Day Trip to Provo

All my friends take frequent trips to Provo and when I say frequent, I mean almost weekly. They go for various reasons: need to pick up something they can't get in small town Utah, want to go somewhere different for lunch, change of scenery, need to do some shopping, visit relatives, etc. Our week was going to be pretty slow and I needed a new swimsuit. I didn't want to buy one here or every time we go the pool someone else will have my same swimsuit...it's a small town thing.

So we took a trip up to Provo the other day and hit the Kohl's store for some great swimsuit shopping. Within 20 minutes I remembered why I try to avoid shopping with kids as much as I can and why I never buy anything for myself. As I was trying to pick out swimsuits off the rack Josie climbed out of the stroller and wandered into the endless sea of clothing racks. I called her name but she prefers not to answer. It's a little game she likes to play. I found her not too far off just walking around or looking at some boy, scolded her and put her back in the stroller. She continued to do this 5 more times but I was determined to get a swimsuit that day. I did not drive all that way for nothing.

We headed to the dressing room with a whole bunch of swimsuits to try on and Josie was intrigued by the new surroundings for about 30 seconds. Just as I had finished trying on the first swimsuit, she took off out the door. Oh yeah, here I go, out of the dressing room in a swimsuit that's a little too tight on top to chase Josie around this huge store. The dressing room is smack dab in the middle of the store so when you walk out you can go left or right and which way did Josie go? Who knows! I'm in this swimsuit, hunched over walking through racks and calling my little girls name and people are looking at me like I'm crazy! I was so embarrassed. I finally found her on the opposite side of the store from where the swimsuits are and hauled her back to the dressing room. She thought it was pretty funny and she did it several more times. So, a shopping trip that would have taken me 30 minutes if I had been by myself ended up taking almost an hour and a half with Josie in tow.

I made sure we went to the bathroom each time we entered and left a store to prevent any accidents with my potty-training toddler. She had done really well so far so we headed to Bajio for lunch before heading home. The place was nearly deserted so we picked a table by the windows and sat down to eat our lunch that I had been looking forward to for the last four days. I started into my lunch and she had a couple bites of rice when all of a sudden she opens the flood gates and pees all over the chair! Even better, there are slats on the seat of the chair so all the pee immediately runs all over the floor! FOR THE LOVE! I had prepared for just such as incident so I cleaned up the mess and grabbed the extra outfit I had brought. We headed into the bathroom and cleaned up as fast as we could and when we walked back out they had cleared our lunch from our table! Over $10 worth of food was now sitting in the garbage. I had had enough, time to go home. It's going to be a long time before we go to Provo for a day trip again.

Daddy!!!!

I really shouldn't post this but it's too funny not to. One of those parenting moments that you just have to write down.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Josie potty training. She's doing so well with the #1 aspect but having a little trouble with #2. She's been holding it for a couple of days but a bath last night helped loosen things up. I was at a Relief Society thing so Mark had the girls for the night. He put Josie to bed in a pull-up and her favorite footie pajamas. A few minutes later Josie was screaming "Daddy! Daddy!" He went to see what she needed and saw that she was buck-naked and holding something in her hand. She said, "Daddy...poop...here" and held out a nice little brown package for him to dispose of!!! OMG(osh)!!! I laughed till I cried when I got home and he told me what happened. I'm still laughing! There was no sign of the poop landing on her blankets, sheet, pajamas or pull-up. I think she caught it! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Spring break in Phoenix

For the last 2 years Karen has been hounding us to come visit her in Phoenix. We told her that when we had successfully turned Josie into a movie-watching zombie we would tackle the 12 hour drive and come visit. Josie finally hit that milestone so we took a road trip to Phoenix for Spring Break. What a drive! Holy cow, next time we'll fly.

The second we got out of the car we headed for the backyard pool. The girls stripped down and jumped in and were quite shocked to find out the water was only 68 degrees! They immediately jumped out...and got their swimsuits. The water was cold but they didn't care. They had waited for this moment for months and they weren't going to let the cold water ruin their long-anticipated swim. They didn't brave the pool again until a few days later when their beloved Nana Karen drug them out of the house and threw them in!! You wait Karen, it won't be long until they are bigger than you and revenge will be theirs! Wah-ah-ah-ah.

After such a long, cold winter and a spring that hasn't been much better, it was so nice to sit by the pool and soak up the sun. The flowers were blooming and the air smelled so sweet.

We checked out a huge park in Anthem which "is a planned community developed by Dell Webb in 1989..." Karen told us after Googling "Anthem, AZ" on her iPhone. It was hilarious. Anytime we had a question about the area whether it was size or population or history Karen was all over it on her iPhone. I think she may have given Apple it's "There's an app for that." tagline.

We hiked the Thunderbird trail. I think that was the first time Karen had done this since living there and her house is about two blocks away.

Interactive art in downtown Mesa.

The girls got cooking lessons from Nana Karen. They made homemade OREO cookies, Jello jelly beans and eggs, chocolate eggs and Chex white chocolate snack mix to name just a few. One of my favorite parts of the trip was all the fresh squeezed lemonade, OJ and grapefruit juice that we enjoyed everyday. Some of it even came from Karen's own backyard and it was soooo good.

On our way home, we braved the wind and made a detour to the Grand Canyon. That was the first time Mark and I had been there and it was pretty spectacular.

The picture below cracks me up. Emily and I were checking out the view from the guard rail and I turned around and saw a group of Japanese tourists snapping pictures of Lindsey and Josie. Those two thought they were in a magazine photo shoot. The group couldn't get enough of them and Josie and Lindsey hammed it up pretty good for the camera. Forget the huge hole in the ground. Look at these cute American girls! Click, click, click.

Josie Goes on the Potty!

Several times last week when Mark went to check on Josie before he went to bed, he found her buck naked. She had even taken her diaper off and was laying in her crib sound asleep without a stitch of clothing on. And she was dry! So on Monday I decided to try a little bit of potty training, not really thinking that she would actually catch on because she hadn't shown any interest in wearing panties or sitting on the potty.

She peed through two pair of panties within 10 minutes so we decided to go bare-bum and see what happened. I parked the potty next to her while she watched some cartoons and it worked! That day she peed on the potty 6 times! The next day she pooped on the potty 14 times! Seriously. Each day she has done so well except for a couple of accidents but that is to be expected. I am so happy for her but also kind of sad because my little baby is growing up and I don't want that to happen so quickly.

This is Josie flushing the potty after a successful attempt! Go Jo!

He's Everywhere!

I've told you before about Emily's nemisis JB. Well, she had her final basketball game on Saturday and guess who we played. That's right. JB's team! And guess who scored the first basket. That's right. JB!! What is up with this kid? So I sicked my fastest and best defender on him and shut him down for awhile. He did score one or two more times throughout the game but we actually kept up with them and the score went back and forth the whole game.

At one of the time-outs, I had to sub players so I picked a particular boy to guard JB. I told him that he needs to stick to him like white on rice or like stink on poop and you know what he said to me? "I know JB. He is the smartest kid in the school. He won the spelling bee...twice!" I thought, "What the heck? Is that spelling bee going to haunt me for the rest of my days? What is up with this kid? How can one kid be so smart and play soccer and basketball so well?" Super smart kids don't play sports! And athletic kids aren't super smart! Oh my heck...what am I saying? You get the picture.

Anyway, my team did so well. They had improved 100% throughout the season and some of them can even do layups now. I don't know what the score was. We may have won by a basket, we may have lost by a basket. I think we may have tied. I wasn't keeping score. (I know you don't believe me, but it's true.) But it was actually a really fun game and it was so exciting to see the kids doing things that I had taught them. Go Team 5!!

Oh yeah. Emily scored right at the end of the game. That was her first basket all season. She was so excited!

Snowboarding Trip

My friend and I were talking about her kids' piano lessons and their teacher last week and she told me that this particular teacher is so good that some parents take their kids out of school for their lesson because she can't fit everyone in after school. I thought that was a very interesting idea and since Friday was going to be a beautiful day and Mark had the day off we decided to take our kids out of school for their snowboarding "lessons". he he he

It was one of those perfect days that is great for spring skiing. When we were on the lift it was almost too hot so we took gloves and hats off but had to put them back on for the ride down the mtn. The kids did great again and Emily is really getting the hang of it. She even tried out the half-pipe a couple of times before she fell and hit her head on the snow. It was the end of the day anyway so we decided to call it quits. We're are renting helmets next time. I guess it takes kids a long time before they figure out how to ride "toe-side" so all of their weight and pressure is put on their heals which really tires out the legs. Lindsey's legs were really tired by lunch and she only lasted a couple more hours after that. It probably didn't help that she went to bed late because she was sleeping over with her good buddy Luka the night before.

This is us enjoying our chili lunch in the lodge.

We probably won't make it skiing again this season but at least we have something to look forward to when the temperatures drop at the end of year.

Josie's Latest Obsession

Josie likes to dress up in Lindsey's old dance costumes. But lately the costumes have become part of her normal attire. The second she is done with her breakfast she goes downstairs and comes back up with a costume and healed dress up shoes. She wears these all day long everyday! We go to the grocery store, out to lunch, to the school, to daddy's work...everywhere, with the tutu on. She gets quite a reaction from people who see her. "Oh! She is soooo cute!" "Is she in dance?" "What a beautiful tutu!" And Josie just eats it up. She is one funny girl.

Yesterday, she took a nap in her favorite tutu and when she woke up there was pee all over it from a leaky diaper. I thought she would be done with the costume since her fave was in the wash but no, this morning she went downstairs and found a new one. Doesn't she look lovely?