At the end of July we all flew to Utah for a reunion with David's side of the family. One afternoon we hired a photographer and had lots of photos taken. This is the photo of the whole group (above), and a couple of just the adults (below).
Cute photo of Grandma and Grandpa (David's Mom and her husband).
Here are some photos of Claire and Aspen and their cousins. Claire has lots of female cousins her age and Aspen has 2 boys and one little girl cousin her age. It was not an easy task getting photos of the little kids all together, but here they are...
Here are some photos of Claire and Aspen and their cousins. Claire has lots of female cousins her age and Aspen has 2 boys and one little girl cousin her age. It was not an easy task getting photos of the little kids all together, but here they are...
This is a photo of the girls with their cousins and Grandma in the middle quite enjoying all their attention!
We had a lot of fun for the 5 day reunion. 
We went to a rodeo, ran a road race, saw fireworks, had a picnic in the canyons, 
We went to a rodeo, ran a road race, saw fireworks, had a picnic in the canyons, 
played in the water alot, 
had a tee-shirt decorating contest so we could wear "matching" tee shirts when we all went to an amusement park,
the kids made a lemonade stand, 
the kids made a lemonade stand, 
had a manicure/pedicure session 
with all the little girls running around and even one of the little boys....and we had lots of quality time eating and talking at his brother's homes. 
The 4 of us also had some photos taken by the photographer and there are some really cute ones of Claire and Aspen as you can see...
The plane ride with Aspen was an adventure, she was 18 months old and likes to be independent and does not want to be confined....so it was a challenge keeping her busy and occupied on the 4 hour flight. Claire was a good helper though and we survived! 
We are still learning what kinds of things trigger Aspen's breathing problems, and learned of more on this trip...so she was on several breathing treatments a day but we managed it just fine and she was not upset or sick. She is so used to the breathing treatments now, that she will hold the mask onto her face by herself. She loves to watch her Baby Einstein videos while she is doing the treatments.
Aspen is in such fun developmental stages right now and every day is something new. She can show you where all of her body parts are if you ask her, the newest one is her "elbow" and it is so cute to hear her try to say the word "elbow". She loves to show you her teeth, of which she has many! She likes to say things with a "B" sound: bubbles, balls, baby, elbow, bee, buzz. She loves to shake her head "no", only she looks like a bobble head doll when she shakes her head. She rarely walks, everything is always in a run now, and it is a cute little run. 
She of course falls down a lot and seems to constantly have skinned knees or bruises, but it doesn't bother her a bit. She is very reactive to bug bites, they leave nasty welts on her little body.Claire is really enjoying all these fun developmental stages with Aspen as well. 
She LOVES to be the one to go get her out of her crib when she wakes up, and if Aspen wakes before Claire, I always go put Aspen on top of Claire and Aspen will proceed to play with all of Claire's facial features until Claire wakes up, and they both love it. 
Claire's loves it when I bring Aspen to school to have lunch with her so she can show her off to all her friends. Everyone at school knows who Aspen is and she always gets lots of attention. Claire has started sleeping on the regular bed in Aspen's room because she likes to be around her as much as possible.
She LOVES to be the one to go get her out of her crib when she wakes up, and if Aspen wakes before Claire, I always go put Aspen on top of Claire and Aspen will proceed to play with all of Claire's facial features until Claire wakes up, and they both love it. 
Claire's loves it when I bring Aspen to school to have lunch with her so she can show her off to all her friends. Everyone at school knows who Aspen is and she always gets lots of attention. Claire has started sleeping on the regular bed in Aspen's room because she likes to be around her as much as possible.
Claire just started 4th grade and she is such an eager student and loves all of her classes. She never complains about going to school and loves riding the bus. She always has her nose deep into a book whenever she can, and she loves to read books to Aspen too. 
She is also busy with the year round swim team, (going on her 5th year of competing on swim team). She is really good at the butterfly which is a challenging stroke. She also recently mastered doing a back dive into the pool and a back walkover on the floor, which she is quite pleased with herself over. She is still playing the piano and though she doesn't like daily practice, she loves to be able to read and play music and has even started to write her own music. Mostly in "rap music" style, but it is always very funny or sweet.
She is also busy with the year round swim team, (going on her 5th year of competing on swim team). She is really good at the butterfly which is a challenging stroke. She also recently mastered doing a back dive into the pool and a back walkover on the floor, which she is quite pleased with herself over. She is still playing the piano and though she doesn't like daily practice, she loves to be able to read and play music and has even started to write her own music. Mostly in "rap music" style, but it is always very funny or sweet.
Brenda had a bit of excitement recently when some thieves were brash enough to smash the drivers side window of her car while she was standing just a few feet away...they stole her purse and had a fun time with the contents right away..... A lovely mess to clean up after.
Otherwise Brenda has been quite busy lately volunteering at Claire's school now that they are back in session. 
David has been busy at work and serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the surgical lecture institute he works with outside of his regular work day. He and Claire like to go fishing whenever they can.Be sure to click on the SHUTTERFLY link on the left of the blog site if you want to see all the photos from the reunion trip!!
