4 (FOUR?!!)

She's 4! I think 3 was the hardest age so far. Forget Terrible Two's; it's all about THREE! Wow. I'm glad that's over. (It gets easier, right? RIGHT?!) 

Right now if we are home, she in a dress. period. We walk in the door and within 3 minutes she is in full costume and pretending to marry somebody. 

Guys... boys. It's a problem. Not that she thinks they are cute or anything, but she think they are awesome, and always talks about her future husband. When I ask her about preschool, she only talk about boys; specifically CJ and Colton. I think it's because they get in the most trouble, so she in constantly hearing their name at school, but really... play with girls! Boys are crazy. 

I told her she ask for 3 things for her birthday; she wanted: a pedal bike, a sled (in April?.. no.), and an umbrella. 

She woke up to 2/3, not too shabby. Santa has a sled on layaway for us. 

We decorated her door so the balloons would fall in when she opened the door, which we thought she would love. Well, we had to sing to her to wake her up and when she opened the door she was kind of mad, thinking that she was trapped inside. Silly girl. 

For dinner, we took her to a hibachi restaurant. Her favorite place to eat is Panda Express, so why not pay $100 more to feed a four year old. Just kidding, it was a lot of fun. The fire at the beginning scared her, but eventually she started joking around with the chef and thought he was hilarious. 

I am excited to see what this year brings. She is growing so fast, I feel like before I know it she will be having parties that she doesn't want her parents to attend, so for now we will continue to try and make them special and unique. 

4th Birthday Party

Our little (big? Medium?) girl turned four in April and wanted nothing more than to have her party be all about mermaids! I was so relieved it wasn't Doc McStuffins or some movie. She didn't want 'Little Mermaid', simply mermaids. plain. 

Thanks to Pinterest for helping my lack of creativity, we had a great party with all of her little friends. We didn't have a party last year because our living space was too little for a bunch of toddlers, and while we still don't have the biggest area, 4 year olds are much easier to contain! 

We did a lot of crafts. A LOT. I planned way too much for a 90 minutes period. They just wanted to play, and I just didn't want them to destroy the playroom. So i keep them occupied. 

The girls needed a sea shell swimsuit break.

Crazy enough, the messiest part wasn't any of the painting.. but the decorating of cupcakes! WOW. they had a blast decorating and eating the cupcakes frosting.

The cutest friends!

I'm trying to decide if we should do parties every year. I figure since she is an only child, it isn't a big deal right now, but I can't imagine planning these kinds of parties for multiple kids throughout the year. What do you guys do? Every other year? Anthony says he grew up with 2 parties: 8 & 16. I think he is lying. I need more parties than that. I had one every year! Bless my mom! Ha!

Park City: Part 2

Our favorite day was the day we went to the PC resort and did the Alpine Slide and Coaster. I was pretty skeptical at how much time we could spend there and if Amelia, my oh so cautious child, would even like it. I had NO reason to worry. We did the Alpine Slide a few times, and after hearing the rules to often, she would say "Don't Bounce, Don't Stop, Don't go too fast." then once we started going she would say FASTER!! Honestly, it was one of the best days of our summer as a family. 

Riding the lift freaked me out. Amelia could easily fit through the holes, so I had to keep my arm on her. Of course, she wanted to be a big girl and hated being restrained. 

Grandma watched all the littles while the big kids went on the zipline. It was a lot of fun, but that line was way too long. 

We measured Amelia in the ticket line for all the rides and she wasn't quite the 38" inches she need to be for the coaster. Hoping that they wouldn't check, we waited in the 2  hour line (some of us took turns waiting in line, and going down the slide). They let her go on and she loved it.  

Unfortunately, the second time we tried, they measured her and didn't let on. That was a disaster. poor girl was absolutely heartbroken.

To make  up for it, we went down the Alpine Slide 20 more times.

We stayed at the park until about 8pm! We were there for almost 10 hours and I feel like we could have stayed longer if we weren't so hungry. I am so grateful Anthony's parents do these fun  vacations for us. Being with family is our favorite and we appreciate it so much more now that we are so far and visits are so few. 

Park City Reunion: Part 1

The Brown family has an annual family reunion. It consists of Anthony's parents, siblings, and grandchildren. Even when we all lived in Utah, it was a blast, but now that some of us have ventured out, it is even more fun. Amelia loves to be around her family and it is so special now that she remembers them from previous visits. It doesn't take time to warm up, it's just all hugs and loves. 

A's parents rented a large house next to the Park City Mountain Resort, where we all fit very comfortably and it had a lot of space for us to hangout without being on top of each other. Our first day there, we went to a bird observatory and it had a spectacular view of the valley.

Amelia and Evie bonded so quickly. I hope they keep up this friendship throughout the years even though they are thousands of miles apart.

On the 2nd day we explored the PC mainstreet and tasted all the good food.

We fit all of use (except the grandparents) in the hot tub! Sure half the water was gone when we got out, but at lease we did it. haha.

Playing the game, Left Right Center, has become a tradition we all look forward to. We play/bet with candybars and play every night. Brittanie wasn't able to make it this year, so the emotions didn't get too heated this year ;) Amelia won the jackpot on the last night! Luckily she didn't really understand what had happened and we quickly hid it from her.

Utah in July

We flew to Utah on July 10 to attend the Brown's family reunion. We had an early flight and had to leave our house at 3am. Amelia fell asleep off and on throughout this whole day.

We were supposed to go boating with my family that Saturday, but they had some kind of fuse blow, so we just hungout. Amelia didn't know the difference, and thought playing in the boat was just the best thing since macaroni. Grandpa Ron even towed it around the neighborhood for a little joy ride.

We have missed these mountains too much. I think I become more of a mountain lover every time I come back home. 

We went on a little walk up to bridal veil falls to feed the fish then up Big Springs to look at some bees my step dad, Ron, is keeping.

Anthony and I went on a little day date while my mom watched Amelia. We hiked the Y and I am pleased to say that I made it to the top. This was my first time making it to the top. I attempted in high school, but didn't prepare for how steep that sucker was. I saw people running up that thing! Crazy people. After the hike, we went to the Pizza Factory and saw Furious 7. 

My mom took Amelia to the Springville Splashpad and she had a ball. She is such a cheeser and loves spending time with my mom. 

Before heading up to Park City for the reunion, we stopped by the Salt Lake Temple to show Amelia where we got married. She kept telling us that she wanted to get married there too. (to Daddy or Dave, Anthony's cousin haha.) and of course. you can't go visit temple square without eating at the blue Lemon.