Lauren Elizabeth

Tea Party Time & Utah

We headed to Utah for 3 weeks while Mike went to Kenya with the dental school again. The first week we got there and I went to Kate's endowment session the next day. My cousin Kwasi watched the girls and was such a rock star since Grace was not happy about having to wait to eat. Then we headed up to Idaho to my uncle's ranch. There was horseback riding, 4-wheelers and cousins. The kids played outside all day and just ran around and had a good time. It was a bit hard with Grace because she was so little this trip. Being outside all day long with no good place to nap made for an interesting couple of days. She was pretty over stimulated and just needed a bit of a break from it all.  Violet ran around with all the girls, making bracelets, launching rockets and chasing dogs. Frankie and Violet had a bunch of dance parties for the whole group. It was another great year at cousin's camp.

Once we got back to my mom's house everything mellowed out a bit. Vi was in total heaven. My mom brought out her dollhouse and kitchen for Vi to play with. She also wore a dress-up pretty much everyday that we were there. We went to music class twice in Provo and Vi had a week of swimming lessons in Provo too. Those did not go so well. Vi hadn't been in a pool since last summer and it took her some time to warm up to the idea of getting in. We tried to take her most days at my mom's house to help with that. We had multiple cousin swim days. Grandma and Grandpa took her to 2 movies( home and inside out) She played with her cousins a ton. We went up to the cabin for a night too and hiked to Stewert Falls. We met up with Jayne and Kate at puppy barn. It was so cute and Vi was in dog heaven. We made flower crowns out of flowers from my mom's garden. Overall I think Vi was just loving life in general. 

Grace was a trooper and was carted around everywhere. My mom also stepped in a ton to watch her or be with her while she slept. Gracie did get to go swimming for the first time. My parent's pool is pretty much the same temperature as a tub. She also got to meet all of her family and that was so fun. It makes me so happy when my kids can start forming relationships with their family. 

We loved out time in Utah, but I think Violet's biggest highlight was the tea party my mom and I put together for her and Jayne. They were dancing outside all morning to the music while they snacked on lunch. I put a little bit of lipstick on both of them and they were feeling extra fancy about the whole thing. It was so fun! I'm so excited that Violet is getting to an age where we can do this kind of stuff.