Summer Art

One day we gathered rocks on a walk and then came home to paint them.

Thank you Crayola, for the washable paint.

...it's the simple things, right?

And here's her special little lunch.

She ate aaaall the meat (meat's her favorite), maybe 1 green bean, and 1 stawberry.
At least she was excited and it looks pretty.

St. George

Aldrich Family Togatholy 2009

at the condo:

It was especially adorable to watch Rebecca and Natalie
they both talk now and say funny things
Rebecca was a bully to her at times
but other times they were hugging and dancing while holding hands!
definitely entertaining
and Natalie was such a great sport

Visiting the temple grounds:
Rebecca found a little friend (Abby) and they ran up and down the steps together.

Spa Day for the Ladies:

4th of July
barbecue
swimming and
watching the fireworks!

the whole gang:

Our little familyWe also: played a lot of Wii Fit, did a little shopping, ate really good food!, went to Zion's, took a four wheeling day trip (scary fun), went to a movie, read, talked and talked, and got to know our cute new sister-to-be (Kim) better.
Thanks for a great time everyone. We loved bonding with ya'll! And a special thanks to mom and dad for all of the planning. We love you mucho!

Camping at Strawberry

We met Omi and Grandpa at Strawberry Lake for a night of camping! They had everything set up so nice. They took their camper and cooked delicious meals. Rebecca was in heaven there, spending time with her grandparents and chasing squirrels. Jim took us out on the lake. It was just perfect weather. So relaxing and enjoyable. Thank you so much, Jim and Birgit! We can't wait to go again sometime!

Summertime

Swinging with the Reckling kids, summer sausages from the grill, the carousel in Midway, a tea party with Mimi and Uncle Lane...

As I recall, we had a few leftovers from this meal...

We Like It!

We Like Friends

Rebecca and I had a chance to get together with some great friends on Thursday! My friends Laura, Abby, Rachel, and I each have a little girl = friends for Rebecca! Laura provided us with duck feed (popcorn) and a gourmet lunch of chicken salad sandwiches, fruit, and Diet Coke (for the ladies). And we made it a date!

complete with duck-chasing toddlers!

We got to hang out at Laura's house too! Laura's post here
sidenote: Cadence (in the pink stripes) is Rebecca's birthday twin! They were born the same day (different hospitals).

Abster and Stella

My friend Abby brought Stella over for a little playdate!
Stella calls Rebecca "Baby Becca" and is her little mommy. It is hilariadorible (sorry I'm a dork and just made up that word) to watch them together.

Art City Days

We like Springville!
Here's our daredevil driving with both steering wheels.

Thursday night at the carnival was 50 cents per ride, as opposed to the usual $1-4. Rebecca rode the carousel, cars, space saucers, to her little heart's content. Jorg and I had a romantic ride on the Gravitron 2000.

Aunt Steph joined us! She and Jorg rode a scary, tip-you-flip-you ride. Rebecca watched with wide eyes and as they got off the ride, clapped and said, "You did it!"

My Little "Chick"

This movie is not super exciting, but we think it's pretty cute. Mostly, Jorg wanted it here for Kristin and Berit (his sisters) to see. She just looks so grown up!

Girl's Trip

Abby and I went to visit Kim and her new baby, Caleb. They live in Palmdale, California. The drive went so fast! Abby and I gabbed for 10 hours straight. No joke, our voices were sore when we arrived.

During our three days there, we went:

to In and Out Burger
just to make Jorg jealous :)

to the Wizard of Oz "Poppy Fields"
even though the poppies were out of bloom this time of year, it was still cool to see where my fav childhood movie was filmed.

to the beach!

to Hollywood



to a movie premiere. well, outside of it anyway.
It was "The Hangover" which I'm sure I'll never see. But we did see some stars who, I don't know their names...and I'm sure I could google them, but really I won't remember their names anyway (I have Abby for that!)...but it was very exciting
and I got lots of cuddle time with a cute baby Caleb! He is such a good baby and let us drag him around everywhere. It was soooo good to see Kim (and her husband Chris). We always said Kim was "MAde to be a mother" and it was fun to see her in that role. I wish they still lived here.

My Becca girl got to spend lots of time with daddy (see previous post). And Omi and Grandpa had her in Brigham City for a few days! She got some time with Mimi too.
I kept seeing her in my dreams and was so happy to have her in my arms again.

Thanks to everyone who made our trip possible!

This happens when MOM is in Cali and Dad @ Home alone

My Baby Brother

...graduated today! I got teary thinking that he is so grown up now. And the last Aldrich to graduate from OHS. He is such a handsome talented wonderful boy. I love you, Jolie Kitten!

sidenote: Rebecca thought Joel was a celebrity because she watched him "walk". She was a little scared of him for a second...you can see in one of those pictures.
I also ran into a student from my very first year teaching.
The fabulous Michael Bronson:

My little third graders are going out into the world!


For Joel's 18th birthday (on the 18th of May), he and I went out around town to collect 18 things. Above are pictures I took with his friends that we ran into on our journey. Um, yah...he a little bit popular. Holy COW.

Julio

(above: Stan, Jorg, Julio, Daniel, Roberto)
Monday we went to an awesome bbq for Julio. He and his beautiful wife and daughter are moving back to Mexico. Jorg's good friend, Daniel, put it all together.

The party was in Stan's backyard where they had chickens, hens, chickies, and a bee farm! Rebecca had a blast petting the chickies. And we bought 5 pounds of honey to take home with us. The house is near the Provo temple, so we think some of the nectar is from the flowers on the temple grounds. Pretty spiffy.
We are going to miss the Sonoro family!

Something New

Last week, Omi and Grandpa came down for a visit. They set up a new swing set for the luckiest girl! They also brought a little sand box. Rebecca enjoys our backyard so much, thanks to these two.

And Birgit made me a birthday cake! It is in the shape of a butterfly and has little ice cream cones on top. We all know I love ice cream!!!
Thank you sooooooo much, Birgit and Jim!

I turned 29 again!

Horray! Party! Balloons! Hor-ray!
Okay, there was no party or balloons. But there WAs:
morning cheesecake
Wii Fit hidden in the backyard
lunch with friends (thanks Tanya, Georgia, and Corinne!)
shopping
movie with Jorg
visit and babysitting from my mom
gourmet cupcakes (thanks, Em!)
phone calls, messages, mail, and email from loved ones
ice cream

playing at the park

hugs and kissies from my girl and eternal boyfriend
I liked it
Thank you so much for the birthday love!

Lane and Kim

My cutie pie brother got engaged over the weekend to Kim!
She's great and we love her.
Congratulations, you two! Check out their blog.