My Mollie

What can I say about my Mollie? She is completely fearless, totally stubborn, and absolutely hilarious! My big girl turned 5 this last week! To celebrate her birthday, we had a special breakfast that she got to pick (hashbrowns and eggs), then we spent the afternoon at the lake with friends. It was a warm, cloudy day which made the swimming/playing even better...not too hot, not too cold.

To show off her little personality, when we first got there I told Mollie I wanted a birthday picture of her...this is what I got

After the lake, we took the girls out to dinner...Mollie's choice. She picked a local Mexican restaurant called El Tapatio. It is always fun to go out to dinner as a family, but this dinner was crazy! The girls were so wiggly and excited! To make it even better, Mollie was surprised with a sombrero on her head, singers (with maracas and drums), and dessert spooned into her mouth. It totally caught her off guard...Hilarious!!



When we got home from dinner, we had the Cases come over for her birthday treat (again, her choice). She wanted rice krispie treats with rainbow sprinkles and ice cream. Easy enough! Oh no, she also wanted it in the shape of a dolphin....what?! Luckily, I found a dolphin mold in the beach section of Target so it wasn't a problem. She opened presents, played with her friends, and went to bed with a big smile on her face!

My big 5 year old! She is so full of personality and makes each day a new adventure! We sure love this girl!! Happy Birthday Mollie Dru!!

What a Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend was full of some fun activities. Sam, Jill and Aubrey came over the mountains to spend the holiday with us AND we had Tate visiting from Iowa for a little while too. It was nice that the cousins could spend some time together.

We spent some time in downtown GJ where they recently renovated and added some places for kids to play. The first place we stopped was the splashpark. All of the kids LOVED it! It was just as entertaining to watch them!! Every kid had a different reaction to the fountains: Carli, Aubrey, and Regan got completely soaked while Tate got just a little wet and Mollie didn't get wet at all. We kept trying to position Mollie where she would wet accidentally but she wouldn't listen. So fun!!

Regan was the first to run straight through the big one!
Next was Carli
The Dads
All the kiddos :)
Mollie never got a drop on her....stubborn kid

To help us dry off, we went to a little rock climbing statue. They all tried jumping down from the highest spot (because that means you're tough!) I'm always amazed at how much energy kids have. They just kept going and going...


Our next adventure was at our friends lake. They invited us to go tubing, wakeboarding, and play on their beach. Carli tried wakeboarding for the first time but she didn't last long. Most of the time was spent tubing, which they LOVED!
Chad taking Tate for his first time


Love, love, love this picture!! Look at that smile!

We decided to go to the GJ parade (we've never been before) and it was a HUGE disappointment! Hardly any floats, no candy, obnoxious MC's, and to top it all off, it was HOT!! The kids were totally bored and couldn't wait to get out of the sun. We had to bribe them to stay by promising them a slushy afterwards. We won't bother with their parade ever again.

Yes, we are wearing pants...we were heading to fireworks in Meeker right after the parade. It made the heat even MORE miserable!

Meeker's fireworks are the best!! We've watched them in Ouray, Fruita, Grand Junction, even various towns in AZ and nothing compares to the show put on in Meeker. The weather is nice and cool, the fireworks are amazing, and they are set off RIGHT above you in the park. It rained this year, but stopped after the fireworks started. It was another great 4th of July!! What a weekend!

Country Jam

We went with our awesome friends the Quarnbergs and Stockings to Country Jam and it was GREAT!! We saw Lady Antebellum and they sounded just like they do on the radio....so good! My girls LOVE them and were totally jealous that we got to see them. In the group picture I'm actually trying to call the girls so they can hear them over the phone :) Hope we can go again next year!

British Soccer Camp

Carli had the great opportunity to attend a week-long British Soccer Camp through our soccer club. She had a blast! The instructors travel around the US to various states doing these camps throughout the summer. Personally, I enjoyed hearing their British accents. :) Carli learned some new ball handling "moves" and got a free ball and jersey. The participants were separated by age groups and given a specific country that played in the World Cup. Each country would scrimage at the end of every day. Each night they had "homework" which they had to have completed by the following morning. We had to make a flag of her country (Ireland), wear her country color (green), crazy hair, and decorate her new ball...whoever was the best got points for their country in the World Cup. Carli won first place for her decorated ball and got 100 points for her team!! It was a great experience and lots of fun!

Carli and her coach Andrew Go Team Ireland!

The Greatest Show on Earth

To start off our summer vacation, we decided to take the girls to the circus! They came in town for the weekend and it was the best $5 (per ticket) we ever spent!! The girls had an absolute BLAST and even though it wasn't the "Ringling Brothers" it had 3-rings, and it was pretty cool. They had everything a circus should have. They had face painting, cotton candy, jugglers, trapeze, fire/sword eaters, rope climbers, chair stackers, tigers, bears, and most importantly...ELEPHANTS! We HAD to get the girls cotton candy! We let them pick what color they wanted and all 3 chose blue....personally I like yellow :)

One thing that I splurged on (that Chad didn't want me to do) is for the girls to ride the elephant. I still remember riding the elephant at the circus when I was their age, so when rides were offered there was no hesitation! Chad stayed in the stands to save our seats and I took the girls to get in line. It was so great!! They LOVED it!

Mollie and Carli in the front of the elephant ride

Regan was put on the next elephant. She was nothing but smiles!!

Tigers!!

Mollie LOVED the trapeze! She now wants to be a trapeze artist when she grows up :)

The elephants performing...it was awesome!

It was such a fun night!! Each girl had a favorite part: Carli- chair stacker, Regan- Bears (so funny! She was laughing hysterically the ENTIRE time the bears were performing), Mollie- Trapeze. So glad we went...we might even go again (even though Chad probably doesn't want to!) It was definately the "Greatest Show on Earth"