St. George Fun

This last week we took the girls to St. George. Dan had some CE (Continuing Education) courses down there. We met up with some of our dental school buddies (Hansen's we missed you!). While the guys were in class and then golfing, the girls went for what else but pedicures and swimming. We had all the kids with us. So it made for some interesting pedicures. Not as relaxing as they normally are. Rylee who is 2 loved her "pink piggies" (that would be her toes). I've never seen her hold so still. She loved it, actually they all loved it!!

We had 7 little girls under 7 lined up getting their pedicures. It was so cute and so fun. They giggled and giggled and giggled.

Shanae (left) and Kristie (right), what cute Moms!!

After pedicures it was off to lunch at In-n-Out Burger (quickly becoming a new favorite of mine). After that we went swimming. I didn't get any pictures because I was in the pool. Later that night we met up with the guys and left the kiddos with the babysitters and enjoyed dinner at Samurai 21. If you're in St. George you should try it. Yummy! Another favorite place to eat is Poncho and Lefty's. Best Mexican food in town. You have to try the shrimp enchilada!!

We only got to spend time with our friends for 1 day but it was a fun day. Our girls loved staying in a hotel. The first thing Brinley and Rylee did was jump on the bed. Of course this is not allowed at home, but hey they were on vacation so jump away!!

Baylee didn't want to jump, she was too busy watching Disney Channel. We don't have cable so she had to get all she could while in the hotel.

My 3 bed bugs. They thought it was pretty fun to sleep together in one big bed. They didn't want to go to sleep, they were having too much fun. It was cute watching them all in the bed playing until it was almost 1:00 am and I wanted to get some sleep. Then it wasn't so cute anymore.

We then headed off to Zion's National Park. I never thought that I would say I was cold in St. George but we were cold that day. Infact it snowed on us in Zion's and rained most of the day. A little rain never stopped up before though (we still have our webbed feet from living in Oregon for 4 years). We got up that morning, got dressed in t-shirts and shorts and headed out to the car. We then quickly went back inside, changed into long sleeve shirts and pants and grabbed our jackets. Despite the colder weather we had a lot of fun. The girls loved the tunnel. Rylee said it was scary and covered her eyes while driving through it. Baylee couldn't believe that we were driving in a mountain. I loved the beautiful scenery around us. The colors and shapes of the rocks were amazing. We did a little hiking in the rain but soon got very cold. We even saw a wild turkey--two of them, but they ran into the trees before we could get a good picture. Rylee stayed on Dan's shoulders most of the day. She was his ear muffs. While eating lunch, there were a lot of caterpillars on the ground. Rylee freaked out over them and refused to walk. She kept saying "the color papers get me, I hold you Dad, I hold you". It was pretty funny watching her run from them.

I think we wore them out. This was the last morning in St. George. They are going to hate me someday for posting this picture. I still think they are cute!!

Sunday morning before heading back home, we stopped by the St. George Temple and walked around the temple grounds. The weather was perfect!! The Temple was beautiful!! It was a nice way to end a very busy week.

Rylee still refusing to walk. She's searching for "color papers" (caterpillars). Dan packed her all day. She wouldn't come to me, she wanted the safety of her Daddy.

Pictures in the rose gardens at the grounds. More pictures to come from Baylee Rose and her roses...

Heading out of town, we stopped at the Red Cliffs above town. Dan and Baylee went rock climbing while I stayed in the car with the 2 sleeping little ones.

I love spending time with my cute family!!!

Easter Fun!!

Hippity, Hoppity Easter is here and gone!! My girls love all the fun activities that come along with Easter. They scope out all the places in our house that the Easter Bunny might hide their baskets, love picking out their new Sunday dresses, can't wait for the egg hunts, and live for Monkey Bread. This year was another fun Easter despite the cold weather for our Neighborhood Egg Hunt. We had it the weekend before Easter and we woke up to a massive snow storm! We thought for sure they would cancel it but no, our good neighbors shoveled their lawns and went forth with the egg hunt. We bundled the kids up and off we went searching for eggs. It was cccccoooollllldddd!!

Easter weekend was better weather (sort of). Instead of snow we had rain and wind, but again that didn't stop us from enjoying our Easter traditions. Saturday we made our favorite Monkey Bread. We started this tradition while living in Oregon. We had some cute neighbors up there that made it for their family egg hunt and invited us each year. It is so yummy!! Then it was time for egg dying. Brinley giggled the entire time dying eggs. She thinks it's so cool that they can change colors.

After dying the eggs, it was off to Grandpa Dowdle's for dinner and another egg hunt. We finished the hunt just in the nick of time. The last couple minutes it started raining. We're not sure we found all the eggs, we think there may still be eggs in Grandpa's gardens. I'm sure he'll find them sooner or later!

After this egg hunt it was time to see what everyone got. It was a competition with the cousins to see who got the most money and candy. Guess who always wins...Baylee.

Finally it was time for Easter morning. The girls searched our house up and down for their baskets. Rylee's was in the shower (that's where she hides to mess her pants), Brinley's was where the garbage is, and Baylee's was hidden deep in the coat closet. Silly Bunny (those are Ry Ry's words).

It was then time to get dressed up like a "Ballabina" (again Ry Ry's words) that would be a ballerina. The girls loved their new dresses. However it was almost impossible to get a good picture of these 3. Baylee smiled perfectly, Brinley kept pulling faces and Rylee wanted to sing the ABC's instead of holding still for her picture. O-well, they're still cute anyway!!

After attending church we went to dinner and yes another egg hunt at Aunt Judy's house with my side of the family. Dinner was delicious and can I say that we had so much food that we could have fed everyone on the block--twice! It was sooooo very good though. This family loves deviled eggs. We fight over who gets them and how many we can have. Baylee has caught on to this quickly. She would eat a whole plate herself!!

Rylee likes them too!!

YUMMY!!

After stuffing ourselves with so much yummy food we headed outside for our final egg hunt. There was over $100.00 in these eggs, so the competition was on. Baylee kicked off her new dress shoes and was ready to go. She wanted to win this hunt too. Her older cousin Ryan walked away with the most this time. He did not want to be beat again by a 7 year old like last year when he walked away with only .12 cents! Baylee did OK though. She came home with $12.00. Go Bay!!

We had a fun week and a wonderful Easter. It's a great blessing to be so close to family. We are really lucky to have such special people in our lives and great examples. Even with all the fun and games at Easter time, we can't forget the most important example to us, our Savior Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the sacrifices He has made for us!! We hope you had a great Easter also.

Tag Time

OK, I know that I have been a MAJOR slacker with the blogging world!! What can I say, LIFE gets in the way sometimes. I got Tagged, for the first time, about a month ago from the cute Brandy that cuts (and colors) my hair for me. I then got Tagged again from one of my bestest friends in the whole world, Mandi, about two weeks ago.

I'm starting with Brandy's (sorry to take so long to respond to the tag!!)

Tag......Picture 6

This is the 6th picture from the 6th folder...

This is a picture of Baylee 2 days after her 4th Birthday. We had just moved back from Oregon 2 days before (yes we moved on her 4th birthday). We were excited to be back in Utah. We were living in my parent's basement. My parents bought this swimming pool for Baylee and Brinley and had it all set up for them for our big arrival back home. Baylee loved being in the water (still does, she is my fish). In this picture she was trying to catch the water spraying up from the side of the pool. Everytime she was in water she had to have her favorite pink goggles on (still does). She also got her new purple Tinkerbell swim suit for her birthday. She loved this swim suit. She wore it all the time and now it's too small for her.

When I opened this picture of Baylee, it brought back a bunch of memories and emotions. I remember being excited to be back home in Utah, but I was very sad to have left the beautiful state of Oregon and the wonderful friends we made up there. It was bitter sweet for us. It was a time in our lives that was very new to us. Dan and I had been married for 9 years then and had always been in school trying to reach our goal of Dan becoming a Dentist. We finally reached our goal and during this time we would often look at each other and think "now what?", 9 years of school was over, so now what are we supposed to do? What is it like being in the "real world" of working people and not in school anymore? You could say that we were sort of lost, but we quickly caught on and sent Dan to work, bought a new home, and let the student loans kick in.

When I look at Baylee in this picture, it is amazing to me how fast time flies. She is now 7 (almost 8) and becoming a beautiful young lady. She's a great help to me and a wonderful example to her younger sisters!!

I Tag Mandi, Amy, Ashley, Wendy, Kelsie, and Kim

Go to your 6th folder and then to your 6th picture and tell us about it. I'm excited to see your picture!!

Stay tuned for my second Tag from Mandi...