Fairytale

(Check out this balloon castle! My little balloon artist was totally captivated.)

A few weeks ago, in a magical place close by, a Fairytale Festival was held.  As part of the festivities, there were princess tea parties, knights in training, glass slipper fittings, crown making classes, etc.  Elle & little cousin Kate attended a tea party together that was so cute, and strictly excluded parents.  We were only allowed to watch the goings on via this tv in the lobby.  The girls didn't mind in the least!





So many princesses mingling with the girls - they were in heaven.  And then each girl was fitted for a crown ….




Being fitted for a glass slipper ….


That evening, the girls knew something special was happening with their dads but they didn't know exactly what.  At the appointed time, the doorbell rang and these cute dads appeared to whisk their daughters to a daddy/daughter ball.  Corsages and all!  It was the cutest.

It was totally magical! I'm sure Elle won't ever forget that night.  I certainly won't.  

Summer wrap-up ….

This little girl had been asking for a balloon kit so she could learn how to blow up balloons and make them into animals or whatever.  She asked and asked and asked.  Finally she found a kit she could afford on Amazon, brought me the exact change and asked me to order it.  Well, alrighty then ...

Sure enough, she taught herself how to make flowers (this is her very first creation) and then all kinds of animals.  We've been finding little balloon animals all over the house ever since.  Remind me not to stand in her way when she's set on something. :)

Christian & Michael Frame catching a ride home.  I stopped a few doors down to talk to a neighbor and they hopped out and climbed on top.  Barely cleared the garage door, the crazies.

Took the family to the Ogden Temple open house.  Wish I could say that there was no complaining or grumbling about getting dressed up on a Saturday, but that would be stretching the truth.  No one complained about the fantastic lunch we had afterward, though. Good to see our priorities are straight.




I've been wanting to take the girls downtown to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir record Music & the Spoken Word live.  We finally crossed that off of our summer bucket list a few weeks ago.  So fun to meet Aunt KK, grandma & Valerie there, too.


Phase 1 of braces for Elle.  So weird to see my baby with braces! Stop this train ….


Our one trip to Lagoon this summer.  I never used to get so queasy at Lagoon. Must be old age.  Or old age.


The girls & I spent at least an hour on this free gondola ride in Park City.  We went up for the day to swim and hang out with cousins and rode this thing to our hearts' content.


We also went on a factory tour at Sweets Candy.  Worth the visit ...




Celebrated 19 years with my honey.  We celebrated by taking all of the kids with us to a movie. Non-traditional anniversary but a great night anyway.


Haley & Syd spent an afternoon playing in the rain, and then decided to hop in the tub together like they used to when they were tiny.


Haley also put a creative slant on her ALS ice bucket challenge.

















Finished the summer with Christian going to Jam Bands Camp (School of Rock, basically) with Rosie & Benn.  They spent 6+ hours a day rehearsing together in several different band groups and then had a concert that Friday night.  Christian came alive last summer when he learned how fun it was to perform on stage.  They had such a great week.

He performed with another band on stage in the park a few weeks later …. He's addicted to performing. :)

Messing around at home ….

And then school started … 8th grade for Haley at Millcreek Jr High, 5th grade for Paige returning to Oak Hills Elementary, and 2nd grade for Elle Grace.

She rocked her new backpack. :)

Christian the high schooler didn't want his picture taken but Bountiful High has been good to him so far, so that's a plus.

Mini road trip

We've taken up a new hobby as a family ... listening to the Harry Potter series on c.d. in the car.  :) Elle & Paige are new fans, while the rest of us have been long time fans.  When Christian was little little, he was such a Harry Potter fan that he drew himself a lightening bolt scar on his forehead with my eyeliner on a daily basis.  We woke him up for midnight book releases at Barnes & Noble, I sewed him a cool wizard cape with a skinny little pocket just for his wand.  Aahhh … those were some good times.

So -- knowing that the kids start school next week, and knowing that Christian wasn't feeling up to doing much since he had just gotten his wisdom teeth out, and knowing that we wanted to listen to the cd's as much as we could, and knowing that my kids haven't ever seen the salt flats before … I figured we could take a field trip out west and have a little outing.  Everyone was really excited.

He was excited.  I promise.

And then we hit serious rain and gray clouds that stretched as far as the eye could see.  Not the best weather to explore the salt flats, but what could we do at this point?

We finally found the giant ball sculpture thing.  Still raining hard.

But we braved the weather and ran out onto the soggy, gray salt flats anyway.

The kids were totally humoring me by this point.  "These salt flats are amazing, mom.  Soooo glad we drove all the way here for this lovely experience."  I couldn't stop laughing.  Sorry, guys! Not what I had envisioned for our day.

By then, the signs read that Wendover was only 20 miles away.  I totally thought Wendover was like 3 hours away, not 1 1/2 hours.  So, hey -- why don't we go see the giant waving cowboy in Wendover while we're already out this far?  And we're so glad we did, because about 10 minutes outside of Wendover, the clouds parted and the sun shone out!  It was perfect. :)

 Blue skies to the west, and this to the east ….

The salt was really wet and sticky.  My car is still covered in gloppy white salt.  But it was worth it.  All of the kids agreed that the brilliant white salt was worth the soggy drive to see.

And here he is … the cowboy I remember from my childhood.  We drove the route from Salt Lake to San Francisco more times than I can even remember.

Fun little field trip.  Plus we listened to a full 4 cd's worth of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Pretty great day. :)