I need a vacation...busy busy busy!

I hope everyone had a fun holiday weekend! We were so busy we hardly felt 'rested' after having the extra time off - sorry Ryan! We were going & going actually starting about a week ago. We took Cole, Malia, & her friend Londyn to the Taylorsville Dayzz parade last Saturday. The girls were so cute and would hold each other's hand and look at each other and squeal and dance together when they heard music, etc! Londyn was being a shy little lady and kept hiding behind Malia (or using her as a shield!) when I'd try to take pictures of her or when a loud marching band went by or something! They were so fun! And Cole loved the motorcycles and fire trucks and balloons...and of course the candy! That's what parades are all about anyway! But it was fun!

After the parade we took the kids to Lagoon for USANA's Lagoon Day. Cole could ride most of the kiddie rides now and Malia was tall enough to do a few of the other rides now too. They both loved it but both of my kids have that 'I'm not sure how to react, blank face stare' when they are on the rides! And after they smile and say 'again!' or if we ask if they liked it they both said 'yeah'. But the last couple of rides they finally started showing some emotion. Malia stuck her arms out like she was flying and was giggling with the little boy sitting next to her! Cole's favorite I think was the cars or the little boats that he could ring the bell on. We tried taking them to the Lagoon -a-Beach...but that didn't go over very well! We were in the water all of maybe 2 minutes and they were both crying and saying they wanted to go home. The water was FREEZING...even to me...so I can understand. So we wasted over an hour getting dressed, in the water for 2 minutes, then drying off and re-dressing. Plus the $5 fee for getting a locker...which was used for all of 10 minutes. Anyway...besides that, the rest of the day was pretty fun!

Then this week, we did it all over again! Ryan was off on Friday (the 3rd) and we took the kids to Jumping Jacks during the day, then did the fireworks thing at Granite High School that night. Malia has always loved the fireworks and had the cutest faces while she was watching them. Her jaw was dropped and her mouth was wide open! She would get so excited and point out the different colors, then go back to her 'awe' face. Her favorites are the glittery fireworks that look like 'Magic' and the sparkly gold ones that look like 'pixie dust'! Cole didn't like the fireworks too much though. He doesn't like loud noises very much and he tried to hide his face in my arm pit and covered his other ear with his blanket. I tried to get him to sit up a little bit but he was glued to me and I couldn't pry him off! He would look at the fireworks, and didn't cry at all, but his heart was definitely beating a lot faster and he was shaking a little bit!

Before fireworks started, I was shaking a little bit too. Malia was playing with her friend Sarah and I was sitting with Cole...and I looked over to check on Malia and I couldn't see her. So I started walking over to see if she was just sitting or hiding behind someone in our big group. But she wasn't there. I asked everyone and we all started looking around and no one could see her...so I started to get nervous and a bunch of us started walking around looking for her. We were looking for about 5 minutes and I still couldn't find her and was almost at the point of panicking and crying when Ry's brother Jeff saw some lady carrying Malia walking through the crowd! She said she was playing with Sarah and couldn't find me. I am SO glad that the lady that found her was a good person and helped her look for her mommy instead of some psycho that could have kidnapped her! It was so scary! Even though it was only for a few minutes, it still could have been so much worse. And if Jeff hadn't seen her who knows how long it would have been before we found her. It took me like a half hour to stop shaking after we found her. It was a learning experience for her though too. We had a good talk about what to do if she gets lost and about talking to strangers, etc. I'm very proud of her that she didn't talk to the lady that found her though. She said that Malia wouldn't tell her what her name was or what her mommy's name was...only that she couldn't find her mom. I think it shook Malia up a little bit too. She was clinging to me for a while after that and didn't walk too far away from me for the rest of the night!

Saturday we had our annual 4th of July breakfast at the Baumann's. They have the best pancakes and breakfast food and I love this tradition! They also have the traditional slip-n-slide in the back yard afterwards. It was a little cloudy this year so it was a little chilly for Malia and she didn't want to get in the water at all. But the older boys had their contests ... like always...which is always very entertaining to watch! I don't know how, but they always come up with new ways to go down! It's hilarious! They found a way to help the younger kids go down too...they got a rope that two adults hold onto on each side of the slip n' slide, and the kids hold onto the middle of it...and they run (or walk) down and pull the kid down with them. It's works pretty well and a couple the kids really enjoyed it! Malia's cousin Jordan was a brave little dude and was the first to try it all out! He was pretty fun to watch too! Even though he was shivering because it was so cold, he was still laughing and enjoying himself.

Malia giving Parker kisses...he was all over that! He even gave her some tongue a few times!

(some pics from the Sandy parade on the 4th of July - Malia was dancing and doing all sorts of poses in the middle of the street...and Cole loved the helicopters that flew by. He's pointing at these big jeeps/hummers that were rolling over the top of each other. It was pretty cool!)

Saturday night Ryan and I went to Stadium of Fire, thanks to my bro-in-law Isaac...he's in the Air Force and was able to get tickets through them! That's right...we got to see Jonas Brother's baby!! It was definitely a stadim full of 12 year old girls screaming! We just joined along with them and acted like nerds...but it was fun! The fireworks are incredible and it was nice to not have to worry about the kids that night...Kathy kept them home and put them to bed for us! Anyway, thanks Isaac for getting us free tickets!

Sunday we were up at the Baumann's for birthday dinners & we were outside playing (Kathy & Lee also have some new toys and a trampoline and a swing set/slide for all the grandkids to play on. There's so many kids in the family now they decided to get some things for them to do when they come over! Cole thinks he's a big boy and loves to climb up and go down the slide, but the steps are slippery and he scares me everytime he climbs up that thing) anyway, Cole climbed up to the top step then slipped and did like a back flip down the steps whacking his head on the bars, then flipping over and hitting his hand and arm on the bars and his head on the ground again and landing on his back. He's got a huge goose egg on his forehead and a nice little black eye too. Poor kid! And just an hour or so before that he was jumping on the trampoline with his uncle Jeff and bonked his lip on Jeff's head and cut his lip...and earlier that day he was opening and slamming closed the bathroom drawers and one bounced back and hit him in the face. Oh yeah, and he also got his head stuck in the railings on the deck too...He had a rough day and came away with a fat lip, black eye and several other battle wounds! Then because he had been up so late and up by 6:30 every dang morning the last 3 days in a row...he was running on no sleep so he was a cranky kid!

Anyway, now after the holiday week is over, I just want to sleep! I can't wait for our vacation...in August!