Almost Caught Up!

I'm almost caught up with blogging and need a tiny break. I still have to blog about this last weekend when we went to see the witches at Gardner Village and then to Discovery Gateway yesterday. I just thought I would post some silly pictures of Ellie before I'm finally caught up. More posts to come in a few days.

I have my preparation day to go back on track Wednesday and then the kids come back Monday. It went way too fast! I was also fortunate enough to have my *"Five Day Break" from the post office while I've been off track. My first night back at work is tonight, so back to the daily grind.

*A "Five Day Break" means that you are fired for five days during the year so the post office can continue to keep you as a "transitional employee" and won't be required to pay you benefits and other stuff that a full time/contract employee would be granted. Most of the time, you are rehired at the end of those five days as long as you are a good employee.

I'm not sure what in the world Ellie was doing this day! Flipflops over a sock?

Yay for Grandma!

Ellie waiting for Grandma

Over General Conference weekend, we were able to stay at Jimmy and Rylee's house again so we could watch my mom finish her umpteenth marathon. I seriously don't remember how many she has done but, I think it's somewhere around fifteen? We did lots of shopping and eating. Saturday afternoon, we waited along the race route for my mom to run past. My cousin Jillayne was also running her first marathon this year in St. George so we cheered her on as well. Ellie was so excited to run with Grandma that she was "practicing" by running in front of us back and forth. I was afraid she was going to run into another runner and they would both be bloody on the ground. From past experience, I know at that point in the race your control over your legs is non-existent. When she finally saw Grandma, she was thrilled and wanted to jump into her arms. She ran with Grandma for a few blocks and then we packed up in the car to meet her at the finish line. Yay for Grandma and Jillayne!

Kansas City

We were fortunate enough (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds, Todd, and Brooke) to be in the St. Louis temple when Todd and Brooke were sealed to their sweet baby Savannah. The weekend was a crazy one, but the temple was so peaceful and spiritual. Of course I cried because I was so happy they finally got their baby and she was theirs for eternity.

Friday we left our house for the airport around 4:45 am. and arrived in Kansas City sometime that afternoon. It was all a little fuzzy to me after working late the night before and spending many hours on two different planes. Brooke and Savannah met us at the airport and Ellie was ecstatic to see her new cousin. She had been talking about flying on an airplane to see "Sa-banna" for about a month before we left. Every ride in the car went like this: ELLIE: "Where going? MOM/DAD: "To the store, school, etc." ELLIE: "No, see Sabanna, airplane." She told everyone where she was going and you can tell in the pictures how proud she was to have a new baby cousin. For lunch, I had my first taste of Culvers and Friday night we had some delicious BBQ at Oklahoma Joe's.

Saturday was a lot of driving. Let's just say I was more and more grateful to have so many temples near us in the Salt Lake Valley with each mile we drove. The temple was very special. I have never been to a sealing for the living that wasn't a marriage. It was really neat to know that now Todd and Brooke are sealed to Savannah and the promises are just the same as if she were born to them under the covenant. We ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch and then drove back to Kansas City.

Sunday, Savannah was blessed in their ward and we got to meet their ward friends that are practically their family. Their ward was so nice. We also got to meet Savannah's birth mother. She is a very beautiful woman and I got to sit next to her in Relief Society and watch her hold and love Savannah. We visited some more with Todd and Brooke at their house and they made us yummy pulled pork and salads.

Monday, we did a little sight-seeing at church history sites before we had to get on the plane again. Ellie was a nightmare on our returning flight! The flight attendant even came and took her to stop her from crying. She was so tired, but she wouldn't give up. She finally crashed as we were beginning our final descent in to Salt Lake. We were only gone for a few days, but Ellie was so glad to be home and played with her toys non-stop for a few days. We were glad we got to be there and are very happy for Todd and Brooke! Thanks for sharing these days with us.

Salt Lake County Fair

Last year we thought going to the fair each year would be a fun tradition to start. We didn't want to ruin it after only one year, so we returned to the fair again this year. Ellie's favorite part was petting the animals and going through the "Little Hands on the Farm" area. Most of our pictures are from that exhibit. She got to plant vegetables, gather eggs, harvest her plants, milk a cow, brush a sheep, drive a tractor, and many other fun things. It was really fun for her and she couldn't wait to run to the next thing. At the very end, the kids got to spend their money they earned in a little store. Ellie bought a milk and then after tasting it she threw it away. It was vanilla milk and she said "I don't like it." I think my favorite thing we saw was the photography entries. There were some pretty cool ones. I was a sucker and bought something in one of the booths. It actually works really well though, so I don't regret it. It's a cleaner called "Quick and Brite" and it took stains out of my carpet pretty well. I've used it on other things and the only thing it won't get rid of (and it says so on the instructions) is red food stains. All in all, we had a great time at the fair. The only downside was that Ellie "lost her dinner" in bed that night. She was then sick on and off for a few days following. I hate having a sick kid and I'm really glad it was all over before we took her to see her new cousin in Kansas City.

Hogle Zoo- August 27th

We wanted to be able to take our friends to the zoo with us because we have a pass that will get me plus two adults in free, so we took Shannon and Logan with us on August 27th. We had a lot of fun and can't wait to take some more friends with us another day. Anyone who wants to go to the zoo, let us know and we'll figure out a day!

These monkeys were hilarious! They were totally asleep posed like this.

Cute little Baby Zuri

One of the rhinos turned its ginormous back end at us and relieved himself right in front of us into what looked like the watering hole. It was seriously so close, I worried about being splashed. Pretty gross, and you can bet we giggled quite a bit. Then to make matters worse, this rhino came over to get a drink and started lapping up "water" from the same area the other rhino just finished relieving himself in. Yuck!

Ellie chose to ride the turkey on the carousel ?Crazy girl?

Ellie and Logan on the carousel. Logan wasn't so sure until the ride started.

Playing on the big water ball near the entrance/exit

We had a lot of fun at the zoo that day. Thanks for going with us Shannon and Logan!

Lagoon August 20th

This summer I was itching to go to Lagoon. I don't think we've been since before Ellie was in existence. If you know my opinion about roller coasters, you know that it was killing me to not be on them for so long. For our honeymoon, Weston took me to Six Flags Magic Mountain and we had a blast!
Well, the post office was having an employee discount day and so I decided to ask my parents if they would come as well to help watch Ellie so we could go on some "big kid" rides. It was also 2 for 1 "Date night" for one of the news stations so we paid half for my mom, dad, Weston, and I and then used the postal discount for Ellie. Little did we know that everyone would be at Lagoon that day.
We didn't go until after Weston was done with work, but that still left plenty of time, or so we thought.
In a nutshell, Weston and I went on the Colossus one time and he and my parents went on Wicked one time. Other than that, we waited in line for Ellie to go on rides. The lines were way to insane and we would rather have watched Ellie having fun than wait for an hour + to ride one ride. We were there until the park closed and that was all we did. It seriously was insane! I don't think I've ever seen that many people at Lagoon!

Sorenson Family Reunion 2010

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon-Sorenson Family Reunion 2010, August 5th-8th

My dad's brother Hal was in charge this year and he did an awesome job! It rained a lot, but other than that, we had a lot of fun. There were lots of small hikes and drives to go on and lots of picture opportunities. The canyon is beautiful and it's the first time I'd been there.

Our little family and Kristan decided to break up the drive a bit, and Wednesday night we drove to St. George to stay the night with Jimmy and Rylee. Thursday when we were driving the rest of the way to the campsites, there was a HUGE rainstorm that flooded the roads in Colorado City. It was pretty scary. That was not the last rainstorm we would see this weekend. As soon as we got there and started setting up the tent, it poured on us so we put the "Easy Up" over the tent and finished setting it up. We decided to keep the Easy Up over our tent the entire time and I think it saved our tent from being drenched and flooding as so many other tents did that weekend.

I don't remember exactly when we did everything, but I do remember there was a horrible rain storm Friday night that lasted all night and half of the day Saturday. Ellie and I ended up staying the in the tent most of the morning so we wouldn't freeze and get soaking wet. We did a lot of visiting, walking, singing, eating, and just enjoying one another. We really think Hal did an awesome job preparing everything for us and I'm not sure I could ever have pulled that off. Thanks Hal! We had a really great time.

Tickle fight with Uncle Jimmy

One of the many friends that Ellie nicknamed "Chippy"

BBQ Here July 10th

We wanted to get our families (including some cousins and adopted family members) together on the third to have a BBQ, but everyone had traditions so it made it difficult to round everyone up on the same night. We just decided to have everyone over the following weekend. It was a lot of fun and there was WAY too much food- my fault for over planning. I guess I still think people eat like teenage boys. It worked out quite conveniently that Todd and Brooke were in town and they had brought Brooke's brother along too. We really missed Shannon, but I know how her job is, I work there too. :) The kids had fun playing in the kiddie pool (I'm still kicking myself for not getting pictures). We got some squirt toys out and Ellie soaked all of the adults with it. Logan sat in the pool while everyone dumped water on him. I think he was the only kid to stay in the pool. Everybody else was splashing and squirting each other. When it got a teensy bit dark outside, Weston set up the Wii so that it projected onto the fence. We had a ton of fun and wish we could do it more often.

Hogle Zoo- July 8th

Hogle Zoo had one of it's "member's only" stay late a the zoo nights. We decided to use this opportunity to bring daddy to the zoo. The only downfall was that all of the animals were dead tired because of the heat all day. Most animals were sleeping or just laying around. It is definitely not the same as when Ellie and I went at 10 am. The animals were much more fun to watch and we even got to see a cheetah eat it's breakfast. Anyway, we were done pretty quickly. It only took us about a half hour to see everything we wanted to. That's one of the nice things about being a member because you don't have to worry about wasting your money by not staying long.

5th of July @ the Reynolds' House

Although I can't remember much about the night, I know Ellie had a fun time playing in the sprinkler with her uncle Marc, throwing the frisbee with Daddy, and probably had the most fun with her sparklers. She would not sit still on the blanket while Cam, Leila, Marc, and Weston lit the fireworks in the street; therefore, my attention (as well as Grandma's) was on making sure Ellie did not get into the street. The "big kids" had way too much fun lighting the fireworks and built up the remaining ones into a tower for the finale- helping each one to light off of the others. We had a lot of fun that night. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds!

Blogging Overload-I hope!

I thought I would start clear back in July and catch us up a bit. Ellie's Second Cousin, Logan, came over on the 8th to play and they had tons of fun! Neither one of them wanted their own bikes so they swapped. They drew with chalk on the sidewalk, enjoyed Popsicles, watched a movie, and other fun stuff. I can't tell you how much easier Ellie was when she had someone to play with!

My Big Girl

We neglected our blog yet again. Don't worry. We'll get caught up soon, but I really wanted to blog about my big girl.

As many of you probably know, Ellie hung on to her binky for much longer than we ever should have let her. I am happy to report that Ellie has been completely binky-free now for two weeks. My cousin's wife, Shannon, was a huge part of helping us get rid of it. She was watching Ellie while I went to work (school) until the daycare opened at the end of August. There were a few times they were unable to find a binky in her bag and others when I just plain forgot to bring one. She was able to convince Ellie that she didn't need it most of the time. She was also able to convince me of the same thing. We started hiding the plugs in the cupboards and only using it at nap time and bed time. When at home, Ellie would whine for her binky quite a bit. She would find other binkies hidden in her room. She only had a few fits, but Weston and I didn't give in. Eventually, I "accidentally" cut the tip off her "last" binky. She would put it in her mouth and take it out to examine it. She asked me what I did and I told her I accidentally cut it. When Weston saw she didn't want it anymore, he said "Then why don't you just throw it in the garbage Ellie?" So she did. Then every time she asked for it, we would remind her she threw it away. There were a couple of times she went to the garbage to look for it, but we told her it was already in the big garbage can. One of those times, she went to the garage entry and cried to go get it. Then another time, she said we should buy more at the store. It was a little tough, but not as bad as I thought. Thanks Shannon! I guess the hardest part is figuring out how to keep her quiet during Sacrament Meeting- the kid does not know how to whisper!

Another reason we have to be proud of Ellie is that she is potty-trained! She has been wearing "Big Girl Panties" for a week and a few days. She has had very few accidents with us. I still send her to daycare in a pull-up because they aren't really working with her on that. I will probably send her in underwear when we come back from being off-track in the middle of October. At first, we were frustrated because Ellie would only go when we sat her on the potty and we had to be on top of it every hour. After a few days, Ellie learned to tell us when she needed to go and she would run to the bathroom. The accidents are frustrating, but we are so relieved she can use the potty! Yay!

And finally, the last evidence that our baby girl is a big girl is that Ellie has transitioned from her crib to a day bed. It's still her crib, but we've taken the front rail off and put up a safety rail. She climbs up into her bed and loves to play in there. It took a few nights to learn she had to stay in her bed, but she's doing awesome!

As I think about how much she grew in a matter of three weeks, I really can't believe it! She is such a good helper and we love her very much. Hooray for my BIG GIRL!

Coolest Coke Machine Ever!

So, last night Weston and I went to see Bare Naked Ladies perform at the Red Butte Gardens Amphitheater. It was a blast! I haven't been to many concerts, but they are the most entertaining I've ever experienced. My awesome little sister got us tickets about four years? ago to see them at the E Center. I was a little hesitant because it was Weston's early Christmas present and I didn't care too much for them at that point. I had so much fun at their concert that night and now I love their music! Anyway, they are hilarious.

Before we got to the concert so late (my fault) we had to sit in the very back of a side section behind two gross people who had too much to drink and were very much "in love", we went to Cafe Rio (on 400 S.) to pick up dinner. While we were waiting for them to bring our called in order, I turned around and watched a man getting his drink from one of these:

I had to watch him and another person to really make sure that was what I really saw. This is the coolest coke machine ever! According to an article I read on-line, it dispenses 106 different drinks from one machine! The new microdosing technology depends on cartridges and not syrup bags anymore. I really loved the concert, but I think I was more excited about this machine than anything! If you want to check it out yourselves, there are also machines at:
Larry H. Miller Theatre
9335 S. State Street
Noodles & Company
1152 East 2100 South

Fourth of July on the Third of July

(I was still in "probation" at work on Saturday, July 3rd, the day we celebrated the 4th,

so I will try to tell about the night the best I can.)

We decided to eat an early dinner because I had to leave for work at 5:10. Weston barbecued his delicious Kraft Foods steak with a spicy rub and baja citrus marinated shrimp. We also had corn on the cob and some other usual barbecue items.

While we were waiting for the food to cook, Eliza and Ellie blew bubbles in the backyard. Windu loved chasing them and would jump as high as he could to get them. The girls also ran through the sprinkler after dinner was over, but we didn't get any pictures of that.

Ellie got to hold Eliza's baby sister. She is in love with babies and always wants to hold every one that she sees, even if the baby is bigger than she is!

After dinner, I left for work. I tried to call in before hand and get out of work, but they were only offering that to eight people and I was the ninth to call! Frustrating! Then I tried to "early out" so that I could see the fireworks, but no luck.


Weston, our parents, and Ellie watched Sherlock Holmes while they were waiting for it to get dark. Ellie ate lots of popcorn! Magna was having their 100th celebration of the 4th. Their fireworks looked like they were pretty decent (from pictures Weston took). They have always been pretty good in past years as well. Ellie had a lot of fun spending time with both sets of her grandparents and I'm sure Weston was glad he wasn't alone for the festivities.

Happy Birthday America!