Adalyn Turns 6!

Adalyn turned 6 years old on August 10th.  We have been talking about birthdays and birthday parties and presents non stop since June.  Finally finally!! it was Adalyn's special day.  But first before we get into the details of her 6th birthday, a quick look back over the last 6 years....

Brand new

6 Months 

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Adalyn is a wonderful big sister and the leader of the pack.  She sure knows how to organize and convince her younger siblings to do exactly what she wants.  I am not sure what they are going to do without her while she is at school.  She is a wonderful friend.  Our door is knocked on many many times a day by little neighbor friends who are hoping Adalyn can come out and play.  Adalyn loves having fun.  She wants life to be a party and asks often if we can have a dance party when daddy gets home from work.  

Adalyn may have started out as a mama's girl, but she is a daddy's girl these days.  She loves sitting on his lap at dinner time and loves any chance she can get to play games with him.  

Adalyn is smart and very aware of life around her.  She listens to the conversations and pays attention to details.  She is a kind friend and can make friends easily anywhere we go.  She loves anything that sparkles and shines.  She spends her free time dressing up, wearing her play make up and still loves her dress up high heels.  She has the biggest collection box in the house full of treasures and special papers from school.  Adalyn's memory is truly amazing.  She remembers every detail of life.  I often hear her talking about things that happened when she was 3 and she remembers a lot.  Honestly I sometimes wonder... "have you been reading the blog?" since I have no idea how she remembers things. haha! 

Adalyn is going into 1st grade.  She is excited to make new friends and eat lunch at school, but not too excited for the homework.  She has now lost 4 teeth and gets lots of comments about her cute freckles.     

She loves to match outfits, shoes, and anything else she possibly can.  She chose matching shirts with Magnolia for her birthday outfit.  Adalyn reminds me so much of myself.  Her brain is just wired the same way mine is.  That can be a good thing sometimes and not so helpful at other times.  :)   She is a great little helper around the house these days and honestly will do most tasks happily when asked.

This year I am finally figuring out my groove of how I want to work birthdays at our house.  I let them pick out a theme for their birthday party (whether it is a friend party or not).  We decorate the house a bit, they get balloons and special plates to eat their cake on.  Adalyn chose an Elsa party so that is what we had.  

My aunt and uncle, Brent and Heather, invited us to their house for Alpine Days (Alpine is where they live) which happened to be the same weekend as Adalyn's birthday so we got to celebrate in Utah with family.  

We went swimming at their local pool in the afternoon.  Dayton, Brady, Corinne, and Solomon were able to come to the pool with us.  It was a lot of fun floating the lazy river with the babies and my older kids loved the big (yet very mild) water slide.  After the pool we went back to their house for homemade pizza and cake and ice cream.  My parents were able to join us as well which was fun.  Adalyn had a great time opening her gifts and eating her very special Elsa cake made by Aunt Heather. 

This was such a special day for Adalyn.  Summer birthdays are awesome and we always seem to have something fun planned for her special day.  We hope she knows how much we love her and are thankful to have her in our family!  Happy Birthday Adalyn!        

    

St. George Family Reunion

Best week of our summer right here.  We went to St. George, UT the last weekend of July for a family reunion.  All of my sisters were there, my parents, my grandma Fry, and all the grandkids (Even 5 week old Afton was there).  The only family member missing was Draesen who was responsible and didn't skip out on work.  We LOVED this trip.  My only complaint about it was that it wasn't long enough.  I definitely could have stayed a few more days.

We took tons of pictures.  My sister, Mykelti was the photographer for this trip so all photo/video credit goes to her.  And if you are really dedicated feel free to watch the video linked at the end of this post.  It is an awesome video that Mykelti put together of this trip.  She is so talented, I love it.

This isn't our first time doing a family vacation to St. George (we went with family back in 2014 and for our honeymoon back in 2009), yet everything we did this time were different things then the last time.  There is just lots to do down there.  We stayed in the World Mark condos again, and they were great.  Lots of space to spread out, full kitchens, the kids get their own sleeping spaces and the pool right outside.

I am not going to give a play by play of everything that we did.  I am just going to let the pictures tell the story this time.  But a few quick highlights- Girls night out, Afton's blessing on Sunday at Rusty's parents ward, games nights (I still have the high score for 7 Wonders woot woot!!), lots of pool time, watching Adalyn swim in her "mermaid tail", meeting baby Afton, playing with August, Afton, and Solomon.  Thank you mom, dad, and Grandma for making this trip possible!

A quick update on who's who... 

Grandma Fry

My mom and dad

My sister Larissa, Rusty, August (1.5 years old), and Afton (5 weeks old)

McKay, Kajsa, and our kids

My sister Corinne, Stu, and Solomon (9 months)

My sister Mykelti (Draesen had to work)

What a special time with family!  We are grateful to have them in our lives.  Here is the link to Mykelti's fun video of this trip.  Check it out, and have a wonderful day!