Great Wolf Lodge

 At Costco, before we left on our trip Grace was loving on and begging for the nacho cheese Doritos. Haha. She loves these things. Lucky for her it was her birthday so she got them :)

 Grace told me that for her birthday this year she wanted to go to the beach. With her mama being large with child that just wasn't going to happen, so instead we decided to take our summer family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge - a great getaway only 30 mins from our house. It's neat because it's a lodge/hotel with a huge indoor and outdoor waterpark attached. You can see some of the indoor waterpark in the picture below taken in the lobby of the hotel. It was so much fun!

 Every night they do a story time for the kids

 (Benji has started posing for photos - he thinks it looks really cool to have one arm up and the other down?)

 

The next morning the kids did a Wolf Walk and learned all about the different forest animals displayed in the lobby.

 

After the walk we got our swim suits on and played and played and played some more. The girls and Rob stayed in the waterpark all day until dinner. Ben and I went back to the room for a (much needed) nap then headed back down to play. Ruby could go on all but one of the slides and she and Grace and Rob had a blast riding slide after slide. They were apparently really fun, but sadly my pregnant self didn't get to experience them.

 

 That night we had dinner at Rainforest Cafe. The kids were absolutely exhausted but it was fun!

Friday was Grace's birthday!!! Here's the bright eyed and bushy tailed birthday girl who actually slept in until 7:45!

 Ruby wasn't thrilled that none of the presents were for her, but she was a good helper getting the gifts to Grace to open.

 Can you tell she was pretty excited to get her very own bag of Lindt truffles?! She was very sweet and shared with her siblings and/or paid them in chocolate for doing jobs for her :)

 Grace got a gift card to Build-a-Bear, so we headed to the mall after we got back so she could choose a new friend.

Finally that evening she got her cake. It was a very happy birthday!

 One of her other favorite gifts was the game 5 Crowns Jr. which we've played every day since then!

Happy 7th Birthday Grace!

I cannot believe that my baby is 7 already! Man, does time fly! Actually, in my head when I think of her, I think of her as being about 4, but that was 3 years ago! Grace is such an amazing girl and I am so blessed to be her mom. She is so helpful and thoughtful and always tries her best to do things perfectly (which may be a bit of a detriment sometimes...).

She loves to cook. She's great at making egg burritos (or scrambled eggs) and quesadillas.

It has been such a blessing to me to have her home this summer at the end of this pregnancy. She has been so helpful! As just one example, a few weeks ago after a crazy morning of swimming lessons we got home for lunch and everyone was tired and cranky. Ben was especially cranky and wanted a peanut butter sandwich, then didn't and just kept crying and whining and pulling at my leg as I was trying to make it. I finally just lost it and started to cry and excused myself to my room to compose myself where I continued to cry hard for the next 30 minutes. A while later Grace came into my room and told me that she had finished making his sandwich, had gotten him to eat it, and had put him down for his nap! And made lunch for herself and Ruby! What an angel Grace is! She patted my back for comfort and made me feel better. Gosh, I love that girl! She is usually up for helping her siblings with whatever they need or reading to them. She is quite patient and is learning how to be quite mature for her age. She isn't perfect, but she's trying really hard to be the best that she can be.

I gave her a little birthday interview for a peek into her, from her point of view:

What is your favorite thing to do?  Go to Great Wolf Lodge

What do you do really well?  swim

What do you want to be when you grow up? A dancer

What’s your favorite food?  Grace’s Chicken (Italian Crockpot Chicken)

Who do you love to spend time with? Mom and Daddy

What makes you laugh?  2 things: 1 – when someone tickles me 2 – when my sister and brother laugh

What’s the best time of day?  Midday because I get to watch TV and do whatever I want except scream (can you tell what Ben's nap times have been like at our house lately?! This pregnant mama needs a midday nap too! Haha!)

What are you afraid of?  Tarantulas, of course!

Who is your best friend?  Kendall, Samantha and Sarah

What do you like to do with your family?  Go on adventures, like see old buildings - history adventures like when we were in London

What do you love to learn about?  History, it’s my favorite thing!

Where do you like to go? Really fun waterparks

What is your favorite color?  I have 4 – turquoise, mint, aqua and hot pink

What is your favorite book?  Auntie Claus

If you had one wish, what would it be?  A really pretty house that I’ve always wanted. My room is going to be pink. My car is going to be pink. The rugs are aqua. The counters and shelves are mint. My fridge and lamps are golden and so are the light switches and the piano. I will have a turquoise fireplace. All the walls, except the bedrooms, will be mint. The bedrooms will be turquoise. Couches will be pink. I’m going to have fabric curtains that will be pink also. The banister and stairs and floor will be turquoise. (oh man, don’t die) The kitchen floor will be turquoise marble. And counter tops will be turquoise marble too. And I’ll have a chandelier that would be pink. The picture frames will be pink, and so is the clock. The bar stools will also be pink.  That’s mostly it.

What would you buy if you had $1,000? Pokemon cards, some pretty flower seeds, some candy that really like, some really pretty clothes that I really like, some really pretty shoes, that’s all.

What is your favorite song?  All of Taylor Swift’s songs.

What do you hope you can do before your next birthday? Go to the beach

What is your favorite pet? All baby animals except the ones that bite and are stinky

What is your favorite flower? A lily and a rose, pink ones

What is your favorite water slide? Tornado at Great Wolf Lodge

We all love Grace so much and are so happy to have her in our family!!

4th of July

 We started the day off at the Ward Breakfast. The best part was that we rode our bikes to the activity! I just love riding with my little family!

 We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and the girls got their faces painted.

 Then the annual kids bike parade started. Ben only made it that far :)

That evening we hosted a BBQ with friends (no pictures!) before heading downtown for the Frisco Square fireworks with our friends the Hamiltons. Ben thought that it was so awesome to walk over the train tracks so, of course, we had to get a picture!

 

 

 The fireworks were pretty late (they started at 10:20!) and by the time they were going the kids were pretty pooped from a long day of playing hard.

Father's Day

 The day after Rob got back from High Adventure was Father's Day. It was so fun to celebrate the best Dad ever! Grace did a great job decorating the house so he would feel special :)

June

After school got out, we had a week then Rob was off to High Adventure for a week. It was long is about all I can say about it. I was so grateful when he got home to us! It ended up being a bit crazy for the leaders because Tropical Storm Bill came ashore with a vengeance and forced them to move camp and drive all around Texas for the first 4 days!

The blue dot is where they decided to camp one night, right in between all of the crazy storminess!

One of the worst things about High Adventure was that Rob had to drive the van and so we had to squash the kids into the back seat of the Accord. These kids may look cute and sweet but having them so close was an absolute nightmare. Every single car ride, no matter the length, was horrible with the kids touching each other and fighting. I am so grateful that we have a minivan!!

 Rob has been working really hard on the big HP split. He has logged so many hours in the evenings getting all his stuff done.

The eggs hatched and as soon as the babies were able to fly we cleaned up the nest and evicted the little family so we could use our fan again.

We re-painted our room. It was so hard to decide on the color! Our room might have looked like this for a while as we were deciding.

 There was a neat Lego exhibit that came to the mall. That White House is made entirely of Legos! There were many other historical national buildings there made of Legos as well. They also had a little area where the kids could build Lego cars and race them.

June was FULL of swimming lessons for the girls. They ended up taking from 2 different places, so we were running all over town all month getting everyone where they needed to be. Grace is above with the purple-tinted goggles. She did a fantastic job and really learned a lot in the month she took lessons!

 Friends and picnics are the best!

 More wildlife in our yard!

This little guy was my nemesis. Somehow he would sneak into my tomato cages and eat all my tomatoes and would sometimes get stuck.

Cute Activity Days girls made pillowcases in a crazy, whirlwind activity. 

We all went to the dentist. Here is Grace's x-ray...it's so interesting to see the adult teeth pushing up on the baby teeth!

 My favorite thing is that Rob surprised me with a bike! We've been wanting bikes for a long time, but after an impulse purchase of a bike trailer at the REI garage sale we pretty much just had to get them. We've had a fantastic time riding bikes together since then!

 Grace likes to play copy cat and do everything I do...it's a delightful game as I'm sure you can imagine ;)

 We've also been doing lots of reading. Grace is a great reader to her siblings!