4th of July Eve Festivities

We had such a great day today. We went to one of our favorite wing places for lunch (Wingers) and it was so tasty. After that we met Uncle Paul and Grandpa Kinney at the site they were staking out for us all for the parade tomorrow. I must mention that these Utah people are totally insane. I don't think I could have taken pictures to do justice in showing how many people lined University in Provo. These people are nuts. They all hang out from like 10 in the morning just to get spots for the parade. I have even heard word that fights have broken out before and police sometimes get involved in situations. It's totally crazy. It was quite interesting to witness it all while sitting back at our nice shaded spot that Uncle Paul and Grandpa were so great to get for us all.

We hung out with the family there for a while and then we took the kids down a few blocks to a carnival. It wasn't the most awesome one ever but we did tell the kids we would go. They played in the Spongebob bounce house, bought a few fun things, and got their faces painted. Noah was even so brave and got his picture taken with some Star Wars characters. The picture turned out cute but it will have to wait until we get home to our scanner. We bought treats at 7 Eleven after that and then went back to the parade site for a while. It was a good, fun day and we can't wait for the fun 4th of July things awaiting us tomorrow.No better start to the day than some chocolate milk, a cup of dry cereal, and Disney cartoons on G&G Kinney's huge 50+ inch TV.
Our awesome parade site is right on the corner where this street sign is. Great spot under a huge tree.
Everyone sitting around waiting to throw the stuff out on the public lawn. Can't do it until 3, the police say so.
Noah mesmerized for a while, just watching all the people setting up their spots for the day and night.
No joke, I don't know how many police vehicles were out patrolling making sure NO ONE had their stuff claiming spots until 3 o'clock. It just cracked me up to hear them on their loudspeakers saying "it's not 3 o'clock yet!" They would even pull over and wait for people to actually move their stuff. They were nice enough to finally let people claim their spots a whole 5 minutes early. Didn't see another cop car the rest of the afternoon.
The lady next to us was so nice to give Noah and Zoey a flag. I like nice people!
My pretty girl hangin out on the blanket on the lawn.
I love this one of them waving their flags as though someone were watching them.
More cute kids.Noah was just smitten with the adorable random kitty that came to visit us at our spot for a while. I LOVE this picture with him squatting down and the kitty looking up at him. Too cute!
Awesome Star Wars characters. I love that Noah so quickly conquered his fear of them. Enough to stand amongst the 3 of them and have a picture with them.
Zoey with her firework painted on her face and her pretty halo ribbon thing on her head.
My Noah boy with his awesome blue dragon on his cheek. I honestly had to sway him NOT to want a ladybug painted on his face. He loved his dragon though.
The kids took right to cousin Kelsie. Kelsie was so nice to entertain them. They were instant friends after playing on the air mattress together and especially cuz Kelsie let them play with her phone.

Tuckered Out

Poor kiddos were so exhausted after our long drive. They got in bed and were out in no time at all. How adorable are they sleeping next to each other?! I love my sweet little people.

To Utah We Go

My crazy happy kids when we got in the car EARLY that morning. Don't know what is up with Noah and his hardhat. He saw it as we were going out the door and he just had to wear it. Kids are so silly!

We left at 530 yesterday morning for our long drive to Utah. I was surprised that the kids woke up when we put them in the car and that they were as chipper as could be. It was a great start to a long day. The first 5 hours of the trip were long and difficult. I was dealing with a car sick 3 year old and it was no fun. We were able to hit up a Walmart in Kingman and find him some meds. The rest of the drive was so thankfully puke free. We all really enjoyed our long trip in the car. It really wasn't so bad and the kids did so great. It was fun to let the kids see the changing scenery as we went on and on. I love that they can appreciate the beauty of the world around them. It was a LONG drive but it really did go pretty smoothly. I must note that all the picture below (except the one close up of the Joshua tree) were taken from the moving car. I am excited at how well they ended up turning out. We are so glad to be here in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa Kinney!

The Joshua Tree National Park. This is one of my favorite parts of the drive. The kids thought they were some pretty cool looking trees. There are so many of them!

The only picture the whole drive I had to pull over for. I just had to get a close up of one of these beautiful trees!

Somewhere between Tucson and the Hoover Dam...

The gorgeous mountains approaching the Hoover Dam. I love the mountains thru this area.

One of many sections of the Hoover Dam bypass project, in the works.

The Hoover Dam. I used to have such serious anxiety about going over it. This time around I was just so excited for the kids to see it. We might actually stop at it on our trip home.

I couldn't believe how low the waterline was at the Dam. I love this picture with the white strip on the mountains and the beautiful blue water.

Another HUGE undertaking in the process of building the bypass around the Hoover Dam. It scares me just to see it! The pictures just don't do it justice.

Yet some more gorgeous mountain ranges during our trip. These ones are in the last bit of Arizona we pass thru before entering Utah.

The very cemetery looking neighborhood sign of Grandma and Grandpa Kinney's neighborhood. It so looks like a headstone. The name of the neighborhood even kind of sounds like the name of a cemetery. Anyway, this sign was one of the best of the trip. We are here after 14 hours on the road and we couldn't be happier!

Noah Jay

I was wanting some cute pictures of my kids so I pulled out the camera and started shooting. Noah was actually very cooperative and I was happy for that. He also had a great time coming up with his own poses for the pictures. He is such a silly kid.

Legos

Zoey has become so good at building with Legos. She will sit at the table for hours coming up with different things. I just love to see her imagination at work. I give her serious props too because I was never one to just make things up to build. I would build what the directions told me and other than that, that was about it for me. She definitely gets her Lego building skills from her dad.

Mommy Dates

So I really want to make it a goal to spend planned, individual time with Zoey and Noah. Today I decided to give them each some time out with me. Noah and I went out first. We went and had lunch and he was so good. Usually he is all crazy and doesn't want to stay in his seat. He was an angel while just the two of us were out though. After lunch we went to Walmart to get a few groceries we needed for dinner. That's all that Noah and I did together but it was nice to be just us.

When we got home I put groceries away and then Zoey and I took off. We went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. I let her choose whatever she wanted to have. She was so content with a children's scoop on a sugar cone. She went out of the box and tried the Cherries Jubilee ice cream. She really liked it and carried on about how much she did while we sat and enjoyed our treats. We were at the ice cream place for quite a while and we just chatted about whatever. I love that she is big enough to carry on conversations with. She is so much fun. After ice cream we went to Blockbuster to rent a movie. I let her pick whatever she wanted and she picked Barbie Thumbelina. We didn't get a chance to watch it tonight but it is definitely a plan for tomorrow. I had another blockbuster online movie to trade in so I picked Inkheart for myself. Heard it was a good movie and have been wanting to see it.

So those were my little dates with my kids. It made for a nice few hours this afternoon. I get so frustrated with them so much these days and I feel like I spend so much time yelling at them. I love the moments I have to do fun things with them and just chill and enjoy being together. I just hope that they always know how much I love them and love to be with them (even when I have so many not nice Mommy moments).

Zoey was so sweet to me tonight. I was telling Jay that I had a killer headache and so she came over and said "Mommy, do you want me to scratch your back?" I told her that would be so nice. So she sat on the couch behind me and scratched my back for a minute. It's not like it was anything that would help my headache but she was offering what she thought might help. I thought it was so sweet and it made me feel so cared about and loved. She went over and gave some back scratches to Daddy too. What a thoughtful little girl we have. We just love our Zoey!

Swimming with Todd and Maddy

Todd and Maddy came over not too long ago to have dinner and go swimming. We had a tasty Chinese dinner and then Jay, Todd and the kids all went for a swim. Everyone had a great time and we hope to get together again soon.

Zoey kept getting splashed by all the toys being thrown her way.

Cute little Maddy.

Crazy Todd is getting ready to throw the girls.

They were so cute sitting on the couch after swimming, watching cartoons. Those are 3 very adorable kiddos.

Witches Broom

I went in the backyard to see what the kids were doing and this is what I found. They were taking turns running all over the porch flying on their witches broom. They were having such great fun.

Mmmmm...Corn

A girl after her mom's heart. Zoey and Mommy LOVE fresh corn in the summer!