Hiking and Mom of the Year

This past weekend we went on the annual camping trip with the tax committee from Doug's work. His boss has some property in Grover (pretty much Capitol Reef's backyard) and we every year he invites everyone down for a fun campout. It was fun and we had a blast laughing around the campfire. He is so lucky to be able to work with some pretty fun people (who happen to have some pretty awesome wives too!)

A few weeks ago I was at Walmart and saw this thing in their baby clearance section. I thought it was kind of weird and wondered who would use something like that. I came home and then thought about how awesome it would be to take camping. It's called a Nap Nest (or something like that) and I thought it would be great for Mabel to sleep in. She did pretty good in it but actually spent most of the night sleeping in her car seat. Oh well. Here she is playing in it before we left. The girls think it's pretty great to stick her in there and load her up with toys.

The next day we headed to Capitol Reef for some hiking. The hike they had planned as 10 miles round trip. We made it about 4. Pretty good for these little legs. It was a pretty hike that had some awesome slot canyons along the way.Here we are right before we turned around. Lilly was so happy to be there with us! This poor baby did pretty good. I promise I put sunscreen on her but as you'll see later, it didn't do much good.

Two little cuties taking a rest.

Lilly showing me this perfect rock she found to sit on.

Doug let Mabel borrow his hat for awhile to help protect her from the sun.

I promise we tried to cover you up baby! I'm sorry it didn't help!

Mabel had fun playing musical carrying methods on the hike. I had her in the front carrier most of the time and Doug brought the backpack for Lilly to ride in. She absolutely refused to get in (even when her legs were "so tired" and she would drop to the ground and refuse to move another inch). It was a little frustrating. We finally put Mabel in it and she did ok. For the last 1/4 mile I carried her while Doug literally carried the other two on his back so that we could hurry outta there. They were sooooo done.

We finally made it back to the car in time to snuggle with our stuffies.

I was so happy to have a bigger vehicle to take camping this year. It helped out a lot!

We stopped in Bicknell on the way home have one of their famous Sunglow burgers. We also decided to be adventurous and have a slice of their sweet pickle pie. It was kind of different but pretty much tasted like pumpkin pie. We were not daring enough to try the pinto bean pie. Maybe next time.

After we got home we quickly unloaded and showered and ran to a graduation party for one of Doug's young men.

When we got home the girls immediately decided to play dress ups (for some weird reason it was an absolute necessity) and watch a movie.

When we got Mabel out of her seat I was surprised at how red her face was. I really thought I had done a good job putting sunscreen on her. She's had a bad cold for the past few days and Doug wasn't feeling well yesterday so he stayed home from church with her. I called to check on them and he told me that Mabel had blisters on her face. I felt so bad! They're kind of hard to see but she has a few on her nose and cheek. I think it's safe to say she got her cute Daddy's skin. Poor Doug had the same thing happen to him when he was 5 months old. His was bad though and his mom said she had to keep gauze on his face. Poor babies.

So just in case that wasn't enough to make me mom of the year, I found this sweet note and picture on the back of my door when I was going to bed the other night. It says, "I love you. You are the best pereins in the hll in tiyre wrlld. Love Sophia and love Lilly." At least someone thinks so! Not Mabel though apparently and for good reason!

Gymnastics and Purses

Lilly and Sophia had their end of the year gymnastics parent show the other day. It was pretty fun to watch and see how far they've come. Here's Lilly warming up.

And showing us her routines. After they were finished her teacher gave them all medals.

She was pretty excited about it and wanted to wear it all day. Of course she did not try to take it off immediately.

Here's Sophia getting ready to warm up.

Luckily she enjoyed her metal a little bit more.

My cute gymnasts! They did pretty well this year. Sophia wants to do it again next year but I think we might give Lilly a turn with dance.

My cute mom gave them these cutest purses that she made after their performances. I totally love them! So did my girls!

They were even monogrammed! So cute!

They had princess keys (seen above) and this little wallet complete with play money and a credit card. I love the Ms. Princess on the card! So cute!

They also had a phone,

compact,

and lipstick! Is that not so cute! Everything was made out of felt and took so much work! She's amazing!

Thanks again mom! You're the best! Thanks also to you, dad and mom and dad Wilkins for coming all the way down to see the show! My girls were so happy to have you there!

Here are their routines if you're dying for some live action.

Latest Creations

Here's a few of our latest and greatest adventures. On Sunday Doug and Sophia (mainly Doug) made this awesome dipped candle. They used regular craft wax and melted one red crayon in it. I thought it turned out pretty cool. Doug bought me the wax a long time ago so that I could make these. I'd seen something similar to them at the Parade of Homes awhile ago and wanted to replicate it. I kind of forgot that he had bought this and so we decided to make them since he was melting wax anyway. I thought they turned out ok. It's hard to see in the picture but these are actually those shadow box frame shelf things that are actually about 4 inches thick. I think it'd be cool to hang them somewhere and put something on them. We'll see. I forgot to post this awhile ago but my awesome friend Jen made me the cutest spring subway art! I totally love it! I love that she included taxes (her husband is a tax accountant as well) and Lilies. Perfect for our family! She also made me a really cute one for summer. I'll be sure to post it when it actually warms up around here and I can put it on display!

Yesterday the girls were out playing in the yard. They had blankets and stuffed animals all spread out for a tea party. It was really cute so I went to get my camera to take a picture.

When I came back it looked like this. Sophia said they were pretending there was a flood so everyone was getting into the arc to stay dry.
Finally, I found these shots on my camera as well. Apparently someone grabbed the camera when I wasn't looking!
Oh how I love my girls!

Last Day of School fun!

Sophia had her last day of Kindergarten this week and we had some fun celebrating! Before the last day of school we painted her nails with this cool crackle nail polish. Have you seen this stuff? It was pretty fun to use. I painted it on and she said, "Have I ever had black on my fingers?" Once it started to crackle she said "Oh my gosh! This is so cool! You are like the coolest mom ever!". Yeah. I know. Anything to help you look more like a goth. JK. It really did look cool though. These pictures definitely did not do it justice.On her actual last day I got to go help with one of the centers for their party. We frosted and decorated little graduate cutouts. The kids thought they were pretty tasty!

Her teacher had a little "ceremony" where she called up each kid and had them say what their favorite thing about Kindergarten was. Then she gave them little caps they had made. Sophia's favorite part of Kindergarten was when the leprechaun came to her classroom.

Here she is with Mrs. Fehlberg.

Here's the top of her hat. Her teacher did a good job with these. I thought they turned out really cute.

Later that afternoon we went to gymnastics. Here they are in their little uniforms getting ready to practice for their performance.

The next day Doug had the day off of work and so we decided to go to the zoo. It was way crowded but still pretty fun. Apparently it was the first day of their "Zoorasic Park" and so everyone had come to see these animatronic dinosaurs. Thank goodness we were there for that day! We did get a quick ride on the carousel when we were there. I even got to ride and chose to ride the Okapi. Little did I know it was the only stationary animal on the whole thing! Of course it would be my luck to pick the one stationary animal. Oh well.

Mabel decided to hang out in the car seat while we rode (Doug was with her. Don't worry). Here's the T-Rex! I swear Sophia was in this picture. Oh well. They even had dinosaurs in the water! It was pretty fun actually.