Birthday Princess and other March happenings

A few weeks ago Alli turned 5! I have a hard time with the fact that she is so grown up! I think her birthday was a "success" and she was surprised and happy with everything we did.  Her actual birthday was Sunday so we started with a friends party Saturday.  This was slightly stressful for her because she wanted a dolphin party, but then changed to Minnie Mouse (but still wanted dolphins) and a dolphin cake with Minnie Mouse.  So we combined the two into a Minnie Mouse swimming with Dolphins party-perhaps a stretch?? But I think it worked out great.  When the kids came we decorated Minnie Mouse ears with dolphin and fish sparkly/foam stickers.  Then they played Fish, Fish, Dolphin while everyone finished their ears.  Then we were dolphin trainers and they had to do a trick to get goldfish, followed by a dolphin ring toss game.  Then we had a fishy lunch of dolphin shaped pbj sandwiches, fishy snacks, and fish in the ocean (swedish fish in jello).  Then it was present time and cake and ice cream.  At the very end we did Alli's Minnie Mouse pinata.  It was such a fun party for my fun little girl!! For her family party she wanted a cowgirl/horse cake and Kacie totally delivered (my cake decorating skills are less than fabulous).  For some reason I can not find a picture of either of her cakes :(.  I know I took a bunch so I will add those later, but Alli made her own cake out of salt dough and I loved it!

The next weekend we went down to Moab for a half marathon and had such a fun weekend! After the run Saturday we went out to this giant sand dune and these pictures do not do it justice.  We climbed literally 1/4 mile UP like straight up the face of this sand dune.  I truly did not train for the half marathon (my longest of 3 runs was not even 5 miles long) so my legs were sooo tired and sore, but I couldn't just not go up.  So slowly but surely I made it to the top-perhaps I crawled because it was softer on my knees that way but I totally made it :).

 Random pic out of order, but at the Toyota dealership getting our oil changed there is a cool pirate ship we love playing on.

 An Alli pic of the "beautiful canyon" (her words) as we were driving to Moab.

 Beautiful sight to see is Ilene.  Right before this she had clearly made a mess with whatever she was eating, but by the time we pulled over so I could clean her up she was OUT.

 Cam's scrunchy face.  Hard to see, but so darn cute!

 Pre-race at the top.

 The beauty during the run.  It is so inspiring to be there running with all of these people!

 At the condo eating some yummy smores.

Ilene watching a show while they waited to come down.  And playing at the park at the end.

Ryan attempted turning on the bbq at the condo, but this was the result.  Glad he has his arm, but that is gross!

Oh and fyi my mom totally beat me.  I am completely fine with this seeing as it has happened numerous times now :).  I would recommend running more before a half marathon though, it really showed me that I have a heckofalot of willpower and I can definitely do anything I put my mind to because it was pretty darn discouraging being at mile 2 or 3 and being pretty tired and then being at mile 5 and knowing the rest is all "uncharted territory" as far as mileage goes and knowing I have 8 LONG ones to do.  But it was also really neat because I really am stronger than I think I am! 

 The day after we got back Alli had a little in class performance for dance.  I totally forgot about this! I dropped her off barefoot (me) so I ran home and grabbed my shoes and came back to watch.  Then when I got in I had to take my shoes off anyway so I should have skipped the trip.  It was soo fun watching her dance, she loves it so much!

Random little mall play place trip.  

 Preschool field trip to Coldstone!

 This little man LOVES to stand! He thinks he is so big and gets so excited and it is adorable!

 A month or so ago Bryan and Annie and their family came down and we got to see them.  It was so fun! We went swimming and the guys starting doing stunts-with the kids and especially hilarious with each other.  3 grown up guys lifting each other is pretty funny.

 The next day I drove up and met their family at Thanksgiving point for the Dinosaur museum.  We had only gone once before and Alli loved it then and she loved it this time.  Alli can truly never get quite enough of these cute cousins! Anytime we are leaving she just wants to play more.

 Here the girls are in their "dig".   And Alli showing her frozen yogurt from Yogurtland where we went for a little dessert after our Firehouse Subs before Bryan and Annie headed out.  Thanks for coming down for a little bit, it was so fun to see you guys!

 Getting ready for an Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house.

Back to the beginning of March again!

 In snow clothes ready to go tubing.

  A few hiking shots.  On our way back from Moab we went to Goblin Valley.

 These girls LOVED it.  Ilene walked around saying "hiking, fun place" or "like hiking" and hearing her cute little voice just made it all the better.  They really are both little mountain goats!

 This picture freaked me out completely! They were up soo ridiculously high and I just kept having these panicked thoughts that they would fall out as Ryan was right next to them but couldn't quite hold both of them tightly enough.

 Seeing at BYU didn't make the NCAA tournament we were able to go see a few NIT games with cheap seats :).  These girls love watching the the cougarettes.

 This little 8 month old happy guy brings us soo much joy every single day! I feel so blessed to be his mom!

 Ryan had his 30th birthday March 21st and I will probably do a separate post about it.  But if not I made him a book with pictures from throughout his life and letters from friends and family.  And he got 30 balloons.  We had a bbq at our house (Salmon!) and went out to each with some of our good friends the next night.

 A few days after that Natalie came up for her sister's reception so we met up with her at Firehouse.

 Cute random pic of Cam and Ilene in their Easter outfits.

 Random dying eggs pic.

 ANND back to Moab.

And more from Alli's party since I don't want to have to move the other pictures around.  

 I am not totally sure why Ilene has her shirt off-she probably spilled during lunch or something?

 And just because he is so darn irresistible!