August Round-up

Cora lost one tooth the beginning of August and another 2 weeks later! She's now sporting a vampire-esque smile-- with her two front top teeth growing in but the teeth on either side of them out, her canines are especially prominent. She's growing up so fast! 

There was another big fire in Herriman while we were in Park City. We heard about it on facebook, but didn't realize how close we were to it until our neighbors called to keep us in the loop. This was the closest one to us yet, with only a couple miles of grassland, one road, and 6 houses between us and the fire. Lucky for us, we have great neighbors who grabbed our file box of important papers for us and turned off our air conditioning (so smoke didn't get pulled into our house) just in case, and kept us updated. Unfortunately, Cora heard us talking about it and was really scared. One good thing about already being gone is that we didn't have to worry about being evacuated or dealing with the ash and smoke. 

                                      

A little funny from this month... Cora: Mom, do we have any an-brothers? 

Me: What do you mean?

Cora: Well, I know we have an-sisters, so do we have an-brothers too?

We spent an evening at Silver Lake and it was so nice to be somewhere cool. Even better, we saw a baby and momma moose!

(there's the baby in the background again)

And some darling ducklings as well

Fun with friends at the splash canals at Liberty Park

Violet in her purplelicious outfit (she often finds pinkalicious outfits to wear too)

And Kevin and I turned 34! We were a bit tired out from the rest of the summer, so we had some cake and icecream and called it good.

Grandparent Letter

Dear Grandpa and Grandma,

How are you doing? I hope all is going well there! We had a fun and busy August. We were lucky to be able to spend lots of time with Keyton and Liz and their family. We spent a week in Park City all together and had a great time hiking and playing. It’s so fun to see the little cousins having such a great time together! (And the adults too! J ). After our week in Park City, we had a week of fun in Salt Lake, playing at a bounce house and a waterpark and hanging out around town. It was wonderful! And so sad to see them go.

Cora started first grade August 22^nd! Violet started her last year of preschool then too. They are excited about their classes and teachers. It is taking Cora a while to adjust to being gone all day long, she is pretty tired when she gets home and a little sad to find out things she has missed out on while she was gone. Hopefully she’ll keep adjusting! Violet is reading three letter words now and doing wonderfully! She is so excited to be reading like her big sister.  Luke started a little playschool group too. It’s once a week with a short learning time and mostly play—he’s so excited to be going to ‘school’ like his sisters! Evelyn of course doesn’t get to go to school yet, but she can now roll over front to back and back to front. She is doing well and growing lots.

Kevin is excited about BYU football season coming up. I have loved being able to pick up yummy fresh produce from the local farmers markets. We are almost adjusted to our new schedules of school, gymnastics and playdates!

Thankyou so much for the birthday present! We really appreciate it, and it was very thoughtful of you. 

First Days

Violet's first day of preschool was yesterday. Miss Angie is her new teacher!

 Cora's first day of 1st grade was today! Her teacher is Mrs. Palmer at Providence Hall Elementary.

Evelyn at 4 months

At 4 months, this smiley girl weighs 14.33 pounds (60th percentile) and is 24.41 inches long (49th percentile).

She loves the new perspective that comes from sitting in her bumbo. Here she is helping me make jam! She is just starting to sit in her exersaucer too, and likes playing with all the toys and being more on eye level with the kids.

 Evelyn puts up with lots of snuggles and even seems to enjoy most of them.

She's rolling over both ways, has huge belches during and after she eats, and likes to give kisses. While she still gives us some coos when she talks, she has also added pterodactyl-like screeches to her verbal talents. 

Violet has christened her 'Evils' (with a short e), which is not my favorite but it has some sticking power. We also call her Evelina, Evie (both with a short and long e), so she has quite a few nicknames.

Evelyn is pretty young for separation anxiety, but she's still has a pretty bad case of it. She gets nervous whenever someone besides Kevin or I is holding her. 

                            

              

She loves kisses and gets a big smile on her face when she gets them. She knows kisses are supposed to be on her mouth, so if you try to give her a kiss on the cheek, she moves until she's got you on the lips!

Park City family pictures

 

Family Fun Week, continued in SLC

Keyton, Liz, and family got to stay an extra week in Salt Lake after our time in Park City. Lucky us! When you only see each other once every two years, you have to make the most of it. Kissie planned out lots of fun activities for us to do all together (between their other family and friend visits and alone time with Kissie and Pata-- we didn't want to crowd them too much!). 

A few more pics from the play area at the City Creek food court

Fun times at Jump Around Utah

 A day at my house making sponge necklaces, bubble snakes, pyramids, and splashes.

 A super fun day at Cowabunga Bay. I can't believe how much fun we had! I loved it and the kids did too! We were having so much fun that we ended up skipping back-to-school night. 

 An evening concert in the park, and a special family dinner at the Cheesecake Factory-- delicious! 

We are so lucky Keyton and Liz are willing to make the trek out here to see us when they can. And lucky that Kissie will host us and entertain us all. Now we just have to start the two year countdown until the next visit!

Park City DeGiulio Fun

It was a little funny that we ended up with two weeks of vacation in Park City this year, but with different families and staying in different places and doing different things there really wasn't much overlap. We had such fun spending quality time with each other. It was busy and terrific!

With a huge beautiful pool and lots of warm weather, we spent the most time at the pool. I thought I'd get 'pooled out', but it was really fun. Having cousins to swim with made all the difference for the kids. We swam every day!

Cora's flying!!

And the kids had lots of other bonding time watching cartoons in the morning,

hanging out outside, 

playing games, 

watching movies, 

wearing new pj's (courtesy of Kissie!)

and doing crafts,

along with our other fun activities. Even the babies got to hang out together a little bit!

Lucky for us, the adults got a lot of game time together too.

Kissie and Pata orchestrated a scripture story treasure hunt for after church on our first full day there. 

Lots of fun to be had around the resort too.

We rode the gondola up to a hike up to a 'lake' for fishing and paddleboating. Paddling is a bit of a workout!!

So was hiking, for the adults toting toddlers/babies at least! Good thing Cora and Violet had walking sticks to help them out. 

Miniature golf was fun, even if the smallest kiddos preferred wading in the stream to actually golfing.

We had family pictures done up at Deer Valley (a separate post), rode the funicular afterward, then ended with icecream-- yum! Look at all of these cute cousins!!

We spent a day at Park City resort doing the Alpine Slide and other activities. The kids liked the slide and little rides. 

Cora and Violet LOVED the bungee trampoline and did it several times. I didn't have my camera with me for that time, I wish I could have gotten a picture! That alone made the pass worth it, even though a rainstorm hit and we had to run for cover. 

We spent a full day in the Uintahs. We spent lots of time exploring and playing around the Provo River falls... the kids waded, threw rocks in, claimed a little fort, and we ate lunch there too. 

Then we did a little hike to Ruth Lake and came back to a campsite to play charades and explore with magnifying glasses. Inbetween thunderstorms we roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and eclairs. It was a packed day! We were hoping to take the easy, pretty walk around Mirror Lake and stay to do some star gazing, but our plans were cut short by the rain, which ended up being just fine.

                                                             Taking shelter in the van 

Other highlights of the week included yummy food, shopping at the outlets, lunch at the farmer's market, a service project (buying and assembling bags of school supplies for a local women's shelter), pinata, and fishing games. It was a busy fun week!