the big 0-6

06 sounded cooler than just plain old 6.  on saturday, weston and i celebrated our 6 years of pure wedded bliss... ok, we are normal and it hasn't been pure. wedded. bliss.  but, it has been bliss!  i love that man of mine!

we decided, okay i decided, that it was weston's turn to plan something this year.  i told him it didn't matter what - we could go to dinner or something super easy - i just wanted him to plan it.  he did a fantastic job!  we made arrangements for kate (thanks grandma colton!), packed our bags and golf clubs, and headed south for a couple of nights away.

on our way to st. george friday afternoon, we stopped in fillmore to play a round of golf.  neither of us had played here before, but it came recommended by my dad.  plus, it was great to break up the drive.  we had a fun game (i shot 1 over my goal game) and got back on the road.  when we got to st. george, we decided against going to a movie and checked into our hotel before grabbing some grub. 

saturday, we woke up bright and early (11am) and headed off to las vegas for the day.  weston wanted to do some shopping and make a stop by one of frank gehry's buildings for some photographs.  we made it back to st. george that night in time for a movie (date night - much funnier than i thought it would be) and some dinner.  i bypassed dinner and ordered dessert - i've never done that before and it was well worth it!

sunday morning we were out the door by 11am again and headed home.  we stopped again in fillmore for another round of golf (we both scored exactly the same as friday) and some lunch.  by the time we got home (about 4:30) we were pretty excited to see kate.  we went upstairs to grandma carson's house where kate was playing with cousins ali and karli and grandma colton.  she jumped off the couch and ran straight to us (me first, naturally :) ) and cuddled and snuggled with us most of the evening.  she was really good while we were gone, but i think we were all happy to be back together again :)

a day at the museum

while cynthia and her boys were in utah, they (along with my parents) decided to drive the couple of hours from monroe to the dinosaur museum at thanksgiving point.  kate and i joined in for the afternoon.  i had never been before, so i was curious to see what was in store.  the kids were all pretty excited to see the dinosaurs, although kate was convinced we were going to a movie (she's been watching ice age: dawn of the dinosaurs and the land before time quite a bit lately). 

other than trying to get her to play in the water/sand area (she was too little to play from the outer edge so i tried to make her go to the inside of the exhibit where the ground is elevated for the little ones - didn't go over well at all - she totally freaked out and it was kind of a mess until i rescued her and brought her back to my side), so other than that, she had a great time.  at the entry of the exhibits, you walk through a sort of star tunnel (representing space and the beginning of time) and she asked the entire time (about 2 hours) to go back to the stars.  that was easily her favorite part :)  but she had a great time playing with the toy dinosaurs in the little play pit-stop.  it was a great resting point for me, too!

alex & kate entering the little tunnel

coming out the other side

 

playing with the dinosaurs

    lining them up in a row

ta da!!!

 

 gearing up to do some twirling

 the tired bunch (well, i was pretty tired anyway!)  baking a baby's a good excuse, right?

we've been doing a lot of this lately

once the hot weather hit, we got out the pool (i blew it up with my amazing lung power), and kate has filled many days splashing around and swimming in her little pool.  soon we'll actually take her to the big pool, but for now this makes her pretty happy (and is pretty much the last thing she asks for at night and the first thing she asks for in the morning).  

 

i love this picture - you can just taste the enthusiasm

splashing and kicking around

poor thing doesn't have any real pool toys, either (not yet anyway), so she has to use random odds and ends from the house :)  but she loves it!

quilts

here are a couple of quilts i have made recently.  i haven't made a quilt like this first one before, but i will definitely do it again.  i love the way the stitching turned out on the solid side.  

 

here is a quilt i made for weston's friends, jessie & trevor, who had a baby girl, hazel scout, a couple of months ago.

i'll have to post pictures of the quilt i made for baby #2 one of these days.  i'm loving how it turned out!

strawberry days 2010

  pleasant grove's annual summer festival is strawberry days.  i've posted about this before here and here.   weston has been going since he was a boy and he and i have been going together for several years and now kate has started in on the tradition :)  her favorite part is, of course, getting to ride that carousel.    

 

what a big girl!

we had to take a break for strawberries & cream - weston waits all year for this treat - and look at that, he shared with kate.

  
looking at the moon

tuckered out

kate sneaked out of her room the other day during naptime.  i say sneaked because she is totally sneaky.  she knows she needs to be quiet or she will get in trouble.  of course, i knew she was out of her room, i could hear every move she was making.  lately, i've decided ignoring her is better than engaging her.  anyway, after 10 or 15 minutes, all was quiet except for this rhythmic noise i kept hearing.  after a minute, i realized it was kate snoring so i went to see where she fell asleep.  she made it to the couch, at least!

      

the oddest thing about this is that kate is strictly a bed-sleeper.  if she's not in a bed, preferably her own, she will not go to sleep.  she has only ever fallen asleep on the floor once in her life and never in the middle of play like this.  she must have been one tired little girl!

planting trees

when we finally got settled, weston's grandparents bought 3 new quaking aspen to plant in our backyard.  weston geared up and got to work digging holes for the trees.

 

kate wanted in on the action, so i had to keep her as much out of the way as i could manage

  

the finished product in the morning

bbqs

summer means bbq season!  we usually grill year round, but summer nights are perfect for barbecuing and eating outside.  kate killed time while we cooked by coloring with chalk, assisted by mama kitty, of course.   

summer and skinned knees

it was so nice once the weather started to warm up!  this was one of the early warm saturdays this season and we spent it as a happy family.  we did a bit of shopping in salt lake and then took kate to how to train your dragon.  we all loved it.

 

it wouldn't be summer for kids without skinned knees - shorts & skirts mean exposed skin on those legs!  kate's been sporting bruises and scabs for weeks, now :)

weston went to LA last weekend

so while he was enjoying the nice weather and sunshine, i spent the rainy weekend in monroe with my parents.  cynthia, my SIL, was supposed to be there visiting as well, but she spent the weekend at primary children's hospital with her almost 2 year old son ... bummer.  all is well, though, and i was able to spend a couple days with her family after all.

alex and kate

kate and alex had a great time playing together over the weekend ... well, kate had a great time, alex might have just tolerated her ...

  

goofy kids

pretty blues

   

alex dancing with grandma cottle

i have a really soft spot for watching kate and alex together.  they just remind me so much of me and my brother, alex, when we were little.  the age difference in these two is much bigger than that of alex and me, but they look so much like us that it reminds me of all the photos and stories i've seen and heard about my brother and me...  aww :)

kate's dress

 my mom bought this dress a couple of months back and it was really long on kate.  i looked at it over and over and thought, i really need to re-hem that thing before she can't wear it.  it was, naturally, really easy and only took about 20 minutes (i had to hem the skirt and underskirts).  does anyone else do that?  put off projects for far too long because the thought of the time and energy seems too overwhelming?  then once you get started, you realize just how easy and quick it was... well, i do that :)  so the dress originally hung to her ankles, and even though the photos here look that way, the dress actually hangs to her mid-calf now (not that anyone really cares...)  i took these photos to show weston while he was in la but am just now getting around to posting them (well after he's been home, of course).

  

and this last picture kind of tripped me out a bit.  once i looked through these photos, this one stood out to me.  immediately it reminded me of the photo (below) that my dad took of me, just a bit older. 

what do you think?

colton cousins

while i spent the weekend in monroe, i was able to see some of weston's family.  kate loves playing with her colton cousins - and it's perfect because we are all in the same stage of having kids (on my side of the family a lot of kate's cousins are much older than her)

 

kate and sophie sizing each other up

 

 tickling each other

   

full on wwf going on at this point, we had to break it up

   

grandpa colton and ali

 

 karli