Kindergarten

Oh my little Claire Bear. I couldn't love her more. I was wondering how I would do sending her off to Kindergarten. It was hard to be sad when she was so excited. For days and days before school started, she would ask over and over how many days were left until she started school. She was beyond excited. I told Anton I think part of it was, she and I went into Lilly's class every week last year, so I think she had an idea of what school was all about. That morning I told her she could have anything she wanted for lunch, and she chose McDonald's. After lunch we grabbed her backpack and off we went! She was so excited that they had the school mascot there, and was excited to see a few friends she knew. I kissed her goodbye, and in she went. It was like I had done it a dozen times before. She was ready, which really calmed my nerves and emotions. It was a strange week for me though. It was such an odd feeling being in my house all alone. I didn't know what to do! I was so happy when they got home from school that afternoon. I had dinner all ready in the crockpot, my house was all nice and clean and my parents came by to give them some Back to School treats and hear all about their day. It was a great day. This week has been totally normal, and I feel completely back to myself and we are in a good routine. Claire is loving everything about school. She is learning to read, and is catching on really quickly and she loves her teacher. I couldn't be happier for her!!

2nd Grade

How did this happen?!?! I can't believe Lilly started 2nd grade!! Time is going by too quickly. She was really nervous to start school because we weren't able to find out which teacher she got until the day before school. She was a nervous wreck about getting the "mean teacher who yells a lot". But, she lucked out and got the teacher she wanted. After she found that out, all her nerves were put to rest. She was so excited to be reunited with some of her favorite friends. So far, this year has been great for her and she still loves school!! I love my little 2nd grader sooo much, and I am beyond proud of the little person she has become. Love my little Lilly Bug!

Outings

When summer comes, the outings begin!! We did our regulars: Temple Square & This is the Place. And, we added a couple new ones too: Cowabunga Bay & The Train museum in Ogden. I love these outings so much. I hope the kids will let us take them on these outings for many years to come. These kiddos love their cousins so much, and I am so grateful for their friendship and love for each other!

We went to Cowabunga Bay and had an absolute ball! Lilly lost her snaggle tooth while we were there - finally!!

We took the FrontRunner train up to Ogden, saw the Museum (so cute!) then had lunch and headed home. It was really fun to do something totally new. The kids loved the train. 

My cute neighbor and friend gave me a Zoo pass. Yes, she gave me a zoo pass. Well, she had me added to theirs, but same thing in my opinion! One morning we didn't have anything going so we decided to go up for a few hours before it got too hot. I loved just being with my girls.

I have said it before, but we love This is the Place. This year they changed the gold mining part, and added a few things that just continue to improve it. They have made it so nice up there. I love it! 

Montana Part 2

The girls and I drove up and met Anton again for a couple weeks in late July. It was great, as usual. It is so low key, and we always have such a great time. It is very different from Salt Lake though - I got kind of home sick. I was ready to spend hot summer days by the pool. Some of the days up in Montana, I would wear a sweatshirt. That's not the kind of summer I am used to!! But, it is beautiful and we are making great memories - some which I would never trade for anything in the world!

We went to a really fun, and really good restaurant called Roost. Chicken, corn bread, coleslaw...Yum! Another one of our favorite places up there is Buffalo Bump. We eat there weekly when we are up there. There are lots of yummy and fun places there.

We took a day trip to West Yellowstone and went to the grizzly encounter. It was crazy! Those bears are so beautiful and so huge! I can't image seeing one of those in the wild. Claire got to see one of her favorite animals - the peregrine falcon (thanks to Wild Kratts). After we saw the animals we walked the town, grabbed lunch at a local diner then went to a little candy store and loaded up on a lot of sugar! It was a fun day. I wish we could have gone into the park. Hopefully next year!

The county fair was going on while we were up there. It is always fun to go see the animals and the crowd. They had a great petting zoo, which was a highlight for the girls. They got to milk a cow too! It was a fun night...there isn't anything quite like a county fair!

Lilly & Maddy. I swear that girl loves her dog more than anything in this world. For many reasons it has been nice to have our own place up there, but being able to take the dogs with us has been a huge plus. Lilly gets super homesick for her dog when we leave them home, so I don't think we would have lasted as long as we did up there if we didn't have Maddy with us!

The Rodeo! The girls had never been to a rodeo, so we figured taking them to one in Montana would be the perfect place! Unfortunately it wasn't the best rodeo...no one qualified for anything, and the bulls they rode weren't huge. Claire kept asking when they were going to ride the "big bulls". It was fun regardless of those things. Hopefully we will catch another one next year!

One thing that is different from Salt Lake is the places (or lack thereof) to go swimming. There is only one outdoor swimming pool, and one indoor. We tried both, and the girls loved them. Our apartment is located right by a huge park filled with walking paths, play ground and this cute little pond. A lot of the ponds up there have their own little "beaches". It warmed up one day enough for us to venture over to that one. It was so much fun! Anton and I just relaxed on the beach and watched the girls play and play. Lilly kept trying to catch tadpoles, but unfortunately she didn't catch one. It was such a great day! 

June & July Randoms

The girls and I went over to my moms one day to look at all my old toys, and bring some of my old American Girl dolls and their clothes home with us. My dolls hair was driving me nuts because of how ratty it was, so looked up online on how to fix their hair...I couldn't believe how well it turned out! Their hair is silky smooth now. It was a big deal to this American girl doll loving household! 

I am constantly getting comments on how tan Claire is. Her coloring is so striking, and so beautiful. How about her rad gloves she insists on wearing all the time?! She is also gotten so particular about what she wears. With Lilly, we could always buy her clothes and know she would love them and wear them. Not Claire. She wants to always pick out what she wears, and it rotates between about 5 outfits. Kind of drives me nuts! We have so many cute clothes, and she wont wear them. Her excuse..."Mom, I am saving those shirts so they don't get dirty"...right. We got a good chuckle out of that comment. That was her excuse so she wouldn't hurt my feelings in saying she didn't like the outfit I picked out. Quirky little thing!

Every night when I go in to kiss her goodnight, she has tucked her favorite "softies" in for bed. I love it.

With her favorite pool toy. Seriously, she treats this dumb thing like it is her blankie...she loves it! Random!!

We had a great 4th of July. The girls at the end said "This was the BEST 4th of July EVER!"...and I think they really meant it. It was a long day, but a fun day. It started off with me being in charge of the primary parade at our ward breakfast. We never go to it because last year we were out of town, and the year previous we were moving....and my mom always has her 4th of July breakfast. So, the girls were jazzed about going and about decorating their bikes for it. We had a pretty good turn out too! After that, we headed over to my parents for the tail end of their party. The girls got to go swimming, and Claire was anxious to show Anton how good she was at swimming. Pops got into the pool, and that was a favorite thing for all the grandkids. At one point we wondered if we would need to jump in and save him...it looked like the kids were going to drown the poor guy! He is such a cute Pops...there is a million things he is good at, but being a grandpa is one of his best. After swimming, we headed over with all the guys in the family to my Granny's to help clean up her yard. She is getting so frail, so it was good to go and help her. She adores Anton, and was so happy he offered to come and help her. I love that Anton does those kind of things. It was his idea to go over, and rounded everyone up to go help. I love him.

After that, we stayed home for the rest of the day. I made blue cheese burgers, we ate ice cream then headed outside to start the firework show! Anton and I both said we think the girls loved this holiday as much as Christmas...it's been a while since we have seen them that excited! Some of our nieghbors came over to light fireworks and then we sat up our chairs to watch our other neighbors firework show...which is amazing. Next year we want to pay him to buy more fireworks and light them off for us! It was a great 4th of July. I have loved this holiday since I was a little girl, so it is fun to see my girls love it as much as I did growing up!

Swim Lessons

Finally...Claire knows how to swim!! Whenever you ask Claire what she wants to do, like soccer or tennis or any of those things, she says swimming. So, I knew we had to get her learning how to swim on her own. She loves it so much! Claire is much more timid than Lilly, so she was a little slower to learn how to swim. Willowcreek is closed for remodeling this summer, and I have had terrible luck with the rec center in teaching her how to swim (such a waste of money), so I decided to put her in lessons with Miss Lorie. Best decision ever. I knew if anyone could get her to swim, it would be her. The only down side to these lessons....I want my backyard to look like hers...pool and all!! We can dream, right?! Great job Claire Bear!! 

Montana in June

About a week after school let out, we packed up the car and headed up to meet Anton in Montana. We were really excited since the girls and I hadn't seen our new place yet! The girls might as well be professional road trippers....they couldn't be better on me when we are driving. They don't ever complain, and thanks to Nana who took them to go buy some fun things for the car, they just played and played the entire drive. The dogs and me got a little tired of the drive though. Anyway, we got there safe and sound, and the time we spent up there was amazing. I am beginning to love Bozeman. I didn't love it right off, but the more I am there, the more I love it. The weather is perfect, its a slower place, the people are kind and it is so beautiful. Still, even though I love it there, Salt Lake is my home. We will never move there, but it is the best place to visit and spend time at!  

We found some fun and low key things to do while we are there. The one fun thing we did was go to Bozeman Beach. It is a little lake/reservoir right outside the town...it reminded me of something you would see back in the day. Claire thought it was too cold (I agree with her), but Lilly loved it. She loved jumping off the dock into the water. Another day, we drove up through Paradise Valley and then up to the North Entrance of Yellowstone. It was stunning. I can see why they call it Paradise Valley! We were hoping to see buffalo, since Anton sees them everywhere in the fall/winter, but we didn't see any. We were kind of bummed. We also went on a few little hikes, which were fun but Claire of course was a scaredy cat when we got to the river. It was so funny, and in true Claire fashion! One of the girls favorite things is the swing set and the pond that are right across the street from us. The pond has frogs, which they love going to go see and try and catch. There are pathways everywhere, so they have loved riding their scooters and exploring...same with me! I went for a run one morning, and thought to myself "if I had these pathways at home, and my scenery looked like this, I would run all the time!"....now that's saying something, since I don't love running! We love Bozeman and the memories we make when we are up there!