Gabriella and Gwen!Well the other day I was reminded again how important it is to take time from hectic mother/wife/personal duties and play with my children. We were outside enjoying a nice afternoon when I picked some flowers for the girls. Gabriella decided that they were maracas and danced and danced in circles. When she was too dizzy to run anymore she wanted to share her fun with Gwen and gave her the "maracas to shaky, shaky, shaky". They played with these little flowers for 30 minutes having the time of their lives. I feel nothing but pride when my girls show love towards one another and I just had to share!
I love my girls to pieces and I am reminded multiple times a day how blessed I am. Gabriella is entering the stage of imagination...although she is not 100% understanding of what it means to pretend. Her little friend wanted to "be" Care Bears and told her that she was a Care Bear and Gabs responded with "no, I, Gab-e-ella" She just kept saying that over and over, she didn't want to be a Care Bear at all. Gabs is realizing now that she can just keep talking and talking and it all makes sense, so we get ear fulls of random 2 1/2 year old thoughts! She says things like "Holy Gholy" when something is really unfortunate (a cross between holy moly and holy ghost), and she told me about signing the Holy Pokie at nursery. She was looking at our slide show screen saver and naming everyone she saw as the pictures rotated through, mama, daddy, Gwen Gwen, Gordon B. Hinckley. I had to turn and see what she was talking about and she had seen a picture of my grandpa whom she has only met twice, but to her, Gordon B. Hinckley was the only name of an older man she knew. I was dying by her innocence! Earlier this summer, after a very long winter, we were getting ready to go and she saw that I had on flip flops. She said "mama has sandals" and I told her "yes" and she said "mama has sandals like Jesus and John the Baptist" I realized in the My First Book of Mormon Stories and New Testament Stories the illustrations show sandals on their feet. Poor girl had only ever seen sandals in scripture stories, do we live in the Great Northwest or what? And to top it all off, last night she was saying a great prayer. Usually her prayers go pretty fast but last week for FHE we talked about prayers and how we can be reverent during them, and her prayers have been improving. Last night she was going on and on and we were having a hard time understanding everything she was saying until we heard "bless Costco"...maybe we need to cool it with the last minute week night dinner Costco pizza runs! I love that girl!
And then there's Gwen, my sweet, sweet Gwen. I couldn't have asked for a better baby! Her personality melts your heart instantly! She is quite independent right now and goes crawling off into a room all by herself and will sit and play quietly for ages...Gabs never did that (she still doesn't). Gwen is happy, silly, smiley, naughty (i.e touching the TV and laughing when you go to get her) and kinda like a steam roller, just up and over anything and everything in her way...especially Gabriella in the bathtub. And of cousre, she is the best cuddler out there and we enjoy her putting her head on our shoulders each day! We love Gwen so much! How great can life get?
This day she was able to go outside for the first time in many months to play, and the sun was shining in her eyes. She came back inside to tell me it was sunny and she needed a hat, so she went to her room to get a hat (I'm thinking baseball hat, or her pink cowboy hat) and she comes back out with this one and asks, "is this perfect?" in her most irresistible voice. She uses phrases that I say all the time, but somehow when your 2 1/2 year old is saying them, they just sound so darn cute. Like when she wants to know if she is doing something right, or if something is okay she asks "is this perfect?" and this morning when I pulled some felt out of the closet for a project she got so excited and said "oh my goodness mama, this is amazing!" I just love children's honesty, you never doubt what it is they are feeling!
Joe skied until his arms were rubber, I combo skied for the 2nd time in my life, Gabs and I rode in the tube., and Gwen feel asleep many times in the boat while the wind whipped through her hair...oh wait, I mean...while the wind blew in her face! Joe's brother and niece wake boarded and we all stopped for a little cliff jumping and fishing in the evenings. The highlight of Gabriella's trip was the water fight where she filled her super soaker and soaked uncle Sam, Uncle Jared and Grandma really good! 
All of us had such a great time, that we are already trying to coordinate another trip. Here are a few pictures of us all in action, a little embarrassing for me, but hey when it's only your second time, you can't be perfect right?
SAM JUMPING ON HIS NEW BOARD!
GIOVANNA TRYING THE WAKE BOARD FOR THE FIRST TIME AND ACTUALLY DOING IT! SHE'S SO CUTE!
Friday we were able to see our nephew Kenneth get baptized. It's hard to believe that Ken was only 18 months old when I first met him, he wouldn't even talk, now he's baptized. We were so happy we could be there! It was a great day! Here we are... a family picture, that never happens, and a cute one of the girls. One day they'll both be looking at the camera, I promise!
Finally, to wrap up a perfect week, we said goodbye to Joe's family and drove to Bear Lake to spend the afternoon with the Kawa's, friends from medical school. We had such a great visit and again, drove through the night and returned safely home this morning at 7:45 am! Thanks family and friends for such a great week of vacation, I am dreading laundry, grocery shopping and the well child appointment I face tomorrow! 
The 4
We had such a fun 4th this year. Again, we participated in the bike, buggy and dog parade our town puts on and Gabs loved getting her tricycle decorated with flags and 
Afterward, we went to another friends and had dessert and started the fireworks. It's crazy to me that it's legal to set off your own fireworks here with all the trees. 
