Eleanor’s First Sled Ride and Igloo Building in Utah

March 2, 2019 by

Utah trip continued…
The snowfall was the most they’ve had in March in a long time, so we totally lucked out while we were there!
We bundled Eleanor up in her baby bunting suit and took her on her first sled ride!
She was mesmerized by the snow and giggled the entire ride.
Meredith loved pretending to be a reindeer pulling her sister in the sleigh.
WHAT IS THIS WHITE STUFF EVERYWHERE?
She wasn’t crawling very well yet, so it was easy to park her in the snow!
UM… IS SOMEONE GOING TO COME GET ME?
All right, I’m cool chilling.
Swing ride in the snow.
After Eleanor went  inside to warm up, the other girls stayed out with Jake and Uncle Mike for hours building an EPIC igloo.
They spent a lot of time getting the foundation right!
Snug in their very professional looking igloo.
Voila!
Pretty impressive!
All bundled up and very hot! It took forever to squeeze her out of this thing.
Other indoor fun… playing the piano with Grandpa.
Our family friend, Susan, brought over a birthday cake for the twins and we did an early birthday celebration! Red velvet cake was exactly what they had wanted and they were so excited to have cake then AND on their real birthday.
Happy early 6th birthday!
Making pancakes with Grammy in the morning.
 
Eleanor chowed down every meal, as usual.
Swinging on a non-snowy day.
Nothing beats hot chocolate after hours of playing in the snow.
Grammy and Jake also took the girls out to the Natural History museum in Salt Lake while they were there and the girls had a blast.
 
The girls are on a quest to color at every single place they visit.
Watch out for those velociraptors… and I don’t mean the dead ones.
Lots of love,
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Spring Snow Fun in Utah

March 1, 2019 by

At the end of February/beginning of March we took a road trip to Utah to ski and get all the wintery stuff out of our system since we don’t experience a real winter where we live. We felt like we had traveled back in time going from sunny weather at our house to cold winter at Grammy’s! We did an overnight in Vegas this trip to break it up and left early the next morning to get to Utah as early as possible. Eleanor hated being in her car seat, but other than that, the trip was manageable. Meredith and the twins were occupied with coloring and movies the entire trip, so as soon as Eleanor gets to that point, we’ll be golden. It’s going to be a long couple of years though…

First winter sports activity to check off: ice skating! Good times at the Peaks Arena in Provo.

The skating stabilizers were a huge help with three kids who couldn’t skate very well!

       

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Meanwhile, Eleanor enjoyed her vacation in the warmth of the house playing with toys.

 

While the weather was cold, there wasn’t any snow on the ground until the last two days of our vacation. We woke up to beautiful snow covering the ground! We were the only ones at the park that morning sledding and building snowmen… since it was March, I’m sure all the locals were sick of the snow by then! But to us it was so novel and the kids played for hours. They couldn’t get enough!

 

Hauling snow for their snow princesses.

Meredith was obsessed with getting the balls of snow perfectly round.

One down two to go.

And then there were three.

 

The girls then demolished their snow princesses to create an igloo.

The snow wasn’t great for sledding, but it was packable and PERFECT for an igloo.

 

\We had a bet on whether the igloo would be there the next morning and it lasted the entire time we were there!

Two bears snug in their cave.

Proud of her handiwork!

Meredith LOVES the Going on a Bear Hunt book and had fun pretending to be a bear when we entered the igloo.

   

Attempting to sled.

 

Not the most thrilling sled ride ever, but that didn’t stop them.

We loved experiencing the winter wonderland for a few days (and then going to home to warmer weather!)

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Spring Break in Utah Cont’d

April 9, 2018 by

Besides Easter excitement and skiing on our quick, 5-day Spring Break trip to Utah, the girls scootered on the walking trail and fed all the horses along the way.

Jake mcguivered a ride-on toy truck onto the swing in Grammy’s backyard with some zip ties– hours of entertainment!

 

 

The twins’ favorite babysitters, Claire and Charlotte, left CA last year to go to school at UVU, and they happened to be available for a last-minute meet-up before we left town.

Pippi Longstocking hair!

Post-braid crimped hair.

Dress up box time! Oh the memories playing with these dress up clothes with cousins!

What a diva!

We woke up at the crack of dawn again for the return trip and made it back in another record-time trip with just a few bathroom stops. Definitely our greatest success with a road trip to date!

Lots of love,

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Random Utah

July 25, 2016 by

In between excursions, most of our time in Utah was spent soaking up the sun in the backyard. I call it “savoring a slow summer.”

The swing and zipline were hours of entertainment.

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Amelia looking worried.

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Before Jake refashioned the zipline into a real one, he tried using the swing. Most boring zipline ever.

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Meredith received no less than 14 hours a day of cuddling.

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More cuddles from Grandpa.

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Surprised by life!

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S and A loved exploring the closets packed with our childhood toys upstairs.

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Hanging out in the playroom.

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Lots of fun toys for Meredith on her throne.

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Eating outside.

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More slip n slide and sand pit.

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What a cute spider in her web!

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Woo hoo!!

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The girls had one last hoorah in the backyard before eating lunch and taking off to go home. We were sad to say goodbye, and were not looking forward to the long trip back.

Meredith, in particular, had PTSD from being in the car twelve hours on the trip out to Utah, and was not happy about being in her car seat again!

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We wiled away the time with the road trip scavenger hunt, a movie, singing and about a million two-minute audiobooks (The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Peter Rabbit on audiobook were very well narrated!)

We broke up the trip back by stopping at Jake’s brother’s vacation home in St. George where we played in the club pool and ate dinner.

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IMG_0433 IMG_3929  After wearing them out the pool, the girls donned their pajamas and after an hour or so of protest (“I WANT TO SLEEP IN MY OWN BED PLEASE!!”) all three girls conked out at 8 p.m. for the rest of the five hours home.

When the twins woke up in their own beds the next morning, their first requests were, “Can we go back to Utah again today?”

Lots of love,

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