Daddy/daughter

Love these two!

We love celebrating Daddy!

Tyson sported this homemade Father's Day tie to church over the weekend. Let me tell you, I was proud of Taryn for keeping it a secret for almost a month! We worked on it a little here and a little there and each time when Daddy would come home she would run over a whisper how she wanted to show him the tie. I had to remind her it was a surprise and we couldn't just yet. And she waited oh so patiently! Getting Taryn's hand print was easy peasy. But Hadleigh's? Oh man. It's WAY harder than it seems. 

We loved celebrating Tyson all weekend long and the other Dads in our lives. We were able to talk on the phone with my Dad in California and Tyson's Dad in Albania. We have so many wonderful Father figures around us. We are so lucky!

Happy Father's Day

A quick visit with family and friends

Matching cousins in yellow! (Totally not planned but totally awesome!)

After flying into Salt Lake, Tyson's older brother, Trevor, volunteered to pick us up from the airport so we could see him and his cute family for a few hours before our jam packed schedule began. We felt SO LUCKY to be able to see Trevor, Whitney and Bailey!!! It's been far too long since we had seen them last- like 2 years! I'm so glad we have Skype/Facetime because living far from family is hard. We LOVE where we live but sometimes when we get together with family and see how happy Taryn is to play with cousins, or when we remember how the furthest we had to travel to see family when we lived on the West coast was at most 6 hours in a car, it gets hard to think of the hours of flying/traveling we have to do to see them now. We've become experts at flying, by the way ;) 

We grateful for these little moments where we can catch up with family, even if the time is far too short for our liking!

(It may not look like it, but we were told these girls could not stop laughing and giggling for the entire bike ride! (Paige, Taryn, Olive, and Ada)

On this trip we were also so very lucky to see our good friends the Anderson's too. It had been a year since Tyson and Mike completed their schooling at Johns Hopkins and shortly after graduation, the Anderson's packed up to move to Salt Lake. I catch myself thinking about my days in Bologna with Paige as my go-to buddy for park dates and general "How do you do ___" about parenting or cooking with Italian ingredients. Short cuts in foreign countries are like dark chocolate. Just so perfect! Having our two oldest girls (Ada & Taryn) together again was so fun! And to meet little Liv (who is 4 months older than Hadleigh) was such a treat! We are grateful for the Anderson's constant friendship even when we have gone from being close neighbors to thousands of miles separating us now. Taryn loved her special time with Ada and the coolest ride ever in their new mono bucket bike. Coolest thing ever!!!

Hadleigh and Olive playing just as their sisters did at their age. 

The best I could get of all 4 kids together :)

We crammed a lot into this trip and it has taken us a really long time to recover, but we have happy memories from the whole trip!

A week at Lake Powell

At the end of May, we celebrated my great uncle Kay's 90th birthday. I think it had been about 10 years at least since I had physically seen my mom's side of the family. We were so happy we could attend and be apart of such a great memory. After the celebration, we headed to Lake Powell for a Scott Family Reunion. The lake has been a major part of both my life and Tyson's. I am SO incredibly grateful that Tyson grew up going to Lake Powell because it's always an easy "YES!" when asked if we will be in attendance. We love the memories, the beauty, family time, and being active in the water. I love so much that we've been sharing these moments with our girls while they are young. 

Taryn completely surprised Tyson and I when we asked her if she wanted to try water skiing this trip. She was in the ski boat with her cousins and she said, "Ok!" and jumped right up to get in the water! I was so proud of her courage & so glad that her cousins showed her how easy and not scary it could be. This girl was so very brave! 

It's these moments that I love to catch. Even though Hadleigh is a mama's girl and is deep in the "stranger danger" phase, she can have her sweet moments of enjoying life while in family member's hands.

The older girl cousins headed out on the paddle board together. I remember looking over and thinking, "Oh my goodness! There they go!" They all seem so grown up.

A day on the Lake is never complete without a little treat. 

If I have a moment to pass Hadleigh on, I will take it. Sometimes I think, "Oh, I don't want to burden someone else by making them hold my baby." I often get caught up in the moment when people say, "Can I help you by holding her?" by responding, "oh it's ok…." because I don't want to inconvenience someone (I know- I don't understand my logic either!!!!)

 I'm trying to remember that these sweet baby stages go by fast and those around me want to enjoy her "little"ness too. And that it's good for me and her to let her be held by others. 

She's not one for solids, but yogurt was a hit. She gets it from her Daddy. These two smiling just melt my heart. Love them so much

I think she had Lake Powell in her blood. She loved the water, the boats, and experiencing everything. 3 year olds are so much fun! (if they don't fight you when you're trying to put on sun screen!)

Those dramatic red rocks and beautiful water. It's an amazing scene to behold each day.

I LOVE this picture. Here is a bunch of grown adults not knowing what's in store for them. Let's just say they drank a lot of Lake a few minutes after this was taken :)

Boat buddies Taryn & Jacob

 I know that baby life jackets keep them safe but man are they buggy! I think the only time my kids have not been crying in them is when they fall asleep to the sounds of the ski boat. At that time they provide a great sleeping pillow :)

Dressed in pink from head to toe

When they weather is warm, you have sensitive skin and the water is still too cold for a baby's liking, you spend a lot of time in just your diaper on the boat :)

Cameron & Jana put on a great bonfire complete with songs, poems, s'mores, and campfire apple pies.

Grandma and Grandpa gave the grandkids these fun finger lights. Each kid loved them and somehow we ended up coming home with a least a dozen!

Because Hadleigh is still so little, Tyson and I switched off watching her on the boat while she napped etc.. and playing in the water with Taryn. That meant we often missed a photo op of each other wake boarding, solum skiing, banana boating, jet skiing and paddle boarding. So until I can grab some photos of Tys, these are the only ones I have on my camera.

Being on the lake with family is great. Sleeping under the stars on the roof of the houseboat, eating (way to much) great food, and catching up with family. We love these fun memories (and even how sore we are after the week is done!)

Walking in the rain

Caught in the rain with one little girl who loves to hold the umbrella

Looking at the trains at Union Station

On National Train Day a few weeks back, we headed to Union Station in D.C. to explore the trains and take part of the kid activities that were going on. It's always a crazy busy place and then add on a bunch of little kids and their parents!!! Luckily it wasn't so bad and we were able to enjoy the trains, get some new coloring books and crayons for free!, and enjoy a fun metro ride together as a family.

Waiting for the bus to take us to the metro. It seems like since Taryn was about 5 months old in Italy, we've always found ourselves at bus stops thinking it's the perfect time to take a picture. Still just as fun even in Virginia

The event was sponsored by Chugginton (which I had never heard of? What about Thomas the Train??) 

Couldn't resist! Everything revolves around the #3 these days for Taryn. Snacks, minutes, books, toys etc...

Touring the privately owned train cars. I can't imagine waking up one day and saying, "I'm going to buy a train car!!!" 

Picnic on a Saturday

We packed a picnic last Saturday and headed out ---really- has it been almost a week already since we went!!!??---Man, I blink and the week has already gone by! 

I just love that we can pack and picnic and feel like we are in the middle of the woods in a matter of minutes here. We've seen the most beautiful robins and blue jays recently. Thankfully, we have a tree outside our front room window where the birds like to stay so even if we don't get outside, we can still see those pretty creatures. Just the other night, we had a blue jay join us for dinner :)

We've also seen our fair share of bugs now that the weather is warmer. Like that time after we had been to the park, I loaded up the girls and hoped in the car only to feel something crawling on my arm minutes later. It was a big big brown big big spider!!! YUCK! I'm the spider killer in our family but even this one gave me the creeps. I just kept praying he would stay where we has on my arm and not bite me. Well, he crawled a bit (which TOTALLY creeped me out!!!!)  Thankfully there was a parking lot I could pull over to and flick that little guy off me. 

I love that the weather has stayed so great for so long (knock on wood!!) Taryn is always quick to suggest we go on a picnic (or an adventure, or to the park etc…)

Here's hoping we can have lots more picnics and lots of beautiful days outside!