After our cruise we were definitely in a post trip fog for a while. There were some good things about coming home like a normal bathtub. Also, just the amount of space we have to live in. We felt pretty lucky about having the balcony rooms, but when we walked in our house, I felt a physical shock go through me at how much space is in our main family room/kitchen area. Also, in our bedroom. So much space! There was also some pretty sad things, like food prep and dealing with cleaning dishes and bathrooms. Darcy was quite happy to come home to her warm hat that she likes to wear around. She was also thrilled to finally get her hands on the "tee-tards" (keycards) from the cruise that she was never allowed to play with on the trip.
We had to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with some of the fun Papel Picado that we saw in Puerto Vallarta. We made tacos and fruit smoothies.
Ahh! Reunited with her hat!
Shortly after we got home was Mother's Day. John took this sweet photo of the girls and me that Sunday morning. Oh, how I love my sweet girls. Being their mother is such a privilege.
Holland is a little chilly in this May weather. :)
I received some beautiful flowers and we had cruise food--yummy chicken salad on croissants and shrimp.
Miriam surprised me with some coconut macaroons. Earlier that week she had told John that she wanted to do a Mother's Day surprise for me. "I just need Mommy away for an hour so you guys go upstairs and have a kissing session for an hour."
The girls are always so creative in their cards. I loved them all.
Oh dear on that weight question. Miriam thinks she's funny. :)
Of course coming home meant that we had to get back to our yard project. Our little Darcy is a cute helper/hinderance.
We bought some tomato starts, but the Spring cold lasted until June so they stayed in those pots too long. We ended up having to replace some because they were on the stove when one of the girls preheated the oven and the hot air being vented totally cooked the sprouts. We tried to harden them off by putting them outside when we could, but it was still too cold at night for a while.
Tree planting time! We did so much research and hunted around for the varieties of fruit trees that we wanted. One Saturday we went to six different places to buy five trees. We ended up having to compromise for what was available, but we hope we still got good ones: 2 nectarine, 2 peach, 1 plum, 1 pear, 1 apricot, 1 cherry, 1 apple. There is a lot to think about when planting trees: is it self pollinating? What are the chill hours before fruiting? How hardy is it to the cold? What is the quality of the fruit? It is a lot to think about and consider.
We got a few plants from my mom to transplant. I don't know that any of them were successful, but we'll see this spring.
Seeing that dirt lot makes me cringe. Man that was so much work. Also, Darcy broke a branch off of our plumeria inside. So it is super lopsided now, and she is fired.
I don't know why this was on my camera roll, but someone mentioned to me again how much Miriam looks like Emma Watson as Hermione.
Darcy's favorite thing in our bathroom is my glasses cleaner spray which she calls her deodorant, and she likes to try to apply it to her under arms. Thankfully she has latched onto this because one time she got into John's deodorant and rubbed it all over her clothes. One night John was reading her The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, and he read the page that says "low foot, high foot." Darcy waved at the book and said, "Hi foot!" She also repeated Ellie at dinner one night the phrase, "baby Target." She keeps us smiling!
End of school choir performance. I am so glad has a hobby that she enjoys.
Sisters and best friends.
Our back neighbors got some trees trimmed. It changed the view out our windows, but more importantly there isn't a huge dead tree overhanging our fence and patio.
You can climb trees in Utah!
Favorite hat that almost looks like bonnet here.
Too much fun with the markers. Also, please don't ever get a tattoo.
It was time to take down the counter chair because she just started using the stools. It made me sad that our baby is growing up so fast.
We made shirts for their class mates to sign since we didn't order yearbooks.
Holland started private swimming lessons!
We worked a lot in our easements. We decided to work back to front so that we could get a truck back there. So much digging. I don't even have words to describe how much work we put into this project.
Corn planted!
One day when Miriam was in charge of watching Darcy she did a little dress up session with her. What cuties!
Ellie's orthodontist rented out the Provo rec center one Saturday morning and Ellie could bring a friend. There were donuts and prizes and water fun. Ellie won an art set.
Miriam made a summer goal to practice new recipes, and she found some good grilled cheese recipes--roasted red pepper and basil, and green apple and cheddar (pictured).
When she likes a look, she likes it. Obviously.
Why do I like numbers like this?
John and I went on a fun date to the BYU Museum of Art. It was really nice evening, and we even heard a bit of a concert.
Clay project from school.
I spy a girl in a tree. I think she got a bit of sap on her dress from this. Whoops!
What my girls wish they could do all day, every day.
Holland likes bread and milk as an bedtime snack, which is what John ate a lot as a kid for a bedtime snack. Glad it is easy and relatively healthy.
We decided to hike the Y one night for a date. Man, it was harder than I remembered. I am nervous to try to take our kids on it.
Hiking the Y was the first place that John held my hand, and we became a couple. It is a special place to us.
One Saturday in June we went to the Hogle Zoo with the Davises. I wish we could hang out with them more, but it was a such a nice day. We saw elephants, monkeys, birds, a dog show, sealions, and even a polar bear swimming in the water. We really enjoyed seeing so many animals interact with their caretakers. The only sad part of the day was when we walked past the tiger, and it gave a loud growl. It made Darcy cry, poor girl. It was surprisingly loud in all fairness. We had a picnic lunch and my girls brought a cake. Afterwards, we played in the splash pad there for a bit. It was a bit weird to go to that zoo with the Davises because we went to the Phoenix zoo with them countless times. Still can't believe we both moved to Utah.
Baby zebra!
Crazy eyes and a polar bear!
John's company party was in June. We went to the Provo Beach Resort. They had a nice dinner for us and there were tons of activities there to do: this ropes course, mini golf, bowling, laser tag, unlimited arcade, and even the surfing that we didn't do.
We ordered some fancy ice creams before we left.
Fancy hairdo for church.
Sometimes the roll dough gets the better of us.
Hey, that corn we planted is sprouting!!
Another day we met up with Erica and Nancy and their kids and went to the Bean Museum. It is funny to me that Nancy's twin sister has a kid in Miriam's class. Small world.
Rock canyon park date where we got engaged!
Nursing her baby!
We tried to set up our pool but there was a leak in the liner. We ordered another liner and set the pool up. We loved having the pool heater.
Father's day! We love him so much.
We got him a drone to play with.
Summer means swim lessons and team practice.
Honestly that milk dribble.
Yay, the pool is working!
Working on our easement still. That is five truck loads of playground mulch. One thing that has really been nice is that Caldera lets it employees borrow the company truck if they need to, to do yard projects. Yes, that would be us with the yard projects. Being able to use their truck saved us so much money and time. It was so nice.
Corn growing and second planting in. Things are progressing but still have so far to go.
John went to a mine sight in Nevada in June. I couldn't believe how large the trucks were at the mine.
Or the bugs.
That scoop is not small.
Sarah and her family came for a quick visit.
The pool is working!
There was a bumper crop of cherries in our neighborhood so much so that just the branches that were hanging over our yard gave us pounds of cherries. All we could eat, plus enough for a few pies.
Pretty hibiscus
We found out at Darcy's two year check up that her eyes were not working properly. They had a crazy camera that they took a picture of her eyes with. Then we got set to a pediatric ophthalmologist, who told us that her right eye was much stronger than her left eye. What this means is that she needs glasses so that the right eye doesn't do all of the seeing. It is overcompensating for the left so much so that the left eye will continue to get weaker because it isn't being used. It has been an adjustment to have a toddler with glasses. The worst part is that she just takes them off and drops them randomly and has no idea where because she is two. I have a new hobby of looking in every crook and cranny of our house for her glasses. She seems to like to hide them in the back of closets under things. She also has no concept of trying to protect the lens. Lets just say that rubbing them on concrete doesn't make for no scratches on her glasses. Overall though, I have been impressed with how much she wears them. We are hoping for her to wear them 80% of the time so she doesn't have to wear an eye patch. Fingers crossed!
This was the day that we picked out her frames. I really like the ones we ended up with.
Miriam had a friend from Phoenix visit! Her names is Nina, and their family was moving to Montana so they stopped by on the way.
I wish they could have played longer but this was the night before we were flying to Cananda!
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