she's in!

back in june, bella auditioned for the colorado children's chorale. it's been a long month or so of waiting but we finally found out that she got in! she is extremely excited. the chorale is going to be so much fun. it's a HUGE time commitment but the learning and growth opportunities that it is going to provide her is priceless. she already has a love of music and theatre and the chorale will help nurture that love and cultivate her talent.

bella on the day of her audition. she wasn't nervous at all. they wouldn't let me go back into the audition with her so i was going crazy the whole time wondering what was going on. a few musical notes, dance steps and rhythm pattern claps later she came out with a huge grin on her face. the essence of relaxation and pure joy. "it was so much fun mom!" at that moment, i was pretty confident that she was going to get in. we are so excited and proud of her. i can't wait for the first concert!

swimming moab style

one of my kids favorite things to do when we go to moab is swim. mostly because we don't swim in a pool but a good ol fashioned swimming hole. carved right out of the gorgeous moab red rocks. it's the bomb! and it has all the amenities of a regular swimming pool - well minus the chlorinated water but we just try and not think about that. earlier i posted pictures of the high dive area. here is the natural water slide.

my girls love to slide down it. and there is another one a few yards down that ends into a deeper pool. my girls just about drowned their cousin taylor at the end of that slide. a little bit of a scary moment but everyone recovered just fine.

the first time we visited this place brooke was about 2 months old. to get down to the swimming hole you basically walk to what appears to be the edge of a cliff and start climbing down. it's not a huge climb, but it's big enough especially when you have kids. when we got to the edge i wasn't sure what the best was was to lower brooke down. in the end i put her in the diaper bag and lowered her down to char. moab is always such an adventure. we do and see things there that i just never would have dreamed of.

fun with louie

last night our friends the roberts stopped by to return a book they had borrowed and brought their adorable beagle louie with them. now as previously stated, lily LOVES dogs. and louie is no exception. in fact, he's perfect cause he's just her size. they had so much fun playing together.

watching them play makes me feel kinda guilty cause i know that lily would love to have a dog of her own. but i'm just not up to the task.

i told the roberts that we will just have to rent him occasionally from them!

he kept her entertained and out of trouble for a solid hour! and she was exhausted when they left. BONUS!

back to school

it has been blazin hot here all week. the kind of heat that let's you know it's summertime. which makes it even more bizzaro that my girls started school this week!!

there are a lot of things i LOVE about year round school. starting right after the 4th of july however is not one of them.

bella was very excited to start 4th grade and was missing her friends that don't live in the neighborhood. so in all honesty she was ready to get to school. don't you love how ginormous her backpack is??? when stuffed with her school supplies i bet it weighed almost as much as she does.

brooke has been begging to go to kindergarten since the beginning of last school year. so she was more than ready for the school year to start. it's hard to believe that the time has come for her to embark on her academic career. they just grow up way too fast.

cliff diving

for the past few years we have spent the 4th of july out of town with family. the original plan for this year was for 3 of my brothers and their families to come explore the beautiful colorado mountains with us. unfortunately we had a lot of scheduling conflicts and that didn't happen. so instead, the kids and i went to moab and visited with char and nancy's kids where i allowed my son to jump off a cliff.

ok - so it's not a HUGE cliff, but when your 11....... it's pretty stinkin cool!
cousin sam striking a pose in mid air cousin austin doing a little air jordan
brendan doing a little free style. the boys had so much fun diving over and over again waiting for me to get the perfect shot. unfortunately my camera doesn't snap fast enough so these are the best pictures i could get.

the biggest thing missing from our vacation was ........ Larry! he is actually in nauvoo this week working with his dad. so for the first time ever i was flying solo on vacation. can't say i liked it to much. but the kids had a lot of fun and we did a lot of cool stuff which hopefully i will post in the next day or so.

** side note **
in case you are concerned about the safety of the boys during this activity please note that the number one rule was you could not under any circumstances jump in head first.