chris.reese.girls1.2.3.4

Yes...this is the final post from my trip to Utah (phew!). I've been sorting, editing and sharing photos for a few weeks now and I'm glad to wrap it all up. Yay for sisters who take awesome pics! We've documented our time together well. As I said before, my girls and I hung out in SLC while Chris was at a conference in Vegas. We mostly just hung at Grandma's and enjoyed the slip and slide, hot tub, and all her awesome toys. We did venture out for a few things: The Bountiful Pool , which has an amazing kiddie area. Paige went flotation device free almost the entire day. She loved playing with Ty and Caden and going on the big water slide (indoors). We were slightly annoyed they had to evacuate the pool for an "incident"... twice ...gross. Why does that only happen when I'm in Utah???...especially with their crazy "swim diaper + plastic pants" requirement for any kid under three. Go figure - it's obviously not helping. We love the pool when i...

Most of the Dalley crew left PV on Sunday. Our little family and my Dad hung around an extra 48 hours to play. Chris and Dad golfed super early each morning...Chris got back to the house and worked remotely starting at 9a.m. PST.  We also met for breakfast one morning with my grandparents, we cleaned the house (a little...), did laundry, rode the 4-wheelers and just generally chilled.  One of our favorite outings was a picnic lunch at the stream. One day earlier Chris and Trevor had gone back to make another dam, since last year's had been washed away. I was shocked when we arrived and discovered we had ourselves a swimming pool! It's COLD! It's so hard to say goodbye ( Boys II Men song is in my head now) to our wonderful slice of heaven! Chris headed to Vegas for a conference, and my Dad and I drove with the girls to SLC. This marked the end of our Pine Valley part of the trip, and I'm already looking forward to next year!! 

So much of Pine Valley is about time with cousins, aunts/uncles, and grandma & grandpa. The kids roam free and the unstructured time is a highlight for them. Here are photos of this summer's action when we are all together. (Prepare for photo overload) My parents are the cutest...and grandma has popsicles. Win.Win. My dad took the older kids on a hike up the hill mountain behind the house. I kept asking him if he was sure he could handle Paige ... and he said he was. This is what Paige looked like when she came back (a bit red in the face, and yes, that's dirt in her teeth). I pulled about 30 cactus pins from her arm, and about 100 of those bushie things from her shoes and socks. She looked pretty beat up...but once I got her cleaned up she seemed fine.  These two wild kids had a great time hanging back at the house.  If Brynn held still for longer than 2 minutes, she would crash.  That's a caramel apple sucker sitting on her diaper and yes, she finished it once...

As per tradition, our 24th of July festivities in PV included the annual leg races at the church. It's actually part of a larger event that includes a pancake breakfast and (somewhat lengthy) program, but in typical fashion we focus mostly on the food and fun. The toddlers were up first in the leg races and inevitably, none of the three Dalley babies (Brynn, Graham and Rylan) finished the race. Brynn and Graham froze and Rylan made it a few steps before giving up. I ended up carrying Brynn across the finish. It was pretty funny.   I love this pic...Camille and Chris are both yelling, "GO!"  Paige did great. She's an old pro after a few years of experience. But in TOTAL Paige fashion, she completely biffed it a foot short of the finish line. She literally crawled to my feet and one of the other races clobbered her in the head. Thank goodness her clumsiness is coupled with toughness ( most of the time) because she jumped right up and was smiling.  Camille snapp...