Miniature Golfing

Yesterday we had our last "official" neighborhood field trip of the summer. These were a lot of fun - that we made it to. There really were just the three families (us, Stephens and Spencers) that participated, but I guess that's who needed it. It's a little scary thinking how close we are to the end of summer break, but we still have a lot more in store. We went to Cherry Hill and did miniature golfing. Afterwards the Spencers and us went over to Nicholls Park (wonder who that was named after?) and had a picnic. I should say, Yadira and I ate while the girls all played.

Cheyenne

We just spent the weekend in Cheyenne. Grandma Rosemary decided to hold the annual Nicholls reunion a little later this year (after school has started for us), so for the first time since meeting Brandon we are going to miss it. But we took advantage of Brandon's Pioneer Day holiday and went to visit last weekend. Besides it being an annual tradition, our purpose in going this time was to meet the newest member of the family, but as you'll notice from my pictures I did not do a great job of capturing him. No pictures of little James. I just took a few the night we were over at Nicole's.

On Saturday we went and filled our car up with gas. Brandon's parents had a great discount that they let us use, and saved us 80 cents a gallon. I'm glad we didn't fill us along the way. Then we did the typical drive by our old house and let the girls go play at their favorite park for a few minutes. Chloe wanted to get a picture reenacting her favorite pose that we took there several years ago with our park friends. I hadn't brought my camera along, so we missed that shot, and it just wouldn't have been the same without the wonderful friends. Later that day I took a walk down to our favorite used children's clothing store. I had just ordered all their school pants/skirts online, but was waiting for the tops to go on sale. This was an even better deal! They didn't have a whole lot that met our school uniform standards, but we got some that will work great. And some shoes for Sophie. Shortly after getting back we headed over to Nicole and Doo Sung's for pizza. We tried to hang out outside, but it kept sprinkling on us. I think I remember the same thing happening last year.

To the Tetons... and Beyond!

We've been up to a lot of stuff lately. This is just going to be a quick run-down. To start with, we finally got our dead tree in front of our house cut down. We had some neighbors come over and help out, which saved us a TON of time. Now we can actually enjoy our picture window! Well, if it wasn't so hot that we have to keep our blinds closed, but in the evenings it's great. Now we just have to get rid of that unsightly ivy that we finally got to die.


I took Chloe to get another hair cut. I didn't post about her last haircut because she wanted to blog about it, but since she never got around to it (her camera's fault, not hers) I'm going to post a picture this time. She let Brandon cut it last time, but he didn't quite do it like she wanted, so after a few weeks of humoring it we took her somewhere to get it done. I think she likes this much better -- not that Brandon did a bad job, just not what she had in mind.


Last week we got to go to the park for a picnic with our friends. It's so easy to do, yet we don't seem to fit things like that in very often. The kids just wanted to play in the creek. They took their shoes off and got good and muddy. We had a fun time and need to do it again soon.


Then I left for Star Valley and a hike in the Tetons. Brandon took the girls camping while I went off with my siblings. We ended up not doing the hike that was planned, but hiked about 7 miles (3.5 up and 3.5 back down) by Jenny Lake. It was a nice break to get out and do something a little different. Chloe was pretty sad she didn't get to go, but we're headed back up to see grandma in a couple weeks so that will make her happy.


After the hike (the next day) I had Sheri come over for a family photo shoot. They even got all dressed up. Then I did some of my parents for their 40th anniversary. Here's one of Tyson and James (aka Orval). We're going to have to do something to keep straight all the Jameses in our family since Brandon's sister just added another one.

My Baby Just Turned Seven!

Saturday was Sophie's 7th birthday. Her "big" gift was getting her ears pierced. She's been talking about it for a long time, but we were waiting for the right time. We finally decided doing it as a birthday gift would work for us. I took her to the mall on Friday (Brandon did NOT want to be around for the occasion), and she got it done. She was very brave. I'm pretty sure it hurt/scared her, but she didn't cry. The girl right after her cried a lot and her mom had to hold her on her lap. Afterwards she spent a LONG time looking at earrings, trying to pick out something to spend her gift card on that Aunt Nicole gave her. Unfortunately, she can't take them out for 6 weeks, so she has to wait to use her new ones. She had picked out these pink daisy earrings, but the lady doing the piercing messed up and put white ones in. I was pretty upset with her, mostly for her lack of concern over the mistake, but Sophie was a good sport and forgave her very easily.

Saturday she got to have a little party. For Mother's Day the girls gave me a copy of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (it also included "Through the Looking Glass") so we've spent our summer reading that. Shortly before finishing it we found out the theatre was doing a children's production of the same story AND it was going to be on her birthday. So, we decided to invite a few friends to take to the play. She picked out an ice cream cake, we ate that quickly and opened gifts, and then went off to the play. I didn't put much effort into the whole affair, so decorations were a bit lacking. I did try to make some party hats, thinking if I did them myself they would be better quality than those flimsy store-bought ones, but no such luck. I found these cute little Alice in Wonderland "puppets" to have the kids make, but everyone opted to take them home and do them there. I know Chloe and Sophie have been having fun with theirs, so that's good.






That evening we took her out to eat at Panda Express. She had picked it prior to her birthday, but Chloe tried talking her out of it. I talked her back into it, and I told Chloe I'd order her some things I thought would make it better for her. I think it worked. Sophie loves to get the kid's meal, but then she ate half of my orange chicken after finishing her own. I think she just needs to learn to get the 3 entree plate -- all orange chicken. She devours that stuff! Overall, I think it was a good day. She was pretty hyper the entire time. She loved all the phone calls she received. Thanks to everyone who helped make her day special.

MIA

I know I haven't been around much. You might think I've been off having lots of fun, but no. Just living life. Chloe finished up her sewing class, and we just started our second session of swimming lessons. That's kept us pretty busy, plus lots of playing with friends.

I have been trying to find more activities to do with the girls to keep us busy, while Brandon's busy studying for his Java test he's trying to take. We've gone to several activities at the library. This one particular adventure we got to make "Peter and the Wolf" costumes and participate in a little play. The girls were a little hesitant, but once it was over they realized it wasn't so bad and asked if we could do more of them, so we have. The last one we went to, The Mad Scientist (which is pretty cool, by the way), they each won a prize PLUS our neighbor, so they were way excited.



We also took some time to celebrate the Fourth of July. We missed out on the Bear Lake Rangers festivities this year, and just stayed home. The night before (the 3rd) they have a great children's parade. Any child who wants can participate. They decorate scooters, bikes, wagons, whatever and just walk several blocks through town. It's a big deal for the kids. Last year we just went and watched, which was ok, but we were one of very few. This year the girls wanted to participate. We didn't plan enough ahead, so their decorations were a little lacking but they still had fun. And at the end they handed out those delicious Pace bars -- remember Sophie's AR party when I commented on those red popsicles that tasted like pina colada? Yeah, those. So we made sure to get red again.





Centerville also does their fireworks show the night before, so we all went up to that. We have a nice spot we found last year, and the girls were pretty excited to go back to the same spot. Kids thrive on tradition. Then Saturday morning I took the girls to the parade. I was prepared for the heat and crowds, but it turned out to be ok. The weather was pretty decent, and we found a nice spot to sit (we don't reserve our seat 24 hours in advance like the rest of the town) and to make it even better some nice people offered to let us come sit up front next to them. And sitting on the other side of us was BRANDON CROFT! No, you don't know him. He's this crazy little kids that was in Chloe's kindergarten class. She's pretty set on marrying him, the only problem is that he moved away and we had no idea if we'd ever see him again. I guess miracles do happen. So, the parade was great. Afterwards we went to the park where they have a bunch of booths, games for the kids, and concerts going on. We sat and listened to the music for a while and played on the playground. We got to tour the city's new mobile command center (pretty cool), and went to the heritage quilt display. It was pretty simple, but all in all a good morning. Then we went home and Brandon took the girls fishing that afternoon while I ran errands.

The girls have done so many cute/funny things lately that I keep meaning to write about, but I'm not so good at getting those things done. But here's a story from today I'll share. Chloe was a little naughty yesterday. I had called the dentist and made appointments for us, and then wrote them on my calendar. I noticed someone had erased them (and it wasn't hard to guess who). So, after talking to her about it we decided her punishment would be that SHE would have to call the dentist back and find out what time they had been scheduled for. Well this morning rolls around and I hand her my phone and tell her it's time to make the call. To make a long story short, she couldn't go through with it. However, Sophie was begging to help her sister out of her predicament. So, to ease Chloe's pain I allowed her sister to do a kind deed for her. SOPHIE made the phone call. She did it perfectly and got all the necessary information. She told me the secretary thought it was pretty funny (as I would expect her to). Hopefully Chloe learned that it wasn't such a scary thing, but most importantly she learned that she has a great sister who will bail her out. They have gotten along wonderfully today!