"Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes, The rest sit 'round it and pluck blackberries."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Funny Day at the Zoo

Ellie has many interesting things to say when it comes to the zoo:

While looking at the cougars:

"Come on, Dad. Let's go find some animals that aren't sleeping."

While holding hands with Mom:

"Mom, you're too heavy. I'm going to go find someone else to walk with.

Looking at the gorillas:

"Let's go inside the glass."

When driving to get ice cream:

E - "I want a sticky." (i.e. granola bar)
Mom - "We don't get two treats. You can have ice cream or a sticky, you pick." (I thought this would be easy.)
E - "I want a sticky."
Mom - "Oh... well, we're having ice cream."

When driving home:

E - "I want to go to Grandma Maga's."
Mom and Dad - "No, we chose to go to the zoo and to get ice cream today."
E - "No, YOU chose."

What can we say? She's pretty cute.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Camping

We had our first family camping trip of the season this last weekend. Of course, we forgot the camera. Talent, I know. Below is a picture of another talented person. Meg managed to poop all over her clothes the moment we got there. Dad had to put the tent up himself and Mom got to business. With no time for bug spray, Meg was like a grand feast for the taking. But we got her dressed again as quickly as possible.

Sleeping photos. Everyone slept great, even Meg who had come down with her first ever cold/fever. In fact, everyone slept so wonderfully that Mom got to document it all when she woke up at 7:00. The kids apparently have me programmed, whether they wake up or not.

Aunt Laura's Puppies


Does it look like she's having fun? My cousin Laura had nine puppies this year and Ellie and I periodically go visit them. Last time we visited they hadn't opened their eyes and couldn't be tugged or pulled.... but not so this time. Elise really loved it when the dogs chased her, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Mom enjoyed the dogs too, but the new allergies (courtesy of being pregnant with Ellie) make it not as fun as normal.



Cute dogs. If you're looking for one, I'm sure they'd love to come cuddle with you!

Swimming

Okay, someone needs to remind me to actually take my camera places. Then you wouldn't wind up looking at these horrible pictures of the camera on my phone. But, I can't help it. This was Ellie's first swim of the summer. She played like her mom and stayed away from the water for a long time, but finally followed AnneMarie's lead and took the dive. She had a great time, and hasn't stopped with the water since.



Ballet Concert

Recently, Elise and her cousin AnneMarie had their first ballet performance. Originally they were going to be Unicorns, but since they are the youngest class and didn't quite figure out the dance, they were changed at the last minute to Bouncy Balls. This involved the innovative feature of throwing your ball in the air and chasing it. You'd be surprised how difficult this is for little girls... especially when the balls are hot pink! What if you don't get the ball back?

Ellie and Annie performed two nights to fix a small casting problem backstage. The first night Ellie was hilarious. When they went on stage before the show to find their marks, Elise refused to dance. When I asked her why, she said she wasn't dancing until she got on stage. Apparently if the curtain is closed there is no stage. She did dance a little during her first performance, but also had a little sadness. When I asked her why, she said she missed me. But I very much doubt that as Ellie is quite independent.



Some happy moments between the two dancers. Rides to the theatre consisted of statements like:

"My bun is bigger than yours."

"My tights are pinker than yours."

"This is my car."

"This is my mom."

And other such cousinly statements. At least they can hug on command! No, they really do like each other. Just a little friendly competition about anything possible.


Hanging out with Daddy before the show. Elise and Dad chowed down on some muffins while Mom fed Meg.

Costumes backstage.... I bet you'll never guess who's dress/headband/leotard was cutest? And once again, who's bun was biggest? Apparently this was really important.

Make sure you don't smile Annie!


The girls second performance was very cute also. We lost some balls to the audience and Ellie wandered around the stage with her arms held out for something pink. Justin insists that everyone must have been watching her since the entire audience laughed when she did something cute. He's not biased, is he?

Below are my phone pictures of onstage pictures and the group photo we take backstage. They are obviously less than stellar. You can find useful pictures (minus the grainy entourage) at http://www.pointesintime.com/ Just go to events, PreBallet "I Love a Circus". Ellie's pictures are on the Wednesday and Thursday early shows.

Ellie keeps asking if we're going to her new performance. I tell her that you only get to perform once a year. Just like every dancer, I guess. When can I go on stage again?

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Aunt Jessica's Wedding

We spent the last weekend in Las Vegas for Aunt Jessica's wedding. We had a great time.


Waiting outside the Temple for the bride and groom.


Danny and Jessica Woodbury!


With all the nieces and nephews. Quite the picture. From left: Ava, Evan, Ezra, Russell, Meg, Elise, Skylar.

Three Cousins

Skylar, Ava, and Elise posing on the steps at the Temple. They're pretty cute!




Our Family!

It's official!!! We now have a picture of our entire family. Can you believe it? Very exciting! I tried to convince Justin he should wear a pink tie :) but red works pretty well too.



Cute pictures of Meg. In the first she's meeting Uncle Nate for the first time. The second is the other family photo. We're all cuter in the first one, except Meg. She looks very excited to be in this one.


A picture of Justin and Jamie. Whenever we go to weddings I tease Justin that even after four years of marriage we couldn't come up with as many pictures of us together as most people have from dating. This is, of course, because of me. So, I decided to be a good sport this time, and get a picture of us together.


Jamie and Ellie with Ellie's bouquet of flowers. She loved it. I guess she loves fresh flowers as much as Mom.


I think it's time for us to go home! What do you think? The end of a good party, that's for sure.

Ellie throughout the Wedding Weekend

Okay, so I think she's cute. And I can't stop taking pictures. Here's a little ode to Ellie. The most beautiful princess of all.



At the Temple grounds, pretending to pose for Mom.


Some more dancing. Our favorite past-time.

I will not smile!



Okay... if you insist! I will smile.

Grandparents

Part of our fun wedding weekend was seeing all those grandparents. Below are a few pictures of the partying!


With Grandma and Grandpa Wood.... Grandma Wood held Meg for a while at the reception, but got a not so welcome surprise on her dress when she was finished. We hope she'll want to hold Meg again !



Grandma Paula and Meg at the Temple.



Cinderella dancing with her Prince. She even made Grandpa Mark chase her when she declared it was midnight. Luckily, he found her shoe and was able to dance with her again.

Letterboxing

I heard about letterboxing through BYU's MBASA. Apparently it's a glorified treasure hunt. You find clues online, go find boxes in your area, and add your stamp to a pad inside to prove you've been there. You also get to stamp your own pad with a stamp provided in the box.

Our family decided to try it out last weekend, and we had a great time. We got to see all kinds of new things, and we didn't have to plan it out. The clues did the searching for us. Sadly, I forgot my camera. And since I refuse to pay the money to upload the pictures I took on my phone, you get the following stellar pictures. Hope you can even see what we did... I'll add captions just in case.


Our first discovery was in the MOA parking lot at BYU. Someone was apparently moving out... and into their car. It was amazing the things they had in their car. If only you could really see what we saw!


Our first clue started us at the statue of Brigham Young in front of the ASB.



Then we got to look at the statues North of the HFAC. Ellie wanted to get in the water, but since it was a rainy day... we said that wasn't such a good idea. She did throw a penny in though! (Of course, I think she would have rather pocketed the penny).


Here is Ellie holding her first treasure box! Before this, she and Daddy held a baby butterfly (a.k.a baby caterpillar). She really enjoyed that.

Standing on a bridge in one of the parks we were sent to. Meg was a good girl and hung out in her car seat all day. Not the most fun ever, but she was a good sport.

Walking with Daddy in the park we went to.


Watching a train go by. Ellie loves trains, and this was a big highlight.

Overall, it was a great adventure we hope to keep up. A wonderful free activity for those college years. We even got a first finder's prize on our second box!