Claire, our big 4 year old!

Claire was so excited to turn 4! 

This year, the weather was still warm at the end of September, so I decided this was the year to give her a birthday party (I basically forced her to be social) and it ended up being so fun! We had the neighborhood kids come over after early-out for some backyard games and cupcakes. It ended up being a lot of fun!

Claire and I spent the morning getting ready. We baked cupcakes, hung decorations, and made some fun games. Claire even mastered blowing up balloons, which was helpful. 

As always, I am the worst at documenting events when I am in charge of them, so these pics are the best we have of Claire's cute friend party.

Claire is really into kitties right now, and finding this kitty corn pinata was the icing on the cake!

Funny story about the icing on these cupcakes: I found a yummy new buttercream recipe I wanted to try. I halved the recipe, but for some reason it tasted like all butter, and even the kids when they were eating the cupcakes said it tasted like butter. It's not until I was looking at the recipe later that I realized I halved everything except the butter. No wonder! Oh well :). I've been known to be a blonde.

We played "Pin the Nose on the Kitty." Claire helped me draw and color this poster. It turned out pretty cute.

The next day (Saturday) was Claire's real birthday. My mom and little sister came up for the weekend, and we all had fun going to the Hogle Zoo, where my other sister met us with her two kids.

The whole crew minus Claire and Greg. Go figure.

Fun on the Carousel.

Not my best cake, and Elsa looks like she's seen better days. It's the best I could do this year 🤣.

After the Zoo, we went mini golfing at Cherry Hill. Claire was content to run around like her usual crazy self while Sof took golfing very seriously. Lately Claire has become so fun. I think 4 is [our] magical year!

We had the Johnson's over to help devour Claire's Elsa cake. Luckily, I was able to [mostly] fix the buttercream frosting before icing this cake. It wasn't too bad.

And, in true Claire fashion, she 100% surprised us by riding her pedal bike for the first time all by herself. We were so impressed!

That night as I was putting Claire to sleep, I asked her what her favorite part about the Zoo was. And you know what she said? Leaving!

Lately she has become quite the little ham, always saying the opposite of what I think she will. And although we spent an arm and a leg on the zoo, and she acted unimpressed, I know she had fun.

Girlfriend is hilarious and will forever be keeping us on our toes.

We love you Claire!

Peach Days and 9/11

It was the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In honor of this day, we helped clean up and improve the local Hollow Trail near our house. The girls and I slept in, so Greg had a head start in helping, but we eventually made it, and I am glad we did. It's important that we teach the girls that it is up to us to leave things better than we find them.

It ended up being a rainy day, much different than the regular early-September weather we've been used to, but it made for a nice change at Peach Days. Instead of sweating on the rides, they were bearable. We started out with lunch at Peach City, which was as delicious as always. 

Claire's face coming down this slide was priceless.

And all of the sudden, she looks so grown up!

We grabbed a box of peaches and Greg ended the night making his yummy Peach Jalapeno jam.

It was a fun day spent with my favorite people. I'm so glad we were able to attend Peach Days this year. 2021 is so much better than 2020.

Claire's Turn!

 Claire finally started Preschool. 

She is so smart, that I often have a hard time channeling her energy before she destroys something. And, she is really good at playing with Sofia and no one else, so I'm excited for her to learn some social skills to make her own friends. She will do awesome!

She was super onry on the way to Preschool, but was all smiles when I picked her up. Girlfriend is more moody than a Summer storm.

Her teachers are Ms. Krystal and Ms. Nikki, and absolutely loves them. 

She's going to have a great year.

And I'm pretty sure Tuesday's and Thursday's just became my favorite days of the week :).

Bryce Canyon - church in Panguitch

 We were packed and checked out in plenty of time to go get pictures at the Bryce Canyon entrance before heading to Panguitch for Sacrament Meeting.

Sunday morning cereal - the breakfast of champions.

We stopped to see Smokey one more time.

And he was kind enough to give me a piggy back.

We made it to the church parking lot with plenty of time to spare, so we had an early lunch in the shade. It was a beautiful day.

We had so much fun on our trip. We don't know when we will be back, but I love that the girls are coming to love Bryce Canyon. It is such a special place to me, and I love sharing it with my cute family.

Bryce Canyon - a fun-filled Saturday

We woke up Saturday ready to go!

We had a delicious breakfast before riding over to the meeting spot where they would shuttle us into the park. We were all on newer bikes this year, and it made all the difference. 

We had so much fun!

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Claire had the best seat in the house.

A local teacher set up some treats for a funraiser. I'm still not sure how her prices allowed her to make any money, but Sof was thrilled to have a watermelon slice bigger than her face.

The girls each got pamphlet's for the Junior Ranger program and we had fun learning about the area. We drove down the canyon to hike Mossy Cave, an area we hadn't been before. It was the perfect little hike for us.

Silly Claire was helping me read the map.

We learned this waterfall was created by the pioneers to help with irrigation in the valley. It would only run during the growing season, but now that that's not necessary, the waterfall flows year round.

We made it to the Mossy Cave!

On the way back, we walked up the river to the waterfall.

Greg found an hour to escape on the new BM down his favorite trail. 

After Greg had time to catch up with his old friend, Smokey, we picked him up and headed back to our cabin. I made dinner while he and the girls swam. It was awesome!

Afterwards, we went to the shops and got ice cream. 

Is it wrong of me to kind of wish I had one of these in my house?

These were taken while I was shopping. Apparently Claire got stuck.

Afterwards, we went to the Viewpoint to get the beautiful traditional pictures of the red cliffs at sunset. It was super windy, but we got some good pics.

We ended the night at the fairgrounds watching the locals in a rodeo. We missed the real rodeo season, so we didn't see anything worth mentioning, but it was fun anyway.

I'm pretty sure the girls were asleep before their heads hit their pillows. We had a hot, fun-filled day.