Ultimate Ursula Utah Getaway

Y'all, my sister Jess is one of the most theatrically TALENTED people I know...and with a voice to match. For the past many years she's been in musical director/training roles. But THIS year, she swtiched sides and tried out for the Little Mermaid and (OF COURSE) landed the part of Ursula. 

When your sister lands a part like that, you don't have a choice but to buy a plane ticket to go see it.....

and see it I did. THREE TIMES!

The first night I went with my mother-in-law, sis-in-law and two of my nieces. I love my Smith family.

They weren't even technially related to my sister, but Adriana was JUST as loud as I was!

(we CLEARLY don't see each other enough)

We met Ariel!

But THAT'S not who I came to see.....

I mean, I bought a SHIRT AND ALL!!!!

I can't even BEGIN to describe how much she NAILED that part. Like STOLE THE SHOW, I-told-everyone-she's-my-sister-for-bragging-rights, most-powerful-villian-EVER type of stuff. 

I was BUSTING my buttons with pride.

The next day I went up to Mom's. I told her to put me to work, so we went through all of Mom's books to purge. Like the "Lucky Grandma" shirt I borrowed? (and wore to the grocery store)

It was different being at home w/o my Dad there. This was my first visit since. But it didn't hit me until I went into my mom's bathroom to borrow something and I saw this...

It was my dad's shaving bowl/brush/soap. I used to watch him shave all the time when I was younger. This is how he would lather his face to shave and it was always present in his bathroom.....even still smelled of him. Some reminders are harder than others.

My mom and I went up to Pickleville Playhouse on Bear Lake for a matinee and then we realized we had the WHOLE night open. So why not drive another 2 hours to go BACK to see Little Mermaid again!

This time my brother Patrick and his family came (along with Jessica's daughters/husband again.....they went every night!)

My nephew I'm sitting by (Joseph) was such a good sport. During the show he leaned forward and my mom-reaction was to start scratching his back. Apparently that's like TORTURE/ticklish for him but he was so polite (And stiff) and waited five minutes before he said, "Thanks Aunt Baloo" and sat back. hahaha. Why didn't he TELL ME!?

Me and my college-aged niece. WHAT?!?

I seriously LOVE being an aunt!

One of my favorite pictures of the trip...... my older brother with two of his sisters. I LOVE my family

Mom and I drove BACK up to her house to make sure we caught my sister-in-law's wedding the next day...... wait, maybe she's my sister-out-law now? I don't know, but I love her and wouldn't miss it.

As an added bonus I saw some more of my nieces and nephews!!!

Then Mom and I drove back DOWN to see Jessica's play again....but THIS time I got to see one of my favorite peope in the world!!!!!! ..... my OTHER sister!!!!!!

(To answer a few questions: YES, I did wear that Ursula shirt to every showing. And YES, I did wash it.... I mean, I worked up quite a sweat wearing it with all my jumping up and down, hugging and cheering)

I ALSO had been saying I'm Ursula's #1 fan. Sarah said she wanted to be the #1 fan this time, so I decided I could be Ursula's #2 fan for this performance. "I'm #2! I'm #2!" 💩💩

All the Degn girls

More nieces! (I'm sure Emma really loved my armpit)

Have I mentioned I love my sisters?!?!?

The marjority of the time I spent at my Ursula's Jessica's house with her girls.

We decided to paint swimsuits on all the naked Barbies with nail polish

They turned out so cute

Ava (who is Kellyn's age) was just my little buddy.

Even when I was getting ready..... there she was keeping up a conversation....whether I joined in or not. "Aunt Baloo........ Aunt Baloo......." I just love her.

We went to my sister-out-law's (?) wedding reception and sneaked a pic with her. 

Then met my brother and some of his kids (they live in Washington). It was so fun to chat!

Sunday afternoon before I flew out, I wanted to spend it with my favorite parent-in-laws.

They really are the best hosts. Pat even made me chocolate covered cinnamon bears and we had a large breakfast. Then she played with my hair,...... (WHICH I LOVE!) while she tried out new dos.

WHOA! My hair looks all two-toned here. Cool bun!

Then I made had Pat and RA drive me to the house that Brooks was born in. 

I love how RA and Pat told me all the things that had changed and it was so fun picturing Brooks there. When he was still young they moved to THIS house that he spent his whole childhood-graduating years in.

Such an AMAZING trip!

Speaking of amazing...... BROOKS held down the fort like a champ at home..... even going as far as to take all 10 kids to our friend's Lodge, with a lake and all sorts of fishing.

#overachiever #makinmelookbad #iLIKEitthough

Johnson Shut-ins

Johnson Shut-ins is this magical state park in Missouri with all these rocks, cliffs to jump off into the river and fun wading areas.

We decided to take the whole family there....NONE of which are in the above picture, because I got THAT off the internet. I couldn't take many pictures because my job was to make sure the twins didn't drown because they are OBSESSED with water. I finally had to take off their life jackets because they were too big and they couldn't get up Christmas-story-snowsuit style.

I DID manage to get one shot of this cutie.

See the diaper in the front? It actually served as my phone-hider and basically my wallet. Because who REALLY is going to look for something to steal in a DIAPER!!???!!! 

#imagenius #yourewelcomeforthetip

Too bad there isn't audio to this one....Everly was screaming. Did NOT want to go in the water and DEFINITELY didn't want Dad who would make her get wet. 

He finally released her and she spent the rest of the time sunbathing with a wedgie.

PERFECT! One less kid to watch!

Then the boys started the manly rock throwing contest that entertained them for for a while. 

I PROMISE you my kids like being outside and in the water..... even though some pictures don't show it. haha. This is from when Brooks took these 5 on a canoe/fishing trip with another dad with his 4 kids. It's a miracle they all came home.

 (The one in black shorts isn't mine.... but kinda blends in, no?)

And SPEAKING of water, THIS girl had swimming lessons over the summer!!!!!

I've never signed a child up for lessons before because we've taught them. But I was NOT going to be at a pool with FOUR who couldn't swim and I needed her to learn FAST.

She was SOOOOOO happy.

She smiled during the whole lesson and would wave to me over and over.

She would jump in the water and come OUT of the water with a smile on her face!

Kellyn DID learn to swim but the REAL MIRACLE of the whole swimming lesson thing is how Everly would sit during the lesson every week like this.

I'm serious, she wouldn't move a MUSCLE! #unHEARDof

Wow, maybe I CAN start taking her in public....... huh.

My swimming beauties about to go to the neighborhood pool. Lovin' Everly's swuimsuit on backwards. #photobombingbrother

Meet Mole-igan

You see, I have this child who likes to "trick" or "tell stories".

Oh no, it "isn't LYING"..... it's just "tricking".

So when Emerson told me he caught a mole IN the house, kept it for a "pet" for three days but the mole (convientently) got away..... I didn't really believe him.

Trying to hear the WHOLE story I asked what he was feeding him for those 3 days. Without even pausing he told me raisins and crackers. (Man, he's a better liar tricker than I thought!)

A few days later Emerson came upstairs and said, 

"MOM! MOM! I found Moligan!"

Wow. WOW!!!!

Moligan INDEED exists and likes his raisins.

Moligan didn't much like Emerson though and bit him a lot and tried to escape. Which made the whole catch thrill exciting AGAIN and AGAIN. #freeentertainment

Moligan hung out with us for a few more days....

Until he THANKFULLY permanently escaped through one of our vents......

or maybe that's NOT-so-thankfully.

Iris' baptism

This post is all about my little Irisita. 

My inately sweet and kind girl who turned 8 on June 2nd. 

I love this picture because it captures Iris perfectly.....even down the the toe lifting up when she gets nervous with the attention all on her (taking a picture of just her).

My mom flew in before the baptism and brought some games which included some crossword pads....which means there MUST be a competition to see who is the fastest of the kids. (For the record, Camden was.)

Wynn gets an allergic reaction that swells when she gets bit by a mosquito. Lucky for GRAMS (unlucky for Wynn), Wynn happened to get a mosquito bite on her eyelid which made it easy for my mom to tell the twins apart.

I think she was just faking it to get extra loves and sympathy from Grams.

DEFINITELY faking it...

And I don't want to brag or anything with a whole my-baby-is-so-advanced attitude and all but HOW many babies that just turned 1 do YOU know that can wink!!!!! #minecan

Mom and I enjoyed pushing the littles on the swings at the park, while all the other kids were somewhere in the forest behind us, in a creek, I think jumping into it?

Bronson and Camden have a pretty nice gig right now. They went to the Pro at the golf course and asked if they could be put to work in exchange for free golf. So now my two boys are the BEST range-ball-picker-uppers in St. Louis!!!! Anyway, they get a free golf cart with it too, but they are too young to drive it. Enter Grams......SHE can drive the golf cart and they won't have to walk the whole course. So I dropped them off. See ya Mom!

Only to pick them up later to find out that my boys ended up pranking my Mom the whole time. #sheesh #icanttakethemanywhere

Iris' BIG day arrived. 

She was ready, prepared and had even finished reading the entire Book of Mormon that week.

My angel.....

She is wearing a dress our good friend Patti Hintze made that all her granddaughters and daughters were baptized in. I loved it.

With Grams

The idea of the whole family in a picture was sooooo not happening.

(I feel like we were being photobombed....)

That's better.

Iris asked Brooks to baptize her. Here they are all ready.

We told her she could pick RA to baptize her and she quickly said, "NO! RA might try to drown me like he does in the pool!"😂

#tearyeyedgrandpa

Grandma was so sweet to fill in on the piano for us!

And everyone in the audience was great to fill in on the whole watching-all-my-kids-for-me thing.

#greatesthometeacher

Iris and Paxton (a friend from church) were baptized on the same day.

I teared up during her baptism....which kinda caught me off guard. But Iris has the sweetest little spirit. It's how she CAME to us. Pure, never wanting to hurt anyone and kinder than most. It was the neatest thing.

Even though she's probably the only person that has ever gotten baptized in her shoes in that baptismal font. hahaha. She simply said, "I FORGOT!"

After her baptism.....with the Grandma and RA

Then we raced home, ate a giant sub before we rushed to Bronson's first of two baseball games.

My mom left the next morning and with RA and Grandma still with us, there was definitely more golfing for the older ones and mini-golf for the younger ones.

And swimming. Did I mention Iris does NOT like to be in the pool the same time as RA?!?!?! Well, I was SHOCKED because she actually allowed him to give her swimming tips!

THEN he went over to the boys and play the lets-drown-the-grandkids-while-laughing game.

However, the older two boys were ALMOST an even battle for him.

RA yells, "BREATHE" before he dunks Camden.

Aleeya absolutely loves this man.

It was nice to have RA and Grandma around when my friend let us go pick peaches off her trees!

And Pat is so sweet always giving me foot massages. 💛

Good bye Grandma and RA!!!!!

Now you can go home and enjoy some peace and quiet!

For Iris' birthday party she asked for a fox piñata......which made it so the "What does the fox say?" song was constantly being sung in my house. That doesn't get old at all! #photobombingbaby

Iris even made her own birthday hat pictured above!!!! (part of me feels proud that they are so resourceful when they do stuff like that, and the other part thinks, "darn, guess I missed that!")

Iris wanted brownies, with ice cream and M&Ms on top. She was SO thrilled about how it turned out, especially with the Trolls.

Iris and her friends at her pool-party.

On her actual birthday we celebrated Iris as a family where she got a very large stuffed cow (that girl LOVES stuffed animals......Brooks hates it. haha)

She kept getting mad that Emerson and Bronson were getting in her picture with the cow, so of COURSE they had to lean in closer.......older-annoying-brother style. (Iris and Bronson are twins)

Aaaaaaaaaand her junkbox.......and no, the mustard wasn't a part of it.:)

HAPPY SPECIALEST OF BIRTHDAYS IRIS!!!!!