Pagosa Springs

It seems we've lived an entire summer in just a few short weeks. After our Utah trip we turned right around and packed up for a week in Pagosa Springs with Grandma and Grandpa. We had lovely accommodations overlooking a lake and the girls had a fantastic time!
Maggie couldn't quite stay away from her grandparents. Here she is inserting herself in Grandma's game of Solitaire:

Craft time (Maggie had quite a bit of this). We made a "tie-dye" t-shirt:

Caroline enjoying a little mountain air:

Mini golf:

Daddy really did try to school her on the finer points of the game:

Story/play time:

More craft time:

Caroline watching the story/play time and really wishing she was old enough to join in.

We even did s'mores:

And of course you can't go to Pagosa Springs without actually spending time in the hot springs.

We have to say thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for such a great week!

Maggie's First Dance Recital

The dress rehearsal. All parents were given their tickets to the big show. I did not check my tickets for accuracy--just assumed the tickets were correct.

We arrive 15 min prior to the 3pm show. I take a few snapshots of Maggie outside the backstage entrance. She was beyond excited!

Immediately after taking that picture we tried to check our dear Maggie McCarty in only to be told, "oh...she's the little girl that was missing in our 1:30pm show...". I was furious/embarrassed/scared/etc. All I could think was DON'T CRY IN FRONT OF YOUR DAUGHTER! (cause that's exactly what I was about to do). After a considerable amount of confusion and waiting, Maggie's teacher appeared to take a look at the 3pm tickets she accidentally gave us. It was either no dancing for Maggie or...she dances...alone. Both Patrick and I looked down at our teeeny tiiiiny little 3 year old and asked what she'd like to do. She just looked at us and without hesitations said, "Dance!". And dance she did.

In front of roughly 200 people in a large high school auditorium our little girl danced SOLO. After dancing both her ballet and tap routines she was returned to us, all smiles. We gave her the pink roses we bought for her. She exclaimed, "OH! I LOOOOVE them! Are they for my wedding?"

This is an image taken from my video of the performance so you sort of get how small she was on that big stage.

Driving home Patrick asked her if she wanted to continue with dance. She stuck her thumb in the air pointing behind her and said, "I wanna go back THERE and dance".

She totally earned her pink ice cream at Baskin Robbins afterward!

The video we took of the actual show is very poor quality and shaky but if you wanna see the two dances you can do that HERE and HERE.

Otherwise, here's one dance from the dress rehearsal that's much better quality.

Ok, proud mama that I am, I couldn't resist posting both dance routines from the rehersal. I can't help it--she is just the cutest dancer ever!

Utah Trip May 2010

A few weeks ago I took a short trip out to Utah. This was not supposed to be a short trip but I was not feeling well at all and felt a little stressed out on top of it so...I did what I thought I could and then came home.

First thing were gifts from the Matesens for Caroline's birthday. Maggie was also given a bottle of bubbles that both girls enjoyed. A lot.

My cousin hosted a Mothers Luncheon to celebrate family and our mothers. It was lots of fun (and a few tears) as we reminisced.

Cousin Meredith saved the day by doing the long drive from Utah back to Colorado. She was a super entertainer as we drove through cold, rain, fog, and even some snow. We were lucky to have the busy girl to ourselves for a couple of days.

Since both girls decided they LOVED my sister Charlotte's kids, I was able to spend some one-on-one time with my brother Randy. He has been wanting to record his music on video and post it online for a while now. We did just that. You can see his YouTube music here:
Chicken Wear Socks

Growing More Distant

Sneak Thief

Forever

Cell Phone Pics

Every now and again I dig through my cell phone and look at the (mostly) silly pictures I find. Some I've forgotten are there and some are surprising to find since I was not the photographer. Fun fun.

Here's a very old one. I don't remember if I posted this pic from my phone (and, frankly, I'm too lazy to dig around and find out). Way pregnant with Caroline.

Taking Maggie to DSW Shoes is always a good time. These are the types of shoes she pulls off the shelves and "suggests" I try on. I tell her to try them on. Don't you think she should have purchased these beauties?

Random cute pic of Caroline riding around in the car.

Walking through Restoration Hardware we rounded a corner to find this chaise. Maggie stopped dead in her tracks, lunged forward on one leg, threw her hands in the air and exclaimed, "Mommy! This is the BEST CHAIR EVER!!".