Park Night

Devin's brother Kyle and his family came down last weekend for a quick visit. Kyle and Kat wanted to take the girls to the Oquirrh Mountian temple open house. They went to the open house and then spent the evening with us. Gene came down too with Sydney and Cole. We had thought about going up the canyon but then we decided just to go over to the park. We all had a great time!

Anna was tickled pink to finally have some friends to swing with.

We discovered that the boys like the slide as much as their kids do.

Devin taught everyone how to go down the slide the "right" way.

We had a contest to see who could climb up a pole the fastest.

Devin won, but I think he had his height to help him out a bit.

Ashley and I had fun trying it too! Where is Missy when we need her?

The highlight was getting a really cute picture with all the Baldwin grandchildren. It's the first time all of them have been together for a while. They sure are a cute bunch!

Change, You Got Change?

You know that you are hopelessly addicted to running when you dig up all the change in the house to see if you have enough money to pay for another race. The Provo Half Marathon is in two weeks. Top of Utah Half is in a month. And the Utah Relay Marathon is in September. (Anyone want to form a team? It is a way fun race!!!!) Oh and then there are all of the fun 5k races too. AHHH!!!! Devin laughs when I pick up change on the ground but it really does help.

Bread and Water

Anna has developed some pretty opinionated taste buds over the past few days. The Henderson in her is coming out. Bread and water are at the top of her "favorite food" list right now. I am so proud of her.

Bridal Veil Falls

Saturday we actually had nothing going on, weird, but oh so nice. (Though I did spend the day thinking that we were forgetting something.) We decided that we need to go up the canyon. I love the fact that we are five minutes away from such a beautiful canyon with so many cool things to do. There were BILLIONS of people floating the river, so we thought that a quite walk up to Bridal Veil Falls would be just right. It was perfect!!! (As perfect as 100 degrees could be.) Anna loves going for rides in her stroller and she loves looking at trees, so she was just tickled pink. When we got to the falls tons of people were playing in the water. Anna was a little hesitant at first but then had so much fun walking around in the water. Anna and I played in the water. Devin played with his camera. We had a blast! I'm sure we'll go back again.

Where are some of your favorite places to go on day trips?

Saturday Sampler #1

I started a new quilt class last Saturday. I have been doing the Block of the Month class at Quilts Etc. for the last four years and I was ready for a change. My friend Marilyn has been doing the Saturday Sampler class at American Quilting over the past year. Each month she has posted the block that they were working on. I fell in love with her quilt each month as she completed the different pieces. Here is her quilt that she just finished.

I decided that this class would be exactly what I needed in order to step up my sewing skills. I'm ready to brave the world of "curves" and "applique." No more boring half square triangles and blocks that only creative people can figure out how to make look good together.

I went to the first class on Saturday and loved it! Today I finished my first four blocks. It is a mystery quilt so we shall see how it turns out next year. For now enjoy the fun blocks.

Will Drag for Paper

Anna has been learning how to crawl. It is more just dragging herself across the floor than actual crawling. Funny how toys won't get her to do anything, but if you stick a piece of paper or any kind of wrapper out and she does all she can to get it.

For the Record

For the record, one of the things I love most about Devin is the fact that he plays the piano. Whenever we go to my mom's house if there is time he plays the piano. I decided to record tonight's performance so you all could enjoy it too.

Fifty Nifty

My siblings and I were quite the performers when we were young. I think my first real performance was when I was 3 years old. Marie, David, and I sang Fifty Nifty United States in the ward talent show. My mom even made a cute little flag costume for us to wear.

I have never forgotten the words to that song, at least the main part that names all fifty states in alphabetical order.
Somehow over the weekend my grandma was talking about how cute we were when we sang this song and suggested that we should sing it again. It's a good thing I new exactly where our flag costume was. I was surprised that I easily fit into my part again. Marie didn't have too hard of a time. David on the other hand, has got some manly shoulders that he didn't have back then so he didn't quite fit as well.

At my grandmother's request we sang our song again. Marie still knows all the words and helped us through the parts that we forgot (I'm sure it was that way 27 years ago too!). We laughed through a lot of it. Hopefully David will post the video because we added some great dance moves that weren't part of the original performance.

5k or Cow Herding???

We have had a fantastic 4th of July weekend. We had so much fun with my family. My grandparents even came out from California. There is much blogging to come from the fun and crazy things that happened this weekend. Trust me, it will take a week to do it blogging justice.

What would the 4th of July weekend be without running the Freedom Festival 5k? I can't even count how many times I have run this race (I have a drawer full of T-shirts, perhaps I could count). We woke up at 5:15am to get ready and feed Anna so we could all be down in Provo by 7am for the start of the race. Too bad we didn't bring a camera with us on the race, it was absolutely NUTS! There were so many people (not to mention that Captain America and Uncle Sam on Tall Tall stilts showed up too). I was worried that Devin wouldn't even be able to move pushing Anna in the stroller. I have been in some crowded races but this was ridiculous. I now know what a cow feels like. It took until we reach University Avenue before things thinned out a bit. I spent most of the race trying to just move around people.
Needless to say, it is still one of my favorite races to run. You get to watch all the cool hot air balloons as you are waiting for the race to start. You run the parade route and see all the crazy people who camp out over night. The weather is usually perfect. It is just a great way to start off the 4th of July.
We had lots of fun running. Even though the race was way crowded I was able to shave another 29 seconds off my 5k time and end up with 9th place in my age division.