First days of school & dance

I love how little this big school makes my 5 year old look. This was on the day of her testing. She was insisting that she didn't want to go home with me, and just stay at school. Well that wasn't going to happen. I wasn't willing to let my little baby go to school one minute before she absolutely had to.

^^LAST FIRST DAY OF LAW SCHOOL!!!!! happy and sad day.

^^ after I took a picture of Dan, sylvie ran up to the door and shouted, "I'm ready for my picture mama!" she had her thumbs up and smile on when I got up to her haha.

OH this sweet little girl. She was so excited!!! as we were walking in, she told me, "Mama, my stomach has never been so excited, scared in my whole life. This is going to be a great core memory!" haha. And she had to wear her "lucky vest," because she wore it to her testing and loved it.

She instantly made a BFF after one second of being in the classroom. Since then, she has 4 new BFF's that we walk home from school with. Just today as we walked in, a little boy said, "hiiiii Stori..." and stori smiled really big at me and said, "oh that's ryley. he's my new friend." haha. i think her cheeks were a little red too.

FIRST day of Dance for the girls. They will be in the same class this year, and so far they are loving it. They are so cute, and such good listeners to Miss Cami.

Little bits of summ

We spent the last little bit of summer vacation in Provo, and we had a lot of fun. it seemed like our days were: wake up, run, swim, park, bed, repeat. Stori can now swim the length of the pool without a lifejacket, and loves to be under water. Sylvie still doesn't love to put her head all the way under the water, but she loves to swim and LOVES the huge slides. her and dan would go on them over and over.

this is how we spent our 7th anniversary... put the kids to bed, ordered Cafe Rio, and then watched The Intern. then had Oregon Strawberry Tillamook Ice cream. It was the perfect night. Love SDR and  love our (local) adventuring life together. 

Peach season!! We harvested our peaches, made peach pie, and I consumed several bowls of peaches and milk.

Stori picked out this little toy with the money granny faylene gave her for her birthday. She LOVES this little "Destiny," from the movie Finding Dory.

^^Watching Finding Dory :)

^^this cute little picture she drew for her BFF Lila who lives in California!

^^ Stori drew this (creepy) picture of Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. It's pretty good I guess haha.

^^ Watching them cut down the huge old cute tree at the "Daddy Park." (Bicentennial Park).

^^ Date night to Station 22

^^This wall on our walk to a park. The girls are obsessed with it.

^^ This picture is super insignificant to the eye, but i love how both girls always bring these chairs over whenever I make food, and insist on helping me. I love seeing these chairs there.

Stori had been wanting her hair cut ALL summer, but I was super hesitant. I love fixing long hair, and love her cute red hair in long braids. Even though I didn't cut it as short as she wanted it, I still cut off several inches, and that made her pretty happy!

Our last bits of summer were just superb! 

June bug is 3

This year, both of my kids wanted to help decorate their own birthday cakes. Stori did almost all of hers by herself (and it looks just like a 5 year old did it).

Sylvie really wanted a "rainbow dash" birthday cake, even though they really don't know who rainbow dash is---it's a My Little Pony character. I frosted the cake, and then Stori and sylvie did the rainbow, clouds, and sprinkles. I did the first row of the rainbow, and then they did the rest.

^^ when you ask the new 3 year old to smile, this is what you get.

^^snapped this pic while we were singing happy birthday. She just looks so content with life haha. We were up in a park in the canyon, so ya, that day was pretty great!

Stori decided that we should decorate all of her presents. Stori did 2 (I didn't get a close up of the other picture she did before sylvie opened it. it's located in one of the pictures ^^).

^^ my decorated one.

^^ Dan's creation.

^^ opening Zootopia! :)

And stori decorated our driveway with a rainbow for her. The 5 year old loves the 3 year old, and vice versa! 

We all love our little June Bug, and her big personality. She really is a little sweetheart who loves to cuddle and loves back scratches haha.

Radford family reunion

waaaaay back in august, several generations of Radfords met up in Bone Idaho, for a fun camping reunion. The girls are HUGE fans of camping, so this was kind of the best! We spent 3 days without service, without technology, and smelling of the best smell summer has to offer: campfire.

This picture of Marisa is one of my favorite ones from the whole reunion. This was at the talent show, and she played and sang a song she composed. There were very few dry eyes, and she received a standing ovation at the end. She is the sweetest girl, with a heart of gold.

^^ card trick performed by Uncle Wes.

^^ kid picture. Stori and Sylvie both bonded with kids their own ages and became instant buff's.

^^ The Steven Radford clan that was present.

 the whole group. this is missing several of steve's siblings and all their kids.

^^ Aunt Paige came up with so many craft ideas for the kids. Clara and Stori worked hard on their cute fairy houses and candy machines.

^^ I canoe, canoe canoe? This was the highlight for the kids (and us too). Stori even jumped off the dock without a warning! Caught us all off guard and made us very proud. The waster was freeeeezing!

^^ getting dirty within the first 10 minutes of being there.

The day before the actual reunion, we went with Dan's parents and Nicole to Jackson and Yellowstone. It was sooooooo packed... like took us over an hour to enter the park from west yellowstone.

It was pretty hot too, so not our most favorite trip to Yellowstone, but still a fun day spent with family.