A Beautiful Day

This is just one of those random days when all I can do is laugh. This blog post is mainly for me, but since I'm not great about writing in my journal, I'm posting it on the blog. Lucky me had the 24 hour flu beginning Monday night and I was worthless yesterday so I was ready to get out and get things done today. After a morning trip to the grocery store, I was unpacking groceries listening to Taylor talk and sing to herself when I went into her room and this is what I found...

You can't really tell from this picture, but she is actually in the middle drawer, not the bottom drawer, so she had to crawl up into it. As if that wasn't enough, I go to grab my phone and I tell her to smile (which as I have said before, she never does) and she pulls out this fake, cheesy smile. What is that scrunchy face?

The day only got better as it went on. We went to her Gymboree class (our 2nd week) and apparently she was quite the hot commodity. There was one little boy Talan who was watching her rock in the wooden boat. Instead of wanting to get on the other side and rock back and forth with her, he decided to get on the same side and rock with her. He already has the moves and he's not even 2!

As if that wasn't enough, when we were in circle time, there was another little boy, James. It was like he looked at Taylor and it was love at first sight. He just kept going up to her and not only staring into her eyes, but kissing her. And then not only kissing her, but trying to hug her and kiss her on the lips. Honestly it was one of THE CUTEST things that I have ever seen. His mom was laughing and getting pictures because she had never seen him do this before. I wish I had had the video camera for this one. I guess the red hair has some affect on the boys at an early age.

The other highlights of the day were her singing constantly (even while watching American Idol), going down the slide head first (the girl has NO fear) and hanging out with her cousins, Tate and Bryson. And the weather was absolutely perfect. What more can you ask for?

Tour de St George

As always I am weeks behind. March just flew by and was over before I knew it. I'll probably be a bit out of order, but I was so proud of Dustin that I had to talk about our trip to St. George 3/26-3/28 so that he could do the Tour de St. George. It's a bike race where you can choose between 30, 75 or 105+ miles and he did the 75 miler. I was supposed to go for the 30 miler, but that definitely didn't happen (gosh I'm lazy!)

Anyway, we went with the Peterson's and Dustin and John are so amazing. John hasn't been on a bike since the ULCER last year and Dustin has been riding on his bike hooked up to his trainer downstairs (thanks to Connie for that!), but hasn't been able to train much (especially outside). For the first 30 miles of the race they his a really strong head wind, which is probably pretty obvious when you're going 6 mph downhill. But they pushed through and they finished the 75 miles. I figured that was enough to do Dustin in for a few days, but he wasn't even sore after that. WOW! I know I couldn't do it. I don't think I've gone more than 12 miles on the bike. Anyway, they did awesome and we had a really fun weekend.

My favorite picture of John and Dustin during the race. Dustin said it was so beautiful while they were riding. I think this gives you a good idea...

Dustin after the race... Yes I will explain why my child looks white trash in a sweater and a diaper...

One of the added bonuses of the trip was that Taylor made a new friend. Not that she hangs out with a lot of kids, but she's at the age where she doesn't really engage in playing. She is more of an observer. John and Steph's boy Cole (who is just a few months older) pulled her right out of her shell. He was like her best buddy all weekend. They would just mimic each other and laugh at each other. It was adorable! When Steph and I were waiting for the boys to finish, there was a water fountain there where the water shoots up from the ground (hence the video below). So Cole and Taylor with nothing better to do decided to play in the water. Anyone could have seen that I was a mom of 1 and Stephanie was a mom of 4 because I was freaking out that Taylor was wet and that she was getting cold where as Steph just let Cole play and play as calm as could be. I didn't think that I was "that" mom, but I guess I am.

Here they are nestled between two couches just giggling with each other. We can never get Taylor to smile for pictures so you can tell she's a happy girl!

At one point Cole stepped on a hole and some of the water shot out into Taylor's face and she made one of the gasping breaths (like when she comes up from underwater in the pool) and then with a big smile started clapping. I finally took her shirt off so before the sweater and diaper she was white trash with her sopping wet jeans and no shirt. I decided not to document that :)