The Ogden's: June 2015

June was such a fun month! We did so many different things, mostly outside in the sunshine.

One day when we were at Walmart, Covey found some water balloons and thought the kids would have fun with them. The next day, we filled a bunch up and let the kids go to town. Only about half of them popped when they threw them the first time and the other half were popped by Trey's teeth.

The library puts on a free activity called the Teddy Bear Tea Party during Springville's Art City Days. The kids get to bring a stuffed animal with them while they do the activities. I had heard it was fun for kids and a friend of mine was also going so she and I took our kids. There was a little puppet show inside the library (which we got front row seats for) and then a craft outside and a snack.

A couple days later, a group of friends went to the Art City Days carnival. The first day of the carnival, they do all rides for just one ticket, so that is definitely the best day to go. After getting our tickets, we let Makadie go on a little roller coaster. Covey had told her to "hold on tight" so the first few times around the track, she looked like she was holding on for dear life, but she was smiling and even waved at us as she went by. We let her go on a couple more rides with the other kids we were with and it was so cute to see all of them having so much fun together. There were only two rides that Trey was big enough for--the merry go round and the giant slide--so we spaced those out during the night so he wouldn't get too mad about being buckled into his stroller the rest of the time. He liked the merry go round and smiled while he rode it. The giant slide was a lot of fun for me, Covey and Makadie, but I don't think he quite knew what to think of it. He did cry or laugh. Oh, well, there is always next year. :) While we were there, we ran into some friends who were in town visiting their family from out of state. It was fun to see them since it had been a while.

It seems that every year, we get a new blow up swimming pool for the yard because we never deflate and put away the one we have. This year, we got a dinosaur/volcano themed pool with a little slide, a palm tree that squirts water, a little waterfall that trickles water and a dinosaur you can throw balls into its mouth. I originally bought it thinking it was only $20, but was distracted during check out and found out later that it was $40. I'd already blown it up and the kids had played in it so it wasn't really worth taking back, but I am definitely going to make sure that we take it down after the summer and put it away for next year. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water and going down the slide. I had also bought a little sprinkler attachment that spun around and squirted water that the kids also loved playing in. My sister and her little boy came over often and played with my kids.

Another fun thing we did was visit my Grandma Baldauf (my dad's mom). When my parent's got divorced when I was 3, my dad lived with my grandma so every other weekend when we went with my dad, we also saw my grandma. I have so many memories of the house and the yard and climbing the trees. She is the grandma that I am closest to I think for that reason, but also because she's always been very loving and supportive of me and my sister (and now our families). I still see her fairly regularly when we go to my dad's house for dinner or other things, but it had been a long time since I'd been to her house. I can't count the number of times when Dani and I had talked about setting up a time to go see her, but it kept getting put off. Finally, we just called her and planned it and I am so glad that we did. My grandma was tickled pink that we had come to visit her and enjoyed talking with us and watching the kids play and feeding us lunch. She also talked to Dani and me about some family history stuff and showed us pictures and told us stories. It was so interesting! Sadly, the time came for us to go because we had kids that needed naps and they were starting to get grumpy. It was definitely a special day.

Growing up, I danced. I did everything from ballet to jazz to ballroom. I had always imagined having a little girl that I could put in a dance class. A few months ago, my neighbor, who is a ballet teacher, told me that she was going to be holding a 4 week ballet class for the kids in the neighborhood and I told her I wanted to sign Kadie up. So we got her signed up and her first day of ballet class came. It was at 9am and I forgot about it until 8:30 when I suddenly remembered. Thankfully, I had already bought her leotard, tights and shoes so we finished breakfast, got her dressed, snapped a few pictures and I took her over to the studio. Unfortunately, it didn't have an observation room, so I couldn't stay and watch her, but it did give me a little one on one time with Trey, which I could tell that he enjoyed. An hour later I picked her up and she kept telling me all about the "props" they used to dance with. (Her teacher later clarified and said they used certain props, like holding a ball to teach them first position and that kind of thing.) She had a total of 4 classes and she loved each one of them. I love my tiny dancer!

One Saturday, we didn't have any specific plans and were having a hard time thinking of something to do that was outside, kid-friendly and free. Then I remembered that we hadn't ever taken the kids up to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. We packed up the stroller, some drinks and snacks and headed up. It was busy, but not nearly as busy as I had expected for a hot Saturday. We took the trail up to the falls and helped the kids into the water that had fallen from the base of the waterfall. It was cold, but super refreshing. (We had remembered to bring the kids' water shoes, but didn't think about putting them in their swimsuits.) Makadie wanted to hike up to the waterfall, so Covey and I took turns walking up and down with her. She wasn't quite big enough to make it all the way to the top, but she had fun hiking up as far as she could go. Trey's favorite part was trying to find the biggest rock he could pick up and then "throwing" (translated as dropping) them back into the water. After about an hour or so, we told the kids it was time to go and neither one was happy. However, they did take awesome naps when we got home!