Fall in Utah

The Things They Say (and Do)

It's been a long time since I've done a real update on what Piper and Josie are really up to these days, aside from the quick picture and recap of places we've been.  When I was writing the monthly updates, it forced me to sit down each month and talk about how their personalities were emerging, what kinds of new skills they had acquired, and what they were doing that was really challenging us (always something!).

As they approach three, I found myself googling "strong willed child" the other night after a particularly rough day.  Each day, I strap on my seatbelt and hold on because I truly don't know what we're going to get.  Naps?  Piper, most of the time; Josie, not so much.  Early wakeup?  Seems to be happening more and more frequently.  Eating the meal I make for them?  Piper, never!  Josie, pretty good.

There are, of course, so many sweet moments.  They hold hands when walking somewhere together, they give Blue boy impromptu hugs and kisses on the nose, if I hurt myself, they ask over and over if I got a boo boo and if I'm okay.  They love their baby cousins, Mia and Emery.

Piper was the child prompting me to do my google searching the other night.  She is smart, sweet, and unbelievably stubborn.  There is nothing that truly means "no" to her.  Move her candy up high so she can't get it?  That's okay, she drags the chair over and climbs up the fridge to get it - right in front of us.  Threaten to put her in time out?  No problem, she truly doesn't care.  The only thing she takes seriously at all is taking away her baby doll.  (The other day, I asked her several times who she loves more, mommy or baby doll and the baby doll came out on top every time).

I still think she could make a heck of an engineer someday.  She likes to figure stuff out, such as the clasp on grandpa's watch, how to open a package (with a knife, of course), and how to make water spray all over the bathroom.  She's not all that interested in traditional toys - give her a broom and dustpan any day over her stuffed animals.  She's obsessed with the color "yeyow", frogs (which she'll be for Halloween), school buses, and the 17-year-old cat across the street, Fanny.  She's a monkey and doesn't hold still for one single second.  She absolutely hates when something is out of place.  Josh says that she is the reincarnation of his childhood self.  She's a riot.

Josie is becoming quite the performer and has quite the vocabulary.  She starts out a lot of her conversations with "sooooo" and used the word "otherwise" in the right context at the park the other day.  She asks almost every day when she can take the dancing class and the singing class (not until she's three).  She likes to put on her "singing shirt" and perform for us.  She's very emotional and up, up, up one second, then all the way down the next.

She's all but given up her nap, but is usually just fine with sitting on her bed with a stack of books during quiet time while I finish up my workday.  She's also very smart (of course, I am partial) and will "read" through each book with her own version of the story.  If she is awake, she is talking.  She picked a princess costume for Halloween (shocking!).  She loves her sister and told me the other day she's her "best friend".

We are going to attempt to teach the girls to ski this winter, or at least get them up there a few times.  It's going to be crazy chaos and we can't wait!  I think that's all for now.

Book Roundup (the best of the summer)

I've been meaning to write a little recap of some of the best books I read this past spring/summer.  I probably got through about a book a week, which is pretty good for me these days.  But there were a few really good ones.  I like to look back at certain periods of time and remember what I was doing when I was reading a certain book.  So here is my list:


Wild: I have a weird obsession with books about long distance hiking.  A Walk in the Woods is still my all-time favorite book.  This one wasn't a funny story and the author wasn't particularly likeable (it was a memoir), but I could not put it down.  I was reading this right after we flew into town to move here - we were still staying at my parent's house.




The Fault in Our Stars: I read this just a few weeks ago.  It's a young adult novel, so I avoided it for weeks, but the positive reviews on Amazon eventually persuaded me to get it.  It's about cancer kids.  How uplifting!  No but really, the writing was so good - the dialogue between the kids in this book made it hard to put down.



Gone Girl: This book has been all over Facebook.  Everyone has read it, including my parents and Josh.  It was a thriller of a book about a seriously dysfunctional marriage.  Quite the guilty pleasure.  I read most of this when we were camping up in Challis, Idaho.



Scott Jurek's book, Eat and Run, was another Challis read.  I cruised through this book in a couple of days.  He's one of the world's best ultramarathoners and also happens to be a vegan.  It's a pretty unusual combination and it was interesting to hear how he does what he does.  He gave some really good advice on following a plant-based diet and almost convinced me to try an ultra one day.


The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: I'm reading this right now - more than halfway through it (thanks to a couple of nights of persistent insomnia, yay).  So far, I like it a lot.  It's a story about a guy who decides to walk the length of England to visit a dying ex-coworker.

Happy 60th Birthday Bubba

My awesome, sweet, beautiful, and very selfless mom turned 60 a couple of weeks ago.  We had a great girls day out shopping at City Creek, then had everyone over to our house for pizza and cake and ice cream.  She also had a multiple-day celebration because her birthday was on a Wednesday.  So we had fun picking her up from work and having Mexican food that day as well.  Josh made his super awesome, delicious cake.

Happy birthday Bubba.  We love you so much!

Side note: With all of these birthdays (we've also celebrated grandma Shirley's and Grandpa Dick's birthdays), the girls are pretty much obsessed with their birthday.  They ask me almost everyday "is today my birthday cake?"  Needless to say, they don't understand the concept of "in two months" or "in December".  Also, with Halloween coming up, and all the talk of skiing in the mountains, then Christmas, they are a little confused.  Here are a couple of things they've said about the upcoming festivities:

• Santa Clock lives up in the mountains; he's gonna come down when we go trick-or-treating
• When its my birthday cake, I'm going to dress up like a frog (Piper's Halloween costume)
• I want a birthday cake with a yeyow Elmo on it (hmm, okay)

Happy Birthday Josh (and welcome to your late thirties)

Josh had a birthday last week.  His 36th.  I told him this qualified as his "late 30s".  He strongly disagreed with me on that!

Like any good birthday, we celebrated for four days with a day off work, some hiking in Bells Canyon, an overnighter to Park City, and some cake and ice cream with our families.

Family gathering at our house:

Josh and I had a lot of fun hiking up in Bells Canyon - just the two of us and Blue.  It was absolutely beautiful up there with all the fall colors.  We screwed up though.  It is a watershed and we weren't supposed to have Blue.  We were informed of that after hiking up the canyon for more than an hour.  OOPS.

 Happy birthday love!

Ready, set, go!

Top of Utah Marathon

Last Saturday, I ran the Top of Utah marathon in Logan and finally got the marathon PR I've been training for all year.  When Boston didn't go how I wanted it to, I decided to train for another marathon this year.  It was another summer of getting up at 5 am and it paid off on Saturday with a 3:20 marathon on a great day.

I also ended up getting 3rd in my age group and was awarded a moose trophy for my efforts.  Woo hoo!  It's not much, but getting a trophy at a marathon was a first for me. 

I had fun having Josh and the girlies there for me.  We also took a little trip down memory lane in Logan.  We drove past the first place I lived up there as a freshman - a sad little dorm room building.  And also the sorority house where I lived when I was a sophomore and junior.  Sadly, its no longer a Chi Omega house. 

Here are the girlies "helping" josh with our luggage.  Staying in a hotel with them is now a little nutty.  They don't sleep in pack 'n plays anymore, so there's no way to contain them when its bedtime.  There was jumping off the bed, stealing blankets, and general craziness until well after 10 p.m.  So much for a nice early bedtime for all of us before the race!

I'm super happy with my 3:20, but I still think I can run faster.  BUT...that will have to wait for another day well into the future. :) 

First Day of School

Josie and Piper started their new preschool last week at The Winner School.  They had a great morning and surprisingly, neither one shed a tear when I dropped them off.  They did bring these babies along with them and it might not go over that well when I tell them the babies have to stay in the car next time.  Their class is Monday and Wednesday mornings, but the school is great because when they are a little older they can also take dance, gymnastics, and music classes there. 

Summer was..

Summer's over now and I found that it was pretty much impossible to blog/write about/take pictures of everything we did. 

To sum it up, this summer was:

Lots of sweaty trips to the park.

Summer festivals (Draper Days, Butlerville Days). 

 Face painting, riding ponies

Summer was also adjusting to our new home, being here to play with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. 

For me it was a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables (mostly from our weekly Bountiful Basket), some really good books, and early weekend mornings out running to beat the heat.  It was also some time on our own as Josh traveled to San Diego, Virginia, and San Diego again. 

Summer was hot.  The experts say there were a lot more days over 100 degrees than there should have been. 

It's time to move on to fall: pumpkins, sweatshirts, cool mornings, and changing colors.  But summer was fun, while it lasted. 

Slippin' and Slidin'

A few weeks ago, we had the annual Egan family summer party.  This year the Deckers were in charge and my aunt Kris rented a blow-up water slide for the kids.  I wasn't sure the girls would be brave enough, but their second cousin Kage convinced them to go down.  Kage is a little older and they took to him right away.  The three of them would start at the top, hold hands, and slide down together.  Kage had been playing on it all day and was already tired, but the girls would climb up, get all set up and start yelling "Kage!  Kage!" until he came up and slid down with them. 

Group shot from the party.

Emery Nathan Johnson

It's been a busy summer with lots of ups and downs, but the best thing to happen around here so far has been the arrival of sweet little Emery, my sister's baby boy.  He was in a hurry to get here, just like his cousins, and was born after my sister's water broke at 37 weeks. 

We were lucky enough to be around (right down the street from the hospital) and got there in time to meet Emery during his first hours.  Oh, and also, my sister gave birth without any drugs.  Hard core!

The girls are getting a little more interested in him, but notice how Piper has to have her own baby in every picture.  Why pay attention to Emery when she has her own baby??

 

So far little dude is the best baby ever!  Good sleeper, good eater, super happy little dude.  We love him!

Weekend Summer Fun

We are wrapping up a great weekend that included dinner with Grandpa and Bubba (along with root beer floats), sidewalk chalk, the park, a visit to Nate and Brynn's, and a trip to the zoo. 

Some pics...

Saturday morning playing "go night night", which is a new favorite game.  They drag all their blankies, pillows and dolls around the house and lay down with them, tucking each other in.  

Practicing their gymnastics skills at MountView park.  The weather was great this weekend.  After four straight days of 100+ degrees, we finally had some cooler, cloudy weather. 

Josie wanted to see Uncle Nate's motorcycle, but notice she brings her blankie up there with her.  They love visiting Brynn and Nate's house because they have a kitty (Cache).  Unfortunately, the feelings aren't mutual and Cache is terrified of them. 

 Riding on the merry-go-round at the zoo. 

Brett Naisbitt brought his kids down and met us at the zoo.  We had a great time.  Josh and Brett - still BFFs. :)

Brynn's baby shower and Anna's baptism

It was a busy weekend!  We had Brynn's baby shower here are our house on Saturday.  We are all getting very excited for Little Dude's arrival next month and it was fun to celebrate.  I can't wait for the girls to have another little cousin and to be here in Utah to be part of it. 

Have you ever seen a cuter pregnant girl?  This is the diaper cake my mom and I made her. 

 Very excited grandmas!

 Four generations of moms and daughters. 

Later that day, we joined the Jones family to celebrate sweet little Anna's baptism.  The girls had so much fun playing with their cousins.  Here's one of the Jones family at Jim and Rebecca's house for dinner afterwards. 

 See that red stuff all over Mia's face?  Grandpa decided to let her try out some strawberry sauce!!

 Amanda and Allison with Josie.