More Birthday stuff!

Abby got to open birthday presents from the family on Sunday after church.

She got new clothes and shoes for school. She seemed pretty happy with everything.

I found this book for Abby. It is called "Abby's First Book of Shapes". Even though she already knows all her shapes, I couldn't resist a book with her name on it.

Abby also got a new bike - a big girl bike.

She liked it and rode it around the house for a while. She will try it outside on Monday when Brian gets home from work.
The Raltons came over after dinner with gifts. Al and Joeby gave Abby a beautiful Cinderella dress...

...with matching shoes. It was beautiful. Abby loved it. (She has worn the shoes around the house all morning! I'll try to add a better picture of the shoes later. Right now they are in Abby's room and she is napping!)

They also brought a gift for Elizabeth - a Princess Belle cup. Elizabeth was already trying it out before we could get it washed. She loved chewing on the straw. When we finally got it cleaned up and filled with water, she drank it down three times - it is so fun to have a new cup!

Lily got Abby a Cinderella nightgown. She loved it.

Here is Abby trying on her Cinderella dress over her clothes. It fit great. Maybe she will be Cinderella for Halloween!

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby is 4 years old!

We had a pool party for her on Saturday. Our friends, the Ralstons, were nice enough to let us use thier pool.

Here is Abby in her swimsuit and pigtails, ready to go!

In addition to letting us use their pool, Joeby made Abby's birthday cake - a beach ball! It matched the plates and invitations we used for the party. (Very yummy too!)

Here are Abby and Elizabeth waiting for Abby's friends to arrive!

Abby's trying out her goggles. (We had fish goggles, beach balls, squirt guns, and squirty fish for all her friends who came to the party. Abby had to test everything out!)

Abby and Elizabeth swimming (Abby is using the purple noodle, behind Elizabeth).

Aby had a great time in the pool. She swam back and forth and played with her friends. A huge difference from the beginning of the summer when she had tantrums if we even suggested getting in!

Brian and Elizabeth had lots of fun too!

Well...I think everyone had fun. It turned out to be a perfect day for swimming. All week it had been cooler and rainy. And we were worried that it would be raining on Saturday as well. But the weather turned out great!

Everyone was hungry after swimming - we ordered pizza for lunch. We almost didn't have enough!

After pizza it was time for cake. Abby had to try a few times to get the candles out, but she got them!

Then she opened her presents from her friends.

Thank you everyone for all the great gifts. Abby has had so much fun playing with them the past few days.

A special thanks to the Ralstons, for hosting the party. We really appreciate their friendship and all they do for us!

Vacuuming

Abby really wanted to vacuum on Sunday with the real vacuum. So Brian told her she could. She remembered today, so Brian helped her a little after dinner.

She really seemed to enjoy it!

Elizabeth really wanted to try too and was crying, so Brian helped her as well. (Normally she is afraid of the vacuum and I can only vacuum when she is napping!)

As Brian said - hopefully they will still be fighting over who gets to vacuum when they are teenagers!

Funny Faces

Elizabeth loves to make funny faces. We tried to take pictures the other day, but it's not quite the same as seeing them in person. She will do grouchy faces and happy faces and silly faces. All during sacrament meeting on Sunday, she is making faces at the couple that usually sits behind us. She's so cute!
She will go back and forth between a groucy face and a silly face until she gets so confused she can't remember which she is supposed to be doing. It's pretty funny!

Of course Abby had to do her silly face too!

Vacation to Utah

Well...we've been back a week now so I guess it's about time I put up pictures from our trip to Utah. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing everyone. Here's what we did:

(I'll apologize in advance because it is so long with so many pictures, but once I got started I didn't want to re-do it to break it up.)

Tuesday, May 27th: After Abby finished preschool for the year we flew from Houston to Las Vegas. We stayed in Las Vegas that night. The airline lost Elizabeth's carseat, so we had a loner for the night until we went back to the airport Wednesday morning to get hers (which came in on a much later flight).

Wednesday, May 28th: Jamie's Birthday!! We drove from Las Vegas to Tropic and Bryce Canyon (about 4 hours). We stopped in St. George to have lunch at In-n-Out Burger. We really miss that place since we moved from California! We stayed at Ruby's Inn at the entrance to Bryce Canyon.

Thursday, May 29th: Our room at Ruby's Inn was at the Lakeside Lodge. Here is a photo of the girls in front of the lake.



We went hiking in Bryce Canyon in the morning.



Jamie and Abby standing at one of the overlooks.



A nice view of Tropic from the rim of Bryce Canyon.



Abby sitting on a tree on a short trail we took.



















The girls had lots of fun and Elizabeth liked riding on Brian's back in the backpack carrier.


















It was a little cool and pretty windy. At one point as we came around a corner on the trail, a gust of wind caught us and about blew Brian and Elizabeth over. Luckily they were okay and we weren't next to a steep drop off only a short one! Abby found a section of rock with "all the colors" as she puts it.











In the afternoon, we visited Larvin and Eva Pollock (Brian's Great Uncle and Aunt) in Tropic. The girls had fun running around the backyard chasing the cat! Abby called Aunt Eva "Grandma".

After dinner we visited Lyle and Judy Wood, some friends from when I grew up in Beaver Dam. They are managing several campgrounds and are currently camping at Red Canyon, a few miles from Bryce. Abby and Elizabeth loved them and Abby was calling Judy "Grandma" as well.

Friday, May 30th: We stopped at the Bryce Canyon Visitor's Center and took a picture of the sign before we left. We drove to St. George (about 2 hours) to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Kimber and the girls. We got there before they did so we walked around the Zion outlets for a while. When we met up with Grandma and Grandpa, we decided that Kelsey, Kendra and Bailee could watch Abby and Elizabeth while the rest of us went to dinner. We all had fun and it was nice to see them all again.








Saturday, May 31st: We drove to Santaquin (about 3 hours) because Madison was getting baptized. She asked me to play the songs for her baptism program. I was kind of nervous since it had been a while since I had played, but it worked out okay. We got there in time and the baptism was really nice. Madison was beautiful in her pretty white dress. After the baptism, we went back to the Houston's for lunch. It was good to see all of Brian's family again, especially Heidi and Stephen and the kids because we had missed seeing them when we went last summer. Abby wasn't feeling very well and fell asleep while I was holding her. We gave her some Tylenol and after a while she felt a little better and had some lunch. We drove up to Centerville (about one and a half hours) to stay with Brian's parents for the week while Brian worked in Salt Lake.

Sunday, June 1st: We went to sacrament meeting with Brian's parents and relaxed the rest of the day. The girls were tired from driving and had pretty good naps. Elizabeth woke up with very crazy hair!






















Monday, June 2nd: Brian had to go to work in Salt Lake this whole week, so the girls and I were just going to relax and play and visit. Abby wasn't feeling very well in the morning and threw up her breakfast. We gave her some more Tylenol and she took it easy for a while. Brian's sister Shelley brought her three girls over to play and brought enough strollers for everyone. We all had fun!

Tuesday, June 3rd: Heather and the twins drove up from Santaquin and we all (Shelley and her three girls, Heather and the two boys, me and Abby and Elizabeth, Grandma McPheeters and Anna) all went to lunch at Robintino's for Heather's birthday. After, we all came back to Grandma's house to play. Everyone stayed for a spaghetti dinner and Anna and Burke came as well. It was fun to have everyone together.

Wednesday, June 4th: The girls and I drove up to Morgan to spend the day with Grandma Kimber and Kendra and Bailee. The girls loved it and had lots of fun. Grandpa Kimber picked up Brian in Centerville on his way home from work so we could all have dinner together. I'm glad it all worked out that way.


The girls loved playing Grandma's piano.















Thursday, June 5th: We drove to Ogden to meet Debbie, Weston, Clayton, and Josi and Grandma Kimber and Kendra at the Treehouse Museum. We had so much fun. There was so much to do. And there were enough big people to help watch the kids so they could all pretty much go where they wanted. Abby and Elizabeth loved the firetruck. And Elizabeth really enjoyed the tea set.
I'm not sure where Abby spent most of the day because she was with Kendra, but she had lots of fun!
We came back after lunch to play a little more and Debbie got a picture of everyone!














Friday, June 6th: Grandma Kimber and Kendra met us in Centerville to go shopping. We went to Walmart, Target (where Kendra lost her purse and found it again after going back to Walmart to see if we lost it there!), Kohl's, lunch at Dairy Queen, and then to Shopko in Bountiful! We all had fun together and found some pretty good deals too! (Shirts for Abby for only $1 at Walmart - super cute too!!)

Saturday, June 7th: We all drove up to Morgan for fun and games at Grandma and Grandpa Kimber's. The weather was a little cool so we ended up inside most of the day.














Debbie and Lonnie drove down from Collinston with their kids and a donkey and a candy cannon!















They said they got some strange looks on the freeway!

Elizabeth got a little jealous when Brian was holding Josie, so he got to hold them both!



Michelle and Von drove up from Ogden and my cousin Jessica and her kids came as well. The kids all had fun playing together and we all had a nice visit.

Grandpa Russ and Sharon came in the afternoon as well. It was good to see them again. After dinner Grandpa Kimber got a horse saddled for everyone to ride. Elizabeth loved it - she was a little nervous at first, but then she was fine.
Abby had been telling us all week that she was not going to ride the horse, but she ended up going twice!


































They both liked jumping on the trampoline. Elizabeth had fun swinging! After a while, Lonnie fired up the candy cannon and everyone got to gather the candy from the grass. It was a really fun day. It took a while to say goodbye to everyone, because we weren't sure when we would be back for a visit.















Sunday, June 8th: We headed back down to St. George to spend a few days before we flew home on Wednesday. We stopped in Richfield (about three hours from Centerville) to visit my Grandpa and Grandma Harris. While we were there my Uncle Jay stopped by. I'm glad we got to visit with them. Abby was getting a little confused with all these grandpas and grandmas we kept visiting though. Both girls were a little nervous at first, but had warmed up enough to give hugs and kisses when it was time to go. I hadn't been to their house in several years and Brian had never been. It was good to see them again and visit for a bit before we started on our way to St. George (about two and half hours from Richfield). When we got to St. George, we stopped for dinner at In-n-Out again (very yummy!!) and then went to Heidi and Stephen's where Grandpa and Grandma McPheeters were visiting. Abby and Elizabeth were excited to get out and play with the kids after all that time in the car!


Monday, June 9th: We headed up to Zion National Park, with Grandpa and Grandma McPheeters and Heidi and her kids. We had planned on doing some more hiking. Elizabeth had fun playing peek-a-boo with Brian while we ate lunch!



After lunch, everyone except Grandpa and Grandma headed up the Emerald Pools trail.















We told them we would be back within an hour. It was .6 miles each way or 1.2 miles round trip. It was labeled on the hiking guide as paved, we we took the stroller for Elizabeth rather than getting out the backpack carrier. Well, we took the wrong fork in the path and ended up on a "moderate" level hike to the middle pools, with several rough areas with rocks to climb over.






The stroller didn't go to well on those areas. So Brian or I ended up carrying it and lifting it over a lot of places.
Little Stephen didn't want to walk so Heidi carried him almost the entire way! When we got to the middle pools, we took a short rest and followed the signs toward the lower pools, where we planned on taking the paved trail back down the mountain. It was some more rough trails and climbing before we finally go to the paved area and back down to Grandma and Grandpa. We figured we ended up going 1 mile up the Middle Emerald Pools trail, another (very rough and rocky) 1/2 mile down to the Lower Emerald Pools trail and then another .6 miles on the paved trail back to the trailhead for a total of 2.1 miles!
When we finally made it we were all sweaty and tired. Grandpa and Grandma said we had been gone over two hours. What a hike! They bought everyone ice cream for a treat! Brian and I took the girls on the shuttle bus through the rest of the scenic view drive and everyone else headed back to St. George. Abby fell asleep on the bus about 15 minutes before we got off. Elizabeth slept all the way back to St. George in the car.

When we got back to our hotel, we called Grandpa and Grandma. They were ready for dinner - so we all went to Olive Garden. It was very delicious. We came back to the hotel and everyone slept pretty well.

Tuesday, June 10th: We headed back up to Zion's to drive through the tunnels. Abby and Elizabeth loved it. Abby said it was so dark that she couldn't see Elizabeth or Mommy and Daddy. She liked trying to look out the windows as we passed and was dissappointed that we weren't going to go again.
We came back to our hotel to rest in the afternoon and went to In-n-Out burger with everyone for dinner. Afterwards we headed back to Heidi's so the kids could play some more. We headed back to the hotel to get packed up and ready to fly home. We went to bed hoping everyone would sleep well and be ready to travel on Wednesday.

But Elizabeth had other plans. She woke up at 12:30 and was throwing up. We got her cleaned up and settled down only to get up a few hours later. She was throwing up every couple of hours until about 6:30 Wednesday morning. All she wanted was to snuggle with Daddy. Abby slept through it all!

Wednesday, June 11th: We had breakfast with Grandpa and Grandma McPheeters before they headed back home to Centerville and we started to drive to Las Vegas. Elizabeth wouldn't eat much, but wasn't throwing up anymore, so we were hopefull we would have an uneventful drive and flight home. Luckily that's exactly what happened. She slept most of time in the car to Las Vegas (about 2 hours) and almost the entire plane ride (3 hours). Brian held her the entire time on the plane. When we got to Houston, we gathered our luggage, took the shuttle to our car and arrived home around 10 p.m. Both girls slept in the car. Elizabeth woke up about 15 minutes from home and cried the rest of the way. But she was very happy to be home! She even ate some cereal and drank some water before bed.

Thursday, June 12th: We were home, but Elizabeth started throwing up again. So we took her to the doctor. We actually saw the nurse practioner. She said that Elizabeth was pretty dehydrated and had lost about 10% of her weight. She gave us a prescription for Zofran to help settle her stomach so she could keep liquids down. We started giving her Pedialyte popsicles and Gatorade. She did okay with them, but all she wanted was to sleep so I had to keep waking her up to give her liquids. By Friday, she was getting hungry, so we gave her cereal and bland foods. She started getting some of her energy back over the weekend and by early in the week was acting super hungry and wanted to eat all the time. She's doing pretty well now.


Well those were our adventures on our trip to Utah. We were glad to see everyone and be able to see Bryce and Zion as well.