Princess Party

Our city rec center (Legacy Center) hosts a Princess Party every now and then. Its a 2 or 3 hour event where little Princesses come dressed in their Princess best and play some Princess games, have a Tea Party and do some crafts. They also do some dancing and meet the Lehi City Royalty and mascot. It worked out perfect this year. It happened during one of Alyssa's HOME swim meets on Alyssa's birthday. So the little girls go to attend the Princess Party while Steve and I watched Alyssa swim - and I could bounce back and forth to take pictures at both events. I did miss my girls walking down the red carpet, but managed to get some pictures of them with Miss Lehi and her attendants later. :) The girls LOVED it. And Alyssa loved having her dad at her swim meet on her birthday!

First stop for my girls, the TEA PARTY! Cookies and juice. Taylor even liked the kind of cookies they had. Yeah!! Of course, I can't get both of them to look at me at the same time though. :)

Taylor almost looks like she has black teeth - that would be from the Oreo cookie she had just eaten! Not really a very "Princess-like" look though. A little more back-woodsy than a Princess. :)

Aren't they so cute?? Who couldn't love these two? Don't let them fool you though! They can be quite the mischievious little pair.

Pin the Princess on the Castle ... while waiting for face painting!

Time for face painting!

Time to make our Princess Wands!! Check out how intensely she is focusing on that wand! You go Jessica!

She was really on cloud 9 at this party! Jess is usually a pretty happy little girl, but this was just super fun for her! The smile and excitement say it all!

Taylor is very intense when she colors or does much of anything. Very focused, very careful and thorough! Have to choose the perfect crayons before we can even start.

Love the little tongue sticking out!

The next several pictures are of the girls doing Princess dancing. It was really cute. They had different actions for the different princesses ... sleeping was Sleeping Beauty, Belle was dancing like at the ball with the Beast, Snow White was holding her dress up and spinning around in circles ... Too cute!

Taylor is in the center of this picture ... cute little face!

Miss Lehi and one of her attendants with Tay and Jess! They thought Miss Lehi was SOOOO pretty!

Time to pose with our favorite princesses!! The Disney Cutouts! Belle and her Tea Party tent.

A helper dressed kind of like Cinderella... Jessica even asked the girl for this picture! She wanted it THAT badly!

The dwarfs are almost as tall as my girls!

Taylor's FAVORITE!! Look at her hand ... she's holding hands with Cinderella. She's going to freak when we actually take her to DisneyWorld and she gets to meet the "real" Cinderella!

Jessica with the Lehi City Mascot - if you can call him that. Not sure where he comes from actually. Taylor would NOT get near him!!

Let's go fly a kite - Taylor's birthday!

On Taylor's birthday, it was just the perfect wind to fly a kite ... so they did!! They loved it.

Some of our best friends showed up to watch the kite. Mady and Aly DeRoest. Aly is younger than Jessica but plays well with both Tay and Jessica. Mady is a year older than Alyssa, but practically part of our family. They haven't played as much together this past few months, but when they were younger they were inseparable.

All 5 girls! Have I mentioned before that our neighborhood has A LOT of little girls in it!! Its lots of fun! There are a lot of kids, in general, but it does seem to be heavy on girls 10 and under.

After we put the kite away, Taylor got to open presents on the front porch from mom and dad and from Aunt Nyla and Uncle Biff!

Then for her special dinner (anywhere she chooses) we went to McDonalds. Not my favorite, but hey, she was in heaven on the newly renovated play area with music toys!

What an absolutely GREAT day!!

Birthdays at Grandma and Grandpa's

My girls always look forward to birthday dinners at my mom and dad's house. They enjoy the time with their cousins, dinner, the cake and OF COURSE, the presents! Here are pics from June 14th, when we celebrated both Taylor's and Alyssa's birthdays!

Pics to come ... I forgot my camera, so I'm waiting on the pics from my parents. :)

A few ... catching up!

I'm almost ONLY a month behind now! :) I actually have a post from the 14th of June to do, and then I'm a month behind. Hopefully, I can blog several nights this week and get caught up. Thanks for bearing with me on ALL the big long posts with lots of pictures. Thanks for keeping in touch, especially those of you who aren't close by. Friends mean the world to me and I have a hard time letting go. So, the fact that so many of my friends from my childhood and past stop by to read my blog, really means a lot to me!! I'm really glad those of you who are still a daily/weekly part of my life stop by too! Hope all is well for all of you!!

Spanish Fork Swim Meet

Alyssa swam last year at our city rec center. She loved being on swim team. And even though it is a challenge for me (early morning practice and meets 5 or 6 days a week for 2 months of summer), I gave in and let her do it. She really loves it. Its GREAT for her and since I've never been one who feels extremely comfortable or confident in the water, I don't want that for her. I'll encourage it as long as she is committed!

June 13th ... warmup time: a horribly early time of 6:30am. And its 30-40 minutes away! Meet started at 7:00 am. The morning didn't start out so well. Alyssa came in my room and told me it was time to go ... at 6:58. She had misread the clock ... thought it was 5:58 ... who can blame her? It was before 7am on a Saturday morning!! As for me. Why wasn't I up? Oops. Who can blame me?? My alarm just didn't wake me up (actually I set it incorrectly, probably as some subconcsious desire to not get up and go!). Anyway, we decided to head down anyway, knowing she'd miss one of her 3 swims. I called a friend who was there with his daughter and he got Alyssa's first event (freestyle) changed to backstroke so we ended up not missing anything for her. She did backstroke, individual medley and breast stroke. Backstroke went well! She placed 7th in her age group.

Individual medley ... she just wasn't ready for butterfly! She managed to swallow water on the butterfly which is the first of the 4 strokes required and she was choking when she reached the end of the pool. She said she felt like throwing up. I knew she had already been disqualified for not swimming the butterfly correctly, so I pulled her out of the water to prevent her from throwing up in the pool and shutting down the meet (she shut down a pool at our condo once - for the same reason, swallowed water, gagged, threw it up along with her french fries ... didn't figure all the other kids would appreciate seeing her snacks and missing the rest of the meet!). Funny thing was, the timers didn't see me pull her out and walk away with her so about halfway into what should have been her 2nd lap, they started panicking because they couldn't find her ... lifeguard was even looking at the bottom for them when my friend told them I had pulled her out. Kind of funny! Glad they were concerned though. I didn't get any pics of it.

Breaststroke ... according to her this is her favorite stroke. Can't blame her. I like it too - although I'm not sure I'd be able to race it without getting disqualified! She swam it well, BUT she did a scissor kick and/or brought her arms too low on her stroke so she DQd. Proud of her for trying though!! Alyssa has on the white swim cap in the center (hands up by her face). A little nervous for breaststroke after what happened with I/M.

Stihl Outdoors TimberSports Event at Thanksgiving Point

Thankgiving Point played host on June 5th and 6th, to the first round of the pro competitions for the Outdoors Timbersports sponsored by Stihl. Since its only about 2 1/2 miles away, Steve thought it would be fun to go ... he had heard there would be the dog splash jumping too. We took the girls, the camera and headed out for a new experience.

First, we found seats in the arena that was set up for the log sports. The first one we saw was the Speed Climb. Description: Using climbing “gaffs” or “spurs,” climbing rope and harness, competitors race to the top of a 60-foot pole and return to a padded crash pad. On the descent they must touch the pole with their feet at least once every 20 feet and can reach speeds of 35 mph. These are timed events that start at the signal and end when the competitor returns to the crash pad. The primary challenge of this discipline is strength and coordination on the climb, and controlling the speed as the competitor descends to ensure touching his spurs in the designated areas. It was AMAZING to watch these guys climb this!! It took them just seconds to climb the top and then they were virtually free-falling down with a couple quick stops to stick in their spurs. FAST!!

Then we saw the SpringBoard Chop. Description: A discipline based on the need for old-time loggers to establish a cutting platform above the massive root bases of old growth trees, the competitor uses an ax to chop pockets into a nine-foot poplar pole and then place 6-inch wide springboard platforms into the pockets. Climbing up on the springboards, the competitor chops through a 12-inch diameter white pine log at the top of the pole. This discipline is a true challenge of strength and dexterity because the competitor must power through the chop while balancing seven to eight feet in the air. The springboard chop world record is 32.77 seconds set by New Zealander David Bolstad in 2000.** I know it sounds crazy, but we loved watching these events. They each use two springboards and their ax. They are not roped on in anyway, so if the springboard won't hold, they have to jump down, ax in hand! I also thought it was impressive that they chopped from both sides - meaning that they had to swing both left-handed and right-handed. Two people compete at a time, but they are also timed.

Then this lady came by signing autographs for the kids ... good for the sponsors. Her name is Jenny Atkinson. She signed a photo of herself for each of our girls and then we asked to get her picture. She was more than willing, and asked if her husband could take one too. She said the sponsors love seeing pics like this. :) Her husband was carrying a TINY baby, I'd say less than 6 months old, maybe only 3 months old ... and she looks like this??? Totally unfair. My baby is 4 years old and I've still got quite the pooch on my tummy! Jenny was the 2007 World Champion in Boom Running! She's 35, been competing for 25 years and is also a 3rd grade teacher.

Our third event ... one quick boom running race. With, yep, Jenny Atkinson and another new mom! Description: This discipline mimics the skills necessary in old time logging when moving lumber down river. Featuring lumberjills, a competitor runs down and back across a string of seven logs of different shapes and sizes attached end to end in a 70-foot long pool. The boom run is a timed event with the competitor with the fastest time advancing to the next round. Boom running is a test of skill, speed and agility. Quick feet and balance are essential as a competitor seeks to make a “dry” run. Unfortunately, Jenny didn't win... But it was crazy to see them running like that. Steve was hoping for a good splash, but no such luck. They were both dry at the end ... although Jenny did stumble off the last log and got a slight injury.

4th event: Stock Saw: Description: The stock saw discipline is a true test of operator ability. The competitor uses a stock MS 660 STIHL Magnum™ chain saw and begins with both hands on the log and the chain saw idling on the deck. At the gun, the sawyer makes two cuts through 16 inches of white pine. With only four inches of wood to work with, precision is key. If a competitor saws outside of that or fails to saw a complete cookie, he will be disqualified. Jason Wynyard set the world record in the stock saw discipline at 9.81 seconds at the finals in Columbus, Ga. in 2008.** .... That's some serious sawing!

And to me, the best part of the day was who we ended up sitting near in the bleachers. Total coincidence. There was some empty space and when Steve looked up, he realized that it was right next to our 1st regular babysitter Jessica. She started babysitting for us every weekend when Alyssa was just an infant!! She babysat for us one weekend night almost every weekend for about 4 1/2 years. She's now married to Nic. When Jessica stopped babysitting for us, she was dealing with some tough issues and was sick. We really worried about her and missed her a lot (even though we did find another great babysitter shortly after she stopped babysitting). When we started discussing names for our third baby, we discussed the name Jessica. It stuck. We liked the way Jessica Lindsey sounded, we liked the possible nickname Jess or Jessi and it reminded us of our cute Jessica Perry. So, our Jessica is sort of named after our babysitter Jessica. We hung out with them for quite awhile. It was fun to catch up. She was blown away at how much the girls had grown.

After the 4th event ... the girls just needed to get up and move. We headed out to see if we could find the SPLASH dogs. They weren't "SPLASHING" so we watched some dogs running obstacle courses and then we tried a few events! Alyssa tried roping a steer...

Then she tried bull riding... when she approached the mechanical bull, it turned on her as if it was about to charge. She wasn't quite sure what to do. No matter what direction she headed to get on, it turned toward her. Then she realized I was laughing at the operator...

She showed no fear and laughed and smiled a lot while she was riding and getting thrown to the ground.

Taylor was interested in the little pool of water ... hmmmm... it was for river rafting - tossing a rope into it was the goal. All 3 girls gave it a try.

And finally ... some SPLASH dogs! If you don't know what this is, it involves a dog running down a raised platform and diving into the air to get a toy or ball their trainer has thrown. The goal is to jump as FAR from the platform as possible. The distance is measured. Some dogs can jump 20-25 feet! Its crazy! We didn't get to see any GREAT dogs, just some training, but we at least got to see some jumps. Our favorite was this dog that was ABSOLUTELY NOT about to get wet. He'd run up to the edge and STOP .. literally clawing his way back from the edge. The owner tried EVERYTHING to get him to jump. That dog would not go in. Finally, the owner, "oops" (after removing his shoes, watch, shirt, phone etc from his pocket) fell in taking the dog with him.

Aren't they cute sisters!?

Here's one dog just leaving the platform although he's kind of hard to see because he blends into the platform and trees a little.

Overall, a very fun day that I'd do again next year if given the chance. It was just fun to do something spontaneous and new and to spend time with the girls and Steve (seeing Jessica and Nic was an added bonus!).