Welcome To The Badger Den

Emily had her first birthday party for friends..and brother...and sister...and cousins...and of course grandma! We had lots of fun! You can't go wrong with a slip 'n slide and a pool! Happy Birthday Emily!!

A few days before Emily's 'friends' birthday party, she wrote and rehearsed a song she was going to sing at her party. Lucky for us, we've got a family full of talent. You will see that everyone was able to help out. Corban on the piano, Isabelle on choreography, and I haven't quite figured out how Cyrus and Adalyn played into this....any ideas? Enjoy!! (you know we did!)

Emily was able to be part of a dance camp this summer. It lasted 3 days with the final day used as an exhibition of her many talents. She learned some ballet, jazz, hula, and modern. She had a lot of fun. Here are some short clips for your enjoyment! WE LOVE DANCING!! Being the great stage mom, I forgot to grab her flip flops before the performance. She still did FANTASTIC!! Don't you agree? I didn't get it on tape, but Emily had a wardrope malfunction during this "fairy dance". She didn't let it bother her. She danced with only one wing....the show must go on!!

Monday was the first day of summer vacation for Emily. I think this was her way of starting it off with a BANG! While racing to her friends house, she took a tumble off her bike and landed face first on the street. After carrying her over to the front porch, we realized that even though there was alot of blood it was just a good nose and mouth bleed. Nothing broken. Her cute friend kept offering to call 911 (or her mom) if we needed help. Emily's got a bit of a fat lip this morning and her leg seems to hurt just enough when it's time to do her chores...but I think she'll make a full recovery

Emily's elementary school presented a dance festival to showcase the dancing talents of each grade in her school. We watched as each grade performed a dance they had learned and practiced for the last few weeks. The kindergarten was last...which as you will see...it's true what they say.....Saved the BEST for last. Their song was "Trashing the Camp" from Tarzan. Enjoy!

OK...here's your proof. We had an awesome time in Disneyland in April. I'll try not to bore you with too many family pictures...but no guarantees. We got in early to Mickey's Toontown Madness to become honorary citizens of ToonTown and to wait in numerous lines to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and others to get their autographs. You can see that Goofy decided to help Emily with her hair - probably wanted it to match her mom's. Of course we couldn't call this trip complete without going on as many rides as we could. Before we left, I had decided that I would "relax" and just take each day to have fun. Once we got there, all of the relaxing went out the window and I spent any spare minute working through strategies of how to get on every ride as many times as possible with the least wait time. I even tried calculating the times to be on rides with bathroom breaks....I know...I've got problems. We hit just about every ride in both Disneyland and Disney...

We headed to Long Beach for a week long vacation. The ride started on jetBlue. Cyrus and Kelsey sat by me and Emily sat by Andy. During the taxi time, Cyrus kept yelling, "Are we flying yet...are we flying yet....Mom...Are we flying yet?" The headphones didn't fit him well so he soon got bored watching TV and entertained himself reading the safety features of the plane and trying to get his treats back from Kelsey. Emily was able to watch TV and reach back to shake our hands. It was a great. After getting off the plane, we piled into a rental car, checked into our hotel, and headed to Newport Beach. The weather was beautiful and the water was COLD! Emily and Cyrus didn't seem to mind. During the drive to the beach Emily explained to Cyrus about the ocean and the sand and jumping over the waves. She is an expert you know, Great Grandma Langston took her to jump waves in the ocean up in Washington a few years ago. Cyrus was fine if the water didn't go much over his ...