Green Light

It's a go!!

Could It Be?

Could we be spending the night here?

Should I be Concerned?

Kaylee is obsessed with Cinderella (that's not what I'm concerned about).

While she watches it she'll often be smiling at parts and occasionally react to something (I'm also not concerned about this... it's quite cute).
What I'm concerned about is that her biggest reaction is at this part:

And it's not what you'd think! She's not scared of it... she laughs!!! Really loudly! That part scared me as a kid (and actually still does give me the creeps). My daughter thinks it's hilarious.

What a silly girl. Her father must be Joel or something. :)

Who knew?

Saturday Joel planned a little family outing. We went on a tour to weird/random places that are in Salt Lake that you'd never think would be there. It was a lot of fun! Here's what we did (I've linked to websites that give more info about each place).

Summum Temple

First we drove by the Summum Temple. Who knew this was in the middle of Salt Lake?! It's this pyramid thing sitting off the freeway (type in Summum Temple, Salt Lake, UT in GoogleMaps to get a street view and see what's around it). It's not very tall, which must be why I've never noticed it before. Apparently you can get a tour, but you have to schedule to do a ceremony with them first and drink some honey wine. You can read more about the religion by clicking on the link above. I guess they do a lot with mummification.

"Hobbitville"

Next we drove by "Hobbitville." I hadn't heard of it until about a year ago, but there's some Utah folklore about there being a town full of little houses for little people in the middle of Salt Lake and if you ever tried to drive into it the people there would throw rocks at you and slash your tires. Turns out it's actually some sort of bird sanctuary (or at least it used to be) and the little houses were for the birds (I think bigger birds like ostrich and/or emu). There's also a rumor that the people who own it are very private people who don't like the idea of "big brother" watching them. There are a bunch of signs around the place about no trespassing. Don't worry, we didn't. We just drove by and even though we couldn't see anything really it was fun to see where it was located (which actually happens to be right across from Westminster College in an area I've been a couple times... who knew?). We got video while driving by, but you can't really see anything. I did find this link with pictures from inside. I don't see the little houses, but I guess they're there if you really get a good look inside (though I'd never venture in... check out all the signs and surveillance). You can also see a little bit from google maps. It's near 13th East and Allen Street in S.L.

East High (not part of tour)

This wasn't actually part of our tour, but I took a picture of East High (from High School Musical) as we drove past because 1-I figure it's kind of a fun landmark in Salt Lake now, 2- my neices in Chile are obsessed and 3- it's located between Hobbit Town and Gilgal Gardens.

Gilgal Gardens

Next we went to Gilgal Gardens. Really cool! It's behind the Chuck-A-Rama near Trolley Square and is surrounded by houses and businesses, so you'd never know it was there. It's a little garden that was once the backyard of a man named Thomas Child. He was a Mormon bishop and a business man who loved masonry. He designed a bunch of sculptures that had to do with Mormonism. It's a small garden (it was his backyard afterall), but it's well worth your time to check it out. It's just very interesting the different things he did and what they mean. It's very peaceful too, especially considering its location. I loved listening to the birds chirp.

The Sphinx with Joseph Smith's face on it is the most famous sculpture in the garden.

This is Thomas Child. I really liked this sculpture.

There were over 70 scriptures carved into rock around the garden.

If you go be sure to grab a brochure as you walk in so you can read all about each part of the garden. It really was a cool place and who knew it even existed?!

Salt Lake Cemetery (aka: Cemetery of the Prophets)

Our last stop wasn't necessarily a "who knew" place, but it was still really cool and we've been wanting to go there for awhile now. It was the Salt Lake cemetery where most of the prophets are buried. We used this map to find each gravesite (thanks to the owner of this blog for creating and sharing it). What a peaceful place! And beautiful! It was really neat to see where the prophets were buried and to see all of the different headstones there. I've never seen such a variety before. It was really neat. Randomly, Joel found the headstone of Thomas Child (the man who built Gilgal Gardens). How he happened to spot that one out of the thousands there I don't know, but I thought that was cool.

If you ever have a chance to go, do so. I would like to go without children someday (Kaylee was a little restless by this point) and just walk around. It was so peaceful.

Thanks, Joel for planning such a fun and intersting outing! I really had a great time!


P.S. There's another must see "who knew" place in Utah (though not in S.L.). It's a Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork (click the link to see the picture). It's a fun place to visit, especially for one of their festivals (my sister, Paige, loves the Festival of Colors). It sort of reminds me of Aladdin's palace and it's right in the middle of Spanish Fork. I didn't know about it till I was in college and was taken there for the Llama Festival on a date. Here's there official site.

Bathtime!

Kaylee was helping me paint.

Training Table Night

Kaylee's trying out the World-Famous Cheese Fries.

Our Mini-Vacation

I have even less pictures than I thought. I'm just not good at remembering to pull out the camera. Anyway, for anyone who was confused, we went to Bear Lake this past Saturday. There's a little town nearby called Paris, Idaho, so we, of course, had to stop there.

Joel had a Quick Wits show (improv comedy) at Bear Lake and I've never been, so Kaylee and I tagged along and we made a mini-vacation out of it. It was a lot of fun!

First we had to get a "World Famous Raspberry Shake." Pretty much every business had a sign saying that when you first drive into Garden City. It was yummy. I really should have taken a picture of Kaylee eating it. She was a mess, but oh so cute!

Kaylee was our navigator. She didn't do very well. She mostly just pointed to letters and told us what they were and then sang the song "Lollipop."

Next we went to the "private beach." Joel's cousins have a cabin up there. We had just planned on going to an open beach, but they were crowded, so we called them up while we were up there and asked if we could use the beach behind their cabin. They were very nice and said yes. They had a gate around their property, though, so I'm sure it was quite a sight to watch this nearly 8 month pregnant woman climbing a chain-link fence! At first I pretty much forgot I was even pregnant as I hoisted myself up... until I was at the top and trying to get down. Then my belly felt huge and completely in the way. Good thing I have a strong husband who helped me down.

There wasn't really a place for Kaylee to just sit or wade in the water (the water level was up to our thigh from the get go), but she didn't care. SHE LOVED THE LAKE!!! She kept wanting us to put her down so she could splash around. It was seriously the cutest thing ever! She wanted to swim on her own so badly. She thought it was the neatest thing. We did find a spot that was more shallow (it went up to her shoulders) and we let her sort of walk around on her own. The water was actually really warm (and this is coming from someone who isn't a fan of swimming even in most heated pools because they're too cold). She was quite upset when we had to leave.

Hanging out after swimming. I absolutely love the colors at the cabin! This bench is so cute!

Afterward we went to Paris. We were too late for a tour of the neat tabernacle they have there, but we stopped at it anyway. It amazes me what the pioneers were able to create so long ago!


Across the street from the tabernacle is a cute little "Paris Cafe." We had wanted to eat dinner in Paris anyway, and "cafe" made it even better. It was actually kind of funny. We saw the sign from across the street and I wasn't sure I wanted to go... until I saw the cute vinyl lettering at the bottom. The main sign looked too "Harley Davidson" to me and, unlike my husband, I'm not a fan of dives. But the vinyl lettering made it okay to me and it was. Inside it was quite cute.

Kaylee knew exactly what she wanted.

We had to rush through dinner to make it to the show on time. It was at a place in Garden City on Bear Lake Blvd. called Growlers. I think it's a pretty new place and the owners are really nice. They had a bunch of family at the show and we chatted for a bit afterward.

The show went well. I, of course, forgot to take pictures. Though it probably would have been difficult with Kaylee anyway. At first she was loving the show, dancing and cheering. But then Joel started yelling during one of the games and Kaylee did not like that. At all. Her little lip went out and tears started pouring down her cheeks. It was so sad! Yet kind of cute. She didn't just cry. She was saying, "No.... noooo... No." She really did not like it when her daddy yelled. She's not used to it, I guess. We went outside for a walk and then sat at the back of the place with headphones and an iPod for almost the rest of the show. Towards the end I was able to get her to dance to some of the song games and to cheer for Joel. Funny girl.

Anyway, we really had a great time. It was a bit of a long drive for me and we got home really late, but I definitely want to go back to Bear Lake. It really was beautiful! And it was fun to spend time together as a family.

I have the best husband ever!

This past weekend he took me swimming on a private beach and then to eat at a cafe in Paris. We had a blast! And it didn't cost us a thing because it was a business trip! Pictures coming soon (maybe)...

What We've Been Up To

I have just not had a desire to blog for awhile. A big part of it is because I've been so busy lately. My sister, Kim (who lives in Chile), was visiting for a month with her family and then on the day she left Joel's sister, Jenn, and her family came to visit. We've been hanging out with all of them and having a blast! And when we weren't hanging out I've been trying to clean and working on crafts (I'm a little obsessed lately).

I'm going to try to play catch up with this post. I actually haven't been very good at taking pictures, so this won't really show the true extent of our busy-ness, but it can give you an idea.

Some of the things we did while Kim was here:

Jinnie and Kaylee are both hair twirlers. Especially when they have a bottle or sippy. We gave them one about the same time and then noticed they were both wandering around drinking it and twirling their hair. So cute! (We got Macee in the picture too because she was drinking a sippy).

Some of the highlights of the visit were going to the cabin (this swing is at the cabin), The Children's Discovery Museum, and just how much fun Kaylee had with her cousins!

During the time they were here our ceiling leaked. It was like a waterfall coming down from our light fixture. Here's a picture with the light cover off to show the damage to the ceiling. Apparently, the rain gutter in the building couldn't handle the huge amount of rain we got within 10 minutes and it caved. The water soaked into the insulation like a sponge and eventually let it all out.

We had our bed in the living room for 2 weeks while we waited for them to repair our ceiling. That was fun at first, but I was going nuts by the end. (We did end up putting sheets on the bed once we realized it was going to be longer than a few days.)

While they were gone for a few days at a family reunion for Dave's family we went to Lagoon for Joel's work party. Paige came with us so Joel could have someone to go on rides with (since pregnant me could only do the train and merry-go-round). They only ended up making it on 2 "big" rides and Puff with Kaylee. But we all had a great time watching Kaylee on the rides. She loved it!!! She looked so small on everything.

This was her very first ride of the day. Joel showed her how to ring the bell and she was doing that and turning the wheel the whole time. She kept clapping after rides and didn't want to get out when they were over (except maybe Puff... she didn't seem quite sure about that one... but she didn't cry).

Some of the things we did while Jenn was here:

This wasn't with Jenn's family, but we had the Wilkey family reunion. It was fun! Joel wasn't able to go, but me and Kaylee went up on Thursday and came home Friday. I was surprised at how well she did sleeping in the tent.

We also got to attend two 4th of July celebrations (it should have been 3, but we all got sick on the day of the Hilton party :( ). This one was with Grandma Mum and it was a lot of fun for all of the kids!

This is from the Wilkey 4th party. Always a blast. I didn't realize Kaylee would love the sandbox so much. That's where she spent most of her time. She kept getting sand beards and moustaches because her face was always sticky from candy from the candy cannon and from ice cream.

We went to the Children's Treehouse Museum with Jenn and her girls. Here's Kaylee as the President of the United States.

The girls on the Grandma story chair.

Pretending to be firemen just like their grandpa and great-grandpa (2 great-grandpa's for Kaylee). There were tons of dress-ups and the girls were so cute and helpful, always helping Kaylee into an outfit.

While both Kim and Jenn were here I worked on my craft obsession any time we weren't hanging out with them:

Here are just a few of the craft projects I've been working on...

I can't paint the walls (or at least I haven't asked if I can or not), so I decided to spruce up the furniture in the kids room. I'm not sure it'll stay like this (it might be too busy), but I think it looks pretty cute.

I've, of course, been working on more bows even though Kaylee has way more than she needs. It's addicting! I've been doing more magnets and Lost Socks boards for my Functional N Fabulous blog too.

I've been working on decorating their room. It had too much pink in it for our boy, so I'm trying to make it gender neutral.

I've been practicing my sewing. Those are some I Spy bags and a crinkle ribbon toy. I plan to make lots more of these even though I stink at sewing.

I made some cool ribbon dispensers. They're double-sided and I love them! (Not that they look cute, but they're very functional.)

We needed more places to hang towels in our bathroom with the new baby coming, so I made this. It matches the Lost Socks board we have in our bathroom (since it doubles as our laundry room).

This might be my favorite of all. It's a chalkboard on the side of the crib. Kaylee loves it!!! I used chalkboard spray paint, so Kaylee had to sleep in our room for a few nights while her room aired out (she doesn't have any windows), but it was worth it.

Kaylee will often help me when I'm painting. She was painting some wooden insects...

...and then decided to paint her hand.

We really have had a great past few months! I'm almost 34 weeks and look like I have a basketball under my shirt, but I've been feeling great! The tiredness and aches are just starting to really kick in, which is much later than it did with Kaylee so that's good. I'm going to try to be better at blogging (and commenting on others posts... I read them, I swear! I just don't comment much anymore), but honestly, I doubt that'll happen. (Joel still wants me to finish the cruise posts because I haven't done his favorite day yet- Castaway Cay. We'll see.)

Oh Say Can You See?

This is what America is all about. A toddler, in a swing, with ice cream all over her face, sporting the red, white and blue. . . and brown.