Birthday Girl

I really wanted to do a little birthday photo shoot with Leah in her homemade birthday dress for the past couple of weeks, and finally got to it last night.  The weather has been very patient with me, staying gorgeous for lots of nights in a row.   I think I found a new favorite place for pictures! 

Side note:  Ethan was really upset the whole time because he has a very irrational, but very real fear of the wind.  It would be really funny except that he is seriously scared out of his mind.  He was terrified that the balloons would blow away, or that our dinner would blow away, or that something would happen to Leah...  Such a weird thing!

It kills me that this picture is out of focus.  Kills me!  

Leah's birthday

Leah's 2nd birthday was last Sunday.  What a lucky mom I am to have her in my life.  And I mean that, even though she climbs on everything, destroys most things, and empties everything else.   She's got such a sassy little personality.  But I just look at her in awe.  Like how does this cute little being belong to me?  And when she sees my anger rising over something Ethan has done, she reaches up to my cheek, strokes it and says in a soft sing-song voice, "it o-tay mommy, o-tay."  She is very ornery for about 30 minutes after she wakes up from her nap, but otherwise is a pretty happy girl.  She fights tooth and nail for her toys though, and that is a pretty big source of conflict between her and Ethan.. and other friends.

We kept it a low key day, except that Ross and I were in the kitchen most of the day cooking dinner.  I feel kind of guilty for not spending as much time with her on her birthday, but at least she was happy and  seemed to have a good time anyway.  I made her an over-the-top crown out of felt for her to wear, just for fun.  And I made that little yellow dress too.  It actually worked and fit when I needed it to!  It makes me want to try more.  It's the June bug dress from Craftiness is not Optional

Thanks Grandma, for acting so excited about her dollar bin present!

 I love all of these pictures.  Mostly because I love all of the people in them.  

Thanks, Uncle Sam, for helping Leah blow out her candles.

And thanks Grandpa, for not only not stopping Leah from sticking her finger in the cake, but encouraging her to do so.  :)

Thanks to the Honey's, for being willing to make the trip; and sorry for having to spend more time on the road than actually visiting.   Love you guys!

Sidewalk chalk paint

Fun activity, found via pinterest.  Here's the link.  

Don't judge me by their clothes.  :) I didn't know if it would stain or not.  

 

 

 

 

A new discovery

We recently discovered a new park in the area.  It's always so exciting!

 

 

Day 8

And finally, our last day!  We were up pretty far north so we decided to make the excursion to Mt. Rushmore.  They have a great museum there, along with lots of nice facilities.  We could have spent a lot more time there, but we still had several hours of driving ahead of us, so we made it a quick trip.

And last but certainly not least, we stopped at 'Car Henge'- some good ol' American Culture.  For whatever reason both of our kids were crying through the whole stop, so we made it quick there too. It was so interesting to me though, I would have really liked to see how it all got done.   

  

We finally made it home at 2:00 in the morning!  It was a super fun trip, but I don't want to do it again any time soon.  I'm grateful for everyone who hosted and especially for Grandma and Grandpa Terry who helped a lot with the kids while we there. Phew!  And.. done.

Day 7

This was a really fun day. On our drive him we made our way through Yellowstone.  We were able to go with some of Ross' cousins.  The scenery was beautiful.  The lame part about it was that I missed Old Faithful by 30 seconds.  Literally 30 seconds.  Luckily the cousins, Ross, and the kids got to see it, but I had to make a stop at the bathroom, and walked up just as the crowds were leaving the area.  Wah wah.

We made this little stop in the middle of nowhere and enjoyed another view of a waterfall.

Road Trip: Days 4-6

So the at the end of the third day I started getting really sick.  I had a nasty stomach bug which I learned later on was a parasite that I caught at one of the local pools here.  Gross.  So I really didn't enjoy that last day of driving to Utah and wasn't able to have as much fun as I wanted to at both family reunions.  Which was kind of sad.  But luckily by the last day or so I was feeling much much better...just in time drive home.  :)

Saturday was the Terry (Ross' dad's side) family reunion.  It was a lot of fun.  Halfway through though, a huge microburst and rainstorm came through.  And after an hour of solid rain the sun came out and a clear blue sky graced the party.  It ended on a very good note.

The next day we drove up to Idaho where the Groom (Ross's mom's side).  We spent the next few days in a beautiful cabin in Island Park, ID.  The highlights of those few days were floating down the Snake River, and breaking a pinata, and capture the flag.  And of course, lots of good food, and lots of good company.

This first picture is so hilarious to me.  Actually it's blurry cause I was laughing so hard when I took it. Ross didn't want to buy a real tube, so he used this one in the basement of the cabin and blew it up.  Of course it was leaking air before he even got in to the icy cold river.  He was sitting in the water the whole time, until he bummed a ride on my tube. But he saved $7! He'll say that's not exactly how it happened.  But if you know Ross Terry, you know that's exactly what happened. ;)  It's okay though, I sure love him anyway.  The few photos of the river were taken with my point and 

shoot and with the waterproof camera case.  FYI.