Long weekend get-away

It's 5:45am, and I've been up since 4.  Yuck!  I just can't sleep for some reason.  Aurora woke up a couple hours ago, and although she's soundly sleeping in her crib again, I couldn't get back to sleep.  I just finished our ward newsletter and I'm still not sleepy, so why not blog? :)

This past weekend we were able to spend a nice 5-day weekend in St. George at my cousin's condo (thanks again, Spencer's!).  The same place we stayed for spring break right after we delivered Nastassia.  At first it was a bit hard for me to be there, bringing back all the memories and sadness of losing our tiny little angel baby.  After a while I was determined to have a nice weekend and make some new, happier memories.  That we did!

Dar's best friend from childhood, Bard, baptized his little girl on Saturday so we went down to attend Natasha's baptism and support the family.  (We love you guys!)  It was really nice to spend so much time with them on this trip because our visits with them are few and far between because of the distance.  We had a lot of time to ourselves though, and that was nice too!

First thing Dar likes to do when we get there is sweep the deck.  It is nice to not have stuff sticking to the bottom of your feel the whole time!

 And Aurora likes to play around and be cute so Mommy can take a gazillion pictures :)

 Singing to her heart's delight. . . and ours

 Beautiful smile!  She looks like her cousin, Dakoda, in this picture.

 She and Daddy were being silly

 

 She spent lots of time admiring her reflection in the window and munching on ice cubes

Mouth full of ice

More reflection admiration

 We spent as much time as we could relaxing on the porch swing, but it was really hot while we were there (108 degrees on Monday when we left!), so we only spent as much time out there as we could stand.

Me and my babs

(You can see her indented scar on the left side of her forehead from falling onto the edge of the firepit a couple weeks ago.  I wonder if it's going to be permanent. . . )

We spent LOTS of time at the pool.  I couldn't get in past my waist because my arms are still healing from my surgery so no pics of me in the pool and that's totally okay by me, but at least I could get in that much this time.  Last time I couldn't get in the water past my ankles!

 Aurora had a blast sticking her face in and out of the water. . . all on her own accord.  I'm so glad our munchkin loves the water!

 Aurora and Bard taking turns putting their faces in the water

 

This tube was a great purchase!  She could walk around the kiddie pool on her own

without us having to follow her around so closely the whole time.

So nice!  She especially loved the freedom it gave her.

 

 Observing something "cool" on the ground.

One of her new favorite phrases is "Oh, cool!" but it comes out "Oh, coo!"  Love it!

Later we stopped by a hotel some of the family was staying at for the baptism, but we didn't know they were swimming when we left and didn't have Rori's swimsuit so we had to improvise :)

 

 

 She really loved it, although her face doesn't show it in this picture :)

 Our sleeping beauty ended up in bed with us every morning so we could all sleep in a little longer

 Ready and headed to the baptism

 And of course more pool time!

Our baby does have some hair...see?

 We had beautiful sunsets

 Sunday morning we taught Aurora how to eat raspberries off her fingers.  It was pretty cute.

 

Monday we did some shopping at the outlet stores in St. George and then headed home and we're back to the grind stone already.  Dar had to teach Tuesday morning and I'm back to watching Delilah.  I'm especially glad to have Aurora back on her nice sleeping schedule since being home because I was having a really hard time acknowledging that her schedule was pretty much non-existent all five days we were gone.  Our weekend vacation went by way too fast, but we're looking forward to getting away with some good friends in a couple of weeks.  YAY for summer vacation!

July 4th

It's always fun to celebrate our country's independence.  Our way of celebrating has changed a little bit since having Aurora join our family, but we still have fun!

Me and my baby at the parade

(Thanks for the adorable dress, Martha!)

 Tracee and me and our babes

 Aurora spent half the parade on her daddy's shoulders :)

 And some of it in our laps too

 She'd hold onto Dar's hair and turn his head the direction she wanted to see.

Kind of like Ratatouille :)

 McSweeney's shared some of their gummies and treats with Aurora.  She was pretty glad to be eating sugar :)

 For our family BBQ and fireworks Dar and I made these adorable edible eagles.  He gets most of the credit though.  I just found the recipe and he did most of the work.  Thanks, babe!

 

 Our cute patriotic baby

 Being observant, as usual

 Grandma and Grandpa got these cool light up swords and tons of glow sticks for the kids to play with.  They were a huge hit!

 

 The Provo Temple in the background

 And of course, our traditional fireworks shots :)

 

 We bought these "firework" glasses a few weeks back and didn't get to use them until now.  These next few shots are what the fireworks looked like through the glasses.  Pretty cool!

 

 

 They did a bunch of red, white, and blue fireworks together.  I really liked the color combo and thought it was definitely perfect for the holiday, rather than the random colors at the usual fireworks show.

 

 

 

 

 And a shot of LaVell Edwards stadium filled with smoke after the show.  I'm glad to miss out on that part!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, everyone!

I'm glad the fireworks were still on with all the dry heat and so many fires in the state recently.  During the last few weeks we've been surrounded by fires (3 that we could see the smoke from our house) and the sky has been filled with smoke and the smell of fire.  So not fun!  Here are a few pictures we took about a week ago:

Instead of getting real rain, we had ash raining down on us

Facing south behind our condo.  These pictures were taken about 3:00pm.  Believe it or not, there were blue skies that day!

There were 2 wildfires burning in our area and then a third one started to the north of us the very next day

Summer lovin'

Yet another post on our summer fun.  We love summer time.  We love having Darwin home with us.  We love the warm weather, the sunshine, the yummy food, and the chance to just relax and enjoy life.  I really feel like we need it this year!

Bear with me.  Lots of pictures, as usual :)

One of our favorite summer activities is to go hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's house (aka Deming National Park-DNP).  Aurora knows where we are as soon as we pull in the driveway.  She'll excitedly say "Bam-pa!" and then ask for a cookie.  Silly girl.  She loves Oreo cookies (which are always well in stock at DNP) and she knows she gets one every time we go over.

Aurora loves "jumping" on the trampoline

 I started watching my friends baby, Delilah, a couple months ago.  I have her 4 days a week, so she gets to come on some of our adventures with us.

 Serenading us with a pretty song :)

 More singing on the porch swing

 My cuties :)

Aurora's not quite ready for potty training yet (we still have yet for her to actually "go" on the potty) but she has become very interested it in the toilet, and she even tells us sometimes before she poops.  So, to be prepared we bought and installed a potty seat for our munchkin.

Don't judge.  We're first-time parents, so this is exciting stuff!

 Bubble baths have become an all-time fav!

 

 

 Mohawk! Oh, yeah!

We've also gone over to DNP a couple of times to play in the irrigation water.  She usually has to get good and dirty first though.  I wonder if she'll turn out to be an earth scientist like her daddy. . .

 

 Following right behind Bam-pa

 Tromping through the grass

 The irrigation water is really pretty cold, but Aurora doesn't seem to mind it

 Splashing in the sunshine!

On to more fun summer adventures!