August, in Fast Forward

We started August the right way--with a road trip. It took us all of 24 hours to get from Columbus, Indiana to Provo, Utah. But family is worth it.
We hiked to one of my favorite places in Utah valley, Bridle Veil Falls. Seriously, it's beautiful, and the canyon that surrounds it is simply awesome.
Egon came along for the ride.
The kids got to see their favorite people: aunts and uncles (pictured below is Uncle Mish with Oliver)
We saw my beautiful and talented sister sing at open mic.
The kids got reacquainted with their old cousins:
as well as some new cousins:
We hiked to a cool place the locals call "the grotto" in Payson canyon:
And then of course there was more celebration to be had, it being August and all (Oliver's month).
We made it through the long drive home and decided to have one last hurrah before school started for the kids. On Oliver's actual birthday (August 20th), we took the kids to King's Island, which has Snoopy Planet (perfect for our little birthday boy).

Oliver was so cute meeting all his friends, the Peanuts characters. He would walk right up to them and hug them.
The rides were all geared just for our pint sized birthday boy.
And then just like that, summer came to an end and the kids started school, Gabby as a forth grader, and Alex as a first grader.

July, in Fast Forward

July is of course Gabby's month, but Alex made sure to steel the spotlight from her momentarily by losing his first tooth:
We got special visitors just in time for Gabby's ninth birthday. My dad (Grandpa "Choo Choo") and step mom (Grandma Rene) stopped in to celebrate with us. The kids had such a great time and missed them terribly after they left.
Now to the main event...Gabby's 9th birthday. This year, we pulled out all the stops. Gabby decided she wanted a Paris themed party after following the blog of her namesake's aunt on designmom.com (you've probably heard of it).

I made a lemon tart in lieu of birthday cake and ordered French macarons from a local bakery.
We drank Parisian lemonade:
And I make the coolest birthday invitations ever--passports to Paris!
...complete with photo ID. We stamped the passport pages for every activity we did, starting with...
hat design:
followed by modeling:
We also had a baking class where all the girls helped make crepes, but since I was overseeing all that mayhem, I failed to take any pictures. For future reference, never, under any circumstances leave a giant bottle of Nutella unattended on a table full of girls with crepes. Furthermore, don't bother with making a cake (or in this case a lemon tart) when said girls are on such a sugar high from Nutella that thought of taking in more sugar is nauseating.
Party aftermath:
After Gabby's party, Alex realized that, although he got to go to Harry Potter land on his birthday, I never made him a cake or threw a party for him. So, I fixed the problem by letting him have a sleep over and making him a cake just about a month and a half after his actual birthday.
Favorite picture taken in July, completely unrelated to birthdays:

Vacation 2010

You might want to sit down, this could take a while...

Since we decided to move across the country, we've come to accept the fact that we will now vacation in Utah (our old stomping ground). It might not sound awesome, but it pretty much is. This time around, we decided to make the 24 hour drive instead of the 3 hour flight.

Thanks to Nintendo DS and Red bull, it was a relatively smooth trip.

First Stop: Denver, Colorado to visit the Sabey cousins (they're pretty much the funnest family ever).
While we were there, more cousins (this time, Lifferth ones) stopped in for a visit.
After Denver, we headed to Meeker, Colorado where we had to stay in this old shack:
Noah took the kids on a rock crawler which, he told them, "can go ANYWHERE."

Gabby's response: "Oh yeah? Can it go on water?" She loves crushing Noah's enthusiasm.
Uncle Gabe flew RC planes and helicopters.
The kids got to play with even MORE cousins.
And then we made it to Utah, our final destination where the fun didn't stop.

We threw Noah's youngest sister, Bridgett, a baby shower.

we ate this:
made these (instructions here)...
and these (instructions here). I think it's safe to say that it was the best baby shower ever.
The following day, we went on a bike ride with my dad and step-mom down Provo Canyon (one of my favorite places in the world). We stopped off at Bridal Veil Falls and Gabby decided to scale the base of the waterfall.
Alex followed close behind (barefoot).
This is me with the kids and my first ever BAD haircut.
This is my dad with a cute Oliver.
Gabby fell in the ice cold water which she thought was funny, until we got back on the bikes.
A day or two later, we celebrated Gabby's birthday by taking out her cousin, Hazel and friend, Anouk to Gabby's favorite restaurant, Zupas...
Then off to Color Me Mine, where we painted bowls.
Following that, we took the party to my dad's where we all swam in the pool.
in lieu of cake, we had ice cream sandwiches.
Some day later, my Mom and Step-dad threw a Bastille day party. We played the donut on a string game, which Oliver was a huge fan of:
Gabby's actual birthday arrived on July 16th and she woke up to a HUGE surprise... Lanie, the American girl doll.
She was pretty excited:
Hours later, all of our family and even some friends headed to a Provo chapel, where Gabby was baptized...
and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
And of course, we partied afterwards at a nearby park:
My dad brought along his rocket, which Alex thought was about the coolest thing ever:
The following morning, we headed home via Denver again, stopping in a cousin's wedding reception:
After getting home to Indiana, Gabby got to get her ears pierced in celebration of her turning eight.
They accidentally put in the wrong earings (Gabby wanted the red ruby, which is July's birthstone)

so I made sure they gave us the right ones free.