No Photos

Sorry everyone, but I failed to take photos the week Emma was here. The majority of the things we did were during the day and with two small girls, pulling out the camera wasn't super convenient. I meant to get a photo on Sunday of Emma with Abbie and Daisy before church but we were rushing out the door to pick up Kyle so that he could come with us and I forgot. That, I am truly bummed about.

Anyhoo, here is a short synopsis of the week's activities:
Monday: Went to my parent's house for a swim and BBQ. Other extended family joined us...Allan, Kara, Gerry, Hallene, Danny Marz & Family.
Tuesday: Shopping and lunch (well, Lindsay, Dana & I lunched while Emma continued to shop) at Town Square and movies that night with Tripp, LJ & Wes (we saw Batman).
Wednesday: Barbara watched the girls for me so Emma and I went to lunch, a used bookshop, the Conservatory at the Bellagio and Nordstrom.
Thursday: Another round at Town Square and dinner and Mamma Mia! that evening.
Friday: Not much...errands, Cafe Rio. Emma started her Gilmore Girls marathon.
Saturday: Met Tara for tea and Lindsay for pottery painting. Pizza and more Gilmore Girls at home.
Sunday: Church and goodbyes

I'm so glad she came to visit. When I took Abbie to the bathroom at church on Sunday she told me that when Emma left she was going to cry and cry. We all miss her already. Kyle was/is fascinated that she came for a whole week and he basically missed the whole thing.

Dinner and a show...

We took Emma to see MAMMA MIA! last night. She loved it. Poor thing had to listen to us (Barbara, Lindsay, Sam,me) talk about the cast in detail...the old Skye is now the new Sam, this Sophie has a good voice but doesn't do much for the role (aka we've seen better), two of the original Las Vegas chorus members are still in it and one used to be a "young guy" and is now an "old guy". Anyway, she went to see it with a group of people who have seen the show way too many times. Barbara thinks she has seen it 8 times, I've seen it easily an upward of 10 (they were a client of mine for a couple of years) and we've all seen it in multiple cities, including London. There were way too many opinions. But Emma was a SuperTrooper and loved it despite us. So did Cassie, Sam's roomate, who is used to us by now and didn't seem phased by all of our opinions but laughed her way through the entire show. She has a pretty loud laugh and I think it is safe to say the rest of the audience laughed with her???????

MAMMA MIA!

Weekend at the Cabin

We spent the weekend in Duck Creek at Grandma & Grandpa's cabin. My cousin Emma is spending the week with at our house so her dad drove her down to the cabin to meet us and start the visit there. The photo above is Abbie dancing to Emma's music...she is already a favorite of AbbaDabbas.

On Saturday we went in to the village for Duck Creek Days, a little fair where the kids played on jumpy toys and we sampled chili from a cook-off. There were vendors and games, etc. After a morning of fun, we all napped or read then headed out for a hike then a relaxing evening at home.

Sunday was church, brunch then packing up for the drive home. It was a nice little get-away and we look forward to doing it again when Linds and Sam can come too. Emma will be here all week so I'll try to pull out the camera and post some photos.

Can she really be MY daughter?????

To say that Abbie loves to talk on the phone is an understatement. She calls her dad and her grandpa regularly along with grandmas, aunts, uncles and friends. She has been asking me to call Tara for weeks now but I was pretty sure we would get voicemail and Abbie isn't so great with voicemail so I've been putting it off. I finally agreed to let her today...who knows if Aunt Tara understood the message at all.

When Kyle is visiting his mom, he calls her almost daily and she talks and talks to him. Who knows if either of them really understand what the other person is saying but it definitely peaked her interest in the telephone. So if you get a random phonecall from a squeaky little voice, it's Abbie...she loves you.

7 Months Old

We can't believe how quickly times goes by but Daisy is already 7 months old. She loves her cereal and eats a variety of veggies as well. She gets to move onto fruit next week. She loves to snuggle with her blanky at bedtime which truly makes her a Marz girl. Although still a tiny peanut (her cousin Garrett is 5/6 weeks younger and probably 4+ pounds bigger) her legs are chunky so I know she isn't starving. She sits up well and is enjoying her toys.
Abbie and Daisy are totally enamored with one another. Abbie can be a little overwhelming but when she walks into the nursery, Daisy squirms around to see her and won't take her eyes off her big sis.
These are Abbie's 4th of July flip flops. Her friend Ruby gave them to her before we left town a couple of weeks ago. Abbie loves them. All I have to say is thank goodness for friends.

Never, in a million years, would I have made these (I don't even let my kids wear flip flops!) but Abbie totally loves walking around the house in them. The first thing she did when getting out of bed this morning was ask to wear her blue flip flops. Second question, what color are Ruby's. So, a huge thanks to Nikki for thinking about Abbie when making her kids flip flops. I guess that is what friends are for.

Note on Slideshow Below...

Please note, the slideshow below sometimes takes awhile to load. If you click the "See all photos" button, it takes you to Photobucket and loads them right away.

P.S. - If you want to see more photos of the Virginia trip, visit Elizabeth's blog. You'll find the link under our friends and family section. She has a ton as well so you will have to go to the blog archive or older blogs to see them all.

Photos from Virginia

We headed out to Virginia on 7/1 to spend a week with Tripp's family. His sister Elizabeth lives in Richmond and hosted a Harley & Helen Thompson family reunion. Four out of the five siblings and their families made the trip. There are tons of photos from the week, thanks in part to our spiffy new camera. That's right, we finally broke down and bought a really nice camera. There is one in particular Tripp has wanted pretty much all of his adult life so with his graduation this summer I agreed to let him go buy it as long as I didn't know how much he spent. The slide show above has only a small fraction of the photos we took but it gives you an idea of what we were up to.

On 7/3, Tripp, Kyle and Patrick took the train in to DC and spent time sight-seeing. He used our small camera so I'll let him upload those photos and do his own post.

On the 4th, Elizabeth invited all the extended family to come over. Aunts, Uncles, In-Laws, friends all made the trip to her house. We went to a parade in her neighborhood and spent the day hanging out with family. Tripp's Aunt Sue made her famous cheeseballs and brought one for each family. We simply didn't have enough time to eat all of ours before we left and heard that after we were on the road, Elijah found it and told everyone that if they needed him he would be in the house devouring our cheeseball (he's 12).

On the 5th, all the siblings and grandparents took Trey to the DC Temple. He is leaving for his mission in August so this was his first time going through.

Really, we just hang out. Elizabeth was a marvelous host and themed the food for each day: Fiesta Day, Taste of Virginia Day, Healthy Day, Fourth of July, Thompson Favorite Day. The kids played outside for hours...duck duck goose (Abbie's first time), races in the backyard, the park, swimming, basketball, countless hours of Guitar Hero, Bowling & Horseshoes on the Wii. Trey has a small (I'm being kind) obsession with "The Pretender" some crazy TV show from the 90s. He found it online and Pat hooked it up to the TV and we all watched it one night. The volume wasn't the best so we all had to be quite. Poor Laura didn't know and came downstairs asking questions about Smores, the show, etc. Needless to say, the poor thing got beat to a pulp.

I hope my kids came home with lovely memories of their time with their grandparents, aunts & uncles and cousins. Thanks Elizabeth & Wes for being such gracious hosts and good sports.