I need a massage!

Marlee is such a Cutie!

I had to pose her on this massage table!

Dinosaur Park Outing

We like to do fun stuff when Brad has a day off instead of just sitting around watching TV or whatever all day. So this week we went to the Dinosaur Park, we had never been and Allie loves museums. The dinosaur park is up 12th street in Ogden almost to the canyon by the Timbermine restaurant. There is a museum inside that has way cool bones and fossils and has rocks and gemstones and petrified stuff upstairs. Then most of the park is outside, there are trails you go on and there is a stream going through it where you can see some huge rainbow trout and some ducks. There is a park with swings and slides.

Here are some pictures we took:

Dad almost getting eaten by the dinosaur


Our cute girls in the stroller, loving the Dinosaur Park!



Allie is an paleontologist in the sandbox finding some fossils

Dad and Allie climbing up to go down the tree slide


Allie going down the dinosaur slide. "It had bumps on it!"

Allie on the swing, it was a fun one!

Marlee being such a good girl in the stroller, gosh she is beautiful!

And Now I Can Eat Broccoli!

Our little girl Allie turned 3 years old yesterday. In the morning when we woke her up, she stood up really big and said, "I'm bigger now! And now I can eat broccoli!" For a while now she has been saying at dinner when she has vegetables on her plate that she can't eat them, not until she is older. Then she said, "Mom, I want you to ask me how old I am." She puts up her fingers and says, "I'm THIS many now!".



In the morning we had the next door neighbors over so Cade could give her some presents. He just turned 6 and he bought her some things with his own money. I finished the Barbie princess cake that I made for her birthday party. It was way fun to make.


At lunch time I took Allie to Chuck E Cheese! She loves it there, the last time we went it was because she got potty trained. She got enough tickets to get a princess crown, that's all she wanted. She got to play with some friends for a little while until the party started at night.

We had Grandpa Curtis and Grandma Jackie over for dinner, Marlee was still having a nap so it was just them and Allie and I for dinner. Daddy got home a little early and then my family started showing up shortly after. Chelsy, Alyssa, Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa John, Kytie and Cameron, Brittany and Justin, and Matt all came.

Allie wanted to do present first, she got: Olivia movie, 2 pants, a shirt, and pajamas. Then she got 3 books and a princess with a castle toy she wanted. We gave her a big coloring book and paints, pajamas, some clothes, a preschool activity book, some gummy vitamins, and some balls for her Dora toy.


She had so much fun showing everything off and she got really excited during presents she started talking baby talk.


We sang Happy Birthday and she blew out her 3 candles on the Barbie princess cake. She had princess plates to serve cake on, everyone loved them!



Happy Happy Birthday to my big girl! I'm so proud of her and all that she has accomplished this last year. I love my little girl and big helper. She is the perfect child to have as the oldest one in the family, she already loves to help cook and clean up and help with baby Marlee.



Marlee wearing the princess crown!

Girls Update

We are having so much fun with the girls. It was nice to get away for a few days, but we missed the girls really bad. We are glad to be back home with them, they are such a joy.
Marlee waves and says, "HHHHAI!" She does it to anyone that looks at her. It makes it so no one is a stranger to us, no one ignores us at the store and everyone is friendly. It has been like that for a while though, because Allie is such a treat for everyone.
It is Allie's birthday next Tuesday and she will be 3 years old. It seems like she should be turning 8 though because of how mature she is. Some of the things she says are so grown-up. Today I told her we needed to go somewhere and so she asked where so I said, "We need to drop off this suit, and then we need to go to the grocery store." She replies, "Oh so we need to go to 2 places?" I don't think any other 2 year old is thinking about stuff like that. She is so smart and she really surprises me a lot. Sometimes she is a little too smart though, she already knows how to play us as parents like asking me if she can have something and I tell her no so she goes and asks Brad. If I say anything like, "Allie I just said no." She says, "MOM... I'm talking to DAD."
Marlee is 7 1/2 months, she has 2 teeth and she sits up on her own and rolls over (both ways now) she will stand and even hold her self up a little bit but she doesn't try to pull herself up yet. When she is sitting she rocks back and forth really fast so it looks like she is bouncing. She pulls herself up in her swing so she sits up taller and it makes her swing stop. She really thinks that is cool. Like I said before she waves and says hi and she will put both arms up high when you say "SOOOO big!". She says da da and sometimes ma ma and she says baba and really knows what it is. Marlee really likes to pull hair, even her own but Allie of course thinks she is doing it to be mean so she tells on her like I'm going to get mad.

Allie at our last swim of the summer:

Marlee's cute smile, we gotta get some more pictures of her she loves the camera:

Both of our girls in the bathtub, its one of their favorite times together:

Allie loves to try on random clothes of mine and say, "Lets take a picture!" then strikes a funny pose:


Allie feeding Marlee, she loves to "do it by herself"

These girls are the best in the world and if you question that at all you can come have a look for yourself. I am so thankful for them and that I have been blessed to be the one to raise them, I love my life and I love to be around their sweet spirits every day.

What a FUN Trip!

Brad and I haven't been on a vacation alone together since our 1 year anniversary we went to Las Vegas. The last time we went FAR like on an airplane was the Philippines in May 2005. So basically A VERY LONG TIME and way overdue for a trip. Upcoming is our 5 year anniversary, what better time to go on a Cruise like we have always wanted to? We tried a 4 day 3 night for our first because we didn't know if we would like it and didn't want to leave the girls too long.

Friday September 11th, (great day to go on a vacation right?) we flew to San Diego. Our plane stopped in Phoenix first for almost an hour so we got off and went for a walk. 20 minutes later we had walked almost 3 miles from terminal 4 to terminal 1. OH, we were on those awesome moving walkways most of the way, that's how we did it so fast.

In San Diego we took a taxi to the port and went through the check in process and got on the boat! It was WAY bigger and better than we imagined so we just walked around and checked it out for an hour or so. They had a evacuation drill when everyone got on and then they unhooked the ship and pushed off into the ocean. It was such a weird feeling to be on a moving hotel basically and I got pretty sick that first night and had to take medicine.

The dinner is amazing. We went to dinner at 8:15 every night at the same table. It was so fancy. There was 4 forks, 3 spoons, and 2 knives. The waiters put the napkins on your lap for you and the menu was jaw-dropping. There wasn't a lot of selection but everything was good, and you can order as much as you want. There was starters, (like a personal appetizer), the main menu, and desserts. At our table we all ordered 2 of every section, just to try different things. We ate so much and it was the best of everything that I have ever had and really fancy.

We got a really great deal on a Suite, so we took it! We've heard the rooms on cruises are so small and not nice so we were excited. And we got VIP treatment everywhere, checking in was a breeze and we were the first ones off of the boat when we got back. We had a way nice king size bed and a vanity desk across from it and a separate room thing that had a nice sectional couch with another bed in it too. The TV was bigger and the bathroom was nicer and we had a walk-in closet. We had a private balcony that was way big too. The stewards cleaned our room twice a day, we had turn-down service where they would get our bed ready for the night and the guys did "towel origami" and we had a different animal made out of a towel for all 3 nights, it was really cute.

On our private balcony we sat and watched the sun go down over the ocean, it was so beautiful:

The second day on the ship was all at sea. We went to a buffet breakfast, then got in the jacuzzi because it was cold and cloudy that morning. We checked out the stores and the art gallery and we might have visited the casino (sorry Dad). I had a little nap and then we went to lunch. There was a buffet open all of the time 24 hours but then they had the restaurants open at meal times too. And it was all FREE! The only thing you had to pay extra for was drinks. We had an amazing meal again for lunch and then went to the top decks and layed in the sun. It was really funny to people watch because there were a lot that were drinking, it was "interesting" we'll just say that.

That night was the Cruse Elegant night where you dress formally. Brad rented a tux at home before we left, which he looked so good in, and I wore my PROM DRESS! Yes that's right, my un-altered dress that I wore when I was 16 and a junior in high school, YAY!!! It was an amazing night I loved dressing up like a princess and going to dinner and then having pictures taken and walking around and dancing.

At night on the ship they had a lot of fun stuff to do. We went to shows, like musical variety shows, and comedy shows. At the clubs they had karaoke and different music themes, and bands playing live music everywhere. There was game shows like family feud and there was a hypnotist one night. There was so much to do there it was hard to decide sometimes.

The second morning we ported in Ensanada Mexico. While the ship was pulling in to port we ate breakfast and were one of the first ones off right at 8:00. The cruise line had a lot of "shore excursions" that you could do but they were 40-140 dollars per person and lasted at least 4 hours each. We decided to just see what was there when we got off and decide from there. I didn't know it was that big of a city, I thought we could just walk around the whole time. Ha Ha. Anyway, right off the ramp there was a kiosk for a car rental place. Great Idea! It was only 45 bucks to rent a car for the day. We got a "Chevrolet Chevy" that was manual and had no power steering.

We drove to this place called "La Bufadora" that Ensanada was kind of famous for. It was 40 minutes away and it was a "blowhole" on a peninsula by the ocean. There was rock cliffs and there was a part that water would build up in a cave and force water out and shoot it up in the air. It was basically like a lame Old Faithful to me (and yes I know they aren't the same thing even, old faithful is a hot water geyser and this was just a blowhole). Then there was a little flea market there that you could shop at. The shore excursion that they offered you had to ride on a bus with other people and when you got there the bus didn't leave for 3 hours and it was 45 dollars per person. We stayed there for 30 minutes and got to go do other things and drive however fast we wanted- renting the car was WAY worth it. We were so glad we didn't sign up for an excursion.

Then we drove to a bathroom, because the ones up there you had to pay to go to, (Funny huh) and we made our way to the downtown. We walked around and found a place to eat- we wanted to go to a really authentic place. So we found one on a back road, we knew it was going to be authentic and really good because the ladies didn't even speak English at all. They were telling us stuff that they had and we finally just said yes to a bunch of stuff because we didn't understand at all. It was all super good.

We walked around all of the little shops and found some perfume and cologne for both of us, and some really cute dresses for the girls. After an hour and a half of walking we found another authentic Mexican place to eat at. This one was even better and we got a bunch of food and ate it all. This picture was us at the last restaurant, the tables were out in a quaint little alley that had plants and shade it was really cool.

Another thing we wanted to do was go to a white sandy beach. So we drove ourselves to find a nice beach. We picked the perfect spot, it was beautiful. There was big huge waves coming up while we were there. We swam around in them and tried to ride them. They were seriously 8, 10, and some got up to 12-15 feet! It was scary at times, especially when one was coming and the water was sucking you in towards it. We got the towels soaking wet when a big wave came up and drowned our stuff laying on the beach. So when we were done we got the car all wet and sandy and took it back to the rental place.

To get back onto the boat we had to go through 2 security checks where they had the x-ray's and the metal detectors. That kind of sucked because we got stuck in line in front of 2 couples that were fighting really badly and had mouths like truckers. People aren't very courteous because we really didn't need or want to hear all of that.

Our last night at dinner was sad, we weren't going to be fed this amazing food by awesome people and get to talk to perfect strangers about funny stuff anymore. The food was the best and dessert was awesome as usual. The last night the weather was looking kind of stormy and the water was really choppy so the ship was rocking a ton. We checked out the night activities and went to bed pretty early we were worn out from all the walking around and swimming in the ocean.

The next morning we got up early and went to breakfast and packed all of our stuff up. We had our last breakfast, actually we ate breakfast twice we liked it so much. We were VIP remember so we were some of the first ones off the ship at 8:00 in San Diego and it looked like we were the first ones to leave the port in the taxi. We got to the airport and checked in and checked our luggage by 8:30 but our plane didn't leave till 12:00 so we didn't want to just sit at the airport.

We took the city bus to downtown and got off. We didn't know where we were but we started walking and went up some stairs and we got to this really cool shopping mall. It was all outside like the Gateway here in Salt Lake. It was really cool with all the different styles and colors and flowers and trees and everything. As we kept walking, there were 7-elevens on the bottom corner of these huge skyscraper buildings; it was weird to see. It was fun to walk around downtown San Diego a little before we left.

Here is a picture of the cruise ship as we were taking off in the airplane, I remembered that I had never taken a picture of it (probably because we were always ON it)

As we were flying we saw a lot of cool things, and even some we recognized. Brad loved to look out the window the whole time. I thought this was pretty that we could look DOWN instead of up and see clouds:

We had a whole lot of fun and did stuff that we had always wanted to do but hadn't got around to it. It was a great way to celebrate 5 years of marriage. Hopefully we can do something even cooler after the next 5 years!!