Typical Scene

I love this picture. It totally portrays a typical afternoon at our house.

Avery sitting at the table cutting, gluing, drawing, painting, coloring, crafting whatever her little imagination can come up with, Quinney showing off his mad dribbling skills {or whatever sport/super hero he wants to perform that day} and sweet little Hayzen watching, giggling and loving every second of it from the floor. I am loving the ages of my kids right now.

This is one scene I don't want to ever forget, EVER.

The Salt Lake Century Bike Ride

Last Saturday was the big 100 mile bike ride called the Salt Lake Century, that Justin rode. The route started at the Salt Lake City fairgrounds and made it's way clear out to Hooper. Then back to Syracuse for a round trip to Antelope Island before heading back to the finish line at the Salt Lake fairgrounds!

Whew! Now that's a bike ride!

The kids were anxiously awaiting Daddy's arrival at the 36 mile pit stop. They held their signs high and proud!

And there the stud is!

Troy, Ryan, Torri and Kelly were all brave enough to join Justin for the ride of their lives.

They all did AWESOME! Just AWESOME!

Avery and Quinn had a great time finding potato bugs...

Avery has no problem letting these little critters crawl all over her. I think she had about 5 crawling on her hands.

Hayzen wasn't sure what to think about his bare feet on the grass...

Playing a little game of pass the binki.

Getting ready to keep on keepin' on!

But not before a high five from his biggest fan...

I am so proud of Justin! SO PROUD!

Unfortunately though, just after leaving the 36 mile pit stop, Justin hit a pot hole on the road and without realizing it, bent the rim on his back tire. For the next 30 miles, every time the tire would go around, it would rub on the brake. He was having to peddle extra hard just to keep up with the others. When he got back to the pit stop he said, "my quads are on fire." :) He was a little relieved though when he found out how bad his rim was bent and that the tire wouldn't even go around by itself without coming to a complete stop when it rubbed on the brake. He told me he was thinking to himself, "what's wrong with me, I should be able to keep up with these guys." I still felt bad though, he was really looking forward to doing the full 100 miles.

He did however ride a whopping 70 miles, and that my friends earned him a slurpee on me!
{or him, he's the bread winner in our family} :)

Everyone did great but I just have to give a shout out to Troy. He did the full 106 miles! {to be exact}

Amazing! A-MAZE-ING! Way to go Troy!

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

The pics from behind make me want to sing

"pants on the ground, pants on the ground!"

Clouds

Avery and Quinn have been so interested in clouds lately. Every time we go outside I get asked a zillion questions about them. They always let me know when they spot "gray rainy clouds" off in the distance with a warning, "we better hurry and go inside before the thunder and lightning come and we get soaked!"

Since I'm no expert on clouds I found a little information about them and shared it with the kids. Clouds can tell you a lot about upcoming weather patterns, who knew?

Then we made clouds of our own with scissors, construction paper, cotton balls and glue sticks.


Avery made animal shaped clouds, a bunny, a cat, a dog and a panda bear.



Quinney made a bunny shaped cloud and then a few regular clouds.


The kids thought this was a great activity, I think we'll have to do it a few more times this summer.

And while Avery and Quinn were working hard on their cloud project, this little fella was having a ball crawling in and out of the pantry and around the kitchen island over and over and over again.








Oh! I could just kiss those cheeks ALL DAY!

Goldilocks

Avery had to make a sock puppet for the kindergarten puppet show at school and she chose to make Goldilocks.

Avery picked out her eyes, nose and the material for her dress at the craft store and then we sewed her dress, braided her pretty golden locks, painted her lips and gave her eyelashes.

She turned out to be one beauty! :)

Merry May Day!

This was Taysia's first year dancing around the May pole and she did a great job! Especially with "My Aunt Sally", she stayed right on beat! :)

Way to go Toot-a-louie!



You'd never guess that these two little ladies are just 14 months apart... Just so happens that Taysia is extra tall and my Avery, well, she's extra short.


Yes, Quinn's short too...


After the program we got a burger from the stand. A must at Mendon May Day!

Then up to Mom and Dad's we went so Dad could build me a cute little picnic table for the kids. It turned out so cute, thanks Dad! As soon as I get it stained I'll post it!

Then down to Carrie's house for a birthday party for Taysia with the cutest Sponge Bob cake that she made. :)


We had a great day, another successful May Day!

Copy Cat

I LOVE when Hayzen does this!

His dark eyelashes peeking through squeezed tight eyes, his cute little button nose all scrunched up and his two bottom pearly whites beaming through his happy smile.

THIS makes me HAPPY!

LOVE MY BABY BOY!

Our last day in St. George

Hayzen went without his regular routine naps the entire trip and instead managed to catch a few cat naps here and there while we were on the go.

But alas, the no napping non-sense {thanks to his parents} finally caught up with the little chap and on our final day, he just couldn't take it anymore. Seconds after we put him in his pack-n-play he just collapsed, folded in half like a book.

Poor thing, what a trooper! He should really win some kind of "Baby Of The Year" award for putting up with his very non-routine schedule for 4 days and still coming out as happy as ever. And did I mention he was/is teething too. Yes, all four front teeth on top are making their grand debut.

Trooper I tell ya!


After we said our final and-sad-to-be-going-home good-byes to the condo we stopped off at the big red rocks to explore one more time.

In our explorations we found:

a beautiful cactus flower with bugs in it

a quaint little hut

rocks that looked like sponges

and the famous giant crack.

After realizing we forgot Hayzen's pack of diapers at the condo and going back for them and then stopping 4 times between St. George and Cedar City for Quinn to use the potty, needless to say, our drive home didn't get off to a great start.

And sadly, it didn't get any better in the middle or at the end either. Oh well. There were a few melt downs and moments of weakness {from the kids .....mostly} but we finally made it home safe and sound. Phew!

A big huge giant THANK YOU to Mom and Dad Smith for letting us use the condo! We had a great time and loved every minute of our trip!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)