It's Summer!!

Summer is here!  And of course, our summer would not be complete without our annual visit from one of my very best friends in the world, Jess!  She was one of my roomies at BYU, and I just love her!!!  We picked her up from the airport last Monday and dropped her off yesterday, and we had such a great week!  The girls absolutely adored her, and we had a blast taking them on all kinds of outings.

I took the girls with me to St. Louis to get Jess from the airport, and while we were in the area, we went to the zoo!  I LOVE the St. Louis zoo.  What's not to love about a zoo that's FREE?!  Aleta didn't care much about the animals--she just wanted to run around.  That's pretty much the stage she is in lately--she just wants to run around, no matter where we are or what we are doing.  Nothing is more interesting than running around.  Naomi, on the other hand, was super excited about seeing the animals.  Specifically, she wanted to make sure we saw the elephants, giraffes, and monkeys.

I think that was a Komodo dragon in the background?

Some type of monkeys.

On Tuesday we took Naomi to the mall because I wanted her to have a cute dress.  Jacob accidentally dressed the girls in each other's dresses a couple Sundays ago, and the dress that he put on Naomi (which was actually Aleta's) was a fancy pink dress.  When I made Jacob change them back (because the dresses didn't fit!), Naomi was devastated.  She was sobbing and just so upset that she had to get out of the pink dress.  I felt so bad because we didn't have any cute, fancy dresses in Naomi's size.  Aleta has quite a few, but all we had for Naomi were casual, cotton dresses.  So I took some belated birthday money that I got for the girls, and we went on a dress search at the mall.  We ended up finding some ADORABLE dresses 50% off at Dillards, and I had exactly enough of the girls' birthday money left, so I bought them matching dresses.  They wore them on Sunday for Father's Day, and they looked super cute!

Just ignore the "A"... this was used for part of Jacob's Father's Day gift, but it's the only photo I have of the girls together wearing their dresses!

While at the mall, Jess paid for Naomi to ride the carousel for her first time.  It was a huge hit!  She couldn't stop talking about "riding the horse again".  She loved it.  So we all went back on Thursday (even Jacob tagged along) so the girls could ride the carousel together.

Wednesday was a hot day, so we took the girls to Little Mates Cove here in Columbia.  We've tried taking Naomi swimming every single summer, and this was the first time Naomi actually enjoyed it!  She usually cries and screams and freaks out and doesn't want anything to do with the water, but she had fun this year.  And Aleta seemed to have fun, too.  Little Mates Cove was perfect for them--it's only for kids.  The water is never higher than a foot or so.  There are slides and flowers that squirt water and other fun things.  And it's not too cold since it's not very deep. 

In addition to going on the carousel again on Thursday, Jess and I took the girls to the library.  We got new books, Aleta ran in circles around everything, and Naomi got to play games on the library computers (Naomi's favorite part of our library outings).  They also had some special thing going on at the library that we were unaware of, and they had chickens for the kids to see and even pet!  Naomi was pretty excited to see the chickens, but she wasn't sure what to think when I told her to pet it.

We spent Friday at a couple parks, trying to find some ducks to feed, but we were quite disappointed.  Somehow, there wasn't a single duck at either park that I was SURE would have ducks.  Naomi was pretty sad, since Jess & I had really built up the excitement of going to feed the ducks, and then we couldn't find any.  But she did have fun playing on the playgrounds!

I love the static-y hair shots. :)

Jacob spent Friday-Saturday camping and fishing with some of his friends, so on our way home from picking him up on Saturday, we stopped at Graham Cave State Park to have a picnic.  All of our pictures turned out kinda crappy, but I think Aleta's face in these two is pretty hilarious.

We spent Father's Day at church and then lazing around at home.  Jacob wanted to have a relaxing day, so that's what we did.  He also didn't want me to take any family photos, so I granted his wish, even though it made me very unhappy.  The girls looked so dang cute in their dresses, and I really wanted a picture of them with their Daddy on Father's Day... but I gave Jacob what he wanted!  We had a steak dinner and a chocolate cream pie for dessert... yum!

Monday was our last day with Jessie, so it was a pretty sad day.  We had hoped to make it a fun day by taking the kids to the science center before dropping Jess off at the airport, but it ended up being a disaster.  First of all, the science center was a complete disapointment.  Naomi loved the big T-Rex and Triceratops, but other than that, there really wasn't a single thing we cared to see or do.  Aleta wanted to do nothing but run around, and she threw a big fat screaming tantrum when we tried to pick her up to bring her to another area.  So we cut our outing short, which ended up being a good thing because they were having some nasty storms in St. Louis.  When we left the science center, it was downpouring outside.  I left Jess with the kids and went to get the car, and before I was halfway to the car, I was drenched.  I couldn't have been any wetter if I had jumped in a pool.  I drove around to the front of the building to pick them up, so the others managed to get in the car without getting completely soaked, but I was miserable.  And of course, I hadn't thought to bring any extra clothes for myself, and I didn't have towels or blankets or anything else, so we had to make a trip to Walmart, where I had to buy the cheapest towels I could find ($1.99!!) and the cheapest shirt/pants for myself.  Then we all had to dry off and change in the Walmart bathroom.  I totally felt like white trash, walking out of Walmart in my new bright red running pants and crappy t-shirt (is it TMI to add that I had to take off my bra, too?  I had no choice!  Everything was soaked through!).  It definitely wasn't the exciting, fun day we had planned... but it was an adventure I guess!

We loved having Jess come and play for the week, and we can't wait til next summer!!!  Now, who wants to come visit us next? ;)

Our Freakin' Awesome Thursday!

Today was an awesome, fun, extremely busy day!  I started the day off with taking Naomi to the Lend & Learn library for their last day before they close for the summer (and possibly forever, if they don't get their funding for next year... Boo!!).  Because it was their last day for the year, they did a Messy Day outside, where they had tons of fun little stations set up for the kids to play at.  They had water tables with tons of toys, baby pools filled with toys and duckies and water, a couple sandboxes with toys, a station with shaving cream to play in, a long table covered with paper & paint supplies, a plastic tub full of bubble stuff & bubble wands (Naomi's favorite), cups & potting soil & flowers so you could plant your own flower to bring home with you, balls & a mini parachute, numerous mats/blankets set up with cars or giant blocks, and probably quite a few other things that I'm forgetting.  It was pretty much awesome.  Naomi and I spent most of our time at the bubbles station & paint table.

Bubbles!  Naomi's favorite thing in the world.

 

One of the water tables

Naomi's first experience with paint... she loved it.  (I just haven't been brave enough to try out paint at home, yet.  That, and we don't own any paints.)
Also, take note of how clean she is here.

Concentrating on her art.

And this is her "Cheese!" face when I am taking her picture... see how messy she is now?

They also had an ice cream truck that came and gave everyone free ice cream!  So Naomi had her first ever popsicle... she was not quite sure how to eat it off of the popsicle stick, so she eventually started eating it like an ear of corn.

hahaha Check out her hair.

Eating it like an ear of corn...

Yum!

 

Ok... there are a lot of popsicle photos.  But she's just so cute!

They gave everyone a bag of goodies as you left, and everyone went away with a prize (depending on a number on the sticker we were given when we got there), and there were bins & boxes full of free second-hand kids' clothes that were donated.  So we went away with some clothes for the girls, a bunch of new books, and a few other random toys.  Basically, it was awesome and Naomi & I had a blast.  We are doing a Messy Day in June with our playgroup, and I can't wait!!

Naomi went down for a nap when we got home from the Messy Day, and I got Aleta ready to go to our playdate!  This playdate was for the 0-1 age range in our playgroup, and although I could have brought Naomi with me (the mom hosting has a 2-year-old daughter as well), I wanted a little one-on-one time with Aleta.  And Naomi needed her nap, anyway.  So I took advantage of the fact that Jacob is off of school this week, and I left Naomi at home.

The mom hosting the playdate today made what she calls a "Redneck Waterbed", and it was awesome!!!  She got the idea from here... they explain how to make it on that website as well.  Anyway, Aleta was tired and fussy, so she cried as soon as I put her on it, but it was still an awesome idea.  Someday, I want to make one for Naomi... I'm pretty sure she would absolutely love it.

Some of the other kids enjoying the "redneck waterbed".

I also tried out the kiddie pool with Aleta, but she started screaming as soon as I put her feet in the water.  So we spent most of the playdate on the blanket playing with toys.

Some of the other moms/kids enjoying the pool.

Not the greatest picture of me... but I had been playing with my kids outside in high-80s degree weather all day.  So don't be mean!

Playing on the blanket.

When Aleta and I got home, she went down for her much-needed nap, and Jacob made dinner (spaghetti) for the rest of us!  Then Naomi and I left to go to Discovery Time at the library.  They had books out to read with your kids, some activities to go along with the books, and then some other things for the kids to play with.  Naomi spent the whole time crawling through and playing with the caterpillar tunnel... she loved that thing.  Every time another child would crawl through, she would giggle and giggle--she thought it was the funniest thing.  I tried to get Naomi to sit with me to read, but she just wanted to run around.

Happy girl!

When we finally made it home for the night, I gave Naomi a bath.  We added some blue food coloring to the water to make bathtime extra fun tonight.  Naomi thought that was pretty great!  (I took a little video with our flip camera, but honestly, I am just too exhausted from our day to upload it... so I will add it tomorrow.)

Finally, by 10:30, both kids were asleep, and our freakin' awesome Thursday was over!  Go ahead... tell me I'm a freakin' awesome mom... :)