I struggle with Alissa's room. It's a MESS and she likes it! It took her three days to clean it and I made her get rid of 2/3 bags of toys. Rather than being bummed she was having to great rid of toys, she used it as a chance to make a little extra $$. She set up a garage sale and let her friends know she was selling toys. She had just a few customers and made about $2. That's my girl!
[gallery columns="2" ids="8020,8019,8018,8017,8016,8015"]
Alissa and I went to Sprouts the other day and I was waiting to hear from my friend Katie about visiting her in the hospital and Alissa jumped into the front seat and threw on my glasses. This girl has sass! Love her!
[gallery columns="2" ids="7981,7982"]
The other day, I decided to go on an evening walk on a whim. The kids decided to come with me and Tiss joined us as well. We walked around to the cemetery and we turned around to see that Otto had been following us too! We mossied over to the school so the kids could play and enjoyed a nice, beautiful evening out and about on a nice walk.
[gallery columns="2" ids="7950,7951,7952,7953,7954,7955,7956,7957,7958,7959,7960,7961,7962,7963,7964,7965,7966,7967,7968,7969,7970,7971,7972"]
I will still never get sick of seeing Zach zonked out holding his Pup-pup! The Diary of a Wimpy Kid book makes it really cute too!
Grammy gave Alissa some fun new games for her birthday and one of Alissa's friends gave her Mancala, so we were having fun playing together.
It's actually quit funny because Alisa and I had been playing Mancala the way Lexi had taught us last year and I noticed that Alissa was winning every time. I soon realized that she had been practicing the way to win and so I decided to figure out the REAL way to play and sure enough, we had been playing wrong this whole time! No wonder why she kept winning!
[gallery columns="2" ids="7931,7932,7933,7934,7935,7936,7937,7938,7939"]
Alissa came out the other day while I was getting some sun and relaxation and asked to play with my hair. Little fingers in my hair, yes please! (although she wasn't as soft and gentile as I would have liked). She was trying to recreate looks from her cards and I ended up with pig tails!
[gallery columns="2" ids="7976,7977"]
Our baby, yes BABY GIRL turned 9!!
Seriously, where did the time go?
Alissa had a great birthday this year. She had been wanting to go to 7 peeks for a long time, but with only two free passes and two extra seats in the car, she decided on a birthday party instead. She got lunch out with mom at Wingers and then later had a fun party with her friends. They started out with a coloring contest and then pin the tail on the donkey. Alissa really wanted this game and not just some knock off version like "put the crown on the princess" or something, she wanted ONLY the real thing! They then did gifts with a fun game where each girl bopped Alissa on the head saying "happy birthday" in a silly voice and Alissa got to guess who said it. If she guessed right, she got to open it. If she guessed wrong, they went back to the end of the line. That was fun! We then had some time before Grammy made it to our house with some ice for ice cream, so they went out to play "Red Rover" and the girls were out giggling and having a blast. Grammy showed up with the ice around 5pm, so we got started on home made ice cream (three simple ingredients : half and half, vanilla and I added coconut sugar). The girls all loved it and the gluten free cupcakes I made (that was my goal!) and they ended by running around in the cemetery for a little bit. So it was a successful birthday party! We had spaghetti and meatballs with Grammy and Grandpa Greg for dinner and played some cards games that Grammy gave Alissa and had a great time!
Some of Alissa's favorite things right now are :
* Stuff animals and baby dolls (still)
* Being creative (at night when everyone else is ready for bed, she plays and creates and makes a mess. Every. Single. Night!)
* Pre-teen (and even teen) shows like "Good Luck Charley" and "Wizards of Waverly Place" and pop music!
We headed to the Lehi Pool with Grammy, Mindy and the boys and it was a perfect day. The sun wasn't too hot, the kids had fun jumping off the diving board and going down the slides. I have never been there or even realized that pool existed and so it was fun to have another place to go for swim time.
[gallery columns="2" ids="7985,7986,7987,7988,7989,7990,7991,7992,7993,7994,7995,7996,7997,7998,7999"]
Alan has been busy at work lately. Not any more so than normal, but it's not his favorite thing right now. He comes home and is just mentally pooped...looks like Tiss is pooped too!
This year was a bit different than years past, but just as much fun. We decided to take another family with us. Yep, we might have been a little nuts to think about bringing 7 other people with us, but it all worked out!
Wednesday, July 3rd we headed out somewhat early to first go and visit my grandma in Hurricane. Our last visit was hard because she seemed confused by who we were, but this time was a little better. She always remembers Pup-pup and didn't hesitate to introduce me as her granddaughter, so it was a good quick visit. She was finishing up lunch and expressed how she'd love to go to Lake Powell again and we left her with a cute Kitty thing that held our family picture and one of her with Zach and Pup-Pup. She walked us out and I got a picture of her and Zach because he looked taller than her, but looking now, he still has about an inch to have her beat! We gave lots of hugs! I love that my kids will remember their great grandma, not everyone is so lucky!
We then headed to the Lake and the kids swam almost the second we got to the boat! The Gibson's showed up about 3 hours later than us, so Carrie and I headed to the store for what seemed like a LOT of food for the few days we'd be there. Surprisingly, there wasn't much left over when we ended out trip! That night was a late night with getting the kids situated in places to sleep. 9 kids and 5 adults (well, technically, Tanner is an "adult" so it was 8 kids and 6 adults) made for a pretty crowed boat, but we found spots for them all!
Thursday, July 4th wasn't as expected because we were waiting on the little boat to be fixed. We had planned on spending the day out on the beaches playing in the sand, fishing, splashing and having fun, but we ended up on the boat. The kids had a GREAT time though because our neighbor let them slide down the slide on their boat! Thank goodness, that really did entertain them for a long period of time. Alan and Terry did some fishing, catching a few fish, Carrie and I swam just a little and mostly just hung out watching the kids have fun. The kids spent some time fishing and it was cute to watch, they were all so intensely watching, but ended up board and swam again. The evening we didn't have any desire to go up into town to watch fireworks, but we could see them far in the distance from the boat and Page, AZ puts on quite the show! It lasted a long time!
Friday, July 5th we had the boat so we were able to head to a beach for a little while. With all the people there, Alan had to haul two groups. He and Terry enjoyed some more fishing, the kids and all dug and played in the sand. We made a big turtle and a sand castle. We had pulled up to a beach were there were big old tires not too far away, so the kids were climbing up and jumping off. Carrie and I spent a bit of time on lunch duty and then a storm rolled in! We headed back, and while the kids played UNO, the grow ups talked and laughed! We played with some...oh goodness, Carrie will have to remind me of the name of it...sticky fun stuff and as soon as the storm passed, the kids were back in the water! We let the kids chose a treat that evening at the store and watched "Oz, The Great and Powerful". Not all the kids made it through that and we headed to bed late again.
Saturday, July 6th Carrie, Terry and family packed up and headed home in the morning. Our family headed out to a really cool spot! I love that you can pull up to just about any beach and find cool things. Alan quickly caught his first (and only fish) while the kids played. There was this long shallow rocky area that was mostly covered by water, but you could walk out to a big rock all while only getting waist deep in the water. The kids and I walked around and found a NIKE flip flop (I was hoping to find the matching one, but no such luck), a pair of expensive sun glasses (a little too beat up to actually wear) and a white hat. We had fun looking for some more "treasures" but that's all we found! The kids found and played in some "quick sand" and then because another storm was rolling in, we decided to get the kids out on the tube. They had A LOT of fun for about 5 minutes. Their first 30 second ride, the tube went under water. The second was the most fun and I just loved watching their faces full of so much excitement! Alissa flew off on that one, so we told them to hold on tighter! Their third round was their last as Alissa held on like a CHAMP, only to be dragged a little in the water and she hurt her knees. She was really sad, but both the kids said their 5 minutes on the tube was the funnest part of the trip! We headed back, enjoyed hamburgers for dinner and watched the sunset that evening. It was a good trip!
Sunday, July 7th we headed home. I was worried about the trip as I woke up about 5 in the morning and had a panic attack from my bodies lack of sleep. Surprisingly, it was a quick trip...the kids slept for a bit while Alan and I listened to a good 2 hours of Metallica. We stopped for lunch and before you knew it, we were home safe and sound wishing to be back at my favorite place ever!
