Siena turns TEN!!!!!

Guest post by Mom:

I'm horrified...Siena is actually 10 and a half as of yesterday by the time I have gotten around to typing this. Let's not talk about it...

For some reason, as I am looking at the photos from her birthday....this is all I've got. We obviously made her a rainbow cake and I'm kind of drawing a blank as to why it seems so anti-climatic. Wait. It will come....We intended to celebrate her birthday in our upcoming trip to Disneyland.

Siena at 10 is glorious. She is a great student and loves to be part of fourth grade. She signs up for everything and has become quite the baby sitter for me. She doesn't always do this willingly however.

Just before her 10th birthday, Siena auditioned for A Christmas Story the Musical at the St. George Musical Theater. We were DELIGHTED when she was offered the part of Mary Beth. We had actually assumed she hadn't gotten a part because the phone call came two days later than we thought it would. She attended her first read through on the day of our Kokopelli triathlon which made for a busy day for her!

I think that really sums up my Siena. She's a performer who loves to participate...in WHATEVER. She thinks Studio C and Youtube are the best things ever (mostly thanks to her cousin, Romney, who I think Siena idolizes!) She jumps on trampolines and likes to color pictures. She has gotten lots braver when it comes to climbing and hiking and just being a great kid. If only I had taken the time to write down more specific things back in September!!! Oh well. I think I was probably better at being in the moment and maybe that's better anyway!

We are Growing Up

In September, Target ran the special of turning in your old carseat and get a discount on a new one again. Mom decided it was time to upgrade Iva to a booster seat. Iva was VERY specific about what she wanted. A purple and dark pink booster. Mom took me to Target with her and UNBELIEVABLY there was ONE hidden amongst the others (and reasonably priced) that was indeed purple and dark pink. Iva loves it. She can now unbuckle herself. Which is the opposite of what she could do before. 

Mom has some major guilt. She has not been documenting Sam growing up nearly as well as the other kids. If we are fully honest, she's trying to help me type up this post in January. It's almost impossible to remember what exactly Sam was doing or acting like. He loves being outside and that has never changed. He prefers to snuggle with Mom to sleep. It took him forever to get more than just six little teeth.

He's been really different than us girls, but we just LOVE having him around our house. He's gotten lots noisier and became obsessed with watching youtube videos on our phones. Mom hopes to be better about writing down the silly things and big boy things he does.

More time in Zion...Ballet...and a Rodeo

Grandpa saw all of our posts about playing in Zion and he had to be part of it too! We made the mistake of attempting to go to Zion on a Sunday afternoon in September. It was quite packed. Parking was hard to find, but we did it! We even stole Lexi to come with us!

Cara was SUPER excited because she got to start taking ballet! Her best friend, Chloe, convinced Mom to let her join her class. Here she is all suited up!

September also brings about the awesomeness of the rodeo. Kids can always go free on Thursdays, but Dad always teaches on Thursday nights and so does Mom so we went on Friday! Mom had to take us alone though because Dad had obligations with cello. We got there plenty early which meant the sun was DIRECTLY in our eyes. Sam kept imitating Mommy and putting his hand up.

The awesomest part was when Sam insisted on going shoeless.

We survived pretty dang well. We didn't quite make it through the whole thing, but CLOSE!

The Kokopelli

It came! It really came. Mom and my race really came. And so did a storm. That dropped the temperature and made it windy and cold. AHHH! We still get up and loaded the Prius with our bikes (okay Dad did that last night). It was dark when we got up and it was slightly sprinkling. We both really wanted to back out, but we didn't. We warmed up in the car and got ourselves to the race.

We had to kind of psych ourselves up so we took selfies and got our leg markings. In a cruel twist, the kids race is actually first. So JUST as the sun was rising and starting to warm us up even slightly, the kids had to be suited up and ready to get wet. Luckily the water was almost 80 degrees.

I was nervous, but then I saw the buoy I was aiming for and it wasn't really that far. I knew I could do it and Mom was there screaming and yelling for me the whole time. (Her favorite part was when I literally muscled my way around some kids as the horn sounded and started my swim!)

It was GREAT! And I took third in my age division for girls. I even charged ahead of one girl right at the end of the race to get third instead of fourth!

Then it was Mom's turn. Dad showed up with the other kids just in time to send her off and grab me! Because in a weird twist of fate, I had my first rehearsal for a play I had been cast in! Somehow we don't have any pictures of that so I'll have to fill in that detail later!

Grandma and Grandpa made it to cheer Mom on. In fact, they pulled up the road just as Mom started her run and happened to see her!

These were our finishing times.

Mom was pretty proud of herself although she wishes she had looked up Grandpa's time from last year because she would have run faster. I can't remember right now, but I think that she missed beating him by like 30 seconds or something.

FINISHERS!!!!

And a well deserved nap. Oh wait. That's Sam. That's okay. He deserves a nap almost every day. Being almost two is exhausting.

Labor Day weekend and The Shakespearean Festival

I'm sure Dad might have a few more photos on his phone of Labor Day weekend. We drove up to SLC to hang out, but Mom stayed in St. George to work the weekend away with Grandpa in the Emergency Department. So thus these are the only two photos she has available at the moment...one of her taking a ride on the Kokopelli race route and Iva and her buddy Chase at the aquarium. We had a great weekend.

The Tuesday after Labor Day, Mom got a text from her good friend, Ginae, who lives in Cedar, offering her two free tickets to see Shakespeare in Love at the Festival. Mom jumped at the chance, but couldn't find any grown ups who were able to go with her. So she took ME. Mom was a sweaty mess from just teaching a Group power class and the play had some adult content, but it was so much fun. I enjoyed it. I didn't understand all the jokes, but Mom kind of explained a little bit and I was the only kid in the audience. I hope we get to go again!

Until next time City Pool.....

It happens every year...the time really does come and we have to say good bye to our beloved city pool. We had to do it a little earlier than normal this year because we were going to spend Labor Day in Salt Lake. 

We spent many hours on those pool stairs.

And consuming cheetos on the lawn.

We were all sad when it came time to leave. We can't wait for May!

The Narrows

We had so much fun on our little hike up the River Walk (and we had paid the entrance fee at Zion which gave us six more days to use it) that we decided to come back and take Dad. And this time we dressed to get wet and hike farther up into the Narrows.

We also took a path that was just to the side of the River walk that kept us right next the river and was the path less traveled.

Here we go! The start of the Narrows!

Iva was pretty nervous and understandably so! In some spots it looked like she was going to be getting wet up to her waist!

We were pretty impressed with how far up we made it even though it wasn't super far but we were the ONLY little kids we encountered. In fact, a nice German tourist asked to take pictures of our family because he was so impressed.

Family selfies rarely go well anymore!

We headed back along the trail and once again had our favorite river spot to ourselves! This time we were in swim suits so we spent more time in the water!

Look! We made it to the other side!

This is how deep it got for us!