Soaring High

Through work David often gets invited to some fancy schmancy events. This was a Constitution Day event held at Montpelier. Due to a very busy Saturday, we didn't arrive at the event until late. Most of the things were closing down. We had a nice little catered dinner and then got free tickets for a tethered balloon ride. It was a long wait in line, and a very short ride. But it's fun to say we've been in a hot air balloon!

 In the basket and ready to fly

This was while waiting in line. I love these people!!

The balloon was tethered to 3 of these tractors that Dallin found so exciting.

Super Star Charlotte on the soccer field

Charlotte decided to play soccer this year. It's been so fun to see her try something new. She loves it!

Dallin leaves the soccer field filthy dirty every week... 

Double the money!

Charlotte had two loose teeth for weeks, just dangling and stubbornly holding on. She was really bothered by them, but would NOT let anyone try to pull them out. I told her that if she let me pull them out, she'd get double the money from the Tooth Fairy. She was still hesitant, but finally asked that I pull them out. She was so happy to finally get those wiggly teeth out!

Chineese Moon Festival

Our ward has a small congregation of Mandarin speaking members and two sets of Mandarin missionaries. They've had several Chinese themed activities that are always a lot of fun. This was the moon festival. We had authentic Chinese food for dinner, a fun scavenger hunt and then made these fun lanterns, that the girls still continue to make at home and school. 

The day after the festival Oma and Poppy came to visit and take us for All American Burgers at Red Robin. We love these guys!

Favorite toys

Two years ago we didn't own a single car, truck, train, plain, robot or dinosaur toy at all. Now, it's all I can do to keep from tripping over them. My purse if full of them and when I open the car door, there is surely going to be a Lightning McQueen come tumbling out into the parking lot. Dallin's new love is Rescue Bot Transformers. I like these guys because they aren't violent - the are helpful rescuers. Dallin had just gotten shots, hence the stickers on his arm, and I bought him some boy toys to help cheer him up. Spoiled? Yes!

The girls have had Legos for a long time now, but they rarely played with the sets for fear that they'd be broken apart and forever destroyed.  And the thought of putting their sets together was unimaginable! Until one day I was so sick I could not get out of bed. I barely heard from the kids all day. But later that evening they asked me to come see their Lego city they had created. I was so proud of them for putting all their sets together and creating a big city! And they played so nicely all day. And they've been playing with these every spare minute for weeks now. Finally, those pricey Legos seem worth it.

 But let's just zoom into that picture a little more.... allegedly that's the mom and dad behind the concert stage.... and they're "just dancing".

Waiting....

Carmen has been waiting over two years for her new bedroom. When Dallin was born, she got moved into her own room. My parents had been waiting many years for the right time to pass my old bed onto one of my children.  My dad custom built this bed for me when I turned 8. It only seemed right that Carmen would get it when she was 8. It felt so sentimental to me to pass it to her and let her enjoy it the way that I did. However, she never fully appreciated it as much as we had hoped for.

So, we promised her for a long time that we would make her room just the way she wanted. She waited and waited while we tried to sell the loft bed. But, we all had mixed emotions about selling it. It just seemed wrong. This beautiful piece of furniture needs to stay in the family. So my dad loving came and took it apart and has it safely stored away until the right person and time comes along.

And we went to IKEA! After much waiting and anticipation, Carmen finally has her "grown up" room! It's beautiful and she loves it. She even makes her bed every morning before school! I'll add here that it was her mother that put every piece of that furniture together!! I felt so empowered after I was done.

Everyone else has been doing a lot of waiting every week during Carmen's piano lessons. Thankfully, there is a park right next door where we like to hang out for the hour and wait for her to be done. 

 The park is super old and very small, but we seem to make do each week by bringing a few small toys.

 and jumping!

On another day, when David had been out of town for the second week in a row, he texted and asked for picture of the kids, because he missed them so much. He waited while I snapped this quick pictures. Here the kids are anxiously waiting for daddy to come home!

Fun Beans

There is never a dull moment around here! Dallin can often be found wearing his cape. I'm not sure what super power the goggles give him, but he for sure wanted them on as well.

It's hard to ever get these kids to pose for a cute picture with me, their mother... this was pretty close, although no smiles. This was at my cousin, Steven's wedding recepetion in Bridgewater. 

 Here was another close attempt at a decent photo....

 but it quickly turned to this.

 Completely unrelated to the above pictures, but these are still pictures of the Beans having FUN! Parents vs. kids soccer/kickball night. We've done this twice now and it's been so much fun. It always happens very last minute and with little to no planning involved, but we've had a great turn out both times and there will be many more games to come! We'll order a bunch of sub sandwiches and ask everyone else to bring something to share and meet us at the park to play games. This night ended in a  pretty crazy and very dirty game of kickball.