Six Flags

On Saturday we decided to take advantage of our season passes and head to Six Flags. When we told Kiara where we were going, we got this reaction:

We encountered all sorts of creatures throughout our day, from Daffy Duck

to Valerie the elephant. I never thought I would ride an elephant but it was one of the most fun things I've ever done! Kiara loved Valerie (aka Ballerina) and would have ridden her all day.

Since that wasn't an option, we settled for the mechanical Valeries and it turns out she liked them just as much! A little girl wanted to get on the ride just as the last elephant got taken so we told her she could ride with Kiara. Of course they were fast friends.


After we bid farewell to the elephants, the frogs caught our eye. I think Ben enjoyed this ride even more than Kiara!

Ben enjoyed several of the rides with Kiara and was loving the daddy-daughter time;


that is until she told him she was too big to go with Dad and wanted to ride alone! Seriously. True story.

Luckily she was still willing to humor me, knowing that I wasn't as strong as Dad and wouldn't be able to handle her rejection!


She even got excited to see the dolphins (for my benefit, I'm sure) and asked if she could get in and swim with them. I promised her that someday we will do that together, even if it is just at Six Flags.


Once she was back on the "I'm a big girl" kick we decided to let her spread her wings and try a semi-scary ride with all actual big kids.

As you can see, she was by far the smallest one on the ride (not to mention the cutest)

and I think, the bravest too. She wasn't scared at all!

But the highlight of our day came not with the wild animals or the thrill rides, but with the misting station.

Kiara loves water, especially in her face so needless to say she was in Heaven!

It was an incredible day with perfect weather and even better company. We can't wait to go back.

Kiara the beauty queen

My friend is a photographer and she asked if she could take some pictures of Kiara for her portfolio. We are so happy with the finished product and to be able to brag about our little beauty queen even more!

Utah trip

This is Ben's busy time of year at work so Kiara & I decided it was a good time to go see our family in Utah. While we were there we had lots of fun with cousins, Grandma & Grandpa and friends.

Thomas is 6 weeks younger than Kiara and when they get together they are double trouble but have such a good time in the process!

Whitney is Kiara's oldest girl cousin and she takes good care of her. Whitney was so sad that she had to go to school each day and couldn't stay and play with us.

Macy is 6 months younger than Kiara and the closest girl cousin in age. It is really fun to see these two together and to watch Kiara act like the big sister to Macy.

Riding the merry-go-round at the zoo. Kiara would stay on this thing all day if she could! She loves carousels!

One of my best friends has a little boy, Jonah, only 2 months younger than Kiara. They are so cute together and we always joke that they are going to get married some day. I think we may be right...

One of the highlights of our trip was a girls' night with my three best friends. We got a hotel room in Park City and went shopping at the outlets, sat in the hot tub for two hours, ate way too much and stayed up way too late laughing and talking. It was the most fun I've had in a long time!

(The two girls in the middle are the ones who set Ben & me up on our blind date. I owe them everything!)

We happened to be in Utah at the same time that Ben's parents and two youngest siblings were there for his brother's college graduation. They live in New Hampshire so we don't get to see them as often as we do my family but when we do, we have a great time. Ben has a 4 year old sister (Eve) whom his parents adopted from Ukraine and a 7 year old brother (E.J.). Kiara loves playing with these two and although it's uncommon, it's really fun that she has an aunt and uncle so close to her age.

We decided it wasn't fair to make them sit through the long graduation ceremony so I took them to a carnival at my friend's elementary school. They all had such a great time and wore themselves out completely!

All in all it was a great trip but we are happy to be home and back with Daddy! It's definitely not the same without him and we won't be leaving him again any time soon!

Happy Easter!

We had a perfect Easter weekend together as a family and we were sad to see it end.

Saturday we went to a friend's house for an egg hunt and BBQ. Kiara had a great time collecting her loot and thought it was so funny that there were eggs just laying around the yard. She kept saying, "I found this in the grass!" and laughing.

She doesn't like foods with gummy textures and we found out jelly beans were no exception!

She did however love the cupcakes and licked every last bit of frosting off of hers!

Kiara was so excited to wear her new Easter dress to church on Sunday and she looked beautiful. She did look a little too grown up though, so we're going to have to see what we can do about that!

Her favorite thing from her Easter basket is always the bubbles. She loves them!

She also loves to pretend to eat things she knows she shouldn't, just to get a reaction out of us!

We're so grateful for Easter and the opportunity it gives us to reflect on our Savior's life and ministry. We were reminded once again that we can go to Him with everything and He will make our burdens lighter. We know He can't take them away completely but He will always comfort us and help share the load. For this knowledge are we so thankful and we pray that everyone will be able to find Him in their own way and time.

Kiara the entertainer

Kiara is always coming up with the funniest phrases and one-liners. Here are some of my current favorites:

• Ooh, yummioso
  
  
• The E Flat on our piano doesn't work and Kiara knows this but the other day she tried to play it and when it didn't work she said "Oh no, the piano needs new batteries!" That's her answer to everything that she deems to be broken!
  
  
• "My boven broke" (She was referring to her toy oven)
  
  
• "Come on, vamanos, mama!"
  
  
• "Ooh la la, my family is posh!"(she got this one from Fancy Nancy)
  
  
• Kiara: "What does Bunny Bear (her favorite stuffed animal) say, Mommy?"
  Mom: "He says 'roaaaaar.'"
  Kiara: "No he says 'hop, hop, hop!'"
  

Watch out Tiger Woods!

Last weekend we took Kiara miniature golfing for the first time and she loved it!

Ben tried to help her at first but she quickly wanted to prove that she could do it on her own (she's very independent, just like her mom)!

After trying it the "correct" way a time or two she decided to ditch the club and just put the ball in the hole herself. She's very resourceful!

After golfing we decided to move in to the arcade and play some games in there. Kiara loved playing basketball with Ben. She is his biggest cheerleader!

We were just about ready to leave when Kiara convinced Katie to try and win her some candy in one of those claw machines. It took a few tries but Katie's stubbornness paid off in the end when we walked away with 3 packages of candy! Kiara did a little victory dance to show her excitement!

We had a great night together as a family and can't wait to go back soon (only next time we might just skip the golfing and go straight to the candy)!