The ballet was fantastic. The costumes were brilliant and the talent was rich. Ellie was wide eyed and captivated the entire time. As was Momma and Grandma.

Before the ballet we wandered the crowded new shopping center in downtown. Ellie spied the Disney store and we promised we would stop in after the ballet. When the ballet was over she exclaimed “Ok now we can go to the Disney Store!”  Once we were there she set her sights on the Rapunzel doll and would not let go.

We had dinner at Lamb’s Grill it has been operating in downtown SLC since 1919 and still has it’s vintage charm. I had heard they have a delicious chocolate cake and indeed it was the highlight all 5 layers. Yum…

Sunday morning we went for a stroll to seek out breakfast and ended up back where we started as SLC is some what of a ghost town in certain areas on Sundays

Owen and Gary had a good weekend together as well despite his middle of the night “where’s my Momma rant”.  We picked him up a new hat. I think he likes it.

Owen had an excellent 2nd Birthday.  He hammed it up for the cousins and had a wonderfully fun time partying at  Grandma and Grandpa McKenney’s. (Thanks for being the host Mom and Dad).

He new exactly what to do when I placed the cake in front of him. We sang and he blew out the candles right on cue.  Then he proceeded to giggle and snicker and gobble up his cookie monster cake. It was pure joy watching him.

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He had a great time opening his gifts and he was thrilled with each one. Wanting to stop and play before opening the next.

Oh! I am so in love with this kid! Welcome to 2 Owen!

I’ve been putting this off  for a while now. I guess because our emotions on the subject are still a little raw. We unexpectedly had to put our beautiful dog  Adah to rest on the 1st of February.  She had some kind of an episode that left her very weak and unable to walk around easily. She was fine one day and gone the next.

Adah found me on a geology field trip way back when I was still dabbling in academia. She was beautiful, mysterious, and full of personality. I fell in love right away I think everyone who got to know Adah loved her instantly too.  Her personality was such that you couldn’t help it she just wanted your love so much. She demanded it with her relentless pawing. Sometimes she would nudge your elbow with her nose so your arm would slip from its resting place on the chair and land on her head.  Other times and with a bit of a surprise she would wiggle her nose between your legs from behind and poke her head through then look up at you with a “you can’t deny me” kind of look. This habit was a little alarming for some, understandably, but I never tried to break her of it because it was so Adah.  Her way of giving a hug I suppose. She was so demanding of love but in such an endearing way. These little nudges, paws, and wiggles are what I miss most. Little signs that she loved you and needed you to love her back. Pretty amazing of her when you consider she was found in the west desert on her own with out much human contact.

Now there was also the feral side of her. She was sneaky. Almost ghostly. There were so many times when we were out and about that she would sneak off. One minute she was by our side the next she was yards away chasing bunnies. She had a finesse about her that made her silent. You would start looking around for her and then all the sudden she would appear from around the corner looking at you like “what?” Lets not forget the 11 day walk-a-bout she took that one fall. Mysterious I tell you.

You couldn’t ask for a better dog with the kids. At my parents house she would lay there while all the grandchildren groped at her. Ellie and Adah had a strong bond. Adah always let Ellie lay by her pet her and sometimes pull her or direct her. Adah wasn’t so tolerant with Owen, but Owen wasn’t as gentle as Ellie. She did have a habit of sympathizing with Owen when he cried though. Howling right along with him when ever he started up.

We will never find another dog like her she was definitely a one of a kind.  How lucky am I that she found our camp and came down the hill to go home with me.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Notice how she is bending at the hips, “to go faster” she says. Oh my we have a little thrill seeker on our hands. Eeeek

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A snapshot of an afternoon at our house. Volume, creativity, music, and light.

Ellie prancing around on the soccer field

Ellie turned 4 this year. Whew, Four! Already. Such a strange age she has so much independence in so many ways but I still see my “wee one” in between those burst of growing up.  All the “No! I want to do its” and then the “Mommy I can’t I need your help” mixed into one little girl. If I took a snapshot of my little girl right now I think I would find quiet a few of these contradictions. She is fancy. She loves all things princess, dressing up, fixing her hair, all that. She is very particular about what she wears and most of the time it has to be a dress but on the flip side of that she loves bugs, rolly-pollies are her bug of choice these days, but anything that crawls and creeps has her interest. She and Owen have been catching flies at our back door lately trapping them in my Tupperware. We had a couple of pet caterpillars off of a tree in our yard for a day or two and when I picked her up from school one day last week she had a moth in her pocket she had found during outside time.  She is full of heart and is genuinely concerned when someone is sad or hurt, but can turn on her brother and push him away with her foot to his face. She has a reserved shy side to her, but can make friends easily and accepts everyone. She is 4 now and we are so in love with this “wee one”.

She had a good Birthday we traveled up to my parents a few days prior to have a little party with them and the cousins. Mom and Dad had just barely moved Great Grandpa in so we kept it low key and mellow. Ellie was excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and play with her cousins that’s all she really needed. Grandma surprised her with a beautiful princess dress.

A few days later on her actual birthday we invited Ellie’s best friend Zak over for an all day play date. Our neighbor had given us a bounce house. It has been passed through the neighborhood for a few years and isn’t the bounce house it once was but it held enough air for Zak and Ellie to go crazy in. Ellie wore her princess dress and insisted Zak wear Gary’s birthday crown and I fashioned him a little gold sash. They were very cute little royalty for a day.

I took Ellie to get her hair cut in the morning. On the way home she said “Mommy it’s like Zak and I are getting married”. “Oh! hold your horses” I replied. She watched her aunt Sarah get her hair done one beautiful morning in July and then Aunt Sarah got married so that is what she was equating it to and it was so entirely sweet I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. See what I mean about being so independent and yet so innocent still. I love it.