Gateway Fountains and Good Samaritans

Last week some friends and I took our babies to the Gateway fountain on the frontrunner. The bummer about the new frontrunner train is that it is so expensive! $5 to ride to Salt Lake per person. But I think not very many people are riding it because they have this new deal that 4 people can ride for $10, so we took advantage. It was pretty fun and the kids loved the train. The frontrunner is convenient because there are no stairs- we could roll our strollers straight on the train, but when we got to Salt Lake and transferred to Trax, you have to go up about 4 stairs, and you have to get in pretty quick. So as soon as the doors opened, I picked up Caydence's stroller (because mine was the smallest) and rushed her up the stairs. Then I would turn around and grab the front of the next stroller and we'd put that one in together, and then we'd grab the next one. It was pretty crazy, but we did it.

Good Samaritan #1
When we got to our stop at the Gateway, a man that was also riding Trax hopped off and helped each of us with our strollers, and then got back in the train. He GOT OFF the train to help us and he wasn't even getting off there! We thanked him, and then one of my friends said, "well there really are still nice people in this world!"

Here are a couple shots of them playing in the fountain. Caydence absolutely LOVED it. But she was always walking away from me so I didn't get very many good shots.
And this was the only shot I could get of her and Adam together. (We never could get Ali in the pictures because she wasn't really in to the fountain.)

Good Samaritan #2 (and #3)

So yesterday my mom took all us girls to this place she has been raving about called Causey Dam so we could float in the beautiful water. (We didn't get to bring our cameras, bummer) So anyways, it was a really steep trail to get from our car to the water, and we almost lost Grandma a few times on the way down, and Paige was crying the whole way, but we finally made it to the water. We had a good time, but when we went to leave we saw a place across the lake that was WAY closer to the road, so we wouldn't have to hike back up the mountain to get to the car. So mom agreed to go get the car and meet us over there. Well this is where the drama began. As soon as she started leaving, Caydencde started screaming. She was cold, and tired, and hungry. To make a long story short, the swim was a lot longer than we anticipated, and the wind was working against us. And Paige got ahead of me and Grandma and then started having a SEVERE panic attack. We could hear her SCREAMING and there was nothing we could do. She was making me pretty mad, she was fine (wearing a life jacket and floating on a raft) but she was freaking out. I felt totally helpless because I had finally gotten Caydence asleep on my chest, and all of the extra rafts on top of the raft I was floating on, and she was a ways ahead of us. And then Grandma starts telling me how tired she is, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to dive in for her, but I have sleeping Caydence on me. So I start paddling over to her to give her back her life jacket (mom is getting the car all this time) and I figure she needs my help more because Paige already had a life jacket on. Anyways, after lots of screaming "Paige, you are OK!!!! Stop screaming!!!! Settle down!!!!" a canoe came up beside us with a young couple inside. Heavenly father was definitely listening to my prayers. We begged them to go calm Paige down, and they were more than happy to help and rushed right over to her. They kept her calm until she could get to shore where mom was waiting. Then they came back to help me, but I was more worried about Grandma, so they towed her over to shore (which was still pretty far away) and then came back for me. They wrapped Caydence in a blanket and held her while they towed me back to shore. I don't know what we would have done without them. I was the only one that was able to help anyone else, but I couldn't because Caydence was having a hard time. I felt so helpless. I also felt very frustrated with a certain someone in the group.... but we were grateful for our helpers and found a better way to get into the lake for next time.....if there is a next time :)

4th of July!

We had such a fun 4th of July! Caydence was actually old enough to enjoy it this time. We started the day by going to the parade, and thanks to the Schuurmans, who now live on Main Street, we got a front row seat and we didn't even have to stake out a place a week in advance! Then we went to the city's production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and it was so good! We of course headed off to a BBQ after that, and then ended the day with fireworks. I wasn't quite sure how Caydence would react to the loud fireworks, but she was actually uninterested in them. She was more interested in a glow necklace someone handed to her. All in all, it was a great day, especially because it wasn't SCORCHING hot like it normally is on the 4th. In fact, the temperature during the parade was only in the low 70's! It was beautiful!

This is Truss, our old landlord who was nominated and won the Fruit Heights Unsung Hero award so he got to ride in the parade.
Caydence and Danny at the Parade

At the parade with Danny's sister and nephew.

We decided to skip the car and ride our bikes to the parade because the traffic is madness.

"My Dad Rocks!"

We had a surprise party for one of our friends a few weekends ago who is being deployed to Iraq. Danny's band played at the party, and I was really excited that Caydence finally got to wear her "My Dad Rocks" shirt! Here are a couple shots of her jammin.

Twins!

So for those of you who don't believe that Caydence and Danny look EXACTLY alike, here is the proof. Can't tell which is which? Neither will I..... (but the picture quality probably tells you which one is older, ha ha)

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

I would like to dedicate this post to Holly Marrelli who lent us her toy to help Caydence start walking. Caydence hadn't even started thinking about walking, but Holly gave us this toy, and now a week and a half later she is walking! I never thought this day would come!

(Sorry she looks like such a rag-muffin, but she had to have a second bath after lunch, and we didn't feel like getting her all ready again!)

And a couple nights ago when we were trying to get her to stand this was the result and we just couldn't stop laughing!

FINALLY.......NYC!!!

I am finally uploading our NYC pictures!! (It's been a crazy week!) Warning: There are a lot of pictures, but I cut these down from 190 we took!!!

This is the view from our hotel.

And when you zoom in between the buildings, you can see the Statue of Liberty. (We could see it better than this, but this is what the camera picked up.)
We took a 3 hour boat tour around the entire island of Manhattan and this is my FAVORITE shot we got from that tour.

Here's the Empire State Building from the boat tour.

Empire State Building from the "Top of the Rock" (The observation deck on the top of Rockefeller Center)

Looking up at Rockefeller Center

Looking straight down from the Empire State Building.

Another shot from the top of the Empire State Building. (Danny took about 100 of our pictures from up here, but I just picked 2)

The two of us on top of the Empire State Building.

Looking up at the Empire State Building.

You can all laugh at me, but this is Bella's prom dress from Twilight, and it is at Planet Hollywood in Times Square.

Thanks to my parents for the BEST part of our trip: WICKED!!!

This is as close to the top of the Statue of Liberty as you can get.

Danny with Manhattan in the background from the Statue of Liberty.

Statue of Liberty.

This is what Ground Zero looks like now. Our hotel was like a block away from here.

Danny standing in Grand Central Station. I love how this picture turned out, he is standing still and everyone is running around and blurred around him.

Times Square.

More Times Square.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge!

Some street performers.

This is one of my favorite pictures! Danny's face is so classic! This is at the Museum of Natural History.

As we were riding the Subway home for the last time on our last night, I realized we didn't have a single picture of it, so we tried about a million times to take one of ourselves, and this is the best one we got :)

We had such an AMAZING time and were so grateful to my parents for babysitting Caydence so we could enjoy our time there even more!! Thanks mom and dad!!

Mandy's wedding

My cousin Mandy got married last weekend, and of course I didn't have my camera, so I didn't get any pictures, but one of my cousins took these and sent them to us.

Our little family

Danny and Caydence