I'm kind of mourning the loss of my "baby" this week.
Since Ellery has been flipping, crawling, flopping, twirling and tangling herself in her crib, we decided it was time to lower it.
She thinks it's great- more room to play. I think it's depressing. . .
. . .because now my baby is this big baby who needs her crib lowered.
Goodbye little baby. I miss you already.
Ellery and I jumped on a 7am flight (got up soooo early) and headed to Texas. I was kind of nervous to fly by myself and I was a little more nervous to fly by myself with a baby. But we did it! She was pretty good, and aside from the man next to me trying his darnedest not to notice me nursing her, the flight was very comfortable. Does anyone else feel like they're nursing in odd, uncomfortable places all the time? 
Ellery and I had no idea what Texas was like. We thought we had it all figured out when we stopped in El Paso for a minute and looked out the plane window. Dusty, Texas dirt all over the place, funny, little dirt-pile "mountains", cowboys roaming around on their horses. "Yes, this is Texas," I thought. I wondered what we would do there with all those cowboys. I don't know how or why, but I imagined Texas, all of it I guess, to be like an old Western movie.
This is their darling daughter Peyton. We joked that Ellery could eat Peyton. Even though she's two months younger, Ellery has about four pounds on Peyton. It was cute to see them together. Peyton, who is a thumb sucker, was obsessed with taking Ellery's pacifier and it kept them both entertained. When we got there I noticed that Ellery was kind of fussy and showing teething signs. Sure enough her second tooth was poking through. Peyton was nice enough to share her teething rings with Elle and she was a happy camper after that.
And who's this little Texas princess? This is McKay's old pal Riley. Let me just tell you about her. We of course did some Texas shopping at a HUGE outlet mall. We were there for about five and a half hours, not including driving time, and this little girl was amazing! She didn't complain, didn't have a tantrum, didn't need to be entertained or distracted, didn't need snacks. She didn't need anything. It's like Ian and Buffy have raised this super-shopper child. McKay would have lasted about an hour...maybe. I was just blown away. She is such a little sweetheart though and I really enjoyed getting to know her again. We're already planning their wedding.
Maybe my favorite thing of all was our nightly bowl of ice cream. Has anyone had or heard of Blue Bell ice cream? I have known people who go on and on about Blue Bell ice cream and how amazing it is. You can't get it in Utah, and Texans seem to be very passionate about this treat. Well, let me tell you they are SO right. It is heaven. Buffy had me pick out a flavor to buy and first of all, we stood in front of the freezer for about ten minutes. I have a really hard time deciding on an ice cream flavor...and especially when there's this pressure attached and about three dozen choices....it's really hard! Anyway, we finally settled on Cookie Dough. It was so good. It was incredibly creamy and the cookie dough really tasted like cookie dough. And you got a huge ball of it in practically every bite you took. I don't know if I'll ever be the same. I think I've been ruined. 
I looked outside and this is what I saw. Buffy was hanging on to the back of the car for dear life, soaking wet, and banging on the window to get my attention. She wanted me to know that she was in distress. She wanted me to help her. She wanted me to save her. So you know what I did? I started laughing...really hard...and then I got out my camera.
Buffy figured out I was not going to get out of the car and that she had to brave the tornado by herself. I was snapping pictures of her the whole time, and laughing. She was kind of laughing too, I think. One of the funniest things to me was every time Buffy went past the side of the car, her baby, Peyton, would let out a terrified scream. The sight of her drenched mother being tossed around in the wind and rain was kind of scary. Don't worry, Peyton only cried when she could actually see Buffy. Once she was out of sight she would stop.
See. She's okay. She made it through the tornado. But look at her umbrella. She had to throw it away because unlike her, it could not handle storm. Buffy was soaking wet. We had to forgo our plans and go back home so she could change every article of clothing she had on and we could wait out the tornado.
On the way home this is what we saw. All over the neighborhood fences were blown over. We even saw a trampoline blown against a house with a big barbecue grill dangling from it like an earring. This made us laugh even harder and made Buffy quite proud of herself for staying alive. (I just laughed hysterically all over again as I typed this)
We must have impressed these nail ladies, because they too generously gave us free flowers...except we didn't even know they were doing it. At first I noticed that she had given me a rhinestone. "Okay," I thought, "one rhinestone would be fun." Then she pulled out the white flower...then the black dots...followed by more white dots. They did a similar thing to Buffy's big toes. We could hardly contain our laughter as we remembered the discussion on toe flowers just a few minutes before. This time I didn't have the guts to say anything about the lovely flower, and yes, I am aware that I have a very large big toe. Brian teases me about it all the time. 
So here they are. We call them our "jazzy" Texas toes. I complimented Buffy on how cute her feet were, this was before our pedicures, and she looked down at mine and said, "...because they look exactly like yours." Don't they look really similar. This reminds me of having "who's feet are cuter" arguments with Katie. I didn't even know Buffy was my foot twin, but aren't her feet cute? ; )
On my last day there we went to their neighborhood pool and afterwards had a fun photo shoot on the lawn. You know I always love a good photo shoot.
I had so much fun with these two! Buffy and I stayed up late every night talking and catching up on SYTYCD and The Hills. We had some good food, besides ice cream, and I loved seeing their house and their cute little town. It definitely made me realize that I could maybe move somewhere else.
Look at this sweet sad face. She got really upset when she found out I was leaving. It was so precious. It made me so sad to leave my friends. I love them all and I'm so glad I got to go spend time with them. Except there's one bad thing that resulted in my visit. Now I'm sad all over again that they're gone...On Saturday morning our upstairs neighbor's water heater had a leak and flooded our utility closet and carpet. We got to use every towel we have to sop up water and then fall asleep to the buzzing hum of the fan while it tried to dry out our soggy mess.
Speaking of the fan...McKay tipped it over while running past it and it slowly sputtered to a complete stop. Brian spent the next hour taking it totally apart to fix it and putting it back together.
On Sunday while I was feeding Ellery, McKay brought me a gallon of milk because he wanted a drink. That sweet little boy handled the heavy gallon like a champ, until he tried to climb up Ellery's dresser and accidentally tipped the milk over which he had put on the floor. I was putting Ellery in bed and heard McKay yell, "My sock! My sock is wet!" Before I turned around I knew what I would find. Yep, half a gallon of milk soaking into Ellery's bedroom carpet. Great. I sopped up more milk than I did water from yesterday. Ellery didn't get a nap because of the disaster in her room, McKay had to take all his clothes off because of his wet sock and I was one cranky momma before church.
Hope your weekend was better than ours.
I get kind of embarrassed when Brian tells people that Orem Summerfest is his favorite day of the year. I mean really, Christmas, a birthday, 4th of July? Nope, Orem Summerfest tops them all. And in recent years it seems like he's declaring this to more and more people. I just let him and then roll my eyes when he's not looking. No really, I love the day as well, but I'm a 4th of July girl myself.
Sorry, no pictures of my red face. Maybe some other time.
One of the best parts of the race was the prizes we won. Basically everyone who ran the race got a prize. I won a big old backpacking backpack. Just what I need around here...another big backpack. But Brian won this little tent, perfect for Bear and Dog to camp in, and this little shark hat. That's more like it.
After a nap for Elle and one desperate attempt to get McKay to take a nap (didn't happen) we went off to the carnival and finally the parade. I'll stop being so wordy, which is really hard for me, and just let the pictures tell about it...with maybe just a few words.
Checking out the firetruck. I thought this was pretty cool.
Who knew that a silly little ride would make him so happy. I think he really thought he was operating this boat. And he had to be aggressive to get that bell rope away from that other little boy. He was a rope bully.
It was so extremely hot that while Brian went to get us something cold to drink the kids and I sat under the big tent where the Hale Center Theatre was performing songs from Little Women, in full costume. What is it about McKay and people in costumes? He was frozen watching them sing and dance around. The only thing that distracted him was getting a snow cone all to himself. This picture was us leaving the tent to head over to a family BBQ.
Here's the family waiting for the parade to start. Last year McKay's obsession was the Owl from the Orem Owls...or is it Owlz? This year- Captain Hook. He came right up to McKay and shook his hook. It was very exciting.
I just love the cute summer faces of these two cousins. 
Ellery was quite bored at the parade. It was bedtime and she was not about to be excited about floats and marching bands. 
Front row seats! Love the motorcycles.
It was a family effort to fill up the "balloon". 
With a great audience.
There it goes. Pretty cool, huh?
Did you know I am married to a kite runner? After the second one was launched I looked around and saw Brian running off into the distance. He'd decided to go find the balloons in the streets of Orem. Okay. He actually found both of them, and one was intact. A little boy had discovered it in his front yard and he and his dad were looking at it like it was a UFO. This picture is actually of Marilyn running after it. 
The day wouldn't have been complete without a glow necklace or two.
And now for the fireworks. I took this on my camera's firework setting. I figured since there's only fireworks about twice a year I better use this very specific function.
Me and Mack settled in the back of the car to watch the show. He was as chipper as can be at eleven o'clock. And Ellery, she would not fall asleep and insisted on watching the fireworks from her car seat. Little stinker.
Go to sleep, Ellery!
The roof gang. It was tricky to keep McKay from seeing the girls up there. I knew if he did that he'd think he could ride up there all the time.Brian and I aren't really the ooey, gooey romantic type. I love him like crazy, but it's not really something I usually go on and on about to other people. But...it's Father's Day...so I figured I can get a little sappy on behalf of my kiddos and tell him (and you all) why he's such a great daddy. Here's what I love about him: 
+100.jpg)
Happy Father's day to our Daddy, and all the other daddies out there!
