Wednesday, July 29, 2015

7 years

We celebrated our 7 year anniversary last week. Since we are in California and have our Disneyland passes, and that is where we got engaged, we decided to go to Disneyland for our anniversary. (Well, actually the day before because our passes were blocked out on our actual anniversary.) Unfortunately we had to bring the kids with us because we had no babysitter. :(

(Seriously, I have the worst time getting a babysitter. After I get over my initial anxiety of calling a teenager that I don't know very well, they are usually busy. So I have to try again. And again. I have tried 4-5 different girls on 3 different weekends thus far since we moved here and no luck. I think teenagers are a lot more busy and a lot less interested in babysitting than they used to be.)

Anyway, back to our anniversary. We mostly hung out at California Adventure because Emmy was begging to go on Soarin' and the jellyfish. I also convinced her to go on the Symphony Swings and then wanted to go on that over and over.

We did, however, go over to Disneyland for dinner at Cafe Orleans. Yum!
The kids were actually pretty good at dinner, which was nice. And they actually were pretty good most of the day...they just wanted to go on rides that I really didn't want to go on. Nothin' says Happy Anniversary like riding Heimlich's Chew Chew Train with your 2-year-old. Ha!

Anyway, we mostly had a fun time until Emmy threw the biggest fit about a stupid balloon. So then we left. Carrying her kicking and screaming all the way back to the car.

I really hope that one of these days we can go without the kids. The next day on our actual anniversary, a family from the ward agreed to watch the kids while we at least went to dinner for an hour.

It's been 7 years full of ups and downs, and this last year has been particularly rough, but I'm glad I have Matt to go through it all with! At least in another 7 years, Emmy will be old enough to babysit and we'll be able to go out alone. :)

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Emmy turns 5

Emmy has been celebrating her birthday for over a week! We did some family festivities while we were in Utah, but I wanted to make her actual birthday special for her because she was really sad about having to have her birthday in California. She was afraid she wouldn't get any presents and that no one in California would know it was her birthday.

We had a little birthday party at home with a few girls from church. They made crowns, had a treasure hunt, and threw some water balloons.



We had cake and ice cream and opened presents. It was short and sweet, but I think Emmy really enjoyed it.

The girls were playing with their treasure and Zach came and plopped himself down right in the middle of them. Ha!

She got a fun Lego set, and she and Matt had fun putting it together.

On her actual birthday she wanted to go to the beach. Of course it was cold, windy and threatening rain that day, but we went anyway. She had a ball and wouldn't stop jumping up and down the minute we got there.

Zach just played in the sand.

And then it started to downpour and we saw some lightning and the beach was evacuated. This was about 30 minutes after we got there.

Emmy had fun playing in the rain on the walk back to the car. Even though it was a short-lived beach trip, she still had fun. Of course then it took forever to get home because everyone was leaving the beach at the same time.

She opened presents and we had pizza for dinner. With candles.

She loved this Minnie Mouse doll from Zach.


At 5 years old Emmy...

-loves water (beach, swimming, rain, baths)
-is pretty shy about trying new things and being around new people
-likes to do crafts
-loves to go to Disneyland
-has a bad sweet tooth
-favorite foods are anything sweet, hamburgers, spaghetti, yogurt
-is very sensitive
-has an excellent memory
-is not very good at entertaining herself
-is very particular about things
-loves to watch Disney Jr shows

We love our Emmy!

Friday, July 17, 2015

Utah trip & other summer stuff

Emmy took swimming lessons this year. She did great. On the first day they moved her up from Level 1 to Level 2. She learned to float on her front and back, do bobs by herself, jump in the pool, do superman glides, and sort of do the beginnings of the freestyle. I was so proud of her. She was so brave!

She wanted to jump off the diving board, but after 5 min of standing there, she chickened out.

But she loved the waterslide.

We have been going to Disneyland every week or 2. It's been great! One time we were on the carousel and I looked behind us and the band was there on the horses! Playing their music! It was fantastic!

These sillies love the carousel.

We drove to Utah on the 4th of July weekend to get Matt's car fixed. We broke down between Mesquite and St. George. It was HOT! And the freeway was shut down to one lane. Uggh! But we got going again and made it home.


We had a great time in Utah. Emmy convinced Dad and Grandpa to have a tea party. We also went to the cabin, but I didn't take pictures there. Emmy loved the 4-wheeler!


And of course we had to get some shave ice. California does not have this and it makes me very sad.


We went to the annual cousin party at the Spanish Fork pool, and Emmy discovered the joys of a life jacket and that she could go down the waterslide by herself with it on. She crashed on the way home.


We did fireworks that night. I got to catch up with these awesome ladies who saved my life when I got called as Primary president. I love them so much and I miss them!


We went boating with Grandma and Grandpa Lively.


Emily loved it! Zach liked it if he could sit by me the whole time, but would freak out if I would move or get in the water.


Emmy even convinced Grandma to get in the tube with her.


This was just funny. Zach resting his chin on the table.


We had a family birthday party for Emmy while we were there. She loved the Barbies she got!


We seriously had so much fun. I loved seeing our old neighbors and friends and hanging out with family. I miss living in Riverton. I miss our house and our family and friends and neighbors. I miss living so close to Rivers, who is Emmy's favorite person. She loves playing with him. I miss the gas prices and the grocery prices. I miss having everything so familiar. It was so hard to come back. I cried all the way to Lehi. Then again in St. George when we were leaving Utah. Then again when we crossed the California border. And then again when we drove into the San Bernardino valley. I'm pathetic, I know. This move has just been REALLY hard.