Saturday is a special day.....

On Saturday we went to downtown Seattle for the Seattle Sand Fest. The sand sculptures were amazing! Brielle was really excited to see "sand castles" and kept pointing out the window on our drive down at any building with a steeple or tower shouting "I see it, I see it!"

This one with the turtles and the crab is our favorite.


And of course the Wheedle on the Needle! I loved that story when I was a young girl living in Seattle.

See, the Wheedle is sitting on top of the space needle, his red glowing nose is the red light we see on top.



There was a fun beach area (in the middle of the city) with sand toys for the kids to dig in. And a great band was playing, mostly Hawaiian and Island music, Hyrum loved it, he kept squealing clapping and dancing, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of his awesome moves.


And then we walked down to Pike place market to look at some of our favorite shops. We ALWAYS get doughnuts from the doughnut machine vendor, and we have a musical instrument shop that we USED to like to go to, but no longer. Brielle and Hyrum were bent on touching everything they possibly could. We ended up having to buy a wooden shaker egg for 6$ because Brielle put it in her mouth. Ah well, now we know not to bring the children out in public.


Then we went home for some icecream.....

LOTS of icecream!


And then the children had a chocolately bath and were off to bed. I love downtown Seattle and really enjoy doing all of the fun "tourist-y" things there. Too bad we have to bring the kids, they're exhausting!

Precarious

Hyrum can't walk yet, but he LOVES to climb. Up anything and everything, often I find him balanced on tip-toes on top of a leaning chair, or the inside shelf of a cupboard. Silly monkey.

Yahoo for more family!!

We've had two new additions to our family this month. Christian and Shannon had their first baby (of dozens) on August 13th. Little Tyson James Francis, at 7 lbs. 8 oz. (the word "little" is used as an adjective there and not as an actual title or prefix to Tyson's name)


And a few days later on August 17th Matt and Kristen had their fourth baby, Olivia Streadbeck, weighing in at a petite 7 lbs. flat.



Congratulations to both sets of parents! We're so excited to meet our new niece and nephew!

And though I listed Christian and Matt's names first, we all know that the real work was done by Shannon and Kristen. =0) So, good job girls! Way to create billions of vastly diversified cells and arrange them delicately together into a breathing screaming organism that you then, in an agonizing and musculature-ripping event, delivered into this world. And boys, good job snipping that umbilical cord, nicely done.

My best friend's wedding.

My best friend Jessie got married August 2nd in the Bountiful temple. Everything was beautiful, the sealing, the luncheon, the reception, and most of all Jessica! And Jake too! =0) I wish I could have stayed up all night with her the whole week before her wedding, like we imagined we would when we were young, giggling and laughing and planning every detail. Alas, I had to stay home and put kids to bed instead. Curse the children.

Jessica has been my best friend since we were 12, almost every memory I have of growing up she's a part of, and pretty much EVERY college memory! I can't even count the hours spent eating cereal together, catching bears, catching frogs, hiking, eating ice cream, talking about boys til 3 AM, dressing up, midnight sledding, skinnydipping, road tripping, tanning, visiting tropical islands, wheelchair races through airports, wheedling our highschool guidance counselor to change our schedules around so all our classes were together, visiting nursing homes (her idea), exploring haunted houses (my idea), spelunking, studying til morning (rarely), analyzing relationships til morning (often), food fights, water fights, Temple trips, San Diego trips, St. George trips and every other type of activity or adventure imaginable. I'm so glad I got to be there for her wedding, it was a perfect day.

Just look how teeny tiny skinny my 6 foot friend is! Good NED girl! And there hiding in the corner of the picture is The Wedding Planner/Sister/Best Friend: Emily. I can't believe it's been over six months since I last saw my two best girls, and to only be reunited for two days.....such a tragedy! But I'm sure Emily will get married soon, and hopefully to someone from Hawaii or Bermuda or somewhere fun to have a wedding!

It was also so much fun to be able to see all of my college buddies: Amy, Bonnie, Brittany, Carol, Ian and Jennie. Plus the huge assortment of other friends accumulated through the years, Jessie is one popular lady for everyone to come so far for her wedding!

Here's Brielle showing off her pretty dress.

Tribute to Mattie-pants

While in Montana, my brother Matt was a big help. He's come a long way from refusing to hold Brielle because her head was weird shaped and soft when she was born (that lasted until she was almost two, not the soft head, just the refusal to hold her!) to now where he's actually good with kids. Anyway, Hyrum really loved his Uncle Matt. He'd sit happily on Matt's lap looking at computer screens or cell phone texts while I showered or dressed Brielle or other things that Hyrum didn't want me to leave him for. I don't have a picture of Matt from the trip unfortunately (though I almost got a good one of him fast asleep on his bed with his cell phone clutched in his hand, thumb poised to begin texting at any moment...It was priceless, but he got up before I could get back there with the camera!) But here's a good picture of him that Russell took.

Our Montana Trip

Well our trip to Montana was a lot of fun.....and a LOT of work! I don't know if I want to travel with two babies by myself again. The flights weren't too bad, especially on the way there. But it was just so much harder than I anticipated to be the only parent for two weeks. However we all had a great time for the most part. Brielle absolutely LOVED seeing her cousins every day. Brielle, Mary, and Cassie are ages 2,3, and 4 and they get along so well now. It's wonderful having cousins so close in age, and especially since they all enjoy playing together. We went to a water park, and to several playgrounds, and had lots of picnics while we were there.

I also was lucky enough to get to spend some time with my friend Jenny. She is a nanny for a darling 23 month old, Halle, and we went with them to a goat farm, and Italian bakery, and to their toddler class on busy bugs! I wish we still lived there now that my kids are older (and it's not winter!) because it was wonderful to play with Josh and Darcy and their girls everyday, and to see Jenny several times. Not to mention having all that time with my parents, it was great!


You'll notice that I'm writing about several activities that I have absolutely no pictures to go with. That's because my camera is HUGE, and I hardly ever got it out because I was too busy and my hands were full....of kid. However don't despair, next vacation I go on I'll hire a photographer to follow me around capturing all the magic of the moments. Either that or a full time nanny. We'll see! Here are a few of the pictures that I did manage to take:

Mom's new gazebo, moved onto the grass for a picnic in the back yard.

"There there little cousin, don't worry, you'll grow!" Hyrum is only a month older than Aubrey but he's HUGE in comparison. He's in the 99% percentile for boys, and little Aubrey is in the 5% percentile for girls (girls are smaller than boys normally) so it's crazy to see them together and to think that they're actually the same age. However, even though Aubrey is tiny, she can crawl, climb, and scoot along furniture with the best of them! And what a darling grinner!

Cassie is posing for the camera!

Brielle and Mary were much better friends on this trip, it was fun to see the two of them running around giggling and hugging every moment! (when we moved Brielle was still pretty young and so she didn't play as much with her cousins, she mostly watched)

I love this picture, Aubrey was following Hyrum around trying to catch his pacifier, and she finally caught it and stuck it in her mouth, then stayed close by him to keep it in her mouth! Too cute.
None of the kids wanted to go down the slide the right way, oh no, up the slide every time!

In every picture Brielle has corn in her mouth, she's a huge fan of corn on the cob. In fact any corn left untended was quickly confiscated by this little monkey.

One of the highlights of the trip for my kids was sharing their breakfast with the little birds each morning. My mom has two parakeets, and I would let them out during breakfast so they could entertain my children. Brielle was highly amused when Kiwi and Mango would perch on her bowl and eat her cereal, and Hyrum kept trying to catch them. Thank heavens they were faster than his pudgy hand!


And the last of my pictures, riding off into the sunset..... =0)


My kids got used to living at Grandma and Grandpa's house VERY quickly, and whenever I mentioned coming home Brielle would say "No go home. Stay here. Grandma's house. Me stay." When I told her that Daddy was at home waiting for her she would think a minute, then brighten up and say "Daddy come too. Daddy come in car!" Brielle and Hyrum sure love their Grandparents!

Random shots

Brielle and her friend Ammurah are sitting on the lawn behind our house reading. Ammurah is from Mongolia, her family lives in the apartment below us, and she doesn't speak much English yet, but that's okay because Brielle doesn't speak much English either! (however Ammurah CAN speak Mongolian, and that's something Brielle can't do.....yet) Fortunately when you're 2 years old words aren't very important, and the two are learning from each other very quickly.

I came in to the living room the other day to find Hyrum trying to "catch" the blue word 'Phillips' as it bobbed around the screen. I laughed while taking the picture and distracted Hyrum, so I was only able to get one shot, but for you "The Office" fans, you'll understand why I found this so amusing!


A little snake in the grass. Brielle loves pretending to be different types of animals. That's how I can get her to do things.....please put on this striped shirt and be a zebra, please lay down and I'll make you a nest of blankets little bird, kitty cats can't scream they only purr, little bear cubs aren't allowed to climb on the furniture, they must sit on the ground or they get put back in their cages.....

Flour Fiasco

One of the parenting magazines I look through had a bunch of ideas for ways to keep your kids busy. One was to give them some kitchen utensils and a container of flour and letting them play with it. Yeah, NOT a great idea! Brielle and Hyrum LOVED it, and I WAS able to get my dinner cooked, but it took FOREVER to get all of the flour swept up off of the balcony. And washed off of the children, they had to be undressed and patted down before they could come in for dinner. Oh well, it was fun for the one time.

Petting Zoo

One of the parks by us has a free petting zoo that we've gone to a lot. It has cows, pigs, ducks, geese, sheep, goats, LOTS of rabbits, and free pony rides. Needless to say my kids love it. (This park also has a water spray playground and a really cool regular playground too) I seldom take pictures since I'm busy holding kids, chasing kids, and taking things out of the kids' mouths, but here are a few:




Hyrum has a funny look on his face, probably a reaction to the worried expression I'm wearing as I snapped this shot as quickly as I could so that I could grab my kid before the goose decided to bite him! All the animals were exceedingly friendly, more so than you would normally find even at a petting zoo. But a goose is after all a goose and there isn't much one can do about that.

"I held a bunny THIS BIG!!"

Roughin' It!

In early July, while Russell's parents were still visiting, we went to the Mugleston's cabin. Aunt Carol and Uncle Dave, and the few Mugleston kids we could scrounge up (Brian and Paul) came too. (I guess they aren't really kids anymore, Brian is off to Medical school soon and Paul is heading to BYU in the fall)


Every photo is going to show people in their swimsuits since we lived down by the lake the whole weekend.
Hyrum happily ate rocks and dirt the entire time.

Brielle was more of a water kid, than a rock kid.


I tried to keep toys right next to Hyrum so he wouldn't have to crawl around much, and so he would play with them instead of eating rocks. It didn't work.

Russell skinnydipping in broad day light. (just kidding, he's wearing a swimsuit, and probably glad for it too since he's sitting on a log in this picture.)

Hyrum had to learn to walk on his hands and toes to keep his poor knees off of the sharp rocks.
Log-walking, a popular sport in the North-west.
Cheesy litlle grin.
Bird calls. Our kid's an ornithilogical wonder.