Rachel my old roommate made me some carrot goulash and bran muffins. Se knows my style. On the way out of her apt Anna stopped to play with the ducks at her pond.
I bought myself a watermelon and have eaten almost all of it. I looooove watermelon.
I made a cake with pudding layers. All from scratch. It was really good. We got to share it with rich's cousin and his kids, who were so sweet to play with Anna and Julia today.
My mom bought me an ice cream cake (peanut butter fudge). It's from baskin Robbins for memories sake. I used to work there.
It was a fantastic weekend with lots of love food and outside fun. I'm so grateful for friends and family and food and.........yes, the mountains.
there is nothing i love more than the morning, my man, mountains and my munchkins. So for my birthday celebration we took the girls on a big hike. We went to grandeur peak in millcreek canyon. we drove 10 minutes and hiked 4.5 hours. Let me repeat, I LOVE living so close to the mountains. I wish we had JJ, LL, trina and dan to hike with us. please make time to hike with us when you visit utah next! We know JJ would be a good influence on anna's zest for hiking (;
king and queen of the mountain! at the trail head.
julia took a nice snooze
me and my little pea. you can see the peak in the background there.
anna did quiet a bit of hiking. she was a rockstar.
me thinking......"i want to go to the top but I don't want to die" maybe rich will wait here with the kids while i finish the hike.........hmmm that's probably a bad idea.
the top is the peak in the background. we didn't make it to the peak. it was really slippery and snowy and it just wasn't worth it.
momma and girlies
richy and girlies.
momma and the man.
anna enjoying the splendor of nature (and cookies).
anna and her best *(her word for favorite) daddy
looking over into parleys canyon.
we let julia hike down some of the way. she wouldn't let me hold her hand and want to pick up every stick she could find. she's really going to be a hiker when she's big enough. what a cutie.
we told anna some good stories on the way down to keep her a happy hiker (3 little pigs, billy goats gruff, cinderella, beauty and the beast, nephi and the gold plates). she always says "mom, whats the next page?" insead of "what happens next". She does this for a lot of things - instead of the next verse she'll ask whats on the next page. instead of the next scene of a movie she'll say "next page". its hilarious.
crossing a bridge.
we stopped at a junk-0 yard sale on the way home. look at these cute cowboy boots. even really rich people who live on the face of the mountain have mounds of junk. where does it come from? why do they think people will buy it? do people buy it?! anyways onto the rest of our adventure - maverick soft serve, road biking (sans-kiddos) and the symphony. maybe we'll have time to make a cake at some point.
my sweet sis in law virginia called this morning and said "its free day at the garden!" so we went. but unfortunately not with her (she went this afternoon and we had other plans).
we got to see the daffodils! lots and lots of them if you can see through my smudged lens!
the herb garden.
the childrens garden sandbox.
daffodil hill!
anna wanted to roll down but was a bit unsuccessful.
a swing. cousin evan and jane came along.
jane, evan, anna in a reflection pool.
anna and cousin evi. ive found that if i can get a kid to hold her hand then she will walk places. but if im holding her had we have no success (mommy, hooooold me).
jane in the sanbox. julia started to eat sand so she had to come out.
anna and julia in the vine house.
im going to buy myself a pass for my birthday. i love it there and we are so close! like 10 minutes away, i love this area. and i love living by my friend rachel too, she came along and helped rally the kids, thank rach!
We took the cousins to the library today. It was amazingly easy! I told them we were going on a space mission and we pretended to dodge aliens on the way there. In the parking lot we pretended that if you let go of a hand you would fall off Into outer space. It worked well. After the library we went to grand,a Elaine's and had sprinkle pancakes and eggs. Yummy. The kids got out grandpas stethescopes and pretend to be eachothers patients. they said they could "hear eachothers owies". So cute. It was a good day. Virginia and Andy gave me a "pass of all passes" for my birthday. Now we can play together all summer. Thanks guys!
I love living in the millcreek area. I woke up and went for a 3 mile trail run this morning. I love being able to run on trails in the mountains.
After that we went to evergreen park where anna rode in the cinderella carriage. She was so happy as you can see. Thanks for the tip Cherie.
cinderella smile.
Julia was happy to have people other than anna to watch.
and she loves to climb of course.
The park happens to be next door to our favorite library. This is "mortimor the sortimor" or the return bin. you put the books in one at a time and it checks them in immediately. It is wonderful for knowing whether or not you have lost books. And anna enjoys putting the books in, esp since its at her level.
AT storytime today I ran into Kaelie's sister. WHAT?! How cool is that. kaelie is one of my dear friends from Portland and her sister Kristin lives on my STREET! How crazy is that. Needless to say we will have to get together soon. I think we look like sisters in this pic, all squinty eyed and big smiley.
sideways dancing videos. anna's getting some killer moves.
My mom took me and my girls out to lunch for my birthday today. She took me to a place she knew I would love. It's called ROOTS cafe and also happens to be next door to the library. It's sooo good. I don't usually love eating out because the food is expensive and not very healthy. But this place was right up my alley. I got a veggie wrap. Anna got an avacado sandwich with kale chips (yes, kale chips!) and ate it like a big girl. I love this chick!
My mom got a roasted beet salad. sooo good.
This is not the best pic of my grandma, sorry grandma. But I do want to remember that she came with us! She got some to-die-for clam chowder. Julia had some smoothie but really didn't eat much. When we got home my mom got some cookies and of course julia ate a few of those! the little slimer. at least they were super healthy really good for you sugarless full of granola cookies.
There are a bunch of flamingoes for the store next door. lov'n the baby flamingo!
great grandma elaine, grandma heiner and anna. She's in heaven. this girl loooooooooves her grandmas.
grandma and anna dancing in the car. they plan to do zumba together soon.
trying to get grandma to smile in the front.
anna takes her shoes off everywhere we go. i hate it. it makes for a pain in the butt anytime we get out of the car.
but she's so cute how could i not love her anyways? (julia was asleep at this point, i dont know why i didn't get a pic of that cutie sucking her thumb but ah well.)
