Ahhh summer....

I know why this is Mommy's favorite time of year.  All we do is PLAY!!  On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to catch Grandpa on a day when it was too hot to climb (or he probably couldn't get a partner!) and he offered to go to Zion with us.  He picked his favorite swimming hole to show us!  We loved it and were a little bit bummed that we didn't have the place to ourselves but what do you do?  It's summer in Zion.

We hiked just a small ways in and then got to play in the stream.  I was very excited to find out what a pollywog was until I saw how many of them there were and Grandpa tried to get me to hold one.  Pollywogs are baby frogs and they were everywhere and gross and slimy.  Cara was brave enough to hold one but I wouldn't even TOUCH it.  Blegh.  I screamed when Mommy was trying to insist.

However, when we arrived at the swimming hole, I LOVED IT.  There was deep water for Grandpa and Mommy to jump into and then for me to test out my swimming skills.  Oh and we got to hike up a little further to a waterfall that you could use as a slide.  I enjoyed that very much but Mommy lacked some grace going in!

It was an enjoyable 3 hours with Grandpa and I hope we go back!

Uncle Eric....

Guest post by Mommy:

In my family, there is a joke that we have two families...Angie and I came first and suffered so that Marty, Becca, and Eric could enjoy the fruits of it.  :)

But really we have THREE families.  Ang and I have both been full fledged gone from the house for about 5 and 8 years respectively, Marty and Becca are almost there (Marty is completely, Becca is at least engaged) and that leaves Eric by himself for the next three years of high school.  He could have Spring Break vacations with my parents entirely to himself!  (Although since my dad and Marty are almost inseparable and now WORK with one another he probably won't actually get it.)

However, I consider my littlest brother Eric (okay my youngest brother...he's quite a bit bigger than me) my friend.  There are THIRTEEN years difference between him and I.  I was there in the delivery room when he took his first breath, cried his first cry, I even cut his umbilical cord!  I pretended to be his second mom. (It was heaven for a 13 year old girl.)  Funny enough, there are only 10 years difference between him and Siena!  But I have stayed close with him.  He loved Pete almost as soon as I brought Pete around.  Eric was only 7 at the time.  He had played with all my boyfriends and was always bummed to see them go. (Okay maybe not all of them.) We had a secret handshake for several years and he loved to do it!  It often surprises people that I have a strong relationship with a brother who is that much younger than me.  Too many years apart.  It helps of course that we have the three nerds in the middle to help tie us all together, but Eric might be my favorite.  And I can tell that I was out of the house for his more annoying stages and that I really still feel like a second mom because  I'm always trying to take his side, make sure his feelings aren't hurt, you know help him out because he's not tall enough to do the dishes...oh wait...

He is such a great uncle to my girls, too.  That's been the fun part of the age difference.  I don't think he would have gone near little kids in diapers by choice, but because my little girls are HIS nieces, he will call me up and check to make sure we're coming over because he's bored.  Really I'm spoiled rotten because Marty makes a great uncle too.  It's so much fun to watch.

I love to hang out with Eric.  He makes me feel cool.  If he likes something that I show him, it makes it way cooler.  I love those surprise moments when I become aware of what a really good person he is.  Nobody loves to clean their room or do their chores (except Marty) but when it comes down to what matters.  He is a good person and will continue to be an amazing teenager.

Love you, Eric!

Romney Sayings

Sorry for the unexpected blogging hiatus.  We are apparently wiped out from the first half of June and have resumed just normal activities around these parts.  However, Mommy did attend an overnight camping trip with the girls from our stake who will all be sophomores next year and got to do lots of fun stuff...maybe we'll make her do a guest post on it.  Daddy needs to have a little break from work to let her use the computer though.

Mommy has requested that I type up a few of the things Cara and I have been saying around the house that leads to giggles and text messages to other family members.

Siena:
We are sick of swimming.  We go swimming every day!

Cara:
Say sorry to my thumb!  You need to say sorry.  (This was when Mommy was telling her no thumb during church!)

Siena:
Okay Mom.  You go and have a good time and be safe.  Go have fun at your girls camp.

Cara:
To Grandma: Your phone loves me.  (Slight shrug of the shoulders and then proceeds to pick up phone and play with it.)

Siena:
I made my bed like Mary Poppins.  (I love folding the comforter at the foot of the bed!)

Cara:
I have a baby in my belly.  It's growing so big.  (Must have something to do with Aunt Angie's cute belly!)

I think we will all go to bed now and maybe energy will be found to try and finish up these last few days of June...we are still 4 blogs short of our goal of 50 for this year!

Happy Father's Day!

I have the greatest Daddy, the greatest Apa, and the greatest Grandpa!  I also have a whole bunch of pretty awesome uncles.  Really, Cara and I are surrounded by outstanding men. I even have great grandpas out there showing me how to be a better person!

We let Daddy sleep in today and then we gave him our cards and had waffles ready.  (No syrup...oops Mommy!) And then we will go to church and I'll help sing to him!

All About My Dad (as asked to me by Mommy)
Favorite food: Strawberries
Favorite dessert: Cake (original answer was Pizza but then Mommy explained the word dessert!)
Favorite game: Mousetrap
Favorite sport: Football
His job is: WORK and he types
My dad is the best in the family at work.
My favorite memory with my dad is going on Go Coaster with him.
My dad is 20 years olds (Siena responded I don't know to the next three questions so I had to give her options to pick from!)
My dad is 6.5 feet tall
My dad weighs 170 lbs
My dad has black hair
My dad's eyes are brown
My dad likes to wear something for church.
My dad is special to me because he loves me.

Pine View High Class of 2002

Guest post by Mommy:

While the Preslars were with us, Pete and I were able to sneak away to my 10 year high school reunion.  I'm such a young un' in so many ways, but 10 years since high school seems crazy!

It was pretty interesting to reconnect with my class.  We weren't a very big class at 363 or so, but I was really surprised at the people's names I couldn't remember and that I didn't even RECOGNIZE some of them.  Luckily, many of my good friends were there and we had an enjoyable evening breaking into the rest of the high school and scoping out our old stomping grounds.  The school has been remodeled and so it was interesting to see what had changed, but some parts are exactly the same.

The thing I wasn't entirely prepared for was that I didn't feel different.  It was like it was 10 years earlier and I was hanging out with my friends.  We all looked just about the same with the difference of maybe hairstyles and of course our bodies had morphed a bit since most of us had an average of 2 kids, but really not even then! (I'll lie and say I'm exactly the same size I was when I graduated!)

It was also gratifying to find out so many people remembered me and took the time to say hello.  I loved high school.  I was a happy teenager.  Of course my days were filled with the typical high school drama surrounding boys and misunderstandings between girls, but if you told me I could go back for a month...I would!  Maybe not go back and do the whole thing over...I do love where I am now, but I would certainly like the chance to be a senior walking the halls at PVHS with my class for even a day one more time.

A pretty good turn out!

We were the first in line to take silly pictures!

It's been fun being in same ward with Iva!

Preslar Cousins come South!

We were so lucky that after our trip up north and then our quicky trip to Disneyland we came home to our Preslar cousins at OUR HOUSE!

I was so excited that it made it a little easier that we were not going back to Disneyland.  (Cara actually put on her Minnie Ears and jumped up and down and told Mommy that we were going back to Disneyland! If these cousins hadn't been at our house, Mommy just might have done it!)

We enjoyed three glorious days and nights with our family.  It was hot but that was perfect because we spent the whole time trying to give our cousins some color!  We played at Sand Hollow reservoir with it's fun beautiful red sand, we went to our city pool and enjoyed sharing our favorite Hydro Tube with Chase, and we played outside in our new yard for HOURS.  Mommy even made sure to get a new little inflatable pool to add to the fun.  This led to many impromptu skinny dipping moments by all but Chase I think.  (Oh and of course the grown ups!)  We even put the sprinkler under the trampoline.

It was so fantastic.  There wasn't much crying or fighting really.  And I don't think anyone ever got bored....we had just received a bunch of new movies in the mail and we worked on watching all of them!  My mommy can never quite capture the hostess role as well as Rachel (who always cooks such wonderful meals for us and never ceases to make us feel at home..) but we sure hope they'll come back soon.

We missed our other cousins though and hopefully we'll get to see them this summer!

Day 2 at Disney

Ha! You thought Mommy and I would let you get away so easily from our Disneyland trip!  But no...there are still lots more photos.  Mommy is really hoping to get some of the videos that Grandma took while she was with us.  She has a GREAT video of me doing the Jumpin Jellyfish ride for the first time and LOVING it.

Day 2 was our sweet spot.  The park had no early entry AND we made it for the rope drop again.  Pretty sweet.  We were able to walk right on to Alice and then get in 3 more rides in the time it took us to ride Dumbo the day before!  Morning is the best time to go.  We also were trying to be sneaky and make it into California Adventure for their rope drop...which was a first for Mommy...but it backfired when Toy Story Mania ended up being CLOSED for minor repairs.  We did however get in rides on California Screamin' and Tower of Terror! Of course Screamin' was just for the big girls, but Aunt Hailey and Mommy got me on Tower of Terror once.  It wasn't as bad as the last time, but I was still pretty worried! Oh and I forgot to mention that I did Soarin' Over California for the first time on our first day.  I started crying while waiting in line because I thought I was taking a real airplane and leaving Disneyland and Grandma and Cara and Aunt Hailey!  Pretty cute.  Mommy explained it all the way thru and I really thought it was neat.  Actually that brings up an image for Mommy of how expert I became at checking my height.  The cast member would just start to say "Can I check..." and I would march right up to the pole, push my ears off my head, and stand ramrod straight underneath.  Perfect, every time.  The cast members thought it was hilarious!

Back to Day 2!  We were able to get a lot in including time in Belle's library and meeting Merida the new princess from Brave.  We also watched the parade and I would giggle and hop up and down anytime a princess or perform waved, looked, bobbed their head in my direction.  Grandma thought it was so much fun to watch the parade with me!

We stayed a little bit later on this final day but I chickened out at the fireworks when they started and went on Star Tours again even though I was nervous.  Of course it was a great ride.  I am still so glad Grandma and Aunt Hailey came with us to be silly in our favorite place.  And Mommy says she's sorry about all the Disneyland posts but it's our Year  of Disney!  We might never get another one just like it!

We got to shoot an arrow with Merida!!

Apparently Mommy said she wanted to eat nice people for lunch
that explains Maleficent! Also I got Tinkerbell once and I loved it!

This is the new fun Mad Tea Party set in CA!

I took these great pictures of Mommy and Cara!