Taylor is 9!

Yesterday Taylor celebrated her 9th birthday. I can't believe how fast she has grown up. She is a sweet little girl and we love her so much.

Taylor still loves Harry Potter so we gave her the set of books. Now she doesn't have to keep borrowing them from her aunt.


Taylor decided this year she wanted to go clothes shopping instead of having a party. So we checked her out of school and took her to the mall to shop. Then we took her to Brick Oven for dinner. Later, we came home and watched Harry Potter and had cake.

Taylor wanted a dragon cake this year. I don't think it turned out too bad.

Fall Pictures

A couple of weeks ago I took Taylor's fall pictures. I think they turned out cute. Here are my favorites.

Labor Day Weekend

Over Labor Day weekend Jeremy's parents took us to see The Little Mermaid at the Tuachan. It was an amazing show and we had a great time.

Waiting for the show to start

While waiting for the show to start we looked behind us and there was the governor and his wife. Taylor was pretty excited about it and even worked up the courage to say hi and shake his hand. During intermission she decided she needed proof that she met him so she asked if she could take a picture with him and his wife and as you can see they said yes. They were both super nice to Taylor and totally made her day.



On Labor Day, we ran the Payson Day's 5k as a family. I really wanted to improve my time from last year (which I did by 5 minutes!) so Jeremy stayed back and ran with Taylor. I was pretty impressed with Taylor for going that far at her age. She even came in 3rd place for her category and received a medal.

3rd Grade

Taylor started 3rd grade today. I still can't believe it. My baby is no longer a baby and it makes me sad. I'm not ready for her to be so grown up. Here are some pictures from this morning.

Taylor and her teacher, Mrs. Gull

Camping

A couple weeks ago we took a short camping trip to Mirror Lake. It was nice to get away as a family and just relax.

This is what Taylor did to occupy herself while Jeremy and I sat around doing nothing except enjoying some relaxation.

Taylor LOVES to fish. We weren't able to catch many fish, but she had fun reeling in the ones we did catch.

When we came home from camping we got cleaned up and took Taylor to my mom's so Jeremy and I could celebrate our anniversary. It's hard to believe we've been married for 12 years. Jeremy is the most amazing husband and father. I'm very blessed to have him in my life.

Glacier

In July we headed to Glacier National Park with Jeremy's parents. We took lots of pictures so this may be a long post.

The first day of our trip was spent driving until we finally made it to our destination in Hungry Horse. The next morning we headed into the park.


Our first stop of the day was to hike to Avalanche Lake.

My little tree hugger.

Actually, she was just nervous about getting too close to the river so she'd hang onto the trees to keep safe when we stopped to take pictures.

Avalanche Lake

After the hike we drove the Going-to-the-Sun road. Along this road we saw some mountain goats hanging out in the snow.

We stopped at Logan Pass and were able to see this big horn sheep.

Our last stop of the day was to hike to Mary Falls and Virginia Falls.

Virginia Falls

The next morning we took a boat ride on St. Mary Lake. It was Taylor's first time on a boat and she loved it. It was one of her favorite parts of the trip.

That night we stayed in the Many Glacier Hotel and had an incredible view of Swiftcurrent Lake.

The next day we hiked to Iceberg Lake. It's a 9.8 mile hike and I worried how Taylor would handle it. She got tired, but she did a great job and hiked the whole way. Unfortunately, the lake was still frozen and covered in snow so I didn't get any pictures worth posting.

The next day we took another boat ride across Swiftcurrent Lake so that we could hike to Grinnell Lake.
We hiked a total of 21 miles in 4 days. I'm very proud of Taylor for being able to hike that many miles. She is an amazing little girl.

4th of July

The 4th of July was low-key for us. Jeremy spent a good part of the day working in the yard while I worked in the house. In the evening we had a BBQ and let Taylor light some sparklers.

Later, we headed to Nephi to watch their firework show. While it wasn't the best firework show I've seen, it was a lot of fun because we were able to sit right underneath them. Plus, it wasn't crowded. After the fireworks we came home and camped out in our backyard (something Taylor has been dying to do).

Concert

On June 18 we went as a family to the Sandy Amphitheater to see Richard Marx in concert. I grew up listening to Richard Marx so I enjoyed seeing him in concert, plus I love the outdoor venue.

Waiting for the concert to begin

This is about as good as the pictures get.

As always, the best part of the evening was getting to spend it with Jeremy and Taylor. I love my little family and I'm so grateful for all the good times we get to spend together.

Awards

The school year is over! I'm excited to have Taylor out of school for the summer. During the end-of-school assembly Taylor received the Principle's Award for getting straight "E's" this year. She was pretty proud of her award and has wanted to wear her medal everyday. Of course I haven't let her, but she's tried.


Taylor's teacher also did a class award ceremony. She gave each child an award with a corresponding candy bar/treat. Taylor received the Smarties Award for being a smarty. She was proud of this award as well because she loves being at the top of her class.

Second grade flew by. Taylor had a great year and is sad that she won't be able to see her teacher anymore. Mrs. Blake was an intern and won't be at Parkview in the fall. She did give all the students her email address so they can keep in touch though.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend wasn't too eventful. Jeremy had to work all weekend so it was just Taylor and I. We colored eggs Saturday morning. I bought the glitter egg kit thinking it would be fun to do something different. Our eggs didn't turn out like the ones in the picture, but it was fun trying.



Saturday evening we went to Grandma Killpack's house for an egg hunt and dinner with the family. Taylor always enjoys getting together with her cousins.

Saturday night Taylor had a hard time going to sleep. You would have thought the next day was Christmas by how excited she was. She woke early the next morning to see what was left for her. She loved hunting for her eggs and finding them in all sorts of crazy places. When she found her basket she excitedly ran upstairs to tell us that she got the new Harry Potter movie. She is still completely obsessed with Harry Potter. That evening we went to my mom's house for another hunt and dinner. All in all it was a good weekend.

Backpacking

Last week Jeremy went on a backpacking trip with one of his friends from work. They went down to the Grand Gulch area in southern Utah. They had a good time other then they took a wrong turn on the drive to the trail and ended up on the wrong side of the state. This put them about 3 hours behind. They hiked as fast as they could in order to reach their intended camping site before the sun went down, but they still ended up hiking in the dark. Even though they were sore the next day from their hustling they had a good time exploring the Indian ruins along the trail. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Here is my goodlookin boy at the trail-head

Some of the Indian ruins they came across