Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Ryan, Jane and I went to the Thanksgiving Point gardens last week and had a blast!! they were so beautiful. We also discovered this adorable little children's garden. We had so much fun there. It was one of the best family outings ever!! Here are mama and Jane in the maze!
Jane loved exploring the maze and trying to find daddy, who kept running and hiding from us!!
The bear cave was so cute with tunnels and passageways in and out of it. It was scary! Jane had to have a hand on me at all times- but she is adventurous and had to give it a try.
Here are Jane and Ryan at the entrance to the bear cave. This bear growls...Here is Jane in the little light house. It was just her size and she loved trying to lock me out...
Jane really enjoyed the fish tank. Ryan fed them fish food and Jane tried to feed them the rocks she had been collecting along the way... they didn't go for that.
Here, we were able to let Jane build. It was just so cute and fun. Ryan, loved building towers just about as much as Jane did and was almost as good!! :)
There was a little stage with this xylophone near by. Jane loves playing it...she was pretty good!! Once again, Ryan joined in on the fun and had a little jam session of his own!!

Ryan and I tried to get a good picture in front of the waterfall, but it was just too bright. No worries, I know this isn't the best picture- but it was just a beautiful setting and I couldn't resist putting this picture in. Just ignore us and look at the background :)
Here is the largest man made waterfall in the world!! It was so beautiful!
At the very end of the day, we let Jane play around in the cutest little fountain. It was a replica of Noah's Ark. Jane loved running and splashing around in the water. By the end, she was pretty soaked but she had a blast.
Here is just a cute picture of Jane after daddy put every clip we own in her hair...because she wanted it done!! She stared at herself in the mirror, smiling and laughing, for a good long time after it was all done. She is so much fun :)

Last day of little gym :(

Jane has so enjoyed The Little Gym but all good things must come to an end. Hopefully, we will be able to do it again someday soon. She is so talented. She knows the routine of the day perfectly- she knows when its free time, ball time and bubble time and definitely vocalizes it. She loves when they do the parachute and she is able to slide down it. She is great at sharing with the other kids. And is willing to try the knew tricks...most of the time. Jane definitely has a will of her own though. If she is not into the group activity, she will make it known!! All in all, I'd say Jane learned alot from The Little Gym and had tons of fun!!

Summer Fun!!

Thanks to Ryan's sweet sister, Angie, we were able to go on a fun bike ride as a family. She is letting us barrow her bike as well as her pull behind bike trailer that Jane so much enjoyed.
Here is Jane in her little carriage- She loved it!!
We stopped when we noticed some horses. Jane loves animals and has recently started saying horse. She loved feeding them.
We also went to the Tracy Aviary, which was alot of fun!!! Jane got to see so many new, beautiful birds that she has never seen before. She was pretty fearless and we would have to often stop her from walking right up to the birds and giving them a big kiss.

There were so many wonderful exotic birds!!
Mama was there too!!
Of course, she was completely enthralled with the ducks- her current favorite animal!!
The next week, we went up to the historic Wheeler Farms. Here is Jane sleeping on the way up! Lately, any time she is in the car she has to be wearing her new stylish sunglasses that Grammy bought for her!! She is so adorable.
There was a cute little tree house on the farm that Jane and daddy had fun climbing into.
Oh, how Jane adored the geese...
She loved them so much that she would chase them giving them air kisses all the way!! They were not so amused...
Jane was so excited to pet all the farm animals.
We even went on a wagon ride around the farm. It was pretty shaky, but fun nonetheless!!

This past weekend, we were able to go the air show at the Hill Air Force base. Since anything Air Force is going to be such a major part of our future, we decided it would be fun to go see the base and all the amazing planes and jets. Here I am in the largest plane in the World!! It was so huge!!
Here is a picture of Ryan and Jane standing just outside the monstrosity.
The actual air show was absolutely amazing. I know it is small, but here are three fighter jets zooming past, dog fight style. It was a nice shot of them flying past the tail of the huge plane on the ground (I think it was called the C-15).
Here is an older style plane, most likely seen in past wars. This was my favorite- it was so beautiful. Jane loved the planes so much. Every time, we ask her what a plane says she makes the loud swooshing noise the jets would make when they zoomed past. So cute!!
Just today, Jane and I were able to go to a teddy bear picnic at the Orem library with some friends. It was themed as the emerald city and there were such fun story tellers!! So cute!! Thanks Mellisa and London for inviting us!!:)
Jane loved the man with the puppets. The girl puppet was named "Paige Turner"...get it!! So fun!!
Jane was especially enamored with this giant teddy bear. She would not leave him alone- Always holding his hand and giving him hugs!!! It was so cute and so much fun!!

This is turning out to be a great summer- with much more fun to come!!!

Beware of Ryan, Mary and Jane Dick...

If you are planning on moving and would like help...we would love to help you...but I would recommend that you not let us anywhere near any priceless family heirlooms, expensive items, lamps, collectors items, etc. etc. In fact, perhaps you should not let us near your home at moving time at all...

An unprecedented string of unfortunate happenings caused by the Dick family, has made me realize that disaster simply follows us. In the past few years, my mother has moved several times. And we, being very supportive, have been there helping every step of the way. The first time we helped move, the sound of us girls talking to my mother about her priceless family heirloom lamp was shattered (literally) by Ryan breaking the very lamp being spoken of into hundreds of pieces while trying to pack and move it... (If you would like a more detailed version of this story- I did blog about it, so go back and find "7 Years Bad Luck").

As unfortunate as that experience was, time heals all wounds and my mom eventually forgot about her family heirloom, lamp that Ryan so ungracefully broke. The time quickly came again when my mother needed to move. Once again, the Dick's diligently showed up to help move. This time, however, Ryan stayed home to watch Jane. We thought perhaps this would prevent anymore mishaps from occurring. However, I was proven devastatingly wrong when while unpacking my mothers collector salt and pepper shakers from all over Europe, I managed to unknowingly cause the glass shelf I was placing the shakers on the slip and fall...and shatter...shattering many of her beautiful, one of a kind, salt and pepper shakers. Of coarse, I was devastated and felt horrible. We managed to somehow laugh about the situation which made me feel a little better.

Once again the lost priceless items broken by a member of the Dick clan were forgotten and time moved forward. None of us were too surprised when my mother needed our help to move, yet again. This move, Ryan and I stayed home as long as possible until most of the expensive, priceless, or "one of a kind" items were moved and then we came to help unpack. This perhaps was the key to preventing any further disasters. Surprisingly enough, the move went smoothly.

A few days later Christina, Jane and I went to visit my mom for Mother's Day. It was a nice visit. Jane was entertaining herself wonderfully in the other room, and us girls were reminiscing about all the moves and all the hilarious mishaps. When all of the sudden we heard a crash in the next room. I ran in to see what happened, and there was poor Jane stunned looking down at a small lamp she had knocked over and broken. Upon further inspection we realized that the lamp was another one of my great grandmother's lamps that had been passed down to my mom. The Dicks had struck again, and this time it was the youngest one, who looked so innocent...

So, as it turns out, no matter the age, the Dick's are just disasters waiting to happen. My poor mother can attest to this :)

Taking on Washington DC with two kids...

This past week, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Washington DC with my mom and sister to visit my brother and his family. It was so much fun and amazing to see all of the historical sights and monuments. Here we are at the White House! My brother was looking for houses and my sister in law was busy working and studying, so we ended up taking their two year old daughter with us everywhere we went, as well as Jane!! It made the trip extra eventful...and tiring.
Here is the Washington monument- so amazing!!
Jane loved my sunglasses...and hey she does look pretty hott!!
Sorry it's sideways- I'm either dumb or lazy?!!! But The Lincoln monument was so beautiful!!
At the Smithsonian there was an exhibit of historical first lady's dresses. I loved this!!! They were so beautiful and reading up on the first ladies (even back to Martha Washington) was wonderful!!
This was one of my favorite stops (even though it was 90 degrees outside)! We saw Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. It was so beautiful- if I could buy and live in that house right now...I would be there in a second!! Most of the furniture in the house was original to the home and it has an amazing view of the Patomic River (I am sure that is spelled wrong...oh well) out back.
Later we went to the George Washington Museum and they had this section especially for kids where they could touch and play with things. Here is Jane and her cousin Charlotte being Martha and George Washinton- so cute!
Last but not Least, here is a little something Ryan picked up for me while I was away as a welcome home present. He is so sweet...NOT!! This is the hope diamond. It was beautiful!! PS- Ryan was really sweet and deep cleaned the whole house for when Jane and I got home. We sure missed him!! It was an unforgettable trip, but it is good to be home!

We've had a Wicked fun few weeks!!

The Past few weeks have been so much fun!! Just this past Saturday my mom, Christina, her husband and I had the amazing opportunity to see "Wicked" in Salt Lake City. It did not disappoint! The show was so amazing I wanted to cry...and if i could see it 10 more times I would!!
Last weekend, which was Easter weekend, I was able to go see my 81 year old grandfather in the Wizard of Oz in Cedar City!! He played the wizard and was absolutely amazing!!! It is always amazing to watch my grandpa do what he loves- he has always been and is such a wonderful actor!! Ryan couldn't go because, of coarse, he was studying and working. Bless his heart...he never gets a break. But Jane and I hurried home on Sunday to spend Easter with him!!
I came home to a beautifully clean house with a flower and Easter treats on the counter. Ryan is such a sweetie! My dad came over to have Easter dinner with us- which Ryan also prepared!! Then we had a small Easter egg hunt for Jane!! She loved gathering the eggs...

...but she loved eating her special Easter treats inside the eggs even more!! We also received a huge Easter basket from the Easter bunny with oodles of treats fore mommy and daddy as well as some fun things for Jane. She got sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a duck (her new favorite animal) and a bunny Mr. Potato Head!! She loved all her things. Later, we went to the duck pond to feed the ducks as well as to try out all her fun new things. She adored the bubbles. Watching Elder Hollands talk on the Savior again, was a great way to end our Easter!!!

Jane also got her first hair cut not too long ago! She needed it desperately...She looks like one of the Beetles... She wasn't loving it at first!!
She eventually warmed up (with the help of a Baby Einstein video) and enjoyed herself quite thoroughly. The girl who cut her hair was so sweet!!
Even though I didn't dare to have her take off a lot of hair or do anything drastic, Jane looked much better after and it ended up being alot of fun!!!