turn around, you're a big girl, walking out of the door...

I'm hoping I'll be able to catch up with all the important events of the past months that I have stacks and stacks of photos of, which have gone unedited and unblogged! Here's a start: Julia's 7th Birthday party. Due to sickness in the family, none of the cousins were able to make the party, but happy-go-lucky Julia was radiant regardless. I made a slightly simpler cake than usual (still getting my kitched decked out!) with rich chocolate and a surprisingly yummy pink lemonade frosting. We had about half of it left over which we decided to store in the only place in the house my children don't know we stash goodies: the laundry room. Remind me to never let them read this...
Alright, pictures or it didn't happen!

Julia's big present from us was the Teepee I spent the entire previous Saturday making. Julia just loves hiding, having her me-time, and getting cosy... so I figured this would be a pretty perfect gift for her. She loved it and it's been played with so much. I recommend giving making one a try instead of buying one, cause if I can do it I'm pretty sure anyone can! Saved me $75-$150 too ::happy face::

As a cherry on top of a great day, we had a surprise visit in the evening: Newlyweds Trevor and Caitlin DeMass paid us a visit and brought Lisa Mule with them, who brought us all sorts of yummy goodies from Holland (licorice root licorice, chocolates, stroopwafels... mmmmm). It's so good to see folks from back home from time to time!

Moab - yet another camping adventure

It appears we have caught the camping bug! Last weekend Sander and I took the girls down to Moab, to the Big Bend campsite by the Colorado river. We were happy to arrive early on Friday morning since the campsite is first come, first serve. We basically had out pick of beautiful spots. The one we ended up taking had lots of shade (something you quickly become very grateful for in 93 degree weather - that's 34 Celsius for all our metric friends), plenty of room for our tents and then some, a fire pit, picknick table, and even a 'secret' passageway to our own little private beach on the river.

Saturday morning we enjoyed a campfire breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes with strawberries. When we had our fill we took off to see the Arches - Utah's most famous landmark and featured in one of the Indiana Jones movies. That last part had our girls and Sander quite excited! It is absolutely stunningly gorgeous there, and very hot. We were so glad we decided to do a hike in the morning when it was still relatively cool. I can't imagine what it must be like in the height of summer.

The second day we got passes to the Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point parks. The latter provided a view that was beyond breathtaking, we were so glad we went.

And of course we run into a man who moved to the US from Holland (Weesp) when he was four, and still spoke amazing Dutch. He told us he lives in the valley of the Grand Canyon, so he must be used to these kinds of views...

We had a comfortable trip back home and were able to pick up the boys at Marissa and Andrew's home in West Valley 2 hours earlier than anticipated. The only bummer is how badly my ears handle all the changes in elevation. Especially when going down they become very painful. If anyone has any tips beside the obvious yawning and chewing gum, I'd love to hear them!