August adventures

(The flowers by our front porch are dinner plate dahlias that I grew again this year. White and yellow grow the biggest from year to year. I also planted orange, blue and red and they were just as beautiful, but not as big.)

August was full of relaxing adventures for our family. First, we went to the annual Parade of Homes- kind of a tradition since Dave and I got married. We visited about 15 different houses and saw many different decor ideas and interior designs that we liked.

Alex found his favorite room in one of the houses where he played soccer. We could barely get him out of there!

This house had a nice, landscaped backyard where Alex and I got to swing for a while.

This mansion was a multi-million $ house, which was nice but the interior layout was less than perfect. 

In the backyard of that mansion.

We finished our Parade of Homes outing by jumping on the trampoline until our feet almost fell off :)
The next weekend we went to the Pineview reservoir in the Ogden canyon- also our family's annual tradition. First, we all put on lots of sunscreen- a must in the sunny, high-altitude Utah mountains.

Babulya swam on the mattress peacefully...

...while we set up our "camp". We had a great location and were especially glad that Dave brought the canopy- our most important "do-not-forget" item on all of our outings this summer.

We played a little badminton (one of my most favorite games as a kid in Russia).

We swam.
And even played some volleyball in water. The water was warm and very clean.

It was a very nice and relaxing Saturday. As an annual tradition, right after the lake we went to the Brigham City farmer's market where we bought lots of different fruits, berries and veggies- these are the best you can find all around Utah!

The next weekend we spent 3 days/2 nights camping with our friends near Kamas, UT, at the camp site called Soapstone. I wouldn't say this was my favorite spot- I still love Moosehorn the best- but we had great company and had a lot of fun. I don't remember laughing this hard in a long time!

While there we went to the Lilly Lake to fish. Kids had a lot of fun fishing and so did the adults until we realized that we weren't catching anything :( Part of the group went back to the camp and took a nice, log nap (you can only guess that I was part of that group) and part stayed at the lake tempting their luck in fishing (they also didn't catch anything so our plans for fried fish were cancelled and replaced by other yummy food that evening).

Our camp had 5 tents set up in a half-circle pattern around the empty dirt-field where we all played a fun game of ring toss- for the Olympic record. I think that Jason ended up being the Olympic champion with Nico running not far behind with a silver medal.

Then we started the fire and the food preparation began.

Meanwhile, kids were enjoying their company running around and playing "monsters" with flashlights and both dogs. We had a little river right behind our tents.

Finally, food was on the fire and now it was just waiting time.

These are all the beautiful "girls" from our group. Me, Zara, Katya, and Carine.

This was a great camping trip with lots of delicious food, fishing (although unsuccessful), fun games while sitting around the fire, scary stories by the fire late into the night, and gazing into the starry sky- there were more stars than I have ever seen in my life in one place. I saw a few shooting stars and made my wish :)

Trip to St George

This past weekend we spent with the family down in sunny (and hot!) St George.

We drove there on friday night after a long day at work (for both of us). We had the Sullenger girls with us on the way down there bringing them home from visiting their cousins up North. The ride down was anything but boring: we sang (mostly girls), played games and told funny and then scary stories. I have to honestly say that the ride there didn't seem so long with the right company and food! I think we might go back there soon considering that it wasn't as long as I prepared myself for.

The first day, which was Saturday, we left our camera at home and I don't have any pictures from it. We first went to the mini-farmer's market and bought some freshest fruit and corn. Then on the drive back home we discovered a very nice, brand new playground and we stopped there to play. It was so much fun, even for the adults in the group. I can't believe I'm writing this but that playground was really cool and unique. We all throughly enjoyed playing there :)

We then went to the Sullenger's friends' farm "under construction" and got to ride a horse!!!! I loved it but Alex was a little scared sitting on the horse. I think in a couple of years he'll be more prepared for such an adventure. Instead, he played with multiple kittens that were at the farm (I want to say there were at least 10 of them).

We spent the afternoon splashing in the local Rec center for a couple of hours. My favorite attraction there was a fun lazy river. We raced each other on it, then got to just float on it looking into the sky. Alex couldn't get enough of slides. He even got to go on a huge adult slide once with me but then was kicked out of it because he has "build-in" life-jacket. O well, after many tears poor Alex calmed down and went on other, more kid-friendly slides. We were very impressed with the Rec center- it is a gem in such a hot place as St George is.

In the evening we went down to the ice cream shop and invited grandma G to go with us. That very first picture is Alex and Meagan eating their huge banana split. When their order came up we realized that we could've easily all split that 1 banana split (well, almost).

Sunday was a lounging day. Alex learned to play the piano and got really into it. Notice his tongue :)
In the evening we drove to the mini-lake Powell: a man-made reservoir, which is located in a very scenic place. The sand there is reddish orange!!! I thought it would be very dusty but it was "clean" sand. 

Our SUV got stuck in the sand and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get out. God bless 4-wheel drive: we were able to pull ourselves out!

Smaller kids really enjoyed playing in the sand for a while.

Then Ashley, Alex and I decided to break the rules and climb over the fence to get closer to the lake. We walked on a desert-like sand for 10 min and came to the shores of the reservoir. And we didn't even get arrested!!

The water was very clean and the only regret was that we didn't come here on Saturday to swim for a day!
Back at home Liz took out her scooter and we all got to ride it.

I wasn't good at first and Liz had to hang on for dear life in the back seat.

Then Alex took a ride with Dave.

As the evening progressed I got better and better and Emily and Ashley even went on it with me (I don't know how they weren't scared but I sure was)!

Monday morning started out with us getting great exercise at the Jumping Jacks. I must say that we were all soaked by the time we were done jumping. That place is better than any gym to get real exercise in, however, it sure could use a lot more air-conditioning...

We went out on a final lunch to Samurai 21. The food was delicious and the show put up by the chef was even better. (You can tell by the pictures how excited Dave was :)!!!

I don't know if it was the Jumping Jacks, the yummy food at the japanese restaurant (which Alex ate A LOT of to our surprise), or the heat, but Alex was exhausted: he fell asleep for a long time in the car on the way home. 

We had great time on our mini-trip to St George. Thank you very much, Sullenger family!!! 

O, and did I mention it was HOT in St George???

Until we meet again :))

Alex's 4th Birthday party

On June 28th, which was a Saturday, Alex had his birthday party at the Little Gym. He had 13 friends and cousins that came to celebrate with him. Kids had  a lot of fun (and some adults did too!).

At first they played on the red mat and I was very grateful that the Little Gym staff planned and led the whole party.

They played hide and seek.

They jumped on the big inflatable trampoline.
And, of course, Alex got his favorite ice cream cake: cotton candy SpondeBob Squarepants.
It was delicious and we all fully enjoyed the cake.
Then Alex got to open all the cool presents that his friends brought. He liked every one of them (it's nice to be 4 and simply be happy to get anything!).
After the party, all the kids got "party favors"- Kinder surprise, which is a German chocolate egg that has a toy hidden inside of it. They also each got a balloon to go home with.
Alex's party was a huge success and we all got to share the excitement with him. The best part for me personally was that I didn't have to plan, buy, organize, or clean anything! It was great considering the circumstances. Happy Birthday, dear Alex! We all love you very much! You are such a great little boy and we love spending time with you every day!

Alex's Little Gym graduation

Last week Alex graduated from his Little gym once again. This was his second semester attending the Little gym and we've seen a huge improvement in his physical skills. This semester lasted 4 months and at the beginning of it Alex was afraid to walk on the beam or to hang off of the monkey bars. Well, we've seen such a great improvement during this semester that we have no doubt the Little gym helped Alex tremendously in improving his athletic skills.

He learned to walk on the beam by himself and even turn 360 while on it.

Dave was teaching him to keep "strong" arms while hanging on the bar.

He even learned to hang upside down and do a flip on the bar (with the help of his instructor).

He performed one more time on the beam.
His favorite trick was to run very fast and jump over this rounded mat. He did it over and over and got really good at it.

At the end of the class every kid had to show his favorite trick. Alex demonstrated a donkey kick to everybody.
He got a medal for it and thought that he won (we won't tell him otherwise :)
It was amazing to me to see how 4 months of seemingly easy-going gym lessons taught Alex so much. I'm really glad we took him there and I appreciate all of his amazing instructors that were so patient with him and taught him so much!

Picnic in the mountains

Last weekend we spontaneously got together with some friends, grabbed everything from the fridge and the pantry and went to the mountains to have a picnic. We first tried the Spruces but the snow there, although dirty and melting, was still 3-4 feet high, believe it or not! So we drove back down the Big Cottonwood canyon and stopped at Storm mountain. That place is gorgeous, it has a mountain river right by it and very nicely maintained picnic tables and fire pits. When we got there and settled, Nico gave me a ride on his sweet-looking bike. I really liked it, although I used to be afraid of motorcycles :((

We all relaxed while our shashlik (shishkabob) was cooking.
Look at that beauty! Doesn't it look delicious? (By the way, Carine and Randall, it WAS delicious).
The kids found a little green caterpillar that they were playing with.

Needless to say, it didn't survive for very long... Good thing they're still young and don't understand that they killed it :)

Alex and Ava had a lot of fun together. They were posing for me on a huge log.

Then the adults were posing. And here is our beautiful fire :)

A close up of all of us.
The kids went out to explore the area, they even found these huge sticks that made them look like real hikers.

It was a great outing, we all enjoyed it a lot. It's not a surprise that by the end of it the kids had dirty faces- at least they got to explore to their heart's desire :))

We liked hanging out in the nature so much that this weekend we're already going back out there!!!