Yellowstone and Brynn's 2nd birthday

It seems like my kids keep having their birthdays in conjunction with some other family get-together/vacation.  It sure makes it easy for me...since we're already doing something fun, I don't have to try to think of something creative and exciting.  A win-win!!

My mom and dad planned a short getaway for us to Yellowstone.  We got there on a Friday afternoon and the kids wasted no time in jumping in the pool.  Yay!!  We were able to swim both nights we were there...

Molly loves water!!

Stockton doesn't as much...I had to put him in kicking and screaming before he decided that it was okay.  He enjoyed the water guns but I'm not sure he got in up to his waist unless someone was holding him.  I love my cautious child but sometimes wish he'd be a little bit more willing to try things. 

Brynn loves water too but gets cold so fast.  But there was a little kiddie pool that was 1 1/2 feet all the way across...she liked to get in and out by way of the stairs.  It kept her occupied for quite a while.

High flyin' Brynn!!

She has a serious crush on Uncle Jeff...maybe because he's always tossing her around like her daddy does.

We had a birthday party for Brynn and Abby Friday night.  Abby's birthday was a few days before the trip and Brynn's was a few days after.  Abby was nice to share her party.  They opened some presents.  Brynn got some fun things from her cousins (tub/sand toys, Minnie Mouse water toys, and a stuffed Yellowstone bear) and some things from grandma and grandpa (clothes, musical instruments, and a bubble table).

We had cake.  Abby's is the Hello Kitty side and Brynn's is Sesame Street.

We were up early Saturday morning to catch the snow coach that would take us through some of Yellowstone.  The snow coach was great!  The kids loved that it had big tracks instead of wheels and I loved that the kids could roam around for the most part.  They could sit by parents or cousins or grandparents (or Uncle Jeff if you are Brynn)...not being strapped in a car seat made it a pleasant trip.

 

I've been to Yellowstone a few times in the summer but never in the winter.  It was so beautiful with the trees and the snow.  The driver stopped every so often so we could get out to look at wildlife or take pictures.

The guide called this the "quintessential Yellowstone photo"...the trees, the buffalo (you can barely see them by the river), and the steam coming from the hot pots.  It really is beautiful.

Our longest stop was at Old Faithful.  We ate lunch and were able to wait around until it erupted.  We had a snowball fight while we waited.

We watched Old Faithful go.

Then we loaded back onto the snowcoach and drove back to our hotel, with a couple more stops on the way.  We went a different route, by this beautiful waterfall, Firehole Falls.

More swimming that night, then bed, then church the next morning, then home.  And can I just mention that our kids did awesome on the drive, both there and back?  We didn't have to stop for anything other that bathroom breaks.  We were able to drive all the way there (from my parents house a little more than 4 hours, and then add 90 minutes to that for our drive home) with no major tantrums or meltdowns.  It was awesome!  A fun and successful trip all around!!

Then a few days later Brynn turned two!  I know this always gets said but I can't believe she's 2!  Where has the time gone?!  I felt bad that I didn't have anything fun planned for her birthday so I took the kids to the mall in the morning.  My first choice was the Bean Museum but it's closed for renovations so the mall was next best.  I let them look at the Disney Store and then play at the dinosaur playground for an hour or so.

 

We had to get back for lunch, school, naps, and then gymnastics for Molly.  Justin left work a little early so he was waiting for us when we got home.  Brynn is not much of an eater so I didn't know what her favorite meal was...I made meatballs because the other kids love, love meatballs.  After dinner Brynn got her presents from us.  We finally thought our kids needed a wagon.  It was a hit with all three kids-they spent the rest of the night pulling each other around.  Brynn loves dolls and stuffed animals so we also got her a Rapunzel doll (Molly has a Cinderella one that has held up really well...she has slept with it every night for probably close to 4 years). If Brynn is anything like Molly, she will start loving the princesses soon. 

While the kids played in the new wagon I finished up the birthday cupcakes.  I few days before I had found directions for Elmo cupcakes that I figured I could pull off with success.  I didn't show any of the kids until I pulled them out of the fridge to light the candles (I had made them the night before).  They could definitely tell it was Elmo.

I honestly don't know if Brynn knew that they were cupcakes and that she could eat one.  She just stared at it and then took a few licks.  Silly girl.

That was it for her actual birthday.  The day after that all the kids got to stay with Grandma April and Grandpa Gene for a sleepover (Justin had a credit union conference in Salt Lake) so she got a few more presents there.  A microphone, a purse, and an Elmo doll that laughs when you tickle it. 

Now for a few words about Brynn.  We just love her to pieces, we are always thankful that we have her in our family and that she came fairly soon after Stockton.  Two is just a fun age-Brynn is almost always doing something silly to see if she can get any laughs out of us.  She usually does.  She is so quiet, which just must be her nature.  She hasn't been talking a lot so we decided to have her speech and language assessed.  We had a speech pathologist come to our house a few weeks ago and play with and observe her for an hour or so just to make sure she wasn't delayed.  She wasn't.  In fact, in all areas she is either spot on or ahead for her age.  That was good to know...now we can just enjoy her cute personality and not worry about what she isn't saying.  In the last month, though, we have seen immense improvement...I probably hear a new word almost everyday.  Brynn likes to play cars with Stockton but also enjoys dressing up.  She carries her baby around and feeds it a bottle, changes its diapers, pushes it around in the shopping cart or doll stroller. She is always begging Molly to read her books.  She climbs on everything.  She is trying hard to be so independent...she buckles her carseat by herself and she tries hard to dress herself.  She takes off her diaper all the time. We've had to make sure she has a onesie on all the time or off goes her diaper.  This has most often happened when she is in her crib.  She has sat on the toilet a few times because she'll tell us when she has to go but she must get scared because nothing's ever happened.  But potty training is not on my list of things to do right now so we'll just keep those onesies on so the diapers stay on too!  Brynn is not a big eater.  I wouldn't say she is a picky eater, she just doesn't eat a lot.  I never know when she is going to eat the meal I put in front of her or not.  She just only eats something if she feels hungry and then as soon as she doesn't feel hungry anymore she's done.  At breakfast she'll eat a lot and then just smaller things throughout the day.  At her well-check this month she weighed 18 pounds on the dot and was 30.5 inches long.  Brynn is not a big TV watcher.  She loves Elmo but won't usually just sit and watch him for longer than 10 minutes.  She watches Sesame Street after Molly catches the bus and I also use the Sesame Street channel online to help her sit still long enough for me to comb her hair.  She loves warm milk.  She is our only child that has not had fits when it is time to go to nursery.  From the very first week she has walked right in and stayed for the whole two hours.  (It might help that her nursery teachers are amazing...you should have seen the Conference packet/game that they made for their class.)  She also has been really good to go to any of my neighbors when I go out for Relief Society visits.  This has been a blessing for me.  She is tiny but I think she honestly thinks that she can do whatever she sees her brother and sister do.  She is always right in the mix, copying whatever crazy thing they are doing.  Brynn is a great sleeper at night, sleeping close to 12 hours, and also takes a pretty long nap during the day...about 3 hours.  A lot of days I end up waking her up at five so that she'll go to bed at night.  It is wonderful and something that I don't ever want to stop but since she is two I imagine it will stop sometime in the next year.  She loves cuddling up in her blanket.  It gives her lots of comfort when she is sad or upset.  I love cuddling with her too!  Happy Birthday Brynn!! 

P.S.  Molly was so excited to start her own blog this week.  She wrote about our trip to Yellowstone here: http://mollykay6.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-tour-of-yellowstone.html
I was excited for her and am a little interested to see if the excitement will wear off.  We'll see...