Vaulting

Brinley does neat tricks on the beams and bars during her gymnastics class...

We leave the whole gymnastics on a horse routine up to Aunt Kelty.

My fearless little sis has never wained in her love of horses. She has instructed countless students on how to master horse back riding. Along the way she has also continued to increase her riding knowledge and repertoire.

My dear Kelty:

Although we are VERY proud of your ability to become one with your horses and manage to do all sorts of balancing acts on top of them, Cody does not want to read any broken bone images from a gal we love in Utah who's name starts with a K and rhymes with shmelty.

YOU GO GIRL!

Part-Time Wear

It's official, Aspen has been granted permission by her fantastic orthopedic doctor to go to part-time brace wear.

Hooray, I am a happy baby!

This means that she only has to wear her club foot brace during naps and night time. The other night we actually tried to give her a mini nap without the brace on and she fussed in her crib. As soon as Cody put her shoes (brace) on she was out. Needless to say she has adjusted to "her shoes" these days.

*For all my church peeps who see me using the black wrap to carry Aspen around in every Sunday and have asked about where to get one...

GO HERE!

My friend Paige who I just blogged about makes them!

Girls Night Out

Last weekend my dear friend Pagie and I started a great new tradition!

We meet half way in between our home in Indianapolis, IN

for a child free over night.

It was such so much fun!

We shared lots of laughs (like when we realized that I booked a hotel which doubles as an active train station) and we were able to do a lot of catching up without 32452345 interruptions.

I feel like Paige and I could talk for hours on end, days on end even if we had the time.

We swam in the pool and talked, sat in the hot tub and talked, ate at restaurants and talked, went shopping and talked and walked a bit in down town and talked.

Paige gave me a top notch foot rub and I gave her some make-up tips along with a little eye-brow shaping fun (more laughs).

A BIG thanks to our most fabulous husbands for talking care of the kiddies and helping us to rekindle our individuality!

Our San Diego Trip

We had a wonderful time in San Diego!

Cody was able to get time off to attend an Interventional Radiology Convention, but really it was just a good reason to get to sunny San Diego and visit Nana, Poppy, Breanna & Kelli.

The first day

(after the girls arose at 4:30am because of the time change, thank goodness for a willing husband who got up with them)

e all went to Disneyland.

It was Avery's first time and although she really had no clue what Disneyland was,

she had been excited to go there for weeks on end.

Now we are fully aware that our little #2 has a lot of energy, but never completely understood just how much until after an entire day of observing her run, skip, jump and dance around the theme park refusing to ever sit in the stroller. At the very end of the day she even insisted on running all the way back to the car which was parked several blocks away. Two minutes into the drive she was out cold...so were the other two.

Disneyland Highlight's :

Face painting (Brinley choose a princess look, Avery insisted on a dinosaur).

Choosing out a gift in the gift shop from Nana & Poppy (they each choose a princess with a matching horse).

Going on rides with Aunt Kelli, Aunt Brenna, Nana & Poppy.

Watching the excitement & pure delight in the girls faces.

Day #2 = Sea World

Again the girls greeted the new day at 4:30am ... after a full day at Disneyland.

This allowed for a few terrific tantrums soon after we arrived to Sea World. The girls have really polished up on these little episodes over the years.

We were able to make it to all of the main shows, feed & pet Bat Rays, visit the clydesdale horses and let the girls play on the playground. Nana, Kelli & Brenna joined us half way into our day which calmed the tantruming and made the day more enjoyable!

We took a brief trip to the beach even though it was quite cold the day we went. I quickly snapped these pictures before heading back to the car to nurse a fussy Aspen while Daddy braved the freezing water and chilly wind so the girls could experience the beach for a bit.

Of course moments after we arrived Avery made her first attempt to run full throttle into the waves, so she had wet bottoms for our picnic and playground time.

Poppy, shown above, got a kick out of the girls. One night Avery helped him "fix" the dishwasher by sitting on top of his stomach / head and using the screwdriver. However, instead of using it to screw something she ended up dropping it on his head.

Nana, Brinley and I observed with lots of laughter!

Brinley enjoyed reading a book to Nana, swimming in the warm warm backyard swimming pool and having a "sleep over" with Brenna & Kelli when Mom & Dad were gone.

Ryan (Cody's friend from Pepperdine University) and his wife Diane stopped in on Sunday for a visit. They live in the L.A. area. It was SO fun to finally meet Diane! The last time we were able to see Ryan was when Brinley was just a few months old.

Seeing Ryan again and meeting Diane was great!

Wish we lived closer, thanks for coming to visit!

One night Cody and I left the girls with Nana and spent the night at a nice hotel downtown.

The next morning Cody attended some lectures at the convention while I took a morning stroll and attempted to give Aspen her morning nap in the hotel room...not so successful.

The flights to and from were actually quite remarkable all things considered.

I credit Cody for that since he managed Brinley & Avery (thanks babe) while I sat in rows to the side or behind nursing Aspen and basking in semi-solitude while enjoying great conversations with complete strangers.

A BIG thanks to Nana, Poppy, Kelli & Brenna for letting us come visit.

We sure love you all!

Enjoy!

We are back from our trip to San Diego.

Until I get the trip blogged feast your eyes on this little beauty!

A happy song from Avery

Enjoy a little song:

Last week = Matching hair bow making for my girls.