Happy Birthday Annie!

It has been a great year with our little Petunia. She is so much fun and we love having her in our family. Here's a little about Annie:

-Annie is a little peacemaker - she always notices when someone's upset and tries to cheer them up (which usually works since she's so cute).
-Annie loves holding dolls. We realized our sweet angel does have a bit of Mommy's temper when Daddy tried to take away a doll one time.
-Annie also loves purses, or anything she can put over her shoulder like a purse - the first-aid kit, swimming suits, phone cords, backpacks...she'll pack them around all day.
-Annie hates having her diaper changed or getting her clothes on. She seriously wails every time.
-Annie can say the following words: mom, dad, brother, ball, duck, dog, uh-oh, and that. We love her little voice.
-Annie loves to be outside and cries by the door like a puppy until you take her out.
-Annie is quite shy and buries her head on my shoulder whenever someone says hi to her. I think it is so sweet when she does that.

 

Island Park Trip

We spent the holiday weekend at my in-law's cabin in Island Park. It was a little cooler there and we had a great time. Here are a couple of things we learned on this trip:

1) Katie takes too many pictures.
2) Our children should have been born as fish. They have absolutely no fear of the water and loved playing in both the river and the lake. Cole even drove us around on the wave runner.
3) Cole has sweet blood. Everyone got a bunch of mosquito bites, but nobody got as many as Cole. Nobody else got as swollen as Cole from their bites either.
4) Floyd loves fishing. Okay, so we already knew that one.
5) Golfing with women's clubs is actually easier than just borrowing your brother's. I did much better golfing than I have before and I think it's because I rented women's clubs. It was really fun, I want to go again soon.

Here are some (just some, I really do take too many pictures) of the pictures from our weekend.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Lagoon

We spent last Monday at Lagoon with my family. Not really my favorite place due to motion sickness, but we always have a good time. Cole was pretty excited and had a great time doing all the kid rides. It's sad that soon he will have outgrown some of them. Annie was excited, but she didn't really understand the concept of sit still while the ride is going, so she didn't go on many rides.




My personal favorite, Rattlesnake Rapids, was closed, so we had to settle for a cool-down on the new ride, OdySea. FYI - one of my big pet peeves is business (or amusement park rides) with misspelled names. You know, like Klassy Kars or Curl Up and Dye. So stupid. I'm also not in love with creatively spelled children's names. But the ride was fun and cooled me down.

Cole opted for a more intense cooling down. He was a kamikaze fountain runner. There were all these kids about 8-12 and then Cole running around like a crazy man. He's pretty fearless about water.



Annie also needed a little cooling down since we left her sippy cup in the car. Floyd bought a Lagoon bottle and filled it up with blue shaved ice. She never really took to bottles so I didn't think she would have much of it. Turns out, it was the formula and not the bottle that she didn't care for.

Father & Sons

The boys went on a little camping trip to Strawberry last weekend. Actually, not much of a camping trip since they stayed in a cabin with beds, but oh well. They spent two days on the lake fishing and seemed to have a good time.


Nathan and Gary hooked a big one.


Everyone's a little sleepy...


Cole and his cousin Nathan.


Cole with the big one - 23".

Parks & Rec

Our Parks and Recreation department is pretty good. They always have activities for kids. Cole went to a sports camp earlier this summer. I made the mistake of calling it camp. As we were getting ready the first morning, he asked if he should take his sleeping bag. He was pretty disappointed that he didn't really get to camp. Next year I'll call it something else.




We also just finished up swim lessons. Cole never wanted to go (he's pretty resistant to change), but had a blast every day. His teachers wrote that he was "very daring and the only one who would go all the way under the water" on his certificate. Annie and I did a mom and baby class. She loved it and I was pretty impressed at what she learned. When I took with Cole, he didn't learn anything. Annie learned to blow bubbles, to stroke, and to hold her breath when I dunked her. We may take again in August - we'll see.

Willow Park

Last week, Floyd was gone so the kids and I went to Cache Valley for a couple of days. We went with my mom and my sis and her kids to Willow Park. I didn't take any pictures of the animals, just the cute kids having fun together. Cole was super excited to be there and each time he came to a new animal he would say, "Grandma, come quick! You have to see." I'll admit that sometimes I think Willow Park is a little lame as far as animals go (how many different types of ducks can there possibly be?), so it was cute to see how happy a simple trip to the zoo made him.


The girls - Annie and Savannah


Cole, Josh, and Savannah on the fence - Annie and Landon below (sorry about the shadows - I could use a photo class)

new neighbors

We've had a duck family move into the neighborhood. I'm not sure exactly where they live, but I do know that every afternoon or evening, they will stop by for a visit. The kids love it. Cole is becoming quite a bread-thrower (probably not the greatest idea to let him feed them bread every day, but he ends up eating most of it anyway). Annie has added the word "duck" (or "duh" - there's not much of a "ck" on it) to her small-but-growing vocabulary.