happy 4th!

*penny + my brother jordan.
*my nephew max.

*my niece elsa.

*my mom + grandma balmforth.

*second cousins: tyler + max.

we had a fun get together at my aunt margo's home complete with food, fireworks and family (nice alliteration, right?). they legalized aerial fireworks in utah this year so we had our own personal fireworks show in the backyard. coming from a girl who grew up in california where fireworks are banned, it was awesome!

penny had fun petting some horses and eating nothing but junk food. the girl wouldn't let me put anything remotely healthy in her mouth, not even a piece of watermelon! she clamped her mouth shut like i was trying to feed her poison. all she had was a cookie and rootbeer, and when i say she had some rootbeer, i mean she nursed that pink sippy cup like it was her job and when it was empty i had to pry it out of her sticky hands with more than a little of my strength. i was pretty much going for mom-of-the-year award that night.

hope you all had a fabulous fourth!

little tattoo artist.

i'm just glad she didn't get her mitts on a sharpie.

*admiring her handy work.

cheeeese!

me: hey penny, look at mama!

penny [sees my camera]: CHEEEEEEESE!


maybe let's not say "cheese!" for a picture ever again...because lately you end up looking a bit like a pirate.

yes, that is a mountain of toys. i like to keep it classy. and yes, that is a halloween bucket. also very classy.

pool baby

we didn't really do the kiddie pool thing last summer and i'm totally reveling in it this summer. it's so easy and penny loves it, and i get to read a book and dip my toes in the water while she splashes around.

it's a little surreal, in a way. i totally have hazy memories of playing in a kiddie pool in my backyard growing up and my mom sitting by the side, watching me. and now i get to do the same with my baby and i love it. it's the perfect temperature outside, mid-seventies, not too humid and not too dry. i think it could only be more perfect if they weren't tearing down the old elementary school across the street...bulldozing kind of makes for a slightly noisy background.

p.s. is there a better scent of summer than a baby in sunscreen?? i submit that there is not.

farmer's market!

i love the farmer's market. there's always interesting stuff to see and everyone seems to be in a good mood. the weather's warm, i can wear a skirt, penny loves getting pushed in her stroller, we can sit under a tree with our lunch and relax. it's pretty much my ideal summer activity.

it made me a little sad to not be selling at the salt lake market like i did last summer, but i'm actually really glad to not be doing it this year. it was a little hard giving up all those saturday mornings, and not sleeping in but setting up in a chilly park at 7am. i look forward to as little scheduling this summer as possible.

memorial day weekend

we escaped the rain in salt lake this weekend and had a great time in sunny saint george. we went down with paul's folks + our friends, nate, claire + their little girl norah, it was so nice and relaxing!

we flew a kite...

(yes, paul is biting the kite.)

played in some (clean) gutter water...

aw...lil' buddies.

got pedicures...

and even squeezed in a visit to the grand canyon! i had never been so i can check that off the ol' to-do list.
(this was the least crazy-lookin' picture we got. it was SO WINDY up there!)
baby girl was tucked in tight, it was way chilly.
nice pose, glade.



we also went swimming and shopping and had some bbq...it was a great weekend all around!

zoo day!

we woke up this morning to a totally gorgeous spring day. considering that it had been pouring buckets the last few days we knew we had to take advantage of the awesome weather and do something fun. apparently, every other family in the salt lake area had the same idea...the zoo was packed! but we only stayed for a few hours, had some lunch and saw everything we wanted to see. all the animals were out and about - every exhibit we went to they were right there in front of us. it was awesome and penny loved it.
















it was such a nice day!