Spring Break!

David was on spring break last week. He has been working so hard with everything, and I was so happy to see him finally get a little break. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for the week. It was a great reminder that Spring is just around the corner. (I think every time I had a spring break when I was in college, it always ended up being the storm of the century. Working at a ski resort, though, I guess that made it ok.)
Because it was nice and warm, we wanted to get out and do something fun. We decided to go to Zion. This was David's first time. It's such a fun place to go and there is really so much to see. We went with my Mom and my brother Johnny.
One thing you should always do when going to Zion is drive the scenic route through the tunnels. There is one tunnel that is a mile long, blasted through rock during the early part of the century. The first thing we did when we got to the park was drive through the tunnels. (Remember to honk your horn and blink your headlights as you drive through!) There is a very interesting part of the park above the second tunnel that I love because everything looks like it has been painted with a huge paintbrush. You can see the brush strokes, it's so interesting.

We were all starving after the drive and so we decided to stop at the lodge and have a picnic on the lawn. We sat under this big tree, that is a part of just about every Zion memory I have. My Mom has old memories under this tree too from when she was a little girl. She said they used to come to Zion all the time during the summers (sometimes with my Aunt Elaine who just passed away.) and she always wanted to get some of the ice cream that they sell. They never could afford to get any except for this ONE TIME. That time she was in heaven. And they sat under this tree and ate it. I think the picnic was Mckinley's favorite part of the trip. She loved setting things out on the blanket and pouring the drinks into cups and passing out plates. My Mom believes that every picnic should have at least a little bit of "home made" goodness. Haha! We didn't have much time to prepare on the day we were going, and so she made some brownies from a box. They tasted really good, but my Mom laughed that they weren't exactly home made.

After the picnic, we went across the river to hike the Emerald Pools hike. It's a very pretty walk. Once we had made it to the lower pool, David and Mckinley didn't want the to stop. So we left Dolce with my Mom and Johnny at the lower pool and continued to make our way up. I went to the middle pool with them and then turned back to feed the baby. I love having such an adventurous little girl and husband. They hiked up to the top pool, and then David gave Mckinley a piggy back ride back down. It was such a fun day of exploring and hanging out. Can't wait to go again!

Oh yeah, the Ostriches were on the side of the road on the way to Zion. We stopped to feed them. Mckinley couldn't believe such crazy things.

Makin it through.

I think it's safe to say that we are all feeling good for now. In the middle of February, Dolce came down with RSV. It was a mild case, but they still wanted to treat it aggressively with breathing treatments and nasal washing because she was only 3 months old. Fortunately, she has recuperated nicely and is back to her usual happy self. Yay! We are having so much fun with her and love watching her grow. She is also getting big enough to handle more of her big sisters tough love. Haha.(Mckinley tried to feed her an ice cream cone yesterday! And the picture above with Dolce wearing the bunny ears was Mckinleys idea too.) Cute torture.

The other night we decided to do a "Girls Night Out" because I have been sensing that Mckinley sometimes feels a little out of place now that she has a baby sister. Sadly, we aren't always as attentive to her as we were when she was the one and only princess in the house. She is being such a good big sister. We have felt really lucky that she hasn't really created much difficulty in adjusting to two kids. She hasn't seemed very jealous, but we have noticed that the baby needs a lot of attention, and we wanted to remind Mckinley that she is just as important by doing something with her that we knew she would enjoy. So we ordered Pizza, "roni," as she calls it. We got some of her favorite treats, and a redbox. We also made little beds on the floor and camped out to watch "Cloudy, with a chance of meatballs." She had such a fun time. We even had Daddy get in touch with his feminine side and join us for the last half of the movie.

I love the picture of Dolce looking at the treats. We have shamelessly given her a taste or two of chocolate, and now she recognizes the sound of wrappers. I know. I'm afraid she couldn't be my child if she didn't have a genetic predisposition to love of chocolate.


Girls Night was a success! Maybe we will make it a monthly party!

Dolce's eating Cereal!

About a week ago, Dolly turned four months old! To celebrate her growing up so fast, we started feeding her rice cereal. She had no idea what to think, but she must have felt like such a big girl sitting in the "eating chair," because she was very anxious to be holding the spoon. She was all ready to try some yummy stuff out, but changed her mind after the first bite. Hahaha, she looked at us like we were torturing her. She is now starting to get used to it and has even added some applesauce to her list of tasty treats.

Oh! That's what that's for!

A couple of days ago after Mckinley had gotten out of her bath, David and I walked into the bathroom to find her very carefully putting deodorant under her arms. We asked her why she thought that she needed to use deodorant.(Thinking she might tell us that she wanted to smell nice for her ever changing boyfriend of the day.) She said that she didn't want her arms to fall off. David and I had a pretty hard time keeping the laughs to ourselves. She has been going to preschool, and one of the frequent topics is how great glue sticks are. Apparently, she thinks that deodorant is a very big, (and obviously very important) glue stick. Hahaha. Wouldn't it be great if everyone was as worried about their arms falling off as Mckinley?