Una Vida Hermosa

We went to see Kung Fu Panda for the second time this week. Our good friends Jo, Maya, and Aidan joined us. Salem's favorite character is Tigress.

We celebrated Kaden's 6th birthday on Friday. Here are all four Salem grandkids helping blow out the candles. Kaden is an amazing cousin, nephew, brother, son, grandson, and friend. He's thoughtful, kind, loving, adventurous, intelligent, and an incredible math whiz! Happy Birthday Kaden! We love you!


Thanks to Ana for sending this sweet picture of Kaden, Salem, and Kardin.

Kardin and Sutton having fun at the birthday party.

How many men with graduate degrees does it take to put together a birthday present for a 6 year old?!?!?!

The present is finally assembled and Kaden gets to enjoy the inaugural ride!

The biggest kid of the group also got to enjoy a ride (the weight limit is 180 lbs.).

Salem enjoyed a ride too (although she can't quite reach the peddles).

We ended the celebration with some fun sparklers.

Aaron and Becky joined us for a nice picnic at Drue's soccer game this week. The soccer player in the picture is Wade, Drue's older brother. They've been playing on the same soccer team for over a decade now.

A cute picture of sweet Salem.

We went to a fun country festival with Aaron and Becky. It was a beautiful summer evening with music, good conversation, and great company. Sutton was persistent for over an hour and taught herself how to stand up independently! As you can see by the expression on her face, she was quite proud of her accomplishment.

Salem getting a swinging blanket ride from Drue and Aaron.

Salem giving Sutton a ride in the new sled we bought at a garage sale. They're already looking forward to snow sledding, but we're hoping to have several months before they can use this sled outdoors.

We attended a bug show at the library today. Here are Salem and Kaden checking out all the bugs. They had tarantulas, scorpions, praying manti, roaches, millipedes, and many others.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:

• 1. That the temperature here in the mountains is 10 degrees cooler than in the valley (now that Salt Lake has hit the 90 degree weather).
• 2. That the girls are capable of napping in our laps so that we could go to the movies during nap time and enjoy watching Iron Man.
• 3. White peaches. We just discovered these last year, but we're now hooked. They are sweet, juicy, and delicious.
• 4. That we have so many fun activities nearby that we can enjoy.
• 5. Watching Salem develop frienships of her own. Seeing Salem and her buddy Maya interact brings a smile to our faces.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

• Maggie: "Salem, who's my big girl?"
• Salem: "I'm not your big girl Mommy"
• Maggie: "why aren't you my big girl?"
• Salem: "I'm not your big girl Mommy...because I'm your PRINCESS"
• She's absolutely right! She is our sweet princess. After reading her bedtime books with Drue at night, she likes to end her evening by having Maggie tell her a story about Princess Salem. We adore our Princess Salem!!!

Salem and Sutton started their first summer session of swim class this week. They are both in a parent-tot class so both Drue and I have to hustle home from work to get to the pool. We're all having a terrific time.

Salem has almost perfected the belly-flop! Sutton is a bit more apprehensive, but she's getting more and more confident with each lesson. She can now "jump" into the pool and go under the water for a count of 1. Salem stays under for a count of 10-12.

We decided to make a caramel apple bouquet to take to Steph and Wade at the hospital as they welcomed in baby Dallin. Salem loves helping in the kitchen and thought this was a great project. Maggie enjoys all the extra help in the kitchen...most of the time :).

Salem proudly displaying her completed caramel apple bouquet.

We are all so excited to finally get to meet Wade and Steph's newest addition, Dallin Thomas. He's an absolutely beautiful baby and very much resembles his adorable three older siblings. Salem is already very much in love with her newest cousin and talks about 'Baby Dallin' every day. Sutton seemed intrigued, but wasn't crazy about the idea of Maggie holding another baby.

After our visit to the hospital we stopped by a local restaurant for some lunch. Drue and sutton enjoyed relaxing out on the patio listening to the water in the nearby brook.

It's hard for us to believe that our sweet baby girl will be a year old a month from today.
She is sweet, gentle, playful, inspiring, and incredibly patient.

Maggie's so glad that Sutton has nearly perfected her straw technique. It's makes drinks at restaurants much easier.

Drue, Salem, and Sutton enthralled with the birds in the brook.

We planned on taking the girls for a game of miniature golf, but the course was closed for a private party so we took advantage of the batting cages instead. Salem may be hooked now. She was quite impressed with herself for hitting all the balls so well (thanks to her Papa's help of course!)

Salem is slowly climbing out of her shy cautious shell and is becoming more and more adventurous. She was quite proud of herself for sliding down on her stomach.

We joined our good friends Jo, Maya, and Aidan for a fun trip to the Children's museum. Here are Salem and Maya having great fun at the water station.

Jo and sweet Aidan posing for a quick picture. Aidan was incredibly patient and tolerant while the wild two year old girls ran from one station to the next.

Salem's favorite activity at the musem was flying the helicopter.

Sutton's favorite activity was playing with the magnetic letters.

Drue broke away from his office to join us for some lunch at the Gateway after our trip to the museum. We of course had to fit is some fun in the fountains prior to lunch.

Jo and Maya enjoying the cool water on a hot Spring day!

Drue and Salem picking up our first food box for this farming season. We decided to support a local farm by joining a CSA (community sponsored agriculture). Each week, for the next four months, East Farms will deliver a box of fresh organically grown produce from their farm in Kaysville. The cool weather this Spring in Utah has delayed the growing season for the farm so this first week's produce consisted mostly of greens, some of which we've never heard of before but we're excited to try new foods and new recipes. We received red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, radishes, arugula, mizuna, and tat soi.

Drue and Salem pretending to be Spiderman and Spidergirl (they had sound effects and all).


This was a busy week of soccer...Drue had 4 games within 8 days! We're glad to say that the 32 year old body is holding up great!


Drue, Becky, Aaron, Grandma Hull, and the kids fit in a fun game of Croquet after Sunday dinner. Becky (and her baby girl) were the winners.

Sutton practicing her wobbly walk with Grandma Hull.

Sutton with her cute cousin Kaylee.

Salem at her gymnastics graduation from Tumble Bugs. We are very proud! She has now mastered an independent summersault and a full flip on the rings. She'll be moving on to Tumble Bees next season.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:
1. A beautiful sunny 70 degree day today (Maggie's idea of perfect weather).
2. Family and friends' blogs. It's so nice to stay in touch with you all.
3. Sutton's belly laughs at her silly sister and Papa pretending to be dogs.
4. That our tire blow-out occurred just as we were approaching the off-ramp and Drue was able to handle the car without any difficulty.
5. Picnics. We had several this week with all of the soccer games and we've decided that we love eating outside!

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old
Salem now has a routine to watching Drue's soccer games. She always examines him for any injuries as he comes off the field. Often times he has scraped up knees and her response is always the same: "Papa...who did this to you? Tell me who did this to you Papa...show me who did this Papa." Drue loves that she's so protective of him.

Sutton's new favorite snack: beef jerky! She seems to enjoy teething on a big slab of jerky much more than any other teether/toy that we've found.

Maggie's brother Bassam with his two boys Kaden and Kardin. Salem and Kardin are giving Suma, Maggie's mom, a run for her money when she has them both. They are both terrific kids, but they're definitely taking full advantage of being 2 year olds!

The two rugrats! Salem and Kardin enjoying a ride on the trike.

Cute Sutton with a mouthful of corn. Eating pureed baby food is a thing of the past for her...she's all about gumming her way through table foods now. One of these days she'll get a tooth to help her along.

Salem proudly modeling her new galabeya (traditional Egyptan dress) that she received from Maher and Samia, Maggie's aunt and uncle.

We finally had a chance to visit the zoo this week. Although it's sad to see the animals so confined, Salem is so fascinated by them that we try to make at least a weekly visit to the zoo when the weathr allows for it. Sutton's favorite on this visit was watching the elephant drink water using it's trunk.

Salem was so impressed with this beautiful peacock. Nature is so amazing!

Salem's current favorite is the gorilla. In case you can't tell, the gorilla is shading his head from the sun by placing a folded blanket on his head. Salem thought this was quite silly!

Here are Salem and Drue with Drue's parents, Dan and Linda. They have both been working tirelessly for months now renovating and remodeling a home in their neighborhood that was severely damaged with a house fire. The results are absolutely beautiful! Dan says that he wouldn't have had the confidence to take on such a big project had he not learned so much when he was helping us during our home construction. We're incredibly grateful for all the help Dan and Linda gave us with our house, and we're sure that David (this house's owner) must be equally thankful for both Dan and Linda's incredible dedication.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:
1. Salem's interest in playing with Sutton. We hope this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
2. A resounding 9-0 victory at Drue's soccer game this week.
3. Great mangos!! Mangos are our family's favorite fruit and Costco has some perfect ones right now.
4. Beautiful evenings that are perfect for a fun family walk around the neighborhood.
5. Maggie's parents' willingness to watch the girls so that we could get some yard work done. Neither of us are crazy about yard work, but it's nice to spend a sunny afternoon out in the yard together, even if it is spent pulling weeds.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old
Salem was working hard at trying to get Drue's attention, but Drue was distracted helping his nephew Logan: "Hey Papa, look at me......Papa...look at me......Papa......look at me" Drue had yet to respond. "Hey DAD....look at me." Salem knows all the right buzz words to get our attention. Since Drue only speaks Spanish to Salem, we've always referred to him as 'Papa' not 'Dad', but Salem seems to have quickly figured out that using an 'unusual' word will quickly get Drue's attention!