thanksgiving in utah!

i think this post has like 60 pictures so feel free to skip. no really. these kind of posts are for my personal documentation. thankyoubye.

this year we went to utah for thanksgiving...we rented a vacation home in SLC with adam's sister and her family who, at the time, were living in san francisco. we also got to go to my friend missy's wedding and see a few friends and other family members...successful trip! let the photos begin.

 we used olivia's ticketed seat to restrain violet in the carseat. big girl on her first flight!

 olivia snoozing in my seat

 we made it! fortunately it only took like 5 years for adam to go get the rental car and come back and get us. :)

 pretty sunset the night we got into town... headed to dinner with the millers!

 olivia, abbie, jessie

 asleep on the way to dinner  = not ideal. sleepy photo #1

 sleepy photo #2

 sleepy photo #3 (this was AFTER olivia was transported from the car to the stroller, pushed into a restaurant where she slept all through lunch, and then pushed back out to the car. she woke up just as we were leaving!)

 fun open gym with jessie and baby brody

 sleepy photo #4

 missy's bachelorette party..cafe rio + sketchy club in SLC. hilarious.

 my sis aubrey joined us for part of the trip...girls were happy to see their auntie on the day of her arrival!

 cousin ruby. sleepy shot #4.

 precious. reagan and olivia asleep in the bunk bed one morning. sleepy photo #5.

 crazy girl at cafe rio

 grapes at cafe rio. tasty.

 bowling with the family. that hair is killing me. 

 sleepy photo #6

 sleepy photo #7

 sleepy photo #8

 olivia in heaven at discovery gateway. she loved every single thing.

time to speed this post up. no more captions for all the discovery pics. kids had a blast.

 sleepy photo #9

 cousin wade and olivia post turkey dinner. although i believe they ate mac & cheese and pretzels. 

 adam sneaking a taste

 our delicious meal. the house was perfectly stocked with kitchen gear/gadgets... i think we only had to buy a few extra mixing bowls at walmart to get the job done. it was a great way to do a vacation/holiday.

 one downside- no highchair at the house. i was going to go to ikea and get their $20 highchair but i never got around to it. so, carseat strapped to the chair worked just fine.

 like idiots my sister, sister in law and i braved a few stores around 1am on thanksgiving night. this was walmart. JOKE. that was my first and last black friday experience.

 swimmer girl at the lehi legacy center

 sleepy photo #10

 jessie and her brody at missy's wedding

excuse my ridiculous hair. i underestimated how much time i needed to get ready and basically had to just put my hair back wet before we left. not a good look.

 jessie and i with the beautiful bride!

 sleepy photo #11 

sleepy photo #12

 sleepy photo #13

 sleepy photo #14 (another transfer shot. from car to target cart to....

 ...jessie's couch. we stayed with them at the beginning and end of our trip during the days we did not have the house with the wingets. good times!

 sleepy photo #15

 sleepy photo #16

 my girl on the ipad on our late night flight home. PHEW! as you can tell from all the pictures i took of my sleeping children, they definitely got their share of R&R on this trip. adam and i were not so well rested but did manage to have a great time! i just realized how even though this is so many pictures, it doesn't cover a good portion of what we did! i guess that's what happens when you take a 2 week trip. ok, i am sooo over this post. :)

Bedhead

Olivia opted to not take a nap yesterday. Rare for her but I don't mind because she is always ready for bed at like 7. She was literally snoring by 7:15 last night and did not wake up till 9:30 this morning. Of course, as usual, V was up at 7 on the dot. Anyway- apparently 14.5 hours of sleep gives you major bedhead. I wouldn't know.

"honestly? no photos please."

watching violet do a song and dance outside her crib like she was saying, "umm get up! it's sooo awesome out here!"

breakfast and cartoons while savoring her last few moments with her blanket and binkie. monday i decided NO more of either during the day. at all. i've said that before, but i would be casual in my hiding places or just throw it back in her bed which just meant she'd go find it if she got the urge. now they both go in very good hiding places all day. she gets them for sleep only. she's been doing surprisingly awesome. she doesn't even look for them when before, she was always dumping out my purse to find them. in the next little bit i'm going to take the binkie for good and keep the blanket on a sleep-only deal. wish me luck!

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Baby land

Violet is a single mama to many babies. We have 6. So, she is often found doing this. She is a good mommy, though, and doesn't have favorites. She keeps them on a good rotation. She needs to work on her baby handling skills though since this morning she was carrying one in her mouth to keep a free hand...probably for another baby! Love our little mother hen.







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Happy Birthday V!

Happy Birthday yesterday to our sweet baby sister. We had such a fun day at Sea World and we're having a little family party on Sunday, so I'll post more later. For now, here she is enjoying a birthday donut before we left! Can't imagine life without our funny, crazy, curious, lovable troublemaker!










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the zoo, new magic t-shirts and a very special seashell (november 2010)

olivia's preschool class does an unofficial playgroup each month. someone takes turns being in charge...aka: picking the location and providing snacks! in october we went to the zoo. i decided to swap violet out for olivia's cousin mckinley who is the same age and also easier to manage at a place like the zoo. violet just wants out of the stroller at all times and at the time, she wasn't walking yet, so it just would've been a disaster.

 reading their books on the way there!

 ready to go!

 olivia and eloise

 on the train with our dum-dums...check!

 little cousins who look NOTHING alike! 

 adam got olivia and violet new orlando magic t-shirts at a game one night.. olivia's says "howard #12" on the back, lol 

 another crappy picture from my phone...but it's all i got! 

 we went to a cute toy store in town on this night where they have a little rock collector's nook where you can fill up a little bag for $5 or something. olivia was having fun picking and choosing some favorites. 

 violet (in her new sporty magic shirt) going to town on a mini baby that we had to buy because by the time i realized she had yanked it off the shelf, she had chewed the price tag off and the whole doll was a soggy mess. one more for the collection! 

go magic!

olivia's classmate eloise went on a beach vacation and brought back shells for everyone. so cute. olivia really liked it and kept saying it was her "sea-sell."