Juliet is FOUR {Patsy Ann!}

I am so behind with blogging, and I'm feeling so guilty. There is so many fun things to share (our little vacation away for the kids' birthdays, fun family activities, and snow! Tons of snow!)

Today I want to share all the good amazing wonderful things about this girl that is now FOUR.

So, Juliet at four, where oh where do I begin?!

• She is shy at school, doesn't speak much and follows all the rules to a T. 
• Is nervous to say goodbye at school drop off but is all happy smiles when I pick her up. 
• Her favorite toys include her tiger, her tea set and her Darth Vader bear. She also plays with Calico Critters and Legos almost every day. 
• Her best friend is her brother, and more often than not they play extremely well together. 
• Her speech and understanding is amazing, but some things we just can't correct. She calls scuba divers "diva-divers" and our kitty Mabel "yea-bel"
• Her favorite color is "red for evil" 
• She adores Star Wars and talks about Darth Vader way too often. 
• She still loves taking walks with me, James grew out of walks recently (sob!) but she is always more than happy to take a walk. 
• She is silly and sweet and hilarious. She makes us laugh every day. 
• Meal time is still a struggle. She's picky and just won't eat much. We beg her to take three bites, and thats often all she'll eat. 
• She hasn't napped for two years but plays really well during quiet time. 
• She loves playing outside, biking, riding her scooter, and her Mickey Mouse "bike"
• She absolutely loves fruit, and will raid the fridge while I'm not around. She'll often eat an entire case of strawberries before I figure out what she's up to. 
• She still let's me dress her (hallelujah!) and I dress her in dresses and cute combos every single day. 
• We still call her a snuggle bunny and she aways says "I'm not a bunny! I'm a human!"
• Her favorite tv show is Wild Krats and she loves animals.
• She still talks about Hawaii almost every day. She wants to go back so badly!
• She loves working on art projects and her little potato people are getting cuter by the day. 

She's amazing and wonderful and seriously the best little girl I could ever hope for. I am absolutely wild for this strong headed love.

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve was windy and dark, with the promise of lots of snow to come!

We arrived at my mom's house late in the day and started opening presents. My mom does all her Christmas presents the day before, to try to help ease some of the Christmas madness. It's brilliant actually, and so fun to space out the opening madness.

My mom doesn't pull any punches and found this incredible wooden dollhouse at a second hand store, along with all the furniture and accessories! James, Juliet and Auntie Melissa spent over twenty minutes setting it all up.

So many things to set up. And can I just say how much I LOVE this doll house? It's solid wood and gender neutral. No pink at all!

Soon we trickled into the back room to start opening more presents! Everyone was there, all four siblings, their significant others, grandparents, and my kids.

 Lots and lots to open!

 James ALWAYS needs to be sitting next to Jess (my brother's girl friend). They adore each other.

This adorable bunny was on her best behavior the entire night. She did not want to leave and even ate some dinner! Woot!

James wore the same outfit as last year for Christmas Eve, and Juliet wore a vintage dress I purchased on Instagram.

Last year, just for the fun of it!

James is SIX

James at SIX!

• Six is the best ever.
• He's so dynamic and expressive. He understands more complex feelings and thoughts.
• He's learning to read.
• He's a math master.
• He makes friends easily at school, his best school friends are Wylie and Mohimen
• He still loves diggers and waterfalls, but his intense interests include natural disasters, weapons, Star Wars and Star Trek, explosions, and science. 
• His favorite foods are cheeseburgers, ice cream and whatever fruit he can find.
• Favorite colors are blue and green.
• Writes amazing things on his school work like "my mommy is kind"
• Plays so well with his sister most of the time. 

Lagoon 2015

This year everyone in E's family joined us at Lagoon. Since everyone was there, even Pap Paps (which is what the kids have taken to calling Grandpa Steve) we decided we needed an updated old timey photo.

Every October we visit Lagoon with E's family and every year it is the highlight of the kids entire life. I swear our Lagoon Day competes with Christmas and Hawaii for being the best days of the year. The LOVE it.

This year E and I wanted to ride the new rollercoaster Cannibal first thing. I am more of an adventure seeker than E's entire family combined, so I was super happy E was willing and excited to join me. See that tower? It's almost twenty stories tall (??!!!!) and you ride inside an elevator up a dark elevator shaft while on the coaster. That part was scarier than the rest of the coaster.

After the tower you speed down a beyond vertical drop that almost puts you upside down. Seriously so fun. Luckily for us, the kids went with their grandparents while we waited in the super long line.

After we met back up with everyone we took our kids on all the rides they love. Both kids are huge adventure seekers (like their Mama!) and couldn't wait to go on the scariest rides.

These three girls spent most of the day together. Damma does love her granddaughters. However, truth be told, Damma is a Lagoon-going-feind and the only one that could keep up with her was James. They rode the rollercoaster three times, then ran over to another coaster, then went on the swings, then did it all over again. And she doesn't even mind the dizzy rides which James seems to love, so they did those over and over too. She's a very good Damma.

Lagoon equals two things, way too many rides and way way too much sugar.

James surprised E and requested going on Wicked. Wicked is special because you go up that incline as fast as you fall down the decline. It is intense. He was terrified but did it. I don't think he'll choose to try it again for a few more years.

PERFECT October weather.

Since we haven't taken old timey photos since 2012, I had to go back and compare. James is Emilia's age in this photo (almost exactly) and Juliet! Oh my gosh! Why must they grow up?! Look at her!

The photographer asked us to be serious. Everyone is looking great, but my kids totally steal the show. Juliet's face is perfection. 

*Sorry I haven't been blogging as much. New hobbies shift my attention elsewhere, but I'm trying to catch up, even just a little. But if you want to talk Sherlock, I'm your girl. ;)

Fourth of July and celebrating E's birthday

I am so behind on blogging, but I will catch up. We went to the farmhouse and Red Butte Garden this weekend and I took my big camera to both and got some great shots!

The fourth of July and early July is such a fun time for our family. E's birthday falls on the 1st and we decided to get sushi to celebrate. E wanted a tow hitch and a bike rack for his present.

To celebrate the fourth we decided to head to our favorite Chinese restaurant, because after all, America is the greatest melting pot, right? We ordered all of E's favorite dishes and then headed back to his parents' house for pie, pool and fireworks.

The cousins are getting so big and SO fun. Emilia has a blast with James and Juliet, and my kids talk about Emilia for days afterwards.

Happiest fourth!

Forth of July cupcakes! Damma always makes sure the kids have all the sugar that E and I don't give them on a regular basis.

My handsome guy turning 34.

Such fun traditions, the tank wars are always the favorite.

Could they get any cuter?!

And I'm all about the passage of time. July 4th 2013. Look at these girls! I die!

Last year.

Grownin' up too fast. 

Side eyes {Then & Now}

Happiest Father's Day! We are in the middle of an entire weekend of fun. Can't wait to write proper blog posts about everything. But when I snapped this photo of Juliet yesterday I knew I had to post it. I reminded me so much of myself, in a classic photo from my childhood.

Juliet, at three, 2015.

My mom and I. I am three as well. Apparently I loved this side-eye face and did it constantly. 1984.

And here is a really old video of Juliet doing side eyes when she was one years old. Time flies. So fast.

Zion National Park {Our first proper camping trip!}

Years and years ago when James was tiny we planned a camping trip that was doomed (read more about it here) and ever since then we've been hesitant to try again. Last year we decided to sleep over at the cabin to try to see what camping would be like, and it was doomed too. Ha!

But when my dad called four months ago hoping that we'd join him for camping in Zion National Park over Memorial Day we decided to go for it, not sure what we'd gotten ourselves into.

The drive down was wet. Rained the entire time and the forecast looked dreadful. We set up our tent in the rain and the next three days called for rain, rain and more rain.

But the kids were STOKED! They got sleeping bags for Christmas and have been so excited to test them out and finally sleep in them. My dad has a trailer RV thing with a rain canopy, so we scooted over to his site for dinner and to play in the warm (dry) trailer.

Bedtime rolled around and our tent was dry and cozy. Both kids fell asleep wonderfully and we slept all night without a hitch!

In the morning it was absolutely POURING. E and I questioned our sanity, who wants to try to enjoy our first camping trip with kids when all we could do was run from the tent to the car? We were feeling pretty blue. Instead of being soaked we decided to go to town for breakfast (luckily our favorite breakfast spot is in Springdale) and take a drive through the National Park after breakfast was done.

James and I got out to explore a few times. E was exhausted from his week long trip that he'd only just returned home from and Juliet was NOT having the rain.

All the washes were full of water, waterfalls were spilling off the cliffs and James and I explored and explored. We tried to rally the other two, but they were happy in the warm dry car.

Lots of dark clouds around lunch time, but not raining long enough to stop us from exploring near our campsite.

Juliet only wanted to be inside the tent. She loved it. She didn't want to hike or explore, she wanted to "snuggle in [her] cozy sleeping bag."

We took lots of hikes in the rain. This one E and Juliet missed because after an epic meltdown, Juliet decided to take a two and a half hour nap in the car. E was more than happy to stay with her while I hiked with my Dad and Tracie (his fiancé), her daughter and son-in-law, and their two children that are roughly James's age.

My dad and James were the happiest and fastest explorers of the bunch.

James really really likes these almost-cousins. When my dad marries his fiancé, I'll have two step-sisters and a step-brother (which is super odd for me to say, since I've only met two of them once), but anyhow, these will be our kids' cousins.

These three were as thick as thieves and never ever left each other's side.

Lots of rain meant we ate inside my dad's rain awning. But everyone was happy while the rain continued on.

The next day we woke up early to catch a shuttle into Zion Canyon. The kids were excited to hike Emerald Pools (which James has been on twice and Juliet has been on once!). We hiked both the lower and middle pools and were mostly rain free! Woot! Juliet even surprised us all, and after an early meltdown regarding hiking, she hiked the entire 1.5 mile loop herself.

The trail takes you directly under the falls, and this waterfall loving boy couldn't be happier.

I remembered that James and I took a photo on this rock on this hike two years ago, so I wanted to reproduce it.

Awe. James was Juliet's age on this trip and hiked so well even back then. 

After our hike we headed to the Zion Lodge for lunch. Not a bad view to enjoy.

The sky continued to clear. We hopped back on the shuttle and went to the last stop, where The Narrows hike starts. We wanted to just enjoy the scenery and let the kids play near the river.

Having sun was such a nice treat after such a cold trip! Both kids played happily near the river for two hours, James reworking the flow of the river in a spot and Juliet working hard on her "mud cake factory."

E and I just relaxed and enjoyed the views. Zion Canyon is so spectacular, pictures do it no justice.

We had to recreate this photo too! Can you get over James? He was four months old (E is behind him holding him up FYI). Circa March 2010.

And back again in March 2013.

And May 2015. I can not get over these, looking at them all side-by-side. 

She liked that her cactus shirt has yellow blossoms just like the "real cactus!"

 Finally we had an evening without rain! We made a fire and let the kids roast marshmallows.

The last morning we had sun! Finally! Not a rain cloud in the sky and sadly we were packing up to head home.

I truly wish these photos does Zion justice, really the don't even capture it.

One last hike in Kolab Canyons before heading home.

Camping, you win. We will do this again.

Our other trips to Zion with kids were in 2010 (James was itty bitty!) and then again in 2013. Links here.