Last Month of Summer Vacation

As our summer vacation comes to a close and we begin our back-to-school training meetings, we are reminded how lucky we both are to have 2 solid months off of work together as a family to relax, rejuvenate, and bond. I love these two cuties!!!

Dancing with Daddy

 Since we have introduced the Bass Pro Shop to Natalie, she loves it and always wants to go there! She gets to "ride" all of the boats, quads, etc., and likes to look at the fish, ride in the elevator, explore the tents, and  follow the animal tracks throughout the store.

Brian is convinced that he's going to buy a UTV. Um, ya, we'll see...

Her first gun - it has a little plastic "cork" on a string.

They even have an electric shooting range, which reminds me of the one at Disneyland.

Brian continues to "go fishing" with Natalie in our pool. She gets so excited when she casts her line!

In honor of Brian's 40th birthday, we threw him a surprise party a month late. He didn't suspect a thing until he found the cake in the fridge just before we entered the house full of guests. Oops! I had some fun making this cake for him (those are little fish sprinkles and seaweed made of frosting).

With all of the brass players in the house, it's no wonder they all got to try the Alp horn.  :)

And lastly, one more escape from the heat to our cabin in Strawberry with our friends, the Moorheads. We enjoyed hiking, off-roading in Brian's X-Terra, zip-lining, and just plain relaxing.

Cuddling and using the iPad

There is also a goat and llama farm not far away, where the kids got a chance to feed and milk the goats, plus we bought some yummy fudge made from goat's milk. Seriously, it was yummy!

4th of July Week

Our friends Allison and Brandon were kind enough to invite us to their cabin/condo in Pinetop for the 4th of July, and we had a blast! And the weather was fabulous! The highs were in the 70's, and it rained each afternoon.

On the 4 hour drive there, we stopped 4 times for Natalie to go to the bathroom - all of them when we're driving the windy roads through the mountains. Thank goodness my friend Sheralyn advised me to bring a portable potty for her! It was a lifesaver, and I'm also thankful that there was an available pull-off area each time!

The following day, we took the kayaks out to Lake Hawley. First, the dad's took their daughters out for a ride with their new fishing poles. So cute!

Then, the rain came. As it was increasing, the boats came back to shore and we barely got the girls back in the cars before it started to hail! Then Natalie turns to me and says, "I have to go potty!" We're in the middle of a forest on a reservation with no public bathroom in site. We have the portable potty, but it's hailing outside. Thinking fast, I decided to set up the potty in the back end of the Xterra and have her go there while Brian strapped the kayaks onto the trailer. It was crazy! THEN, a helicopter came twice with a bucket to collect water from the lake - possibly to fight a fire nearby? Such an eventful morning!

Later that day, we all headed over to our friends Melissa and Rob's folks' cabin for dinner and zip-line fun!

Going backward!

The next day was the 4th of July, and we decided to visit another lake with a playground nearby. We took some family pictures before the girls started playing, then we went "fishing" at the lake (at which the water was very low, hence the cracked ground) and they rode their scooters.

(we tied a piece of wood to her line since the rubber fish broke off in the previous lake)

Later that day, after nap and a great game of "Ticket to Ride," (Brian's new favorite board game) we took the girls on a walk around the area and found a nice patch of daisies!

The next day, we drove up to my parents' cabin just north of Payson to help fix-up the old tree house that my brother and I played in when we were kids. Now that Natalie is relatively old enough to play in it, we felt we should make it safe again.

Tree house is all done! Let's have a snack and cuddle!

And per usual, cookies were made.  :)

3 Years Old

At 3 years old, Natalie is 39 inches tall and weighs 37 lbs. She wears size 4T-5T size clothing and size 9 shoes. She has a vast vocabulary, including "scrumptious," "evaporate," and "privacy." Speaking of privacy, she goes to the bathroom by herself (and often insists that she does), buckles herself in her carseat, and gets dressed all on her own. My little girl is growing up!

This summer, we enjoy going to the local splash pad once a week.

And she loves to dance! To help keep us all in shape this summer, we sometimes have little "dance parties" to her favorite music. But this video was from Great Play Gym.

She "wrote" all of her own Thank You cards for her birthday presents, too.

We attended a children's production of "Little Red Riding Hood" with Grandma...

and played in the sand with Grandpa. 

She plays the didgeridoo, kazoo, maracas, piano, trombone mouthpiece, and various percussion instruments, and loves jamming with Daddy while he practices.

We also try to attend "Story Time" at the library once a week and pick-up a new book to read. The following pictures pretty much sum-up her attention span during these story times.  :)

Awesome.