Have You Ever??

Have you ever swam in a pool of chocolate milk? Well we haven't either but... Gila Box in Safford is probably going to be the closest we ever get to swimming in chocolate milk. "Gustav, save some room for later". No we did not taste it. Well. I guess I can't actually say that I didn't taste it because for some reason I couldn't keep my mouth shut while we were having a huge mud fight. I'm talking filthy, completely covered, mud in places you really don't wanna have mud kinda mud fight. I convinced my good friend Rebecca that we really should have a mud fight, because when else would we get the chance and our kids would never forget it. So..... I casually picked up a gigantic wad of slimy mud and pretended to be looking at something in the mud, as the kids came closer I let em have it and ooooh the fight was on. I think Amelia got the worst of it but she didn't really care because in the end she and Lilly were wallowing in it like little piggies.

The girls and I like to visit my long time friend Rebecca and her family in Safford every year. It's one of the highlights of our year. This year we visited during July 24th Pioneer Day Celebration. There were cookouts, BB Q's, swim parties, fireworks, a parade and we even squished in a few hours of baptisms at the new Temple. The Evans Family was in charge of a branch float this year during the parade and asked if Andelyn and Amelia would like to join in the fun. Scott and Rebecca were "Root Beer" floats and the kids ran around dressed all in brown and handed out root beer candies to all the parade goers.

Havasupai Falls

I would love to say that I was lucky enough to be part of this awesome trip Andelyn was privileged enough to go on but alas my expertise in hiking and rock climbing was not needed :OP This is the trip the youth in our ward were able to make for Youth Conference this year. It was entitled "Journey to the Promise Land". Fitting for sure. Andelyn said it was the prettiest place she had ever seen with her own eyes. They hiked down into the canyon at Midnight, 12 miles down and stayed at camp for two days. They hiked back out on the 3rd day in the middle of the night as well. They all wore head lamps to light the way. It's just to hot to hike during the day so hiking in the dark is almost a necessity. Andelyn loved everything about it except the two giant blisters she had on the back of her heels. Apparently she had the least of the blisters and I think she actually got off a lot better than some of the other hikers. Several of her leaders told me that Andelyn was an amazing hiker. She was one of the first to hike out to the top beating out all but 1 other boy in her group.

Hmmmm - can you guess what time it is?

Yup, you guessed it. Or if you didn't guess it. It's recital time. Interestingly enough, for some reason I didn't get any pictures of Andelyn in her costumes. Yes, we bought a few from the stage photography but I didn't really get any snap shots of her this year. I happened to be at the studio the day Amelia had most of her pictures so I snapped a few outside. These 4 little girls are the best of friends in dance class. They actually spend about 5 hours a week with each other dancing and so it's no surprise that they are such good friends. They belong to a Company group that has been together since they were 6 and this years recital was their 4th year to dance together.

What a beautiful ballerina pose from my sweet little Amelia. She loves all her classes and absolutely adores dance. Both Amelia and Andelyn take tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary and hip hop.

Long Time, No Entry

Okay, I have to admit that I don't actually like the way this blog site works. I have been having a hard time getting my pictures and text to go where I want them to go and I usually just end up giving up. Especially if I have a lot to put on one post and I have to figure out what happened in backwards order. Maybe I am lame and not getting the way posts should work but I find that I am having a hard time. Alas, all my excuses aside I decided I would just post a few pics and right a tad bit for each one no matter what today. So here goes. May the pictures fall where they may.

My sweet little baby girl turned 10 on the last day of February and we decided to have a little friends party. Amelia invited 5 little girls over and they played games galore and ate a wholotta CANDY. The best game ended up being the most simple of them all. We blew up a beach ball and I wrote silly questions all over the ball. The girls threw the ball around and who ever caught the ball had to answer the question that their right thumb was closest too.

She also cut 12 inches off of her very long hair. I seriously cried as I cut but in the end it was pretty cut and Amelia loves it. That's all that really matters anyway.