This is one of the songs from Emily and Lindsey's last singing performance. As you will note, Emily found her groove on this one. Maybe next year she will take break dancing. :) Sorry if the camera is a little shaky, we couldn't stop laughing.

School's out for summer...

I haven't written in the last couple of weeks because things have been incredibly busy with the end of school but here's a brief update of what we've been doing along with some pictures.

Because of budget cuts the field trips at our school are pretty lame so we skipped school one day and went to the aquarium in SLC. The kids had a great time and Josie was just flabbergasted at all the colorful fish. And I only lost her two times!!! I really need to get a leash for that girl.

We headed to Goblin Valley for a couple of days and about got blown off the face of the earth. I've been in a lot of storms in southern Utah but this one took the cake. Sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts of 50-60 mph ALL NIGHT LONG!!! It was just fine until we left our awesome camp (Angie, you know the one) to go to The Valley of the Goblins. When we got out of the car the wind was blowing pretty hard so we only spent about 15 minutes there and decided to head to Little Wild Horse Canyon to seek shelter.

We had a great time in this beautiful slot canyon. The kids did great and although we didn't make it to the end we figured we hiked about 7 miles round trip!

This picture was taken inside our trailer the morning we left and the winds were probably blowing 25 mph. Our trailer was shaking so bad I couldn't even steady the camera to take this picture.

Lindsey, the explorer, looking for goblins.

The girls got all done up for Crazy Hair Day at school. It was the easiest hair do's we've done all year. No combing, no screaming, no crying. They just got out of bed and I put a bunch of loops in their hair. Both girls had a great year and came home with excellent report cards. Lindsey had a goal of passing off 1000 sight words and she reached it just a couple of days before school got out. She was so excited! We're glad school is out so we can all sleep in...now it just needs to warm up so we can go swimming and hit Lake Powell.

The girls finished up their dance and singing seasons. Lindsey is so cute on stage and really seems to have a knack for dancing. She catches on to the routine quickly and knows just what to do without relying on her teacher the whole time. Both of the girls had a final singing performance at the civic auditorium and Emily wowed the crowd with some unchoreographed breakdancing during one of her solos!!! Our friend who was sitting across the aisle from me asked, "Is she breakdancing?" It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold the camera still. I thought it was hilarious but I made her apologize to her teacher after the show. The teacher's daughter was also on one and had some antics of her own. It was the best show ever...and the singing was good, too! I might have to enroll Emily in a hip-hop dance class so she can perfect her moves.

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!