While the Girls Are Away...The Parents Will Play

My parents were kind enough to take Maren and Emma down to Lake Powell for the Father's Day weekend. We have never had this happen before where suddenly we are little children free. My parents used to take Josh and Tim down when they were little but the last time was when Maren was a newborn.

So as you can see, the girls got to go tubing behind the boat. They both say that this was their favorite thing they did down at Powell.

Big smiles.

Maren pretending to be Mocha, the dog.

This picture cracks me up! Is she cold, angry at grandpa for taking her picture, or stuck? I love it!

Passing time playing on the sandy rocks. Emma looks so cute in this picture.

Maren loving the sunshine and being at the dock. There's ice cream and candy at the dock!

And while the girls are down at Powell, Andrew and I head to the mountains to do some hiking. We started up Big Cottonwood Canyon and hiked the hidden falls trail at the top of the "S" bend. About an hour to the top of the overlook and you can see the run off from the snowpack. Beautiful.

Then we hiked up to Donut Falls. About a mile up the trail. I remember from my childhood, there used to be a cave to go into but if memory serves me, about 2 or 3 years ago, the cave collapsed and this is what it looks like now. Sad but still beautiful.

We then headed over to Little Cottonwood Canyon and took the Snowbird tram to the top. Still tons of snow but not enough to ski on. Such a wonderful view considering all the rain we've had in June. This is the one good day we've had in a long time!

We thought about hiking down but, a) there is too much snow. I can see myself slipping and hurting my tailbone again. And, b) they made you sign a release form before you went so they would have no obligation to pay your hospital bills if you had an accident.

So we took the tram back down. Along with everyone else.

Then we went on the Alpine Slide at Snowbird. Not as fun as the Park City Alpine Slide but it was still good.

The next day we went golfing at the Eaglewood Golf Course. I haven't played golf in about 2 years and even then it was a scramble game so I had no idea how bad I was playing. I found out I need a lot of practice! My average was a double par with my end score being a 62 on a 36 par course. Ouch! We also went to a movie and dinner and didn't have to pay a babysitter. Wow that was weird! Great weekend. Thanks to my parents for letting my girls drive them crazy so we could have a break. I almost feel human again. (Oh, and for those of you who are wondering what my boys were doing while we were gone...they were working! Ironic, eh?)

Girl's Big Night

Emma and Maren had their big dance recital on Friday. Grandma's and Grandpa's and Ashley and Steve all came to see them dance. There were 30 dances in all and the girls were only in one each. A long night to sit through to see them but it was worth it. They did really awesome and Emma even scored some extra stage time. I laughed so hard, I cried. She just sat on the stage with her arms in the air and didn't realize her friends had left already.

After the show, we all went to Iceberg to get ice cream and relax.

Of course, my dad is the life of the party! He also stuck spoons out of his ears but that picture was blurry because Emma took it!

For the cost of the dance concert, we could have gone to a Broadway show but the girls did great and hopefully they'll want to take dance again in the fall. (but at a different dance academy!)

Bye, Bye, Birdie

We found this nest outside our front door a few weeks ago. I snuck up there and took some pictures and this is what I found.

Three eggs inside the robin's nest. How exciting! The mom bird was very nervous and kept flying to the nearest tree. The dad bird was very protective of the nest. He would stay on the roof or nearest branch and chirp at us.

A week later, two baby robins. Don't know what happened to the third. Bad egg, maybe.

A few days later, they already have feathers.

The dad bird keeping a very close watch. He doesn't like me sticking my camera into the nest. The mom is nowhere to be seen.

A few days ago, they are filling up the nest. They don't make any noise. We never heard them chirping.

Today they're gone. No mom or dad or babies. It was fun while they were here. Something to watch and learn from. The nest was up too high for the girls so they had to rely on me to take the pictures. Now what are we going to do the rest of the summer?