs, behind where my parents hang their sleeping bags!  What a silly place to play!!

Tyson and Tina's family all came out Tuesday, and the girls were so happy to see Megan on Wednesday morning.  She read them stories all morning!  Also, Maren shared a room with Winry while we were at my parents house.  Winry really loved having a roommate, and when Winry would wake up in the morning she'd lay in her pack'n'play and wait until Maren got up, and then she'd stand up and come down with Maren!  Winry would just lay there silent, not waking Maren, waiting until she got up for the day!  What an amazing roommate!  Tuesday night, Maren stayed with the rest of her family, and Wednesday morning I went to check on Winry and she was awake waiting in her pack'n'play to hear a noise to know she could get up.  She was disappointed, to say the least, when she saw I was there to get her up!  She LOVED sharing her room with Maren.

On Wednesday we headed to Driggs, Idaho to the place we were staying.  We helped unload all the food, and the girls even helped carry things in!  Winry would set things over the door way, and then step in the house and pick things back up to carry to the kitchen.  Here she is with a great big chip box!

At night we'd all do an activity together.  The first night we all played Bingo.  Our girls were already asleep, but we played it with them on subsequent days.

Niki was our bingo master, with a tombola and all!

Here are the girls asleep in our room.  Winry's pack'n'play was in the closet, and Brooke's bed was on the couch.  I decided to put pillows on the floor in case she fell off, and she fell off more nights than not.  I think there was only one night she didn't fall off.  Also, this was the girls first time sharing a room, and they did great!

On Thursday we took a short ~25 minute drive to a ski resort for lunch and a hike.  The girls were iffy on the hiking part, but in the end we all had a great time.  Here are the girls at the turn around.

That night, we played pictionary for our group activity.  Brooke got to stay up for the first couple turns before heading to bed.  She even got a turn and drew both Blue Jelly, and a flamingo!

On Friday we headed with everyone to Teton National Park and headed for String Lake.  We met up with everyone as they finished the hike to Taggart Lake.We got a few pictures at the trail head, and Monica snapped a picture of my dad and me walking Winry back over to the lunch table.  We had lunch at the trail head, and then all headed for String lake, but ended up at Jenny lake.  

While trying to get to String lake, we ended up parking at an over look.  There wasn't good water access, but it was a good picture spot.  Here we all are together!

And here's Winry looking over my shoulder!  I sure got to carry her a lot!

We were able to find parking in the Jenny Lake parking lot, and headed to the water.  Here's a picture of the whole lake!  Hopefully if you click on it it'll stop looking so small...  no promises though.

The girls got their swimsuits on and headed in the water.  Here's Brooke up on a rock a little ways out in the water.

And here's Winry getting her toes wet.  Don't worry, Winry doesn't need to head in deep to get very wet.  Before she was in her swimsuit she was just chilling in the shallows, but she'd squat down to get rocks, etc. and dipped her bum/regular diaper in the lake.  It got VERY full, and so it was definitely time to change her.  While there I joined the company of people who were skipping rocks.  I got 7 skips in the video!  I think that was the most I got, so it was a good time for Monica to film!

Someone (Oriah or Niki I believe) went to the gift store and came back with popsicles for everyone.  They were the push up kind, and while very yummy, they made us quite sticky.  We rinsed off in the lake, so... hopefully the fish appreciate that.

The girls enjoyed playing with cousins basically all the time!  I will say, I do think this took it's toll on Winry, as she spent about 6 hours today in her crib.  She woke up at 7, and then at 9 asked to go take a nap.  She played for about an hour and a half and then eventually did take around a 3 hour nap, but then woke up and wanted to keep playing in her crib by herself!  Introverted?  Seems like it :).  I'm glad she got a chance to recharge, and I'm also glad she was good player and sharer with her cousins over the past week.

On the way home, we ran into some crazy traffic.  I pulled up google maps (we had directions on Monica's phone, but it was having sim card issues and couldn't use cell data) and got a new route around the traffic that would save us a half hour.  Why wasn't everyone going this way?  Well, because it went over a one lane bridge to a dirt road!...  It was a good adventure, and I'm glad we saved the half hour!  We stopped at Rock Springs for gas and lunch, and of course did some somersaults.  We continued on to Fort Collins where we stopped at Chick-fil-a for dinner, and I moved into the back to help the kids eat their dinners.  It was a little cramped, but at least I was able to see the screen and we watched Phineas and Ferb the rest of the way home.

We made it home safely, but very tired, and Jelly was VERY excited to see us.  She has been very snugly and climbs into a lap much more often than she used to.  She definitely missed us while we were gone, and we missed her too!  We had a wonderful trip, and it was great to get to see everyone!  Have a wonderful week ahead!