July 2013 P1

Posing in a new outfit from Grandma Carol.

 

 

 Happy birthday Ellia and Happy fourth of July!

 

Dad made an awesome fish pancake this year. 

 

 

This will help out a ton for our plane ride! 

 

 After the party we cleaned up and started cooking pancakes.  We invited a few families over for a pancake breakfast and then had a little race on the trace.  The race was probably too short, but overall it turned out to be a fun get together. P.S. Ellia won the race! 

 

Later that afternoon we stopped by the park to see what was going on there, and then headed to another friends for a backyard BBQ and fireworks show. It was all very hot, and there were lots of bugs - definitely a southern fourth.

 

 Ashlyn actually really got into them this year. She was scared at first but pops always a good stepping stone.  Ellia started liking them too, she wanted to do a lot of sparklers.

 

I guess this means it was a good birthday?

 For Ellia's friend party she chose a Unicorn Rainbow theme.  I had pictured making something like this and went in search for examples on Pinterest but alas...nothing.  I had to just wing it, but I was pretty proud of myself.

 This idea was from Pinterest.

 She also chose a local indoor bounce house which made it really easy on us.

 Ashlyn and I set to race.  She totally beat me over the first climb but then turned around to help me...just like Ashlyn!

 Sweet sisters.

 Only a minute later.

 This was just such a cute summer days scene I had to break out the camera.

 Finally! After hours of researching and waiting for supplies to arrive in the mail, and figuring and cutting old curtains, I finished ONE roman shade.  It was more work preparing than actually making, so I still have some motivation for the last three, maybe four that I need to make!

The time has come for our trip to Utah.  Since the girls and I are going out for a week before Jeremy, he took them to the park for a fun play time the day before we left.

At the airport...this will be the first flight Ashlyn might remember and she has been pretty excited.

It was really nice that Jeremy could take us on his lunch break and then get a gate pass to help us all the way to the terminal.

The stewardess gave them wings for being so good on the first flight from New Orleans to Denver.

After a huge headache missing a plane due to weather, we ended up at our hotel in Grand Junction for a well deserved rest.  I never thought I stay in a hotel alone with three young children, but they have been so good I couldn't have asked for it to have gone better with them, only with the flights.  They even RAN through the Denver airport wheeling luggage across people movers past 60 terminals. I was impressed.