Girls, Girls, Girls

So sad story. We were supposed to spend our fall break from school in Cabo, but instead a hurricane hit Cabo a month ago and destroyed our best laid plans. Our airlines canceled our flights and we were left scrambling. Luckily, Mom said that everything was refundable, but now we had a four day weekend with no plans.

Obviously, we couldn't let the weekend go to waste. Luckily, our Preslar cousins were supposed to be with us in Cabo and we were able to have the girls come visit! Uncle Troy stayed home with Chase and Daddy drove up to hang out with them and do yard projects. 

That meant we had a house full of girls for three days! It was awesome. We had a Halloween party, played on a water tower, went hiking, ate yummy food, watched movies, played mini golf, bumper boated, and PLAYED PLAYED PLAYED outside. 

Romney got a hole in one on the mini golf course!

Possibly one of the messiest games invented...

Halloween prop fun

We may have enjoyed a little too much ice cream

As evidence by these last two photos, Cara and I were delirious with happiness most of the weekend.

Southern Utah Hiking

Guest post by Mom:

Okay this post is going to be out of sequence a little bit and a post on its own. Mostly because I have gone hiking on multiple days and for multiple reasons and I have a lot of posts to do anyway.

Fall in St. George is gorgeous. The temps are in the mid-80s during the day and drop to the low 60s which allows for just a light chill in the morning. I love it. There are also mostly just clear blue skies that I adore.

I took the girls on a quick hike on the Chuckwalla Paradise trail just to get out and enjoy that SKY!

Iva's a pretty happy hiker.

On Conference Weekend, Pete and I took the girls to the Pine Creek swimming hole. We hadn't been all year which was a shame. We should have brought swim suits because it actually ended up being quite hot, but instead we only stayed a moment and hiked back to the car.

The hole was the fullest I've ever seen it but very muddy.

We hiked around up on the Sugar Loaf with my Dad and my brother's little family.

Then Grandpa took the more advanced hikers (basically not the twins) up to the climbs above the Boulevard. He showed us some pictograms and where he likes to crack climb.

My dad even had my girls go rappelling on Tuesday. It was great.

This was Cara's first time! She did great!

This past weekend, the Preslar women have been hanging out with the Romney women and I swooped us all out the door to hike the Johnson Canyon trail. It was stunning. And crowded. The desert was in bloom and painted a beautiful picture.

We didn't have the backpacker and so we tried Iva on my shoulders. It worked for a little bit.

Annual Staheli Farm Visit

This year we were able to attend the NICU reunion at Staheli Farm with Aunt Angie. Gratefully, we have never actually used the NICU for the babies in our family, but hey, our aunt is one of the big stars so we had to be there. Plus we kept an eye an Lexi while her mom flew in on the helicopter! How cool is that?! We got to see inside Aunt Angie's helicopter after they landed!

We always love the small maze for the kids off the pirate ship!

Colt and Carter actually ARE graduates of the NICU so they were there too. We managed to get ONE picture of all the grandkids together. No...we couldn't get them all looking and smiling.

And Mom took many, many photos of us at the pumpkin patch. This year we left the costumes at home, but she still took photo after photo!

Last year, Iva was still a pumpkin in Mom's belly. This year she just loved touching them!

I carried my own pumpkin from the patch and it was whopping 14 lbs! It was crazy hot so we actually didn't stay and play in the corn maze this year, but it was still a successful trip!

Iva at 11 months

And just like that another month is gone! We had a whirlwind of activity over the last few weeks and it almost escaped our Mom that Iva was 11 months old.

Iva at 11 months old is a lot like Iva at 10 months old. But faster and more dangerous. She's getting so good at walking that she has started running and amazes people everywhere with her skills. She never crawls anymore. Not if she can help it.

She started doing her first signs in the last week and of course it is "eat". Boy, does that girl love to eat. If you have ANYTHING  in your hand, drink or food, she wants it and she will cackle at you until you give it to her. That is, of course, why her first sign is eat because we don't love the cackle. It's very clear that she is asking for whatever you have. Drinks are especially dangerous. She wants them desperately and at all times. She is notorious for taking huge long gulps and then letting 90% of it spill right back out of her mouth because it doesn't work the same as nursing.

She still sleeps with Mom. If she had her way, she would probably nurse all night long. She's down to only two times during the day, but she just wants to suckle her night away. Mom doesn't mind too much because she knows before long Iva will be seven and much to large to sleep comfortably with. She likes all food, but especially enjoys being given a banana or cheese stick. She's quite the chewer for only having her two bottom front teeth.

She is still such a cheery baby. She goes with the flow really well. She is very curious and adventurous and tries desperately to eat the trash and play in toilet water, but handles the rejection pretty well.

Mommy's Favorite Moments

I know we already did a Disneyland post, but I wanted to share my favorite things from our trip. There is always something that makes it amazing. So here are my favorite moments and pictures.

First of all, Siena is amazing. She walks and runs all over Disneyland with her own two feet just like her parents. What's truly incredible is that it's kind of double the distances if you think about how short her legs are! And she NEVER complains or begs to ride. She also made me tear up at the Halloween party by switching seats for her sister without being asked because she saw that Cara needed to sit by me.

The girls rode Space Mountain twice this time (once with each parent) which is amazing because it is switched to Ghost Galaxy and has a scary element added. In this picture, Siena has covered her eye with her eye patch and was closing the other one. She also told herself stories in her head like she was a pirate protecting her crew onboard a ship in a storm to help get her through the ride. Cara was just terrified.

This is how Iva liked to spend her time when she waited off of rides. She pushed her own stroller around!

She also used her sneaky defense mechanism of cuddling with strangers whenever she would get scared. It's kind of hilarious. She just leans into you farther and snuggles down if she is scared, no matter who you are!

One of the best things about this trip occurred Friday night. We got a hotel close to Disney for just one night so we could change into costumes and not travel far that night after it was over. They gave us a complimentary upgrade to a two bedroom suite. (We badly needed that the LAST time we stayed there when we squeezed into a tiny room with Angie and Eric!) We were all so elated that we just played in the room for two hours. The girls even had sword fights. Each bed was a boat. Iva even played the whole time. She giggled and ran around like a crazy person!

This also made me smile. Cara got to use our amazing Sally costume from two years ago with Siena, but we jazzed it up for the beginning of the party. Sally really rocks those ears!

Iva had a lot of my favorite moments. She and I spent one morning running around California Adventure kind of alone. She was adorable and sweet and look at all these great pictures I got!

When I showed her the water, she recoiled for half a second and then just put both hands in and almost laid her whole body against it. You could tell she loved the feeling of it pouring over her arms.

AMAZING PHOTO!

And this perfect shot I finally got on Astro Orbiters! The castle in that background!

On her actual birthday, Siena requested to ride Goofy's Sky School as her very first ride. That paid off! She got to be "The Aviator of the Day" which gave us a fast pass for that ride all day. She loved it. They also let her ride four times in a row because there was no one else over there.

The cool part about this trip was that the favorite rides were Goofy's Sky School and Big Thunder Mountain. That's different from our other trips, but it really worked out because they are less popular and you can always sneak in more rides. In fact, the girls and I got a bonus ride in on Big Thunder because as we got off they randomly asked if anybody else wanted to hop on the next train and we took up the offer! What can I say, it's my happy place.