Miriam Presents

About a year ago Miriam told me she wanted to put on a play. Miriam has lots of grandiose ideas that I smile and listen to, and then hope she forgets about. This one was a reoccurring idea. She did the casting one Sunday during church, she planned costumes, talked about who would come...all that stuff. Finally, after a year of randomly talking about it (and encouragement from Darin) we put on the play SLEEPING BEAUTY.

The FULL CAST minus one of the dragons and two tiny fairies.

You should have seen the practice fight scene....awesome! Unfortunately during the performance it was a bit confusing since the king's guardsmen ( who was suppose to be sleeping) ran into fight. I guess he couldn't resist since we had a last minute addition of another dragon. Maybe he thought the prince couldn't handle 2 green beasts.

The kiss....so sweet. Prince Wonderful leaned over and kissed Miriam on the forehead.

Some of the ladies hangin' with the Prince

One sad moment: Miriam got a deep large sliver in her foot during the afterparty (that dragon is such a sensitive guy). Darin dug it out with a needle and a pocketknife. He has some serious surgeon skills.

Sore Muscles, Happy Eyes

Watercolor by Scott Yelonek

One of my favorite events of the summer is The Helper Arts Festival. A few local artist have invested in main street property and teach immersion classes in the quaint old buildings. There are street vendors, food, and music but unlike other art festivals there is a gallery stroll through these old buildings. Geeze, for someone who doesn't know a thing about art, I certainly seem drawn to it.

One of my oldest friends (and her husband) and I ran the Helper Arts Festival 5K down Spring Canyon. She runs way faster than I do (even after having a baby 2 months ago) so I am now feeling "rusty" as Miriam likes to say. I am walking like the tin man! Even with the pain, I LOVED IT, and will do it again next year. In fact a few friends and I are trying to turn the event into a high school friend reunion every year. So all you CHS girls- plan on it. We wanted to have a breakfast after the 5K or a lunch something fun with lots of time for talking.

Fun at the Festival!

The train ride was $4 this year which is ridiculous. Darin and I told Miriam we just wouldn't pay for a ride. Of course Papa came through and Miriam got her train ride. Grandma sewed up the piece of fabric Miriam's been using as a silky, made cookies with her, and let her tag along on errands all day. Spoiled I tell ya.

The Fair

This was our first ever visit to the county fair. Miriam, as always was beside herself with excitement and took care to pick out perfect outfits for her and Bub. I am hooked! I am hoping to make this a yearly tradition, and now want to attend the state fair.

The petting zoo was the cleanest I have ever been too, and the animals were so friendly...not exhausted friendly but up and moving around nudging us friendly.

This is Bub's classic zoo face, he makes the noise "oo, oo ooot"

We had to take a picture with the pigs since our first ever Mom & Me bookclub book was Charlotte's Web. We talked to the kids from Hooper who raised these pigs and they said it was HARD WORK!
Love those pink hand-me-down boots a size and a half too big, I am sure they will appear over and over throughout the next year (possibly 2) on this blog.

We walked around the booths, making one purchase, SNOWIES. We avoided the carnival with the rickety old rides but did visit the science tent where Miriam held a bird on her finger but refused the scorpion. We did some pretend milking, painted faces, spun a prize wheel and would have visited with a clown for balloon animals but a day care showed up and the line was nuts!

Luckily the day care kids weren't allowed near the huge sandbox so we had lots of room to play and lots of toys to play with!

Partyin' the Summer Away

Thank heavens for my cousin Heather. If she didn't get us together once a year (at least) I would only see this side of my family at funerals and weddings...and occasional homecomings.

Miriam and Aunt Ruth both adore pretty dolls and fancy things. Thanks for the glamorous crown, it has really spiced up Miriam's collection. It also may have changed her decision on what to be for Halloween. This changes monthly, but Fancy Nancy is now in the running.

Super Bub!


The butter fly face is what was left from Summerfest earlier that day.

Look how cute Tatum is....don't be fooled by those big blue eyes,

she is a little bully! She totally snatched this toy away from sweet innocent Bub.

Actually they both dish it out, Tatum is just better at snatching. Bub is more apt to hit or throw something. It's a good thing Bub has Tatum to keep him from becoming a sissy and vice versa.

Hooray for Mudslides!

There was a mudslide on Hwy 6 last week, which is scary and awful, and exasperating because they had to shut down the highway. But....since my mom was up north running errands she had to stay over night HOORAY!!

We took her to the Farmer's Market Thursday night but she had to leave too early to attend Summerfest with us the next day.

Eating snowcones while watching dancers and musicians from Costa Rica, Russia, Korea and....Colorado(?) is a great way to spend a summer day.

$3 buys a bunch of fun in the kids section

The art and photography were wonderful. We especially liked watching the young artist who was doing quick chalk portraits. I don't know much about art but I loved how she used vibrant colors. I didn't stop to notice how melancholy all her subjects were until ours was finished.

I am not sure where to hang a depressive picture of the kids. Miriam loves it and would like it in their room but I am nut sure such a somber picture would work in there.

If nothing else it was a fun experience. Miriam watched the entire process with such intensity I can understand why she looks so serious. Bub just looks upset. It was an enjoyable day, and I think I learned my lesson about art....I don't know/appreciate it enough to vary from the true to likeness forms. I should have known this since I am always drawn more to Vermeer type art than Picasso and don't know enough to do anything other than follow my instincts.

So Big

Bub isn't happy unless he has his own utensils these days. True to form, he is an efficient eater and gets most of it where it needs to go.

Bub took his first steps back in June, his first walk across the room on July 4th, and after a month of waiting and waiting I would say he is now officially walking. But, as I stated before, it is all about efficiency with him, so if he needs to get somewhere fast, he reverts to crawling.

It's been thrilling to see how much he as grown this summer. I love my babies, but get so excited about the toddler years! Miriam and Bub are starting to connect more and more. I love it! More giggles, more hugs, more "we" and less "I" ahhh it makes my heart melt....especially since Miriam pretty much ignored him for the first few months of his life.

Hurry Before it Expires!

We feel the need to make the most of our children's museum pass before it expires at the end of the month. As it turns out, this month is REALLY busy so we spent FHE there tonight, and will probably do the same next week.

(these are not bad pictures, there is yellow Plexiglas in front of the display)

We have loved our play time there. Maybe when Byron is older, and I don't have to constantly grab things out of his mouth we will get another pass. Until then.....

I'm Occupied at the Moment

I just got a friend's copy of Breaking Dawn and am trying to squeeze in reading at any open moment. That means blogging is out for a bit.

and for all you naysayers I know I know she isn't a literary genius but you have to admit she has intriguing ideas. Loving it so far!

We Are Missing the Cousins

We miss playing lawn golf, swimming, marshmallow wars, day trips, rock band (try-outs), Landon's sense of humor, Ben and Maddie's ability to entertain, adventure camp, spending our days in a gorgeous home surrounded by Zion, Lisa's wit, Alicia's stories of Ponderosa guests, Chef Craig, and most of all "snarfing on junk" (that's a Cara quote circa 1995)

A conversation overheard while at Zion Ponderosa

Miriam: "Craig calls you Anna Banana (long pause) and he calls me Maid Marian"
Anna: "that's because that's his job, he is a name maker"
Miriam: "and he is a cooker man"
Anna: "Yea, he is a teaser, name maker, cooker man"

We miss our entertainment.

Sarah and her kids had a little vacation in Park City and Salt Lake so we got to tag along.

We are always up for the zoo, especially Bub.

This time we got to see them feed the tiger and pet a millipede. So fun!

The Good Life

The life of a four year old is certainly the good life. While Darin was stuck in traffic for 2 hours and I was pacing the floor with cold dinner on the table, Miriam danced, sang, filled the bird feeders, snuck finger swipes of whipped cream, and created a new food show.

Honeysuckle flowers really do taste like honey on the ends.

Miriam collected a whole bag full. Half were for the families she and Darin went home teaching to, and the other half were for a new recipe on her cooking show "Cooking Like Miriam".

Miriam painted a clock this week, went to a swim party, had a picnic at the park and...

created a new way of setting the table for extra fancy evenings.

By the way - In American English “snuck” has become increasingly common as the past tense of “sneak.” This is one of many cases in which people’s humorously self-conscious use of dialect has influenced others to adopt it as standard and it is now often seen even in sophisticated writing in the U.S. But it is safer to use the traditional form: “sneaked.”