We had to leave Sean behind to make the money while we went to visit family and friends in Utah.  The first 10 days we relaxed as much as possible while catching up with as many grandmas and grandpas and old neighbors that we could.  Grandpa Meecham took everyone out in the glider at the Heber Airport.  A bigger airplane toes the glider up until it's high enough to let us go on our own and drift slowly slowly downward until landing time.  Each flight was a good 15-20 minutes.  Aspen and Kylee went, then Celeste and Grandma Terri, then Will and I.  It was great to experience a motor-less flight like that.  The sky was so blue and clear and it was so quiet and peaceful.  Even though I was 3 months pregnant, I didn't get a bit of motion sickness thank goodness! 

We went out to too many restaurants, played lots of games, slept in, played outside, went swimming at Grandma Anagene's pool and at the cool new municipal water park in Lindon.

The last three days in Utah, our Grandma Neahusan and cousins came to join us in all the Pioneer Day activities we could handle.  We went to Temple Square one day and we went to "This is the Place" Heritage Park on Pioneer Day.

Aspen's 11 now!  She loves anything and everything polka-dot.  Naturally she requested a polka dot party.  She came up with a lot of her own ideas for the party.  We cut out construction paper circles for days and then Aspen taped them all over the front room, porch, kitchen, and her bedroom.  Some of them had clues behind them and they had a big polka-dot scavenger hunt all around the house and in the yard.  Anything that was circle shape, we called close enough and incorporated it as a polka-dot activity.  They made beaded necklaces, did some relay races, played twister, and had a water balloon fight and played hot-potato with a water balloon.  And no birthday cake for Aspen, she doesn't like cake.  We had round scoops of ice cream instead.

Whew, this was the third birthday party in just three weeks, and I'm pooped!  That might explain why I completely forgot to take pictures during her party.

Kylee wanted a medieval/fantasy birthday party with princesses, castles, fairies, unicorns, dragons, and other magical creatures.  She wanted her friends to come dressed up as magical creatures, but that didn't seem very practical for them.  So, it ended up being a little bit more of a princess party.  Friends came dressed up in their best princess garb.  I was told it just couldn't be Disney princesses; Kylee was very adamant that she was too grown up for a Disney princes party.

I'm really not the most elaborate party thrower, but we had fun.  They played pin the tail on the unicorn.  Kylee loved my homemade unicorn poster.  They decorated crowns, strung beads into their own bracelets and necklaces, and Aspen gave them quick princess make-overs.

Kylee still loves Tinkerbell and the other Disney Fairies (somehow their more grown-up than Disney princesses?).  So, she got a lot of fairy related presents.  They had fun, and I can't believe how fast my Kylee's growing up.