Pioneer Day

We (I) decided to run down to Delta for a bit while Jeff was working and the rest of us were free.  Chris took the girls down with her (she tends our girls on Friday afternoons) while I was at work, then I headed down after.  There were (relatively) not many people there when I arrived around 7 or 8 and I fully expected all the kids to be swimming and playing, but everyone was just chilling eating dinner, not having gone in yet.  They didn't do much that night, but played and talked and ate junk food.

The next day, we had scones (yum!) then went to a reptile zoo in the morning.  The guy was pretty legit, being featured on TV and his snakes have been in recent movies... But that didn't mean the place didn't stink to high heaven.  It was pretty cool, with snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, even a gator and tons of other random things - tarantulas, birds, etc.  There were many exhibits that were just open - like turtles in a tub - and the gator happened to be one of them.  Kinda freaked out this mom of a very rambunctious 2 yr old, but we escaped without incident.  They had one iguana thing that was out and about, and all the kids enjoyed petting it.  There was also the biggest snakes I'd ever seen in person.  Though we enjoyed it, I was very glad it was a donation day, I would have been sad if I'd been charged 10 bucks to go in.

Later that day we finally went swimming and I just hitched rides in the boat. I held the girls, who both got all scared out of their minds.  Eventually Josh got (forced) Amie on the tube with Steph, Hannah and Ty and she was screaming, scared, but after it was over was very proud that she went.

We had to head home that night to be at our own ward the next morning.


On the actual day, Jeff was up bright and early to work the parade of course.  I convinced him to bring a chair with him, and sure enough, there was a spot open, right up front, so he plopped his chair to save it for us.  We got a prime spot (and even parking) without excessive waiting.  The parade was fun, though a little less fun now that they can't throw candy. The girls enjoyed it.  Afterward, we went to lunch with another cop and his family at Blue Lemon.  I certainly approved, but I still have higher-ups on my favorites list.

That evening, we didn't have plans, so we went with the old standby - BBQ at my mom's!  This time, I forgot the rest of the fireworks and games... oops... so Jeff caught up on some homework and I caught up on the last 3 episodes of Once Upon a Time. (But we enjoy hanging out, as has been mentioned before.)

Fourth!

This year Jeff was off for the 4th, wow! But, we still couldn't go to Delta because they went on the weekend, and the holiday was mid-week, of course.  I had fully planned on taking the girls to a parade that morning, but I wasn't willing to wake them/us all up early for it. (We sleep when we can in this house!)  So we ended up going to my mom's for BBQ, swimming, etc.  We headed down around lunch time, and I have no idea the order of everything, but we grilled our food and ate, went swimming (in actuality, the kids swam and Jaimie and Ricky played with them while me and other lazy adults sat poolside.  Awesome Aunt Jaimie strikes again!)  Then, we went back to the house and played werewolf forever (there were a ton of us, every everyone was there for once!)  When it started to get dark we lit a fire in the fire bowl and made s'mores (with tons of water nearby due to all the fires) and then headed out front to do fireworks.  I'd brought lots of kiddie stuff - pop its and sparklers - Mark brought fountains and Mal and Trav covered the aerials.  We had a good, fun fireworks show of our own, I thought.  We were also in a prime spot where we saw tons and tons all around us - that was awesome.  We headed home late after a really fun day just hanging out with the entire Radcliffe clan.

Princess Festival 2012

We've begun making it an annual trip to the Princess Festival now held at Thanksgiving Point every June. It is a charity fundraiser and we really enjoyed it last year (with the exception of being the hottest day ever.) They have all the princesses to meet, storytimes, shows and of course all the usual vendors - food, crafts, face paint, etc. and all the little girls come dressed in their best princess attire. They made some changes this year that I thought were both good and bad. They made it easier to get to all the princesses this year, but then that made the princess part very short. They added a show by the Osmond girls, as well as some radio station which made it feel more modern and less princessy to me, but the girls still had a great time. It didn't even seem as hot this year.

My princesses with Rapunzel.  (You will notice these are traditional, NOT Disney-style.)

 My princesses AS Rapunzel.

 Belle

 Cinderella

 Sleeping Beauty

 Ariel

Snow White

 Sheherizade - NOT Jasmine!

Cinderella's Evil sisters

 Watching the show.  The look on Stacey's face is my fave. "Do you expect me to believe that?"

In the carriage!

We met all the princesses, saw the 12 Dancing Princesses and Rumplestiltzkin Shows, listened to a story time, had lunch (and mini-donuts, delish!) cooled off with otter pops, made crafts and spent some time playing in the water to cool down.  We were really glad that our cousin Stacey got to come this year right before she moved away from us. We're always totally bushed after a day at the Festival!

Pre-Anniversary Anniversary trip

I think this is almost the last of my June updates.  I had soooo many things going on in June, that not only has it taken me this many posts to get them all up, but there was absolutely 0 time to blog (or breathe) the whole month.

Our little (big) bundle is due shortly after our anniversary, and pair that with 2 early babies before, we decided we had to take advantage of some free babysitting while we had it and get out of town!  It's our 5th anniversary, and we wanted to have a really fun/novel trip, but ya just can't do that 8.7 months pregnant!  So, we decided to go up to one of our old standbys, our condo at Wolf Creek.  Jeff even had to go to class the second day, and we checked out in the morning for me to go straight to work, but we really wanted to make it happen!

We grabbed Pizza Hut and drove up on Monday and arrived a little early, but luckily our place was ready.  We ended up watching many episodes of Lost and Alias and playing games (I know - doesn't sound like an awesome anniversary activity to you, but we really like playing games and never get the chance.) We ate at Carlos and Harley's that night, stuffed to the max, and I totally out-spicied Jeff.  The next day, we had cinnamon rolls, and while Jeff was at class, I finished my book.  We went to lunch at the Mad Moose and had delicious sandwiches and ice cream.  I should mention here, that I dropped a knife into my foot that was really giving me a hard time and I was hobbling (on top of the pregnant waddling) this whole time.  It prevented us from doing any of the hiking/walking I wanted to.  We also played pool and sort of raquetball.  After a few rounds, I had to sit and Jeff went at it for awhile.  That evening we ate at Gray Cliff Lodge - it's sort of a mix of really nice.... and really 70's.  Our meal was great, though, and they brought us dessert with trick candles in them for our anniversary.  That night, we had a "Why I love you" session that I believe may be a new anniversary tradition.
Next morning, we had the sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowest breakfast at the Oaks and then headed off to drop me at work (very late, I may add.)  We didn't exchange gifts yet, and I am sure we will still have a nice expensive dinner around the day, but I was very glad to get to have a kidless few days just enjoying my amazing husband!

Youth Conference!

I am the 1st counselor for the Young Women in my ward, and this year, we had ward-level Youth Conference. (This is a whole new idea to me - in fact, the way the usually do it in general here in Utah is new to this Floridian.) But, we started planning and decided to rent some cabins by Jordanelle Reservoir and keeping the festivities around there and Midway. I was pumped about going the whole 4 days, but we ended up having an important wedding on day 3, so we were just there for half (Jeff got to come too!) I love love love working with the Youth and really enjoyed being up there with everyone, especially the leaders!

Our sweet facilities.

Jeff keeping the boys in line (our MM activity of improv skits.)

Playin in the Party Cabin.  No really, that's it's actual name.

Meal time!!

Rec room - frequent free time hang out for the youth.

A little s'more time before our star-gazing night.

Swimming in the volcanic crater.  It was literally like 90 degrees in the water, and I think 90 ft to the bottom.

And leave it to Kathy to have her camera going at so-early-we-haven't-had-breakfast-yet hours.  These are the gems you'll get.

Each morning and evening, a pair of kids did a devotional, and for the most part, the kids cooked all our meals.  We did a decision-based hike at Cascade Springs, improv/games, scavenger hunt (made by the Teachers... so...) fire and marshmallows, stargazing fireside led by our Stake President, swimming, and then on the days I was not there, they did service for the camp, a ROPES course (so sad I missed it - that's totally my territory!) had pizza out, and made stars for each person. Though we ended up with a little more free time than was necessary in my opinion, it was a great week. The weather was amazing, plus we had a great view of the dam, mountain, saw deer and there was a creek that ran right by our areas.

I truly love my calling and all the people it allows me to associate with on a regular basis (not to mention stretching me to be better everyday.)

A lot more and a whole lot less

I'm already at 31 weeks pregnant!  It is just flying by - well time in general is flying by right now, but that makes these pregnancy symptoms more bearable.  Here's the 31 wk belly - it is so very large!  (Stay tuned for a size-comparison post.) Noticeably larger than last belly pic. (again I couldn't decide.)

In other news, you may have noticed I totally chopped off... oh, over a foot of hair.  I love it.  I don't care if you do, it's doing me well in this summer heat.  Happy Friday!

Mal Weddin! - The Ceremony/Reception

On June 11, Mal had a lovely outdoor ceremony (much less irreverant than the rehearsal... although the Bishop did announce them as Mallory and Travis Radcliffe instead of Mortenson, haha!) followed by pics and then a reception with dancing, cupcakes and catered by Goodwood BBQ (yummo!)  The girls performed their parts perfectly and Mal was gorgeous.