Three Weddings and a Duckie

Over the past weekend, Jared and I had the opportunity of celebrating the marriage of three different couples. Congratulations to Craig and Shannon, Jackie (my sister) and Kendall, and Kristi (a very close friend) and Edward. We attended the ceremonies for the last two, which was a little hectic, considering they were one day and 400 miles apart. Needless to say, we crashed HARD once they were all over.

Craig and Shannon had a beautiful reception at Le Jardin on Thursday. Of course, my opinion may be tainted by the fact that they had Cold Stone catering the event. :)

Jackie and Kendall had a nice reception at the Kimball Home in the This Is the Place Heritage Park on Friday.

My sister, Michelle, and I made all the bridesmaid dresses and the flower girl dresses. She also made her boys some vests.

Then Jared and I trekked down to Las Vegas at 5 am the next day. We were lucky enough to have some willing grandparents who watched Chloe for us. (Actually, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hansen, Chloe did not want to come home.)

Kristi had an all-out celebration at a church house near the temple. They did a buffet, games, and dancing at their reception. It was beautiful.

We decided to walk the strip after the reception. Of course, we didn't realize in this planning, that we would still be in the clothes we wore to the temple. We were probably only out for an hour, but our feet were so sore by the end, both of us had a hard time getting our casual shoes on the next day.

This was the first time that we had left Chloe alone overnight in close to 2 years. The last time was when we went to Paris while visiting my parents in Holland. We brought her back a little pink bear that said Paris on it. Well, if you know Chloe at all, you can guess what we were looking for this time. Now, granted, there is some pretty unique stuff that you can find on the strip, but apparently a Las Vegas rubber duckie is still a difficult thing to find... mind you, not impossible! :)

We were about to give up our search, when we spotted the last store on our way back to the car. It was the Sugar Factory. Their logo is... a duckie!!! Jared and I were so excited to give it to her when we returned. She, however, knowing that her parents being present meant she was most likely going home, threw a fit, and had no interest in whatever consolation prizes we had to offer her. Such is the life!

4th of July

We had a really fun Independence Day... well, that kind of depends on who you ask, actually. Jared was pretty sick this weekend, so he bowed out of the festivities. We had some family in town for my sister's baby blessing and all of us (excluding Jared) got together at their house for a BBQ and fireworks. The fire works ended up not happening because of wind and other unfortunate circumstances, but the kids had a lot of fun together.

Chloe's First Fishing Trip

We had the opportunity to take Chloe out fishing for the first time just this week. We honestly weren't sure how she was going to do. We talked it up a few days in advance. When we woke her up to get her ready (at 6:30am), she sweetly asked Jared, "Daddy, we can go fishing now?" She didn't go back to sleep after getting dressed and on the whole drive down kept asking, "We get out and go fishing now?"
We should have known that she has absolutely no fear. She kept peeking over the side of the boat, even while we were going pretty fast. She wanted to touch every fish that was caught and even started to cry when Jared set one loose before she gave it a poke. She was extremely patient during the times that we were catching nothing and really helpful when we were. She even tried to help Grandpa reel one in. Unfortunately, she did it a little too slowly and the fish got away.
It was a really fun trip. All together, we caught about 20 fish, but only kept one.

The Conspirator

Though it will come as no surprise to anyone, Jared and I are still shocked daily at how smart Chloe is getting. She knows what she wants and she knows how to get it.
Tonight she was pestering Jared for gummy bears. She asked him four times, each time getting a "no." After the 4th no, she exclaimed, "...but Mommy said 'yes' !" So, Jared led her into the kitchen where she grabbed the bag. I shot him a confused look and asked why she was getting some, knowing she already had one earlier. He told me about their conversation. I then explained to him that I had never given her permission. We both looked at Chloe and quickly tore the bag away from her.
Not more than 30 minutes later, Jared went out for a jog. Chloe came to sit by me. She asked if she could watch cartoons. I said no and she quickly jumped on me with a "...but Daddy said 'yes' !"
I am still not sure where she has gotten this approach, but she is sure working it hard.

Duckies!

Chloe's biggest love is duckies! Her Easter basket was duckie themed and she gets so excited to wear her big girl duckie panties (I still can't believe I was able to find those by the way, and on sale too :) ). This is her current duckie collection. It, of course, does not include her stuffed duckies, foam duckies, or duckie bedding.

She has a hawk-eye for duckies. In a pile of toys, she can find the duckies in 30 seconds or less, which does make it hard to pass up at a store, hence the small farm of duckies we have here. It could be worse. At least rubber duckies are fairly inexpensive.

Antelope Island

Jared attempted to surprise our family with a trip out to Antelope Island with our friends Mark and Chelsey on Saturday. I mention attempted because he told me it would be something fun that we have not done before and it would be a bit of a drive. Since there is not much to do up north that does not require extra gear, Chloe and I figured it out fairly quickly.

It was a cool experience. We got to see several bison up close. One lady got a little too close, and two free roaming bison charged at her. Not to worry, she is fine, but hopefully she knows now to give them some space.

The odd experience of the day was Chloe's reaction to sand. Many of you have seen in person, or on photos, how she freely roamed the California beaches, picking up sand and rocks. Well, not so this time. Maybe she didn't like the feeling of it between her toes (she normally has shoes on in CA because we often visit in the winter), or maybe she's not used to any ground surface being hot (in which case she'll be a lot of fun this summer). Either way, she refused to walk any where, requiring carrying every step of the way.

Family Pampering

For our birthdays, we got a certificate from my mom to use on pedicures and manicures for all three of us. It took us a while to find the time to do it together, but it was a lot of fun. Chloe was so patient getting her nails done, though she didn't quite get that they would still be wet. Needless to say, hers were redone a few times! Chloe's new favorite color is blue. We let her pick her polish and that's what she chose for both her fingers and toes.

We asked her to show off her new nails. :)