Backyard Fun...

These pictures are a few weeks old, but I just realized I hadn't posted them yet. Better late than never. :) My best friend just moved from a few miles away back to Salt Lake City. (SUPER BIG TEAR!!!!! Even though it's not that far away, I'm SO SAD she won't be so close anymore.) Anyway: our daughters are best friends too and play so well together! We almost don't have to entertain at ALL which is FABULOUS! :) They came over for dinner right before I went on my trip, as a last little hurrah. We played out in the back for a few minutes until we started getting swarmed by the wicked mosquitoes that are here in West Kaysville! Anyway: here are some pics of the sweet girls...

They LOVE to play by the garden. They just walk around and around it and then when we let them, they love to pick stuff. It's precious.

My beautiful daughter! :) She's SO CUTE! :)

Brian and Kylie just planted this tree in our backyard (and they planted even more while I was out of town) and Kylie loves to go over by it and look at it. It will be crazy to watch them both grow over the years! (Speaking of which...parents out there...how do you keep from getting so sad at how fast these kids grow? Last night before bed we were saying our family prayer, and I just started crying over how big Kylie is getting! She's not a baby AT ALL anymore...she's turning into a big girl! It's a bit sad, I must say! Not that it isn't a blast watching her grow, but I don't want her to grow up!!! So sad!)

The best little friends "hugging it out." They love to hug each other and it's so cute.

After we played outside, we came in to have a treat. Here are a few pics of the girls eating them...PRICELESS!!! (You might notice a few differences in how they eat their cookies! :) )

A trip to myself (with 120 others!)

So I'm a bad poster, huh?! I'll try to be better! I'm SORRY! This will be a fairly quick post...I just wanted to document a trip I just went on. For the first time in what feels like FOREVER, I went on a trip ALL BY MYSELF! (Ok..not all by myself exactly...but all by myself meaning no family was with me.) It was an all expense trip paid by Stampin' Up! Why?! You might ask?! I won an award through them (along with about 120 others) that earned me the trip. They flew us all to St. George and we had FIVE DAYS to do very little. :) They had a few events planned for us, but most of it was free time/relax time. I had an AMAZING TIME! They spoiled us rotten and it was wonderful. :) I met new friends, got closer with other friends, hung out with SHELLI (the co-founder and President of Stampin' Up! and someone I admire GREATLY!), and just had a BLAST! I shared more of this on my stamping blog, but I wanted to document it here as well. I missed my family SO MUCH and couldn't wait to come home and give kisses and hugs to both Brian and Kylie. I think they both missed me a bit too. :) But they had some fun Daddy daughter time and Brian is SO AMAZING! I came home and he had the house spotless, some landscaping done, the garage all organized, other places in the house organized, and he had a gift on my pillow since I'd gotten so used to that while I was away! :) (Yes...every night when we got back to our hotel room there were gifts on our bed! SO FUN! :) ) Anyway: it was a great time, but it is good to be back. Here are a few photos...

This was on my door as I checked in to my room. What a fun welcome! :) We had the whole hotel, so Stampin' Up! kinda took over. They set up an an area called The Gathering Place and they had all sorts of comfy couches, chairs, LoveSac type things, and THIS! There were a few of these around the room, and you could just come, fill up one of the silver buckets with whatever candy you wanted. They kept this thing stocked the whole time. :) It was such a fun touch!

These were how the tables were set up for our first night welcome dinner. So pretty! I LOVE the pink/black/and white theme throughout the week!

Brandi (on the far left) is my upline and who I hung out with most of the week. It was GREAT to get to know her more and have fun with her! Wendy, in the middle, was with us a lot as well. She is darling too and so much fun to get to know! ("As we discussed"...thanks girls for a great time! :) )

This was one of our gifts that was left in our room. Probably my favorite! :) It had a new stamp set, some ink pads, and some ribbon! SO MUCH FUN! :)

Shelli is the one on the far left. I really do admire her for all that she has accomplished as a female in a "males business world." This is the 20th year Stampin' Up! has been around and it has grown SO MUCH! It's amazing, really...but I'll spare you the details! :) I'm SO impressed with so many things about her and I feel so lucky to get to hang with her a bit this past weekend!

In the Gathering Place they also had these comfy blankets to cuddle up in. We all wanted to take them off to our rooms when no one was looking. Well, Stampin' Up is SO NICE they gave us ALL one the last night we were there! They are FABULOUS! :)

Stampin' Up!'s manufacturing plant where they make all their rubber stamps is actually in Kanab. One of the days we took a trip out there. Shelli and Sterling (her husband) made this park for the city of Kanab. It's only fitting that the stuff under the playground equipment is leftover rubber from the rubber stamps! :) It's all shredded up, but you can totally find pieces of stamp sets if you look! It was SO FUN to play with and more bouncy than you might think. (I know..it's rubber. I still didn't think it would be as bouncy as it was!)

Our last night there they took us all out on buses for a destination unknown! :) Well, it ended up being at a Country Club up Snow Canyon. Actually...this is where High School Musical 2 was filmed. Anyway: they had a whole area set up for us with a big movie screen just for us, yummy food, a whole treat stand for us, and our blankets on each of our chairs. It was GREAT! It was perfect weather, and we just sat there under the stars and watched the movie, "No Reservations." It was such a perfect night and the perfect end to a fabulous trip. THANKS! It was truly wonderful! (Ok...this turned out to be not such a short post! Sorry!)

My cutie pa-tootie daughter!

I love just watching Kylie play and interact. My mom and dad just took Cameron, my youngest brother, to college in Rexburg, Idaho. SO....they are NOW empty nesters. They are both a bit nervous about this. I think it will be great though. :) I'm just freaked out that Cams is AT COLLEGE! Where does the time go? Anyway: my parents drove through Utah while taking Cams to school so they have been at our house a few nights. It has been so much fun seeing how much fun Kylie has playing with them. She LOVES Grandma and Grandpa Brown. She's always asking for them, calling for them throughout the house, and just is always making her attempts at getting them to play whatever game she wants to play at the moment. Anyway: Kylie was finally content playing by herself for a small portion of the morning, so I got some pics of her. I really need to take more pics....I'll get some of her with Grandma and Grandpa later today.

Here's my grown up little girl. She talks SO MUCH! She puts full sentences together...and has for awhile. She is always amazing me at how fast her little mind works. It's funny because she calls me "Mommy Ashley" sometimes too. She'll use my name especially if she is trying to get my attention. She say, "Mommy! Mommy!" Then she'll pause and say, "Ashley!" It's so funny. Last night she just puts her hand on my cheek, looks at me, and says, "Mommy Ashley." I love her little voice.