Cabin Sleepover

Over Labor Day weekend the older 2 girls and I went up my cousins' cabin in Big Cottonwood Canyon. A note about the cabin: my great-grandparents owned it when my mom was a little girl. She spent time there when she came out to visit and even spent the better part of one summer there (if I am remembering right?). The cabin was sold a while ago (maybe in the '70's?) and then about 5 years ago my aunt and uncle bought it when it was on the market again. They are incredibly generous and allow family members to use it. It has 3 bed rooms and 1 1/2 baths, along with a fully equipped kitchen and laundry room. It is by no means fancy but the beds are comfortable and the cabin feels cozy.

  We decided to go last minute and it was perfect. We grabbed dinner on our way up there Friday afternoon and ate cereal in the morning so we didn't have to cook anything. 

We arrived with enough daylight for the girls to play for a few hours. There is a creek right behind the cabin that held their attention and allowed their imaginations to go wild. They would run inside to show me new things they found.

That night we ate treats, played games, and watched a movie. We also read from the incredible Peter Pan pop-up book illustrated by Robert Sabuda. Look up his pop up books. You won't be sorry. I would love to get my kids some of his books for Christmas.

The next morning the girls were up at 7 AM on the dot. We ate some breakfast and then went on a walk/hike around the neighborhood. We hiked up the steep embankment on the back side of the creek, only to find a road at the top. So then we made our way back down, with walking sticks of course.

I hadn't anticipated that the girls would love it so much. They wanted to stay as long as we could. I didn't bring lunch food, but they ate every scrap of snacks I brought and we stayed until that afternoon.

They went back and forth between playing outside and coloring inside. I mostly just relaxed and read.

I would love to go back again soon, although Camille may be tricky to bring. She would have to be watched any time she went outside.

End of August

Sadie's friend Bentley got to stay with us for a couple days while her parents were out of town. This marked the first time we have had a non-relative sleep over. The girls were pretty good and ended up asleep by 10 PM. Millie just loves Bentley and follows her around

With the older girls gone during the day Camille plays by herself more and more.

On August 23rd we celebrated Holland's birthday by sending her balloons. My girls love this tradition. I also think it is a good way to introduce the idea of death and life after death at a young age. 

 The girls had apples and nutella for an after-school snack and Elise wanted to get every bit of that chocolate. She told me she was the "chocolate cup of liberty". That girl is amazing. I don't every remember talking to her about the Statue of Liberty so I am impressed she could even make that joke. 

Millie went through a few weeks of sleeping in. She missed seeing the girls before they went to school, but she got to have breakfast all by herself and make demands like "cancakes" and "tikabell tup".

Kindergarten

 Elise started Kindergarten on August 29th. It was a very exciting day. She was comfortable and confident in the outfit she picked. It was hard for her to wait a whole week after Sadie to start school. When the day finally came she was ready. At her assessment before school started Elise got to meet her teacher and show her what she knew. Elise impressed me at how well she did everything. She was perfect. When her teacher pulled out a list of basic sight words she said, "Elise, do you want to read some of these for me?" And Elise answered, "No thanks" with a sweet smile. That was the end of our meeting. I love that girl. Her teacher told me she will find out her reading ability soon enough so she wasn't worried about it. 

 Sadie wanted a picture with the big Kindergartner.

The whole family went with Elise for her first day, but she couldn't have cared less. She wasn't very excited about posing with the Deerfield eagle, but she gave in to me. Then she ran around on the playground while we talked to other parents until the bell rang. I walked inside with her where she found her desk. She sits next to one of our neighbors, Bryant. I am very excited to see how the school year goes! 

A few facts about Elise as she started Kindergarten:

-she knows all her letters, upper and lower case, and their sounds

-she doesn't really care about math

-she can read basic words

-she loves to "read" books, which means looking at the pictures and making up elaborate stories

-LOVES to play pretend, especially about dragons
-we carpool with some boys in our neighborhood- Bode, Cooper and Roman. Most of the girls in our neighborhood are in afternoon Kindergarten

-she is very good at coloring in the lines, which for some reason surprises me
-takes gymnastics and theater class weekly and is considering trying soccer in the spring

-she loves to make people laugh, but hates when she feels like people are laughing at her

-uses big words as much as she can

-puts together fascinating outfits

-still hates getting her hair done for school, but she tolerates it better

-anytime someone does something she doesn't like she says they are rude

-has a great memory

-the most enthusiastic learner

Second Grade

Sadie's first day of school was August 22nd. She was soooo excited. She has a first year teacher. She is fresh out of college. That made me nervous, but Sadie is a great student for a first year teacher since she tries incredibly hard to please her teachers. I am confident this will be a great year!

Some facts about Sadie heading into 2nd grade:
-mysteries are her favorite genre (A to Z mysteries are her favorite, but I am hoping she will start to enjoy Boxcar children)
-one of her best friends, Bentley, is in her class. We carpool to school
-she is planning on playing soccer in the fall and spring, taking theater and gymnastics weekly throughout the year, and maybe playing basketball
-loves to set up our office as a classroom
-wants to be a teacher when she grows up
-loves to have play dates
-very good at cleaning up when she wants to
-frequently turns Pandora on the tv so she can dance
-prefers playing house, school, orphans, etc  over playing with toys

Last week of Summer

Upon returning to Utah we had 1 week until school started for Sadie. Here's what we fit in.

Typical for Millie after a bath.

Daniel went to Lake Powell with his team for the week. I sent him this picture suggesting they purchase Crystal Pepsi for the occasion.

End of summer pizza and pj party. We scaled it down this year and I allowed the girls to invite 3 friends each. 

 I bought 3 pizzas for the party. I ended up with 1 whole cheese and almost 1 whole pepperoni left. 

Family room dancing

 Ron's 60th birthday party. I made an appearance while Daniel was still at Lake Powell. My kids were the only child attendees. Oops. 

Dentist. Sadie and I were cavity free, although Camille did insist on sitting on my lap for much of my examination. Poor Elise has several more cavities. I give up. I brush and floss the girls' teeth every night. They brush their own teeth in the morning. Sadie, never had a cavity. Elise, always has cavities. Oh well.

We put the Stewart Falls hike on our summer bucket list but the girls decided they wanted to hike the Y instead. Daniel attempted it last summer with them and it failed miserably. I was determined they would make it up and I would not carry them at all. (Last year Daniel attempted to carry both of them at one point) They did it! There was much whining on the climb up, but that hike is pretty terrible. On the way down we mostly discussed U.S. history. The girls had lots of questions about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. It was also the first time we discussed slavery. I am still not sure they understand slavery but it was good to introduce it. 

 

 My dad was in town for my cousin Amanda's wedding so we went up to the This Is The Place monument and park. I had heard it was really fun but I wasn't sure what to expect. When I saw the price I almost backed out (I think it was like $12 each?). It was SO fun! We wished we had more time. We didn't get to see everything we wanted to. The girls rode ponies, panned for gold, rode on a train, made leather stamps, made Native American necklaces, and more. They have a bunch of replicas of historic Utah houses and also some original houses that have been moved there. They have employees that work in the different shops using tools accurate to early Utah settlers. We watched the tinsmith and blacksmith work. I purchased an ornament made in the tin shop. We also watched a Native American dance performance. One of the performers was incredible. The hoop dance was my favorite. 

Of course Camille made Papa read with her. 

Trip of the Summer 4

On Tuesday Carolyn and I brought the kids to Austin's children's museum, The Thinkery. The AMSE pass got us in for free again. We have gone in the past but this time was fun to have Millie old enough to enjoy it.

We skipped the water room altogether this time because it was chaotic and I wasn't in the mood for soaking wet kids. We did spend a ton of time in the food mart/kitchen area. 

I took Sadie and Elise to a class on minerals, which ended up being a private class when no one else showed up. Elise held up her magnifying glass and told me she was doing "science experiences". We learned all about fools gold (pyrite), graphite, several different gem stones and more. The girls paid really good attention and still talk about how to tell the difference between real gold and pyrite. 

We tried out a new exhibit where you push buttons to release melted wax. You can move the lever all over and up and down to make different shapes. 

Sadie concentrated hard on launching the foam airplane she built. This exhibit is always fun but gets a little harder when it is crowded and you can't get all the airplane pieces you want. 

There is a super cool sea dragon mosaic figure across the street from the museum and we forced the girls to take a picture. 

I wanted a picture of the whole thing but I ended up capturing Mimi in paparazzi mode. 

That afternoon Mimi and Paco took Sadie and Elise to the bookstore where they got to pick out books and a toy.

Sadie immediately started in on her A to Z mysteries while snuggling with her new Beanie Boo. I had never heard of Beanie Boos but apparently they are popular toys. My girls talk all the time about which other ones they want.

 That night was Nielson sibs (plus me) dinner. We returned to our old reliable, Hopdoddy. Then we went on a Round Rock memories tour. We drove around the new high school to a rousing rendition of the Round Rock High School fight song performed by the Nielson siblings. A true highlight of the whole trip. We visited the actual Round Rock (pictured).

We also drove around the Nielson's old neighborhood and checked out the old house. They sold that house in 2006, so it was where I visited the 2 1/2 years we were dating and the first year of our marriage. Obviously Daniel and his siblings lived there for a long time so they reminisced and the conversation naturally turned to basketball games in the driveway, Daniel crashing into the neighbor's mailboxes, and their old dog Cosmo.

 The next morning I snuck this picture of Tyler, Ruby and Millie out on the golf course.

On another day Daniel heard the front door close softly and then no one walked in. He sat there for a minute and felt like he should go check on what it was. He opens the door and Camille and Ruby are sitting out on the golf course. Millie had packed the girls' small rolling suitcase with her blankie and a book and Ruby was sticking with her. It was kind of terrifying because the street on the side of the Nielson's is super busy and neither Ruby or Millie is very responsible. It was also kind of hilarious, and we are glad we can focus on the funny part of it.

 I also snuck this one of Whit reading to Sadie with Millie snuggled up with her new Finding Dory book. We went back to the neighborhood pool for more swimming that afternoon.

 More A to Z book reading. Sadie can and does read them alone but she loves to have someone read to her as well.

That night we had a family party out on the golf course after dinner. We attempted a few pics of everyone with the iphone self timer.

 

 And a goofy one for good measure.

Thursday morning Daniel and I took the girls Texas Museum of Science and Technology. Our AMSE pass saved us another $55 of entrance fees. Our first activity was a scavenger hunt through their exhibits on dinosaurs. The girls were promised prizes for finishing it, which were.....very cheap paper bookmarks! Sweet! There were a bunch of different exhibits about sound, light and motion.

 Everyone enjoyed playing the drums.

 Another fun first for our kids was the planetarium. Sadie and Elise were both slightly scared, but we watched a couple of cool programs about constellations and the sun.

Following that we grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-A and met up with everyone at Courtney's house. We all swam in her neighborhood pool. I think it was 106 degrees as we walked over to the pool? Maybe 104?

 You had to either be in the pool or splash pad.

 You know how I love kids in goggles.

 We left Sadie and Elise at Coco's for a sleep over and headed back to Tom and Carolyn's.

Millie enjoyed getting all the adults' attention.

 That night Daniel and I went out to celebrate our 11th anniversary. We went to dinner and then made an exciting trip to Walmart.

The next day I drove down to historic Gruene (pronounced Green) to meet up with one of my dearest friends Julia. She lives in San Antonio.  I did a TERRIBLE job getting pictures. I took this of the water tower from the parking lot and this one of Gruene Hall from the car. Oops.

 Gruene is a charming town along the Guadalupe River. Neither of us had been to Gruene so we met up at the Gristmill for lunch and then walked into some of the shops. Then we headed to the San Marcos outlets, which were a total madhouse but we both found a few things.

I threw my swimsuit on as soon as I got home and Carolyn and I took Sadie and Elise to the Rock 'N River Water Park. It was super fun. Sadie was the perfect age for it because she could go on every slide. She had to pass a swim test to go on one of them, but she did that easily. Elise loved it as well and didn't seem to care that she couldn't go on the bigger slides.

 We stayed until closing and I made the girls pose in front of the biggest slide/splash structure.

 We hung out with everyone for a few more hours and packed up our stuff to get ready for the drive to Albuquerque the next day.

Not pictured: watching the Olympics each night after kids were in bed, watching Stranger Things on Netflix, eating Round Rock donuts (I think twice?), walking around the neighborhood in suffocating humidity, possibly getting ripped off when I got our oil changed, seeing Hunt for the Wilderpeople late one night (SO GOOD!),  and more that I am sure I am forgetting weeks and weeks later.

Day one of our drive back to Utah was a doozy. One of our windshield wipers flew off in the rain. We were very lucky it happened when we could stop at the next tiny town and buy a new one. Daniel got a speeding ticket in New Mexico. When we arrived at our hotel in Albuquerque Daniel had booked our hotel for the night before we arrived. He had used Marriott Points, so at least it wasn't cash, but you can't get Marriott points back and we had to pay cash for the night. Still trying to get over that gaffe.

We made it back home Sunday night and we managed to empty the car before collapsing in bed.