Birthday Weekend

We started off our birthday weekend (well, on Thursday) with an afternoon at Liberty Park with Amber and Jaxon. It was a beautiful afternoon and the kids just about had the water play area to themselves! I'm so glad we got to go there again this summer, it's such a fun place.

Violet spent a lot of time at the end of the afternoon just kicking her legs in the pool. Cute!

Happy kiddos!

Friday, on my birthday, the girls spent some time with Kissie while I spent a few hours at the outlet mall. It was nice to have some time to relax and shop a bit. Cora has been so worried lately about baby brother not having any shoes! So I got a couple of pairs of baby shoes and a few winter baby outfits-- it's hard to believe we'll need to acquire a whole new baby wardrobe for this little guy. I went through the girls' clothes and found only a few gender neutral pj's.... It was nice, though, to get a couple of bags for the DI out of it, who knows if we'll ever have another girl and use those clothes again?

Cora was delighted to see baby brother's shoes and clothes and we haven't heard about that worry since. She really is so cute about the new baby coming. She gives him a hug after she gives me my goodnight hug, she tells me how big he is, if he liked the cake and icecream for dessert, and how he might cry when he comes out. She's also been really interested in hearing her and Violet's birth stories too.

Kevin had an off-site work service activity Friday, so he joined up with us in Salt Lake, along with Shad and Jen who happened to be in town, and Mom and Dad for an impromptu birthday dinner at Tucanos. Yum. I haven't been there before, and it was delicious! I can't wait to go back.... sometime when I'm really really really hungry! And, the girls liked riding the train there. Cora wasn't in the best mood, but cheered up once we figured out she liked the honey chicken wings, and she had a bunch of them. Violet must have eaten her weight in rice and beans, and finished off Kevin's birthday icecream dessert. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Saturday was Kevin's birthday, and we spent the day boating at Jordanelle. We woke up early and stayed there until dinnertime-- it was quite the long fun-filled day! I think the girls could have even stayed until dusk, they were having so much fun. Cora loved playing with cousin Brinley and enjoyed all the attention from the other teenage cousins around too. Cora and Brinley had fun floating on the tubes and the blow-ups just right off the shore, and Brinley was a superstar riding on the tube behind the boat... which totally scared Cora.

Violet heartily protested the life-jacket, but seemed to like the boat, at least it gave her a much-needed nap. Cora just loved riding in the boat, and was especially thrilled when Pata let her drive it for a little while. Violet's favorite part was the rocky shore-- she kept busy for hours putting rocks in and out of a bucket and throwing rocks in the water.

I had a great time watching the skiing and tubing (the doctor advised against me going out myself). Kevin got bounced around on the tube, and we both had fun playing with the girls in the water, hanging out with family, and enjoying a day in the sun. Unfortunately, although I got sunscreen on the kids, I totally forgot to get some on myself and got really red. I'm so glad we got to go out on Kissie and Pata's boat at least once this summer! We'll have to hope it works out to go more next summer.

I brought some yummy Lofthouse cookies to the beach-- the only color frosting they had at the store was blue! Good thing we weren't at home, all the blue cookie crumbs fell on the rocks and no one really cared that Brinley and Cora had blue mouths... and that the rest of us had blue teeth. Being at the beach was also a good opportunity to eat cheese puffs-- another thing we found out recently that the girls love, but are way too messy for the house. Needless to say, the girls were in heaven with all the unmonitored doses of fun food they had all day!
It was a fun birthday weekend. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate! We appreciate all the calls, cards, and other remembrances. Birthdays really don't seem to matter much now that we're getting old (uggh) but it was great to have a couple of really fun days!