A Little Trip To Sam's Club

 I pushed the cart full of our purchases over to the counter and made my order.
"One pretzel and one drink please. And can I get an extra little cup?"

With cup(s) in hand, I awkwardly pushed our cart over to a table, depositing our cart and my girls securely next to a table sufficiently close to the drinks dispenser and the counter where they would be calling that my pretzel was done.  I filled up my big cup, grabbed a lid and what seemed a sufficient amount of napkins for the 3 of us.

I deposited my big cup, little cup, napkins and straws on the table and then turned around to deposit my kids at the table. Aftyn across from me, and Bronwyn next to me.

I managed to pull the straws from their paper packaging before too many little hands reached for the big cup of pop, secured the lid so that the drink wouldn't spill if tipped and even managed to get the napkins set in the middle of the table. Go me.

Next came the call we were waiting for. I quickly decided it would be unsafe to leave Bronwyn sitting there in case she decided to come after me, so I snatched her up on the way to the counter and then quickly re-deposited her back in her spot next to me.

Something about food and hungry kids, suddenly there were lots of grabby hands and not enough of my own to help them.  I thankfully managed to deposit a hot pretzel piece of front of both girls, Aftyn had her own cup of pop and Bronwyn was happily sipping away on her own straw that was nestled next to my own in my big cup.  "Ahh", I thought, "I made it." The kids had their food, and now we could get down to the business of filling up our tummies with a little snack and get on with the rest of our day to other fun things I had planned.
     We sat there, quite happily, for many many minutes. The pretzels cooled quickly, but before a sufficient enough time had passed Bronwynnie grabbed her pretzel and held it to her mouth to begin her chompfest. I quickly asked her, "Is it hot?" to which she readily nodded her head. I happened to glance up at that moment and noticed a lady at the table next to ours was watching this exchange with a smile on her face. Which of course made me smile because of my little girl. I just love this age.

We waited a few more moments and then happily dug in. I finished my half of the pretzel quickly and then waited for two little girls who were taking their time and looking at all the people around us, and the ceiling and the drink dispenser and anything else that interests a 3 and 1 year old.

Aftyn, at one point, pointed in the general direction of a middle aged woman sitting nearby whose head was shaved and asked, "Is that a daddy?".  Awesome.

Bronwyn was done at this point, so I tried to get Aftyn to finish quickly as I could tell things were deteriorating and our perfect moment of enjoyment was all used up. And just at that moment as I gathered all the garbage together, I heard Aftyn say,"uh oh, that's okay Mommy". She had been trying to finish all of her pop and somehow managed to spill the remainder on her shirt and on the floor. Our perfect moment had ended. I agreed with Aftyn and told her, "That's okay Aftyn."

And we hightailed it out of there.  Threw our garbage away, left our crumbs and pop spilled on the floor. I wasn't taking anymore prisoners. We were gettin' while the gettin' was good.

If I could freeze this moment, this is what my life looks like right now. Thankfully, it's not always leaving messes for other people. This was just a good day. :)

Aftyn's Haircut

Reed hasn't seen it yet.

 I'll update later to see if I give him some sort of heart attack. :)

UPDATE: In Reed's own words "I really REALLY like it!".   :D

It's Time

Hey all you people who wondered why I seem to have fallen off the edge of the blogosphere!

We have been having so much fun lately now that we've committed to doing/going to one new place to us a week.  Last week we went to Kimball Farms and took no pictures but ate some incredibly delicious ice cream. I'm trying to talk Reed into going one last time before they close for the season in October.

(I've been evading the blog writing because chronologically my next post would be about a visit we had a few weeks back to visit Reed's brother and wife and kids in New York. Except, see, I'm not ready to publish those pictures and think about the inevitability of them moving in approximately 10 days. Back to the Other Side of this great continent. Leaving us, sadly, with no fun family to visit and no more planned trips into NYC with people who are veterans of driving there and who know personally the fun attractions to be seen.)

Instead, here's a little update about our family!

Let's start with our main man. Reed has been back in school for about a month now and in his usual fashion took a pretty laid back approach to his classes until last week when it suddenly hit him he's a little behind in his classes and has to catch up or else it'll be pretty crazy until the end of the semester.  So we've been seeing less of him lately but I'm pretty used to this already thanks to last semester. This semester feels like a breeze compared to last semester. We're not just moving in, and starting school and finding our way around this crazy town. We're pretty well settled into a routine and know our way around. We went to a school sponsored get together last Friday night and really enjoyed ourselves. They had lots of free food, live music and it was fun to walk around campus with the girls and show them more about "Daddy's school". Aftyn loved it! I'm sure the cotton candy will only make her MORE excited to visit Daddy's school in the future, in the hopes of having more. :) On the calling front, have I mentioned Reed is now the Elders Quorum President? This can make for a pretty hectic week depending on how many people are moving within the ward. Thankfully, it's been quiet on that front for a couple of weeks.

I wonder if a paper Reed would be as good as the man himself? :D

As for me, I am trying to do my usual juggle of cleaning, cooking, parenting and trying to do something I find to be fun like sewing. I haven't been able to find much time for sewing lately but that would be because I'm working on losing those last pounds of baby weight, so I've been expending my energy in working out when the girls go to bed. That usually wipes me out. :)  I'm still the 1st counselor in the primary presidency here and I have really learned to love that job. This last week at church I had to fill in at the last minute for the primary chorister. That was interesting, and I've decided since it could happen again that I need a fun "schtick" that makes me stand out and makes it fun for me to substitute for that calling. Any primary choristers have any good ideas of what my thing could be? I am certainly accepting any and all ideas.

Aftyn. Recently instead of saying "yes" to everything she has started responding with "yeah" and a sullen sort of head shake that reminds me of a teenager. I don't know what to make of her lately. Seems like she's suddenly having a hard time in certain areas of life. Hopefully it will pass soon, but if not we'll keep on hugging her and having fun family times that seem to bring back the sparkle in  her eyes and the smile on her face. I'm also trying to come up with ways that we can get together with friends at least once or twice a week as I really think that would help too. I love this girl and want to help her to be happy, I just think lately that she's feeling sad and I'm trying to figure out how to help her out of this funk.

Bronwyn is our little star shining brightly. She makes everybody laugh, and if we're not laughing then we're probably trying to chase her down and stop her from being naughty. She has so much personality. She likes to nod her head when appropriate and says "a-huh". She loves to give hugs and lately even kisses. She has the hardest head, and usually without knowing it will bonk me in the head quite hard while trying to snuggle into me. She loves to dance, and play with Aftyn. She loves books and generally anything Aftyn likes Bronwyn likes. She finally had a significant growth spurt this last month and grew 1 3/4 inches! :) Because of that growth spurt, she has finally started to fit into 18 month clothes, and has started to feel like more of a toddler when I pick her up. We sure love her infectious smile and her giggles. Especially when her giggles and Aftyn's giggles are combined. What a sweet sweet sound.

Evidently, Bronwyn does not care for mustaches. :)

A Recipe For Fun

The ingredients to make a great day?

   Take a nice holiday. How about Labor Day!

Add in a nice trip to the coast to see a few schooners, 

A 1/2 pound of freshly made chocolates,

lots of lovely ocean air,

warm but not too hot temperatures,

some sand,

a little dip in the ocean, 

lots and lots of walking,

a healthy curiosity of new places to see and a love of adventure,

2 very patient girls who loved being outdoors all day

and a whole day to play and relax as a family !

It was a perfectly perfect day.

Oh My Little Babies!

                                It's easy to forget sometimes that even when they're not tiny,

                                                 they can certainly still be little.

                                                 Oh my sweet little Aftyn girl.

                                Want some proof? Look here
                                                                                  here
                                                                                         here
                                                                                              and here

An Afternoon in Hartford

This is New England - everywhere you drive is trees, trees and more beautiful green trees!

Yes, that IS the state capital!

A look up at the center ceiling. Gorgeous and stunning.

This place looked and felt like a grand home or castle. Gorgeous!

We toured this beautiful capital with our own New England cousins! We all had a blast!

Here we are about to have some lunch in beautiful Bushnell Park!

Reunited cousins!!

This was just before we embarked on our carousel ride. Which I unfortunately got no pictures of because I was using both hands to steady an uncertain Bronwyn. And I didn't bring my bulky camera on the ride. But it was SO much fun!

Okay, so here's how it all went down.  By the way, these pictures are completely out of order of how things happened, but oh well. They are grouped accordingly. :)

 We got to Hartford around 12 pm. I was late. My sister-in-law Kamber and kiddos got there early and so were able to do a little preview run of the inside of the capital building. Once we found each other, we decided it was time for some lunch and we went to the little playground that Kamber and her kids had already scouted out for us. The kids had such a blast there. They had this neat little stream that ran through the entire playground with a faucet spout on one end and a little misty sprinkler area at the other end. It was perfect for such a nice sunny day. The kids had lunch and then ran and played and got nice and wet.

Aftyn was infatuated with the carousel from the first time she heard it playing and wanted so very badly to go and ride it. (She was probably still remembering her first carousel ride which had been in Central Park a few months before. They have such lovely old carousels out here! And they are all indoors.) So after the kids played, off to the carousel we went. Everyone enjoyed it except for Bronwyn who was very uncertain anytime the carousel would pick up speed. Kamber managed to catch a picture of her face during one of those moments luckily. I was mostly laughing my head off and doing my best to help her feel secure.

After that we went and toured the capital building that looked like a castle. It was gorgeous. The best part of the day was definitely getting to discover new places with family. Thanks for an awesome and unforgettable day Kamber and kids!

Oatmeal Drums

Poor Bronwyn. She is teething like crazy and normally walks around with two fingers in her mouth, constantly chewing on them. Evidently my shoelace works well also.

And this little ditty, by Aftyn.  Sorry it's sideways. :(