The Park

A little picnic and a walk in the river.

Exploring, finding rocks and splashing.

These are the things childhood memories are made of....

Playing Catch Up

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The 4th of July is one of my top three favorite holidays! This year we celebrated our Independence Day with a family get together at Kim and Jerrod's house. Also, that morning we celebrated my cousin Jennie's new little baby, Leila, by attending her baby blessing. We were joking that everyone was celebrating her blessing day by having fireworks. We are silly. But then later that afternoon we headed out to Tooele to party with the Phillips family!Steven, Mama P., Dave, Jennifer, Jerrod

just us
Alli and Grandma are too cool in their sunglasses. Looking good girls!

Aren't my sister-in-laws so pretty? I think so.

Kimmie, Jennifer, Jenn

Alli loves to wrestle with this giant stuffed bear. She usually wins even though the bear is bigger than she is!

And she loves to play with Jenn and Steve's dog Mindy. All day long she was walking Mindy around on her leash and giving her kisses.

The girls spent a lot of the day playing at the park and elementary school across the street.

Allison loves to swing! She is such a happy little girl!

More swinging...

Love her!!!

This was the only picture we had of us together. Blurry and not flattering at all but we need it in for the family blog book so oh well...you all get to see it too.

The night ended with smores in the backyard. We could see some great big fireworks that the neighbors were setting off way up into the air. We also did a few little ones of our own in the street. We had a very fun day. Thanks Kim and Jerrod for hosting!

Silver Lake

A few weeks ago (June 27, 2010) we took a lovely Sunday afternoon drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake. It was a seriously wonderful day. I love nothing more than spending time with my little family. As we drove Alli kept saying/asking, "mama happy" and I could honestly reply, "yes mama is very happy, are you happy Alli?" and she would say, "Alli happy" and then I would say, "is daddy happy too" and he said, "yes dada is happy"! I will remember this day for a long time. I can't describe what I was feeling that day. I felt peaceful, happy, whole, grateful, and content to name a few.

I am in love with my family!We saw this moose on our way up. That's always fun. Allison really likes the moose on Nick Jr. so it was fun to show her a real one. I was worried that she couldn't see it but I said Alli show mommy where the moose is and she pointed right to it! After that we continued up to the lake and walked around it. Lots of other families had the same idea we did. Oh well.

We walked all the way around. Allison threw lots of rocks into the water (a current favorite thing to do). We saw fish, ducks, ants, bugs and a beaver. We kept asking Alli if she could see any fish and she always said "turtles!" So lucky Alli saw lots of turtles but unfortunately Dave and I didn't see any :(
After our walk around the lake we decided to drive over Guardsman's Pass. Dave had never driven up there and it had been many many years since I went. The views were beautiful but parts of the drive were kind of scary. Like huge drop offs to the side of the car! I hadn't remembered that. But then it got better. We stopped at the top and took some pictures. Then we continued down into Deer Valley/Park City and onto home through Parley's canyon.

....this day was perfect....

Haven't laughed this hard in a long time!

A few weeks ago some of the Phillips girls had a Girls Night Out. We do this maybe once a month or so. Usually we go out to dinner or make something together, indulge in a sweet treat and try to watch a movie. Although we rarely end up watching one. We just like to talk too much, I guess. Well this GNO began like any other. Dianna, Kimmie, Jenn, and I went out to Benihana's. I had never been there before and it was yummy! We then made our way back over to mom's house. As we were going to the store for some ice cream I was informed of Kimmie's evil plan to scare the neighbor girl (Sunni) who she works with. We looked for some sort of play knife at the store but couldn't find anything. Then I saw some scissors and said what if we use one blade of these. The plan grew from there...Ninja Jenn helped tape the one half of the scissors to a broom stick. We were trying to resemble a bamboo stick with a knife on the end because someone had been stabbed while hiking close by and that was what Sunni was afraid of. Mean, we know. :)
Ninja Kimmie was the mastermind of this whole thing! The Phillips and Sunni's backyards are connected so we went back there and Kim tapped the kitchen window with the knife-stick. All these friends came running outside. We were hiding and trying not to laugh while overhearing things like, "it has to be bamboo man" and "man they must be experts"! So funny!
We snuck back inside and waited awhile until everyone went back inside. I, ninja Melanie, wrote a note sloppily with my left hand so it wouldn't look girly. We then stabbed it on the blade and planned our next move.
Don't mess with us!
We got another stick. We were going to ring the bell and leave the knife and note on the porch while at the same time knock on the back kitchen window again. Mom and I were look outs and on my signal Kim and Jenn knocked, rang, and ran! From inside we could see boys running up and down the street looking for people. We were laughing so much!
The note. Creepy... To top of the prank we blocked our number and called her house. Kimmie just breathed loudly into the phone.
Well two days later we went over to tell her it was us. Good thing Sunni has the coolest, funnest parents ever because while we thought they were out of town when we pranked, turns out they were home the whole time. With their big, cute, fun family pranks like this are normal and they are just glad their kids have fun. And Sunni was shocked that it was us! She just graduated high school and never thought three mid-twenties, married girls would do this. She thought it was hilarious and so did we!

Was this... a Flash Back to high school-yes!

Mature-no!

An incredibly fun night making memories--YES!

St. Louis

This past weekend my mom and I (along with Grandpa and Uncle Todd) flew to St. Louis, Missouri for my cousin Chris' wedding. It was a whirlwind trip but so much fun. We flew in late Thursday night and came home Saturday night. I am so glad I got to go. It was wonderful to see the Cates family and meet their newest member and her family. They seem very happy. Brad and Sherri hosted a lunch on Friday. It was fun to catch up with people. Jaime had made a shirt that she was wearing before they got ready for the temple, it said "Worth the Wait", and it's true she was so great and cute! Good luck to them and I hope they are very happy together. ...Chris and Jaime Cates...
Their cute new family. Garrett is 8 and Hailey is 5 (not sure of the spellings, sorry). Sweet little Hailey is a doll and looks so much like her mom. What a cute family!
They were married in the St. Louis Temple and it was lovely. The temple was peaceful and beautiful but this one seemed maybe more calm and quiet. I believe they were the only wedding of the day. After some pictures everyone went out to dinner. It was yummy and lively and very fun!

On Saturday we had almost a full day before we needed to go to the airport so we drove downtown. We ate lunch at Hannigan's and watched the USA vs. Ghana world cup game. Such a bummer that USA lost! When we sat down we asked the bus boy what they are known for to the locals. He said the fried ravioli is a St. Louis tradition. So we ordered some and wow they were so good! I may have to try to recreate them at home. The restaurant was next to the waterfront of the Mississippi River. The river was so full that it was covering the river walkway, the first floor of the parking structure and was coming up the steps of the Arch. It was so big and beautiful though. On previous trips we had been up to the top of the Arch so we didn't bother to go up this time. But we did drive across one bridge and back over another across the Mississippi River. Then we headed to the airport. It was such a fun trip. I can't wait to see everyone again, soon I hope!

Backyard Swimming!

Grandpa and Grandma S bought Alli this nice little pool. They filled it up in the morning and left it in the sunshine. So then by the time we came over at about 5pm, it was not freezing cold and actually a little bit warm. Thanks Papa and Labu, smart thinking! I know it will get a lot of use this summer.

Palm Springs

This post should have been put up a while ago but I have been in a blogging funk and just haven't gotten around to it until now. In May we went to Palm Springs, California for a week. It was a wonderful vacation and such a nice break from the daily grind of life. Spending so much time together was the best thing in the world. We loved it! My entire family went--Melanie, Dave, Allison, Robyn, Craig, Josh, Kim, Scott, and Grandpa Sanders. We did a lot of fun things but also spent a lot of time relaxing. Here are some things we did.

WARNING: lots of pictures....

Dave, Alli, Kim and I went to the Children's Museum. There were lots of fun exhibits and activity centers. Some of them were for older children but Alli liked most of them. She loved shopping in the store, reading books in Grandma's Attic, playing in the courtyard with the balls, chalk, and sandbox, riding up on the pulley system, and just cruising around looking at everything. Ummm, this face is the most precious thing in the whole wide world!

After the museum we met up with everyone else and had a little picnic by this very cool little water play area. It was really fun until Allison fell, scraped her knees, and stepped on the ground that was too hot for her bare feet. Luckily she is tough and recovered quickly.

There was lots of time spent at the pool! They had a couple of waterslides. A small one for little kids and a bigger one for everyone else. It was so funny to see Kim and Dave going on the bigger slide. It was twisty and fast. They got tossed all around and flew out at the bottom. Allison liked the little slide and even would go by herself but mostly she liked when someone went with her. Almost every night was spent in the hot tub and pool. Alli would always love to sit on the first step of the hot tub. She would say "tubby, bubbles" and sometimes it was just shortened to "tubbles".

Allison and Grandma loved to snuggle and play in the big bed!

We went to Knott's Soak City. This funnel waterslide was the highlight and everyone rode that one over and over. There were lots of other waterlides, a splash zone, wave pool, and a lazy river. Alli, Grandma, and I spent a lot of time in the lazy river. There were only a couple slides for little kids but our little bear went down them. At first she liked it but then after a few rides she started to tip over while coming down, ending up on her stomach or back, instead of sitting. Then she didn't like it anymore.

Oh, Disneyland my love. We spent a great day a Disneyland. Allison still talks about the Mouse and Pooh Bear. When we talk about it and ask her questions she seems to remember it all and gets excited.

We met Mickey Mouse and Pinocchio.

Here is Allison waiting for the train, knocking on Snow White's door, and riding on the Nemo submarine with Grandpa and Grandma. This was big because my mom is really claustrophobic and never would ride the submarine ride with us but she was brave and rode it with Allison. Way to go Mom! We discovered that Alli covers her little nose with her hand when she is nervous or scared. It was the cutest thing to see. She was a champ though and rode most of the rides. She didn't cry and seemed to like them.

We played on the playground in Toon Town. Then she had a little nap while the others went on some big rides. It was drizzling a little so it was a nice break.

I love this picture! Look at our tiny girl smooshed in between these big boys. This was on the Snow White ride.

These pictures are so cute and show her personality. She is friendly and then that's enough. We always say it looks like she is thinking, if I don't look at them then they aren't there. :) She has also had a good "stink eye" look since she was born. Funny, cute little girl!

The parade was so fun. We were dancing and loved seeing all the characters! This was seriously a highlight. They do a great job.

And this is my favorite picture.

Wow, longest post ever! Sorry but hope you enjoyed!

Mmmmm,

SPAGHETTI!!!

These pictures make me smile every time I look at them!