Europe part 1

I am starting with my favorite part of our trip rather than chronologically. We had a fantastic trip. We were able to do everything we wanted to do and had very good weather.

Cinque Terre
This is the place that was #1 on my list. I was watching the weather for weeks before our trip. Oct is the rainiest month in Italy so I was worried.  The forecast was rain everyday the whole trip in Cinque Terre. I had read a few different blogs that said rain usually comes in the afternoon. I was optimistic that it would be fine. The day before we were to go there we got an email from the hotel owner tell us that we shouldn't come the weather forecast is terrible. I was devastated! I seriously was about to cry. We cancelled our hotel and extended our stay in Tuscany. We watched the weather very closely. We were staying about an hours drive from La Spezia (which is where we would catch the train to Cinque Terre). We noticed that the weather for the following day looked good all day. We made the journey. We first stopped at Porto Venere. Which is a really cute little costal town. It was a VERY windy road to get there and Abi got sick. Then we went to La Spezia and caught the train to Monterosso. This was the town that has the best beach. It is also where we were suppose to stay. We wanted to hike the costal hike. The train station had a sign saying that ALL trails were closed. We walked up to the trail head. There were a couple of people who were climbing over the gate. We stopped and talked to them. They had just hiked from the town before to Monterosso. They were also 70! They said we flew 3000 miles to do this hike, so we did it, if we can do it so can you. They thought the trail was safe. So we jumped the fence, ignored the closed sign and made our was on the trail. I thought the trail was totally fine. Not one area that I thought was dangerous. I guess a few years ago a lady was out on a cliff taking a picture and a huge wave came up and knocked her off and she died. So they are a little OVER cautious. I am SO glad we did the hike. It was my favorite thing that we did. So beautiful. It took us about 1 1/2 to hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. I'm guess 4-5 miles. Then we walked around Vernazza and caught the train back to La Spezia.

Everywhere we went locks were all over different fences or chains.

Not going to stop us!

Rainy days

In August we had a ton of rainy days. A lot of thunderstorms and some flooding in near by areas. But the kids loved playing in the puddles (when it wasn't lightening)

Katewas wanting to potty train, thus the No pants.

Alyssa starts school

We have entered a new phase in parenting. Alyssa is now in school. She has been asking to go to school since she could learn to talk. She loved preschool last year but she kept saying I want to go to the REAL school. Needless to say a month before school started she asked almost daily when it was going to start. She has 2 kids from our neighborhood in her class. Tuesday was her first day. She loves it so far. She has Mrs. Miller for Kindergarten. She is morning class. It is pretty short. On her first day I only had time to do the dishes and go for a run before I went to pick her up. Being a working mom is harder as the kids get older. Today I had 3 different friends helping me get Alyssa to and from where she needed to go. She also has gymnastics right after school monday and wed. I have a really good friend that I hired to pick  her up from school and take her to gym. Man the things I have to arrange. So far so good. Good thing I only work part time. I don't know what I would do everyday. So fun to watch this girl grow up!

Ignore me in the reflection =)

California

We just got back from a week at the condo in California. Noelle was suppose to come with Miles but has a large kidney stone and it was too risky flying with a baby 8 hrs across the country wondering if she would if she would have an attack or not. I was pretty sad about it. Adam was able to come and the girls loved having him there.
We spent a lot of time at the beach and the pool. It was a great trip, the girls were happy and fun. The weather was perfect.
The first beach day we went to Laguna. There was tons of seaweed with 1000 flies on each one. It was disgusting. We tried to ignore it and still have fun. Russ and I took Alyssa to the tide pools. By the time we walked there it was high tide and the pools were closed but Alyssa still had fun climbing on the rocks.

 The first time we went to Hungtington Beach my friend that recently moved there meet us at the beach. Alyssa LOVES playing with friends and was so happy to have them to play with. Since Bryce was boogie boarding Alyssa decided to be brave enough to try it. She loved it. The caught the small shore break (which is perfect for them).

At the rocks by the tide pools

Alyssa wants to pose of the camera

Playground on the beach at Laguna

 We went to Dana Point to take Captain Dave's Whale and dolphin boat. We saw hundreds of dolphins but didn't see any whales. Kate slept on Grandma most of the boat ride but woke up just in time to see a few dolphins. She is still talking about it.

Kate was so scared of the water at the beach until the last day. She finally was brave enough to play in the water. 

Our last day at the beach Alyssa and I were jumping over waves,  she looked up at me and said "Mommy this is so much fun, I wish we could stay at the beach forever."

24th of July

When I first moved to Utah people kept talking about the 24th of July and Pioneer day. I was so confused I had never heard of it before. It is a celebration of the Pioneer's arriving in SLC to settle Utah. It is a Utah holiday and that means work off! We wanted to do something fun. I saw a groupon for a bouncy house waterside for a steal of a deal. We decided to do that and have a BBQ in our backyard. We invited some of our friends. Alyssa and her neighborhood friends played on the slide ALL day. Kate was too scared. I took her on it a few times but she didn't enjoy it. So nice to have a day off and enjoy it with family and friends. Oh yeah we are grateful for the pioneers too.

Splash Pad

We have a few splash pads near our house. We hadn't been to one this summer until yesterday. Not sure why since they are so close. I am so glad we went yesterday. It was a lot of fun. We will be back. Summer is endless water fun!

Styling little girl ;)

Only one I got of Alyssa she was running around with her friends like crazy

Cedar Hills Festival

We loved the Cedar Hills Festival last year so we were excited to go again this year. Monday they have a family swim night at the PG pool. It is only for cedar hills residents from 630-830 so it isn't crowded. The kids had a blast. Then friday we went to the carnival. It only had 1/2 or a 1/3 of the rides they had last year and was a ripe off. We still got Alyssa an unlimited wristband. That was the only way to do it otherwise it was 3-4 dollars a ride! She went on everything 3-4 times. Kate went on a few rides and loved the bounce houses. She sat for 10 minutes watching kids go on one of them that was an obstacle course before deicing to brave it herself. She was able to climb up the steep later by herself. she was so proud. On saturday night they had a firework show. We have a great view from our front porch. And for our little city the show was awesome!!That was probably the highlight of the whole week!

Lemonade Stand

Alyssa had been begging to have any sort of "stand" for months. When it was winter she would say "Lets have a hot chocolate stand". I have turned her down so many times for different reasons. "I don't want to stand out side in the cold..." Today she REALLY wanted to have a lemonade stand. It was overcast and I thought it wasn't the best day since it wasn't SO hot. But I gave in (she really wouldn't stop asking). I thought it would be a good idea to sell cookies too. So we went to the store bought a pitcher, crystal light raspberry lemonade, made cookies and got it all ready. We put it up in front of our house. We live at the back of our neighborhood, so we don't get a lot of traffic. I wasn't sure we would get many buyers and thought we might have to move to a higher traffic area. But we actually sold quite a few to our neighbors. Alyssa was so excited and kept saying "I can't believe how many I am selling!" She earned $13! She of course wanted to go buy something right away but I convinced her to save it for later till she found something she really wanted.
Kate just wanted to eat the cookies and drink the lemonade.

Covered in chocolate

St George

We went to St George for Memorial weekend. My grandparents have a condo there and we go down there at least once a year. We love it there. We were so upset when we got there and found out that our favorite pool in the complex is now private and you have to have a membership. Our condo decided not to buy a membership. They have two smaller pools that we played in. The second one we went to was fun because it has a 1 foot shallow area that Alyssa could practice swimming in. At first Kate wouldn't even walk in the water but by the end of the day she was swimming with her floaties by her self. We spent all day at the pool and it was fantastic!