A One Night Get Away

Guest post by Mommy:
Tuesday night, Pete and I had the opportunity to steal away to Vegas for a night. Awhile back, my Mom's brother David had come to Vegas for a work convention. He stayed at the new hotel The Palazzo. It is "attached" to The Venetian but it is AMAZING. My mom had been to his hotel room so she recommended we get a room there. SO WORTH IT. It is not "cheap" as in not under a hundred dollars but it was under two hundred and you get your monies worth. Of course we did get a killer deal through promotional goodness. The suite (which is their base room) was incredible. A huge bed and a separate little "living room" with a wrap around couch. A massive bathroom with separate shower and tub and a little separate room for the commode (and when I say little it was actually huge.) Marble floors, three separate flat screen TVs, one of which was in the bathroom!

We had the most wonderful time being a couple. We went and swam, laid in the sun, got all glammed up and walked down to the MGM for the Cirque Du Soleil show, KA. That also was unbelievable. It was very story oriented as opposed to just constant acrobatics but so cool. Fire on stage, fireworks at the end...it just took your breath away and made you wish you could move like them. I did get uncontrollable giggles at a male love interest in the show. He was a sparkling Tarzan figure. Unfortunately, he looked just like all the caricature Edwards you see just with long hair. It kind of ruined his amazing acrobatics because all I could focus on was the glitter and the sparkling loin cloth.

It was some much needed alone time and I can't wait to do it again. It was nice to feel inseparable again.

Really these pictures don't do it justice but we didn't get many pictures of the room. Actually, we only took like three pictures the whole time and I forgot to download them before I sent Pete off on his Mt. Hood to Coast relay. So these stock photos will have to work. We had a king size bed instead of two queens.

Awesome talk...

I don't want to fully embarrass my Aunt Rachel by copying and pasting her whole talk but I am going to post a link because I think you all should read her wonderful words on parenting. My Aunt Rachel is the best.

http://preslarfamily.blogspot.com/2010/08/wrong-wrinkles.html

Second Official Hair Cut

That's right I got only my SECOND hair cut ever. Monday night, Mommy was combing my hair after a bath and apparently she got it just so nice and straight and so on impulse she ran and grabbed a pair of scissor and chopped before I could even figure out what she was doing! All she really did was even it up (okay let's be honest I didn't hold still, she used kitchen scissors, and I have curly hair so it's not even) but she thought it looked awfully short. Kind of like her hair cut. So now I have hair just like Mommy!

A Maiden Camping Voyage

Mommy and Daddy decided to try us out on an over nighter in the back country! Last night we headed up on the Kolob Mountain/Mesa/much higher elevation thingy than St. George, and we camped at Lava Point which is in Zion National Park's back country, up near where you start infamous canyons such as The Subway, and Kolob, and Boundary.
It was so much fun. We played in the dirt, ate hot dogs, went for a hike, got all cozy in the tent. Oh and we ate marshmallows. It was a great time.





Mommy's Note:
It must be confessed that we drove out of the campsite at 10 pm due to the fact that neither girl was falling asleep in the tent. They weren't crying and Siena kept insisting that she did NOT want to go home, she wanted to sleep in the tent, but Mommy couldn't stand 8 hours of fidgeting Cara. So we'll blame it on me. I pulled the plug, but really both Daddy and I agree that we call the trip a complete success. The girlies loved it and neither one was screaming and disrupting the other campers' experiences.

Oh and Daddy and I made up a list of favorite Sienese phrases:
"Let's Ride!" (this would be from her new favorite movie, known to her as Ants but in the real world "A Bug's Life".)
"I'm making a hot. And I cook one for Mommy" (She was pretending to make a fire off on our little hike..very big in to pretending lately.)
"Don't follow me! Stay right here." (She wanted to go back and get more marshmallows but insisted on doing it herself with no grown up help. Too bad Cara insisted on following her in typical fashion which is with a parent in tow holding on to one specific finger while she walks and controls the direction of forward motion.)

P.S. We had a fantastic time reading stories in the tent. We were reading a family favorite, Sandra Boynton's book "Blue Hat Green Hat", and Cara and Siena kept giggling at every oops and then we were all laughing. It was a great moment.

An unusual summer weekend...

So last weekend, St. George was finally experiencing it's monsoon weather. The rainstorms were actually dropping some rain IN town. This made for an opportunity to go to the long forgotten park after 10 in the morning. During the summer, you can't go during the day because not only is it hot, but you can get third degree burns from the playground equipment. Because of this, Cara really hasn't spent as much time at the park as me. I love the swings and I don't think Cara even remembered what they were. Looks like she remembered really quick! (As a bonus, it was a Saturday so Daddy got to come!)




It was actually really windy and it would sprinkle little tiny drops of rain on us and Daddy kept wishing for a down pour that would send everyone racing for cover. He got his wish later that afternoon when we checking in on Grandma's doggy. It was so much fun! He actually got his wish probably 4 more times in the next 48 hours!


Look! You can still see our blue skies!

Later after we assumed the rain had calmed down (we ended up being wrong and there was a huge thunder storm that night), we set up a tent outside for the first time! I loved it. Of course, I couldn't calm down in the tent at bedtime since it's still light outside so I opted to sleep in my bed. It was a good thing we had the rain fly on though because our stuff would have been wet!



The dogs really loved the tent and when it would rain, Mommy would let them in the grassy area of the yard and they would curl up in the vestibule under the rain fly.

Or when the tent wasn't up, they would use my house as a dog house. They normally get kicked out in the dirt patch because Roxie tends to destroy things by digging holes in the middle of grass areas. Of course, she's eaten the insulation off the piping that goes from the AC unit into the house because that's left out in the dirt patch too but hey it's all about choices!

Happy Anniversary!

Five years ago today, my mommy and my daddy got married! They started off on this wonderful adventure that allowed me to become part of this family. What a great decision. Aren't they sweet? Luckily it's only been five years so they don't look much younger than they do now.

Since it was August and they got married in the St. George temple, if you look closely you can tell that everyone is red in the face from the heat even though it was only 11 am!

Daddy even did the worm at their wedding reception. They call it more of a party than a reception. They had a buffet and dancing. Mommy says she danced the night away. So much fun.

They are also lucky enough to share their anniversary with Oma and Apa! Today is number 45 for them!

And she's gone!

Our sweet Aunt Becca is a college gal now. Grandma helped her drive out to Iowa yesterday. She's going to be playing college soccer at Iowa Western Community College and live far away from us. We've had so much fun with her and we are going to miss her so much. But we are so EXCITED for her. Mommy keeps saying that she's going to have a blast living on her own. Personally, I think Grandma's house is where it's at, but Aunt Becca seemed pretty enthused about her own place. We've loved her being our nanny and hope she finds someone else who will cry and rub snotty nose on her. LOVE YOU AUNT "BECECCA"!

We combined Cara's birthday party with her going away party but Cara had much cuter pictures so here is the photo overload of this post.
Of course, I helped actually open the presents since Cara seemed much more interested in what came out of the boxes. (Such a strange child.)
She even read her cards.
Then we finally got to the good stuff. (I had to go to a time out briefly and then refused to eat my cupcake because I was much more interested in the toys that I insisted were mine not Cara's.) Of course, Cara knew how to fully enjoy her cupcake.
Would you believe my sister is starting to drop off her growth curve? She had an appt on Tuesday and she's only 18 lb 5 oz which dropped her to the 9th%!! Dr. Clark says she needs to eat more. Mommy didn't think that was possible. However she is now 28 1/2 inches which is the 30th%. Either way she's still tiny compared to me!
Aren't we a cute little family?