Trip to Utah (Part 1)

This post is all jumbled, as far as what order we did things in. But since I have pregnancy brain and we've been home for 5 weeks, we will just put the pictures here, in no particular order.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time we were in Utah. It was in the high 70's low 80's during the day and cooled off so nicely at night. We were LOVING the dry heat!! I seriously forgot how much nicer it is! One warm day we went to a little splash park for the kids to play. They were a little timid at first, but warmed up to it pretty quickly and had a lot of fun!
We went to the new Trafalga (in Lehi) where Kendall's brother Preston works. The kids had so much fun playing. Sadie loved these tunnels and was being so cute in this little bubble. Unfortunately, all the other kids left and she couldn't find her way down, so I had to crawl my 7 month pregnant body up through all of the tunnels to get her out. Fun times!
This was their favorite ride, The Pirate Ship. They wanted to ride it over and over. Sadie laughed so hard on this ride!!
Now THIS was funny. This ride takes you to the top and then drops you down a little bit, bounces you back up and then back down in a frog-hopping-fashion. Avri FREAKED out! She literally sCrEaMeD every time it went down...during the entire ride. I got a video, but we were all laughing so hard and the camera was shaking pretty bad. But it was the adults' entertainment for the day!
They also rode the planes...
and the train...
and the carousel...
We all had a great day.
Avri and her cousin Hali had a lot of fun spending time together, and they even had a sleep-over two nights in a row. But after a long day of playing hard they were pretty tired.
And Talmage almost fell asleep at the bar eating lunch!
We also spent a good deal of time while we were in Utah visiting different family members and friends. We spent one morning at Grandma Powell's house. We got an updated picture of all of us together to keep on the fridge.
I don't look so short standing next to Grandma. But Kendall sure looks tall!
We seemed to eat a lot while we were there too, which makes me happy. Sadie has always been our pickiest eater, but when she finds something she likes she stuffs her face! Little chipmunk!
Another fun activity that we did was bowling. Kendall's sister Amber was up from Delta with her family for a couple of days and so we all went bowling. We had to get two lanes, but the kids all had a great time. And guess who won? Sadie, of course. Her first time bowling. I guess she's a natural. Sadie bowled a 119!! Kendall came in 2nd with 109, then Avri got a 79, Talmage a 77, and me...dead last with 75. Pretty pathetic! Bowling was more difficult than I thought at 7 months pregnant. But it was still fun, mostly to watch the kids and their reactions!
Talmage, of course, had to use the orange ball.


Sadie found a new love. Kittens. Grandma had two little kittens, and Sadie taught herself how to open the doors so that any time we were at Grandma's house she was outside looking for or playing with the kitties. This one was pretty patient with her.
Sadie was surprisingly gentle with the kitty and would literally cry and throw a fit any time we left because she wanted the kitty. It scratched Avri once or twice, which solidified in her mind that she is a dog person. But not Sadie. She has been pretending to be a kitty ever since we got home from Utah!

Baby Blessing and Family

One of the big events that we went to Utah for was the baby blessing of Natalia Grace Malan. Kendall's older sister Kennessa and Josh had their first baby and waited to bless her until the 4th of July so that we could be there for it! Somehow I managed to not get any pictures of the darling little princess. But it was fun to be with family and Kendall enjoyed being able to be in the circle. We also had a few family pictures done while we were there.
After the blessing we had a little brunch at the park. Sadie totally attached herself to Aunt Colette. She wouldn't leave her side! We didn't get to see her much since she was up from Arizona and we hit the end of her stay.
An updated picture of the kids with Great Grandma and Grandpa Brady.

A Stop in Colorado

I'm finally going to attempt to update the blog with our trip to Utah (from which we have been home now for almost 3 weeks!). We left on Friday afternoon and drove through the night to get to Utah. I say we, but what I really mean is Kendall. Kendall drove through the night and I stayed awake as much as a 7 month pregnant woman can stay awake.

We went by way of Colorado so that we could go and visit our dear friends, the Kimballs. We told them that we would most likely get to their place around 7:00 am. However, with the light traffic of driving through the night and Kendall's speed we got to their house about 5:00 am. Rather than wake them up we decided to take a little nap in the van outside their house for a couple of hours. The kids only slept until 6:00 and so I took them for a little walk around the neighborhood. We looked lovely.

After 15 hours and a night spent in the car we looked bedraggled and homeless. In fact here's a funny story. We saw another lady walking with her oldest daughter who was about 16 and her youngest who was less than 2 years old. She smiled at me and said "It does get easier, Mom." I must have looked pretty bad. She came and found us a little while later with her phone number and said that she wanted to give us the opportunity to go out and her daughter would watch the kids. haha! I told her we were only in Colorado for a couple of hours, but thanks anyway.

I enjoyed visiting with my pregnancy buddy. Heather and I had babies 2 days apart. Mercedes and Brooke are only 2 days apart. Neither one of us found out beforehand what the gender of the babies were, so it was fun to be surprised with two little girls. Now, Heather is expecting a little boy 3 weeks before we are expecting our little boy. Here we are in all our first-thing-in-the-morning glory, matching bellies yet again.Danny and Kendall had fun catching up with each other. They have been friends since Elementary, so they enjoyed the time to visit as well. The kids all had a blast playing together.
Sadie and Brookie haven't really ever played together since we moved before they ever had a chance. But they were the cutest little friends, holding hands everywhere they went and giving lots of hugs. I'm sad we don't live closer so they could get together and play.
The kids took turns driving the Jeep around. Oh my heavens, we got some funny videos!! Smashing into the tree, getting stuck on the curb, one time Sadie even dumped Brooke right out of the Jeep! Poor little Brookie. It made for quite the video though.
They made us a fabulous breakfast of Belgian Waffles, homemade heavenly syrup (I can't remember what it was really called, but that's what I call it) and lots of fruit. Very yummy. It added quite a bit of time to our trip, but it was so much fun to see our friends again.

While we were there, we drove by Kendall's old house. He lived in Denver for a year when he was about 12 years old. So we went and found the house. Kendall said the area has grown a ton! But he had fun seeing his old house again.
We thought Denver was beautiful! And my first reaction when I got out of the car was that I could breathe because there wasn't humidity!! Yay!! During our walk the kids were quite interested and curious about the sprinkler systems. They didn't understand why people would hide these sprinklers in their lawn that would just pop up and spray water when nobody was even playing in it! Too funny.

Getting bigger!

I really haven't been very good at taking pictures of my belly as I get bigger and bigger. But I do have a couple I thought I'd share. And all of you who have been pregnant can sympathize. :) hehe. I found this picture from the week we were in Nebraska. I was 24 weeks at this point. I just happened to be wearing the same outfit yesterday, so I had Kendall take another picture of me. (Ignore the messy hair/no make-up look. We were in the garden in what feels like 120 degree weather.) This is 32 weeks pregnant, so 8 weeks later. I still have 8 weeks of growing to go. Where do you think I can put it?I sure hope he decides to just get stronger and not much bigger. :) I can hope, right?

As a side note, I took the kids to run some errands today and Talmage said really excitedly "Maybe there will be TWO in there!" Avri's response was "Then your belly would be REALLY big. Maybe it would POP!" I think Avri has the right idea as to how I feel.

Birthday Girl!

The Fourth of July this year was a big day for Avri. She turned 5 years old! I can't believe how grown up she is. We celebrated her birthday in Utah this year and her baby cousin Natalia was blessed that day as well. So we had a full day of celebrations with the family.Avri wasn't completely particular about her birthday this year, but she did say that she wanted a Disney Princess party and she wanted to get a lunchbox. So we bought her a cake this year (I know, I'm a slacker, but we didn't get into Utah until about 8:00 pm the night before, so making a cake was out of the question) that had 3 Disney Princesses on it. There is a light that goes underneath the dress of one of them and she thought that was pretty cool.
As she opened presents she realized her dream of a Princess party. She got so many Princess gifts!! Everyone spoiled that girl rotten with puzzles and toys and coloring books and socks and all sorts of Princess stuff. And since she will be starting kindergarten in just a little over a month she also got a Princess backback, a lunch box and drink holder, and a sleeping towel for quiet time. She will be starting into full-day kindergarten and she is thrilled! She got a pencil box and a bunch of school supplies as well, from Grandma, so we will have very little to shop for before school starts!Then yesterday we took our five year old to the doctor for her well-child-check-up and to get her kindergarten shots. We knew she was tall, but we couldn't believe the numbers! She is 4'1" tall which puts her way off the charts for her age, probably around 110% or 115%-ile! She is the average height of most 7 1/2 year olds! Her weight was 50.3 lbs, which was about 93%-ile. The nurse practitioner said at this rate she will most likely be about 5'10" as an adult. So we will see how that plays out. She said that she is pretty heavy for her age, but with her height she could weigh 10 pounds more and they wouldn't be concerned. :) haha. Our tall skinny grasshopper, just like her Daddy! She had to get two shots and she cried a little, but overall was quite brave and hasn't complained about them once. But she did thank the nurses for helping her to not get sick.

Avri, we love you so much and we are so proud of you and the grown up lady you are becoming! You are such a great little helper around the house and are so smart. We are proud of your love of learning and that you are reading so well. You are compassionate and friendly and such a beautiful girl. We are so blessed to have you be a part of our family! Happy Birthday Bonkie!

Swimming Lessons

I was super slow in registering for swimming lessons this year, so I was only able to get Avri enrolled. But she was probably the one that needed it the most. I wasn't really wanting to get in the water with Sadie for lessons and have to hold her...on top of my belly? haha.
The biggest accomplishment that we made this year was that she finally decided to put her whole head under the water. She has always been our child who has been nervous about the water and not very trusting, so this was a big step for her.
The first day of class she was really nervous and would not trust her teacher. I couldn't figure out why she was being so skittish, because the teacher was really good with her. So we talked about it on the way home. Come to find out she thought that her teacher was pregnant and would not be able to hold her safely in the water! hahaha! I guess that's my fault! Her teacher was a bit chubby and had a little belly, but didn't really look pregnant! But I guess it was enough for Avri to be concerned.
After our little discussion she eased up and was quite comfortable in the water and with her teacher. I think next year I'm going to be on the ball and get the kids signed up for multiple sessions so that we actually get somewhere with this swimming thing, instead of taking two weeks to warm up to the water and then starting all over again the next year.

Canoeing and Fishing Trip

My Dad has a friend who lives on a pond/lake. So we took the canoes and a couple of little kiddie fishing poles and headed out.
Sadie kept calling her life vest a backback, which I thought was kinda cute.
Talmage was so patient in waiting to catch a fish. He tried and tried and tried again.
And it finally paid off, like 3 minutes before we left. :)
Avri, on the other hand, threw her line out and almost immediately caught a fish. She was happy until it started wiggling around and then she screamed and tried to run away from it.
I was positive that Avri would drop the paddle into the water, but she never did! She was quite the little canoe-er.
They even had paddle boats, so Kendall and I took Sadie out in one. She seemed so nervous the whole time but insisted that she loved it and it was "really fun."
Kendall and I took advantage of the fact that the adults outnumbered the kids and we went on our own little romantic trip around the pond.
Allison always has a little friend right at her side. The kids take turns, but I don't think she was ever alone.
Miss Sadie just loves her sunglasses. Funny person.

Ammon and Allison (and Hanging with Family)

My little bro just got engaged to the cutest girl ever. Before he made things official, he brought Allison out to Illinois for a week to visit and make sure that she wasn't too scared of the family. :) They put her through baptism by fire since she stayed at our house. :) Here is the cute couple.We went to the Museum here in Peoria and got to see the Lego exhibit. It was very cool. Kendall wasn't able to come with us, so we are going to have to take him back to see it!
She fits right in with the family. haha.
Seriously, though everyone just loves her. Talmage has the BIGGEST crush on her and both of the girls just adore her. She is an elementary teacher just like I was, so we have lots in common.
We got together for a barbecue and outdoor games. I don't think we converted her to the humidity of Illinois, but hey, I'm not converted either!
We also went to the Botanical Garden all together. It's so nice to have people in the family who love taking pictures. Then I get to sit and enjoy while someone else takes great pictures! haha. Seriously though, I'm really jealous of my brother's really nice camera, and now my dad has one too. We might just have to break down one of these days before our kids are all grown up.
Sadie's true colors shining through.
Great little swing, but totally mosquito infested! :P
My parents took Ammon and Allison to Nauvoo one day. We didn't go with them, but they got some great pictures and really enjoyed themselves.
Isn't she adorable?!?
Welcome to the family Allison! And nice work picking a darling girl Ammon! Congrats to you both!