Lydia turns 3!

We celebrated Lydia's 3rd birthday a few weeks ago with a low-key gathering of family at our house.

My initial idea was a bit more creative. I wanted to have a carousel birthday party with a few friends and have everyone ride the carousel and enjoy some carousel-shaped birthday cake.
 
However, on the day I was going to go print the invitations I thought back to Lydia's 1st birthday when our trip to one of the area splash pads was foiled because of a random splash pad closure.
 
In an effort to avoid similar disappointment this time around, I emailed the carousel director and it turns out it was a good thing I did. The carousel is in need of some part to repair it and would not be open on her birthday (nor is it open yet).

Sad!

I wracked my brain for something else to do that wouldn't involve too much planning (since her birthday was drawing closer and closer) and would be something she would enjoy. Finally I thought -- what am I doing? I'm stressing out over a party for a 3-year-old who will be happy with a few presents and a pile of cake.

So that's what we did.

I couldn't give up on my carousel theme entirely though, so I stuck with the carousel cake, which she loved.

It was adorable how excited she was about her upcoming birthday. She talked about it for days. "My birthday coming soon!" "It's my birthday!"

The party was a lot of fun. A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Grady, Grandma and Grandpa Larson, Great-Grandma Grady, Great-Grandma Noma, Aunt Leslie, Uncle Heber and Aunt Billie for attending.

Carousel cake

Playing with the beauty parlor set and My Little Ponies from Grandma and Grandpa Larson and Great-Grandma Noma.

Candyland from Mom and Dad.

Fisher Price Little People House (AKA "boys" in the Grady family) from Grandma and Grandpa Grady.

My little cupcake and her carousel cupcake.

Annual cabin retreat

I count myself extremely fortunate to have a little piece of the Cedar Mountain to escape to when the St. George heat is just too much to bear.
Granted, it's not my piece of the mountain, but the cabin -- built by my grandparents -- feels like home whenever we take advantage of it. We try to get up there for a few days at least every summer.

This year was no exception.

Hiking.  Relaxing. Games. Food. Reading. 

Laughing. Talking. Enjoying.

{Half} Marathon Man

My husband is amazing -- a fact I've already documented well. But now he's gone even further to prove it: 13.1 miles to be exact!

Derek's been trying to get into running this summer and even though he hasn't had the time he wanted to train, he did a fabulous job in the Parowan Half Marathon. Lydia and I were so excited to be there to cheer him on.

10 days with the Sharps

Thanks to a killer Delta Airlines deal, we got a special bonus visit from the Sharp cousins this year.
Lydia was thrilled to be able to spend time with Kate, Dylan and Blake, along with Aunt Karen. Sadly Uncle Mike had to stay behind, but I guess somebody has to work, right?

Kids table at Grandma and Grandpa's

For Kate's birthday Derek wanted to treat Kate to seeing "Aladdin" at Tuacahn. I went with Kate, Karen, my mom, Brian and his wife Leslie, while Derek fell on the sword and watched the little ones that night. What a guy!

Feeding the ducks. For those of you who have been requesting a pregnant belly pic, here you go :)

Why give popcorn to the ducks when you can eat it yourself?

Swimming in St. George

Cute Blake swimming in Cedar City

Cedar City Aquatic Center

Kate, Dylan and Lydia

Playing in the rain in Cedar City.

Kate and Lydia did a fashion show to model the princess skirts Grandma bought them.

Making "ice cream cones" in the bath.

Walking to Park Discovery in Cedar City.

I won't lie -- it was a little chaotic with four kids in the mix, but they were all having such a great time together it was hard not to enjoy even the ridiculously late nights from which we are still trying to recover :)

Photo fiasco

Back in May I visited two of my siblings in Texas and while there we decided it would be the perfect time to get a photo of all five Grady cousins (a photo that will soon be outdated as we add two more to the group in November — mine and my brother Kevin's.)
However, getting five children between the ages of 3 months and 6 years to cooperate with such a photo left the three moms pulling our hair out and the grandma (my mom) laughing off the side.

I'll be the first to admit, Lydia was the main offender in the group. She absolutely wants nothing to do with professional-looking cameras. Heck, I can barely get her to pose for my point and shoot. Combine that with a strange setting and a total stranger as a photographer and there were a lot of tears shed that morning.

This is my favorite. Look how disinterested they all are in this process.

Sad or not, she is beautiful to me!

Colin Grady

Dylan Sharp

We tried tricking Lydia by having her walk with her super-cooperative and photogenic cousin, Kate, but even with that, Lydia wasn't fooled into cracking a smile.

Ya, Blake. That's kind of how I felt after the whole thing too.

In the end, however, the photographer was amazing and worked her Photoshop skills to get one group shot with all five. She even managed to capture one frame-able photo of Lydia. Even though she doesn't look happy, she looks beautiful to me.