A Day in Park City

 

Yesterday Malia and I headed up to Park City to see my high school friend, Heather Brown. Andrew was there for a teaching conference and Heather and their son, Emmitt, came to visit. Last year at this same time Heather was there for the conference and Andrew and Emmitt came to visit. Last year, Marissa (my cousin), Malia, and I headed up there to visit. It was fun to be able to do it again this year. Emmitt and Malia are only 6 months apart and had a great time playing together. We hung out in the pool for awhile. Sorry, no pool pics. Malia is more than enough to juggle in the water, much less a camera also! Then we headed over to the outlet malls. Fortunately I didn't find any deals! Then the kids played on a nearby playground. The one where Malia is lying on the ground was pretty comical to watch. She had went down the slide and then tried to jump into Emmitt's arms! Obviously, he couldn't catch her. Although he is quite a bit bigger than her. He's in the 95th percentile for height, while Mali's in the 5th. Although a bit of a drive (compounded by my apparent inablility to follow directions), it was great to be able to catch up with friends. Thanks, Heather!

Memories...

Here is a fun little game... leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time or a long time, anything that you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It is pretty funny to read the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... get set... blog those memories!

Malia's First Haircut

Those of you who get to see Malia on a regular basis know that the girl has gobs of hair. I try my best to keep it semi-restrained but she tends to have hair in her eyes most of the time. She has the front wispies that aren't really bangs but pretend to be. I have wanted to cut Malia's hair for quite some time but David was pretty insistent that she grew her hair out. I do want Mali's hair to grow out and can't wait until its long enough (and she'll sit still long enough) for me to braid it. In the mean time, it was driving me nuts! When David's mom came to visit, she kept telling David to cut her hair. I was grateful for the reinforcement. Not only was it in her eyes, she started to chew it- EWW! So when David and Nany took off this afternoon with Patrick to do "manly things" (aka shoot guns), I decided to get the job done. Mind you, I have never cut a girl's hair before. I used to cut the Hayes' boys hair with clippers. That was until I knicked their ears too many times and they wouldn't let me anymore. Oops! I thought about taking her in to an actual salon to get it cut, but couldn't justify spending the money for just a little trim of the bangs (or "fringe" for those beauty school graduates and drop-outs!). So I just grabbed a pair of scissors and went to town. Actually it took several attempts to get the job done, since Mali was being a wiggle worm.

Here is the before. Note the hair in her mouth.
Here is the after. Not the straightest but I tried. At least now you can see her big beautiful brown eyes better!

Note the girl isn't wearing any clothes. Her newest trick is stripping to her bare bottom and refusing to put clothes back on. I've been told that she is just enjoying the feel of being naked. That's all fine and dandy until I have to deal with the pee puddles!

Here is a video of Malia "playing" with Sammy. You can hear her actually say his name in it. It's not very exciting but Malia watched about 10 times in a row on the camera so I thought someone might enjoy it. Soon after I stopped recording she started crawling around on all fours after him, even going under the coffee table. It was pretty funny. She never gets close enough to actually touch him, she's too scared. I do have to watch her trying to throw objects, usually pillows, at Sammy, trying to get his attention. He pretty much just acts like she doesn't exist. In the video Mali also throws something at Nany, David's brother, also trying to get his attention. It's been great having Nany stay with us. He's been helping out by watching Malia for us and she loves all of the attention. We spent our Saturday morning weeding the garden and flower beds. Fun, fun, fun!

Fourth of July Weekend

Whew! We made it through our super busy/fun weekend! It was great to have David's family visiting from Arizona. His mom and sister left this morning. David's brother, Hernan or Nany, is going to stay with us until the 25th of July. Friday the fourth was our busiest day with all of the Lewiston festivities. As far as my park booths, things turned out just fine. We had a children's ride vendor show up at the last minute, yipee! We also had two vendors that just didn't show. Again, how rude! I was crazy enough to volunteer next year again. Should be relatively easy this time, now that I know what is going on! Goal is to make it bigger and better. If anyone has any ideas that you'd love to share, feel free. Any fun and interesting activities/booths at any of the festivities you attended this holiday? Pass 'em on, please!

We started the day off with the big parade. I was actually very impressed with it's size and the amount of candy! Now I know for next year to get my chair's out early if I want to sit in front of my own house! I had to ward off an old man who argued with me that it was public property and wanted to set up shop in front of my house. I promptly put out our chairs so that all of our visiting family would have room to sit. Not only were we fortunate enough to have David's family visiting but my brother Bart, his wife Lori, and their boys, Caleb and Max joined us.

Nany insisted he could see the parade from the porch just as well as roadside. No candy for him!A few parade highlights! Too much candy for Malia.After the parade we headed to the park to check out the booths and the rides. I was stuck dealing with the visiting health inspector at one of the booths. David took Malia for a ride on "Grandpa Max's Rainbow Train". I guess she did pretty well. Insisted on taking her shoes off before going.After the festivities in the park died down, we chilled at home for a bit. Here is David and his Mom, with Sammy perched on her shoulder. On the right is David's sister, Elizabeth.Up close and personal with Malia.Later on that evening we headed over to the pavilion for dinner and then nabbed a spot on the grass for fireworks. While we were waiting the Bodily's stopped by to chat and gave us a bag of cotton candy. Malia's first taste ever, we believe. I think she shares my opinion of the stuff, okay but not great. Mi burrito. Mali was being a stinker so I thought I'd try our old trick of wrapping her up tight to settle her down. That was SO last year! It lasted for two nano seconds. Oh, well!
To pass the time, we brought along SORRY! David's brother and sister had never played and were hesitant to try it. I think we ended playing it five times while they were here!Watching the fireworks. Pretty decent show for such a small town.The next day we went up to Logan Canyon to cook out. Proof that once again Mali was being a stinker. I think too many sweets and not enough sleep! We tried a new game, too. Well, new to David and his family. The infamous Bull, also known but many other not so proper names. Another game that once they learned it, they loved it. Played it quite a few times while they were here, too.

Here is Mali giving love to her tia and tio. She was particularly attached to Nany. She wakes up in the morning asking for him, holds his hand, and is constantly dragging him around to do things. It will be a fun few weeks for both of them...To finish it off, a picture of my stud of a husband. Love you! Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday weekend.

Friends, Birds, and Roses

I thought I'd better quick and update before this crazy holiday weekend kicks off. I've had quite the challenging last couple of days with the whole park booth thing. Yesterday, that's right two days before the fourth, I had two of my children's ride vendors call and CANCEL!! Who does that? People can be so rude. I'm sure it will all work out, just a little stressful at the moment. So to ease the stress, focus on happier thoughts....

Saturday my roommate from BYU visited the valley. Liz and her husband Tom rode in the MS bike ride, which passed thru Lewiston. I got to see them as they rode through town that morning and then later that night we grilled out at Janelle's, also from BYU days. It was so good to see everyone. Hopefully soon we can get more of us girls together.

Janelle, me, Elizabeth

Camille, Malia, Maddie (Janelle's girls)

After dinner that night we went to the Osmond home and got ourselves a cockatoo. My sister-in-law's sister needed to get rid of their bird and David was more than willing to take it in. David's family has lots of birds and we had some growing up, too. I rather like having him around. It gives me someone to whistle to (I love whistling!). It's fun having him repeat little ditties. He was already named Sammy so we just stuck with that. Although when Malia says its name it sounds like Ditti?

On Sunday I sang in church, "America the Beautiful" in a quartet. Church must have tuckered Mali out. We were eating lunch and she insisted on getting down. We put her down and finished our lunch. We found her out in the living room like this...



Here is a picture of our rose bush out front. It's blooming beautifully. I don't even remember flowers on it when I moved here last year. With the TLC of David, it's doing great.


Super excited for the next few days. David's family should be here later this afternoon. Hopefully the Caley's will come spend the 4th with us too. I must admit I'll be happy when the park celebration is over! Then I can just enjoy the blessing of having family and friends around me. Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday! God Bless America.

My Little Water Baby

As stated before, Malia is obsessed with water, rather "agua". Now that summer is full force, the girl is pleased as punch to go swimming. We have a little baby pool out back that I filled up last week. My intent was to let her go swimming the next day, after it had warmed up. It was about 10pm (I know, she should have been in bed) and we were out in the backyard. David was burning branches. Malia wanted so very badly to get in the pool. I had to keep dragging her away from the pool. She even sat on the cover, just trying to get to her agua. I went to straighten the cover and realized the water was warmer than her bath water! Malia seized the opportunity and jumped in, fully clothed! I figured, why not? She needed a bath anyway! She had a blast. The clothes only stayed on for a bit and then she turned it into a real bath!
This is a photo David took of Mali with the "night shot" while she was in the pool. I thought it looked tripy. Sort of like one of those 3D ultrasounds!

The next day we played outside in the pool again. Once again, fun, fun, fun! It was funny watching her with the blocks. She was filling each one with water and setting them along the outside of the pool. She was being so careful and exact with it. It amazed me how long it occupied her attention.

Yesterday we played at a neighbor's above ground pool. Very nice! Although, I think it was more work than anything. Malia had no fear, whatsoever! She was too big for the floatie that she sat in last year and she wouldn't keep her little water wings on. She just jumped right in. I spent most of my time wrestling her.
Here's Mali after I finally got her out of the pool. Don't be fooled. That is not a half smile. It is actually the middle of a temper tantrum. I think I may safely say it was her worst one EVER! She wanted to stay in the pool. She cried the whole walk home and then some. Although more work than I was bargaining for, it was fun to get some sun and chat with Christina and Emily.

Here are some videos of Mali in the pool. The first one is shorter and shows the fun on the slide. The second one gets a little deeper as we discuss the scientific topics of temperature and gaseous celestial bodies.

Go Alpine!

Here are some pictures of David while playing of Alpine's softball team. Thanks Lori! In the bottom right he is stealing home. Go David! We go to all of David's games with him. Not always the wisest decision, since some of them don't start until 9pm. For instance, last week they played at 8 and 9pm. Malia got all crazy, being as it was past bedtime. She kept pushing the stroller around and around and around, running into anyone or anything that got into her way. Only one more game left. It's a big one... we get to play Chuck Norris' team!