Newport Beach with the Walker Fam

Spending the week at Newport Beach with Alec's family last week was wonderful! Here are some highlights....

Alec's brother, Peter.

Alec's sister, Sarah.

The boys (Alec's Dad, brother-in-law Tyler, and Alec) staking out a prime spot in between the pool and kiddie pool for cribbage and other card games.

Abigail demonstrating the starfish.

Pops taking photos.

Owen hard at work.

Like father like son.

Flying kites.

Searching for shells with Grammy.

The Mud-Slinger.

We tried to get the kids out the wet sand for a photo, but Nate just kept crawling back to the water.

We had so much fun. Can't wait until next time! Thanks, Grammy and Pops!!

Ode to Abigail

This post will require some participation from you. Okay, pretend with me that it is not August, and that it is still July, and I am still within the month of Abigail's birthday.

Alright, now that we are all in denial I would like to wish Abigail a happy 6th birthday!!

I can't believe it has been six years since I became a mother! Abigail really is a joy to have around. I may be slightly biased....but she is smart (just today she told me that too much salt is bad for your heart), funny (this afternoon she was walking around the driveway lifting my weights--not to try and be funny, but it was funny to me...wait, maybe she is just health conscious), considerate (tonight before bed she asked what job she could do first thing tomorrow to help me), obedient (most of the time she will say, "Yes, Mom!" when I ask her to do something), and many other things that you hope your children will be. I feel lucky to have her in my life and hope that the next year will be just as great as the last. We love you, Abigail!

These are her cute Fancy Nancy glasses and purse our regular babysitter gave her.

Alec's mom took her to Build-a-Bear for her birthday. She was thrilled, and picked out this bunny that she loves. The best part is, that before she went, she got on the Build-a-Bear website to do some pre-browsing. She had loaded up her cart with all the cute outfits she wanted. Then Grammy kindly explained that she could probably only pick one outfit and that she had a budget of $40. So Abigail busted out the calculator (which I didn't know she knew how to use), found outfits on sale, and maximized her spending power enabling her to get two outfits and some underpants for her bunny.

We had a "luncheon" on her birthday. I had to call it this and not a party, because I didn't want to do the whole party thing. But she was just as happy, and never would have known the difference. She got to pick two of her friends to invite over for lunch and to play. Beforehand we went to the dollar store and I let her pick out whatever plates and napkins, etc. she liked. I didn't care if they matched or not. It was so nice not to have the pressure of it being a party, that I think she and I both had more fun. We made English muffin pizzas for lunch and decorated cupcakes. Then I painted all their nails. Such cuties!

Later in the month we had the monthly birthday party at my Dad's house, celebrating all the July birthdays: Uncle Peter, and cousins Spencer and Lauren.

And finally, to round out her birthday month, she lost her first tooth!

Swim lessons

The excitement of the week is that the kids have been doing swimming lessons this week that will continue next week as well. We did a 2 week session earlier in the summer, and they both loved it so much that we had to sign up for another session. Both Abigail and Owen have shown improvements even just from earlier in the summer. Abigail is quite the little fish and Owen is quite the little guppy. They can't wait to spend everyday in the pool in about a week, when we go with Alec's family to Newport Beach, California. Yeah!

Look what Abigail can do!

One of my goals for the summer was to teach Abigail how to ride her bike without training wheels. Well, I haven't gotten around to it yet. But no worries, her sweet friend Kate (who has been riding without training wheels since we met her two years ago when she was 4) took care of it yesterday. Abigail is quite thrilled about her new found skill. By 7:30 this morning she was dressed, had her bed made, and her cereal ready so that she could get outside and practice.

Where do I begin?

Where did June and part of July go? I am going to attempt to catch up. So here goes...

Okay, so this first picture is actually from April when my siblings, sister-in-laws, and a brother-in-law participated in the Salt Lake City 5K. We did it in honor of my Mom, and raised the money for The Huntsman Cancer Institute (Which was such a wonderful place during such difficult times--they were very attentive and took such great care to make you feel like you weren't really in a hospital.) My younger brother, Adam, set the whole thing up and even made t-shirts for the whole gang of 35 of us. I've never participated in a race before, and I have to admit that it was quite thrilling to be there at the starting line with all of those people. And because I was slow enough, I even had a good size cheering section to greet me at the finish line! But for sure the best part of the day was just being able to be together with my family and remember Mom. She would have loved that we had that experience together. It was really a fun experience, and one that I hope to repeat next year. Maybe by then I can even run it! (:

Okay, so on to June. Here are some of the highlights.

We've had fun times with cousins...

A dance recital (Abigail was so cute in her American-themed tap routine)...


Father's Day (these are the photos we gave Alec for his desk)...

Marketstar Lagoon Day...


A trip to the Dinosaur Park with our friend and her granddaughter (unfortunately, none of the pictures with them in it turned out.)

Alec had surgery to fix a large hiatal hernia.
And the 4th of July--with swimming at Grandpa's, pizza and sparklers at the Stones (my sister's family), and back to Grandpa's to watch fireworks from the balcony. Please notice Alec's blue Powerade tongue, since that's all he could have for a couple of weeks. He still doesn't eat much of anything. Consequently, he has lost some weight, and I have started to feel like a pig....

(Owen got his hand stuck in his mug. We just thought it was funny.)

Phew! I feel much better now that I've somewhat caught myself up. I did skip Abigail's birthday which happened a couple of weeks ago, but we'll just have to do that in a separate, less sporadic post.