Last Days of Summer

Lillie has REALLY enjoyed her summer vacation. Her daddy likes to call it our "staycation" (aka. fun right here at home). Right before Lillie's kindergarten year ended, she realized a kindergartener in another class was actually our neighbor across the street. She has an older sister who also goes to the school and was in 2nd grade. Pretty much ALL summer, the 3 girls played together. They play outside, inside, on bikes, in garages, upstairs, and everywhere. Lillie has had loads of fun!

Even in the rain, they find ways to have fun.
There have been LOTS of treats...mostly consisting of ice cream.
There have been quite a few play dates at malls and at friend's homes.
Some with friends we knew, but most with new friends we met.
There's no mistaking who's the Queen Bee!!

We just discovered an American Girl store in one of the big malls here. If you don't know American Girl dolls, well, they're quite the collector's item. We told Lillie she would need to wait until she's 8 or so. I kind of wish I took more pictures, but the store sells outfits for the dolls that match outfits for their owners (the girls) - really cute! Then you can bring in your doll to the "salon" to get her hair styled and have tea with her at the cafe upstairs - all for a fee, of course! It's actually quite cute. Keola and I kept laughing because the one thing we kept focusing on was the comparison between Lillie's Rapunzel wig (remember that??!!?) and the hair on these dolls. Actually, there IS no comparison. The dolls hair feels like the hair off my head!! In the salon, we watched as they put the dolls in salon chairs, put on their cape, then went at the hair - braiding, curling, straightening. It was quite a site.

We thought this doll was pretty cute since as soon as Lillie saw it, she said, "It's just like Aunty Nani!"

Today is the last day of summer, but Lillie is SUPER excited and ready for First Grade tomorrow!

Lillie's primary class had a little pool party at their teacher's house - apparently for being good in class. It started with a little of this...

Then it went to a little of this...

Then there was a whole lot of this...

And this...All of this was followed by a homemade pizza party with a chocolate frosted cupcake to top it off.

What fun!

We LOVE the National Building Museum! We love the water fountain on the GIGANTIC main floor. We love posing...can you tell??

We love the architecture, the light, the arches...
and who can resist the COLUMNS!!

And last, but not least, who doesn't love the perfect platform for a short dance recital!

With my most "recent" acquisition of a new iPod touch, I'm finally getting around to tinkering with the video component. We may now be able to actually post short videos!! Here's me playing with it yesterday as Lillie was singing to her newest favorite kid's show...Bubble Guppies.

This is how my day started...

Yes, 14 years. Can you believe it?!?! Keola surprised me with dinner at the Blue Duck Tavern! We've always said that we wanted to try one of those restaurants from Food Network (one of our favorites!!). Well, our anniversary was the perfect date to S*P*L*U*R*G*E*
Here's Lillie trying to look calm and serene.

This is not a great picture, but we had to get at least one picture of the action in the open kitchen. This picture was taken from our table. It was neat to watch all the cooking going on.

Here's our first course...Foie Gras Brulee with rhubarb, strawberry, and homemade brioche. SOOOO, delish!!! It literally tasted like creme brulee, then you got the hint of foie gras, with the sweetness of the fruit. And let's not forget the homemade brioche!! And this was only the beginning!!

With that start, we couldn't WAIT for the main course!! Well, it didn't disappoint. I had braised beef ribs, Keola had oven-roasted Maine scallops, we shared creamy polenta with blue cheese and garden fresh young carrots with a maple syrup glaze, AND Lillie had the same carrots with Mac-n-Cheese!! No, the restaurant did NOT offer a kids' menu, but Daddy was on top of things and made some mac-n-cheese for his little girl and we smuggled it in!

So now you may ask, did we have room for dessert? OF COURSE!! We weren't about to go to a top notch restaurant and NOT have the best part! So we ordered 3 scoops of homemade honey vanilla ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce (for Lillie - of course). Keola and I shared THIS...a seriously delicious apple pie.

Here are the chefs at work.

Look at these luscious apple pies and berry cornmeal cobblers on the left, just waiting to be devoured!!

Oh so wonderful! Here's the lovely anniversary couple. Oh, I forgot one sort of funny thing. Once we were seated in the restaurant, we were admiring all the surroundings, and I heard a *pop*! Well, I didn't think anything of it, until our waiter came by the table and said, "I hear we are celebrating an anniversary." Once he said that, I knew EXACTLY what I heard. The waiter then proceeded to put champagne glasses down, and said, "we would love to celebrate with some bubbly". At which point, Keola had to let him down gently that we don't drink alcohol. Which he kindly replied, "No problem, that's why I wanted to ask first." I guess he meant, to ask before he started pouring, but I thought, poor guy should have asked before they popped the bottle!! Oh well, maybe some other lucky couple was able to enjoy the bubbly.

Of course, it may have been our anniversary, but we had to end with a picture of the best part of our marriage!

Happy 4th of July!!

Who needs fireworks, when you have a brand new semi-public swimming pool facility!

Lillie was LOVING the water and trying out all the new skills she just learned.
Good 'ole floatie gave Lillie the confidence she needed to venture on her own.
She's a floating pro!

Swimming with Daddy

Even though swimming skills is important and fun, the REAL excitement was the kid-size pool! See the frog slide in the background, and yes, those are fake palm trees scattered throughout.

There was a short walking ramp with varying spouting fountains.

There was a GREAT water feature with 5 buckets of falling water. Lillie loved it!

Then there was the BIG snake! Don't be fooled! It took Lillie a little while to get into this position!

Hanging out with her dad.

Fun, fun, fun!!

The past two weekends, we have been on mini "vacations". Well, sort of. The youth in our stake have had their girl's camp one week and the boys had scout camp the next week. Keola spoke at both camps on the last day, so we tagged along. Since the camps are relatively far (2 & 4 hours away), we stayed at hotels. That was Lillie's favorite part. We couldn't help but take pictures of the beautiful moutains outside our hotel room.

Can you tell Lillie and I spent some time out on our balcony? We even saw the sunset!

The next morning we headed to the restaurant down the hill for a surprisingly YUMMY breakfast! Here's Lillie and her Daddy!

Here's my little artist.

As you can see, she's REALLY into her mermaids!

Mommy and Me!