Happy 3rd Birthday Savannah!

Good Morning Birthday Girl!

Daddy woke Savannah up before he left for work (6:30 am) and gave her a birthday surprise of 5 tiny horses. She thanked him and went back to sleep for an hour and a half! Much to her mama's relief :)

Birthday breakfast was a cinnamon roll on the counter- she was in heaven

Our good friend Owen wasn't able to come to her birthday party later that night so he came over earlier to help decorate and give her an early birthday gift.  Such cute friends.  

(Don't mind Owen's feminine shorts- after so much excitement there was an accident and he needed to borrow some clothes. As I was searching Savannah's drawers I realized we are not very gender neutral- it's all girl around here. Owen was a good sport and didn't seem to mind :))

Birthday girl got to help mama make her cake and cupcakes

Her unfortunate cake  

I wanted to do a "fancy" cake, but learned in the process that the store bought frosting doesn't do very well when piped :) And with absolutely no sugar in the cupboard, this is what we had.
Good thing she is 3 and was thrilled to just have ponies on her cake.

Shrine to our Savannah

Birthday girl all dolled up for the party with her special balloons from daddy

She couldn't quite take her eyes off the balloons to smile for the camera

My pretty girl just moments before her birthday meltdown.
She accidentally let go of the balloons right after this.
If I wasn't frantically jumping in the air, it would have been a good picture. 

Waiting for friends to arrive

This munchers probably had 5 cupcakes. Every time I looked at her she had another one in her hand.

Daddy saved the day and replaced the fly away balloons

Blowing out the candle

All her friends

(and Sophie with her frosting goatee)

I was surprised at how well 3 year olds could swing at the Pinata

I was a little nervous to do a birthday party for a 3 year old and wondered if it would be worth it...

It was! Savannah was so sweet and just LOVED having all her friends over to our house. 

Jayson and I have been soooo excited to giver her the birthday gift we got for her. A little preface...

Savannah began her love affair with all things pony/horse when we bought the movie Spirit around Easter. Any time she goes to a friend's house, she comes home and reports if they have ponies or not. She points out all the horses as we are driving and was thrilled to pet a real horse at Grandpa Howdy's. We have many a pony at our house with a few My Little Ponies and a few dollar store horses. But we didn't have...

a ginormous rideable horse

Yes, it has slept in bed with her every night since
she got it.

Zoo take 2

We had been to the Boise Zoo earlier this summer with cousins, but on a Thursday when I was trying to clean and the girls were driving me and each other crazy, we packed up and headed to the zoo for a second time.

 Savannah is a bit obsessed with carousels and horses right now, and it has now rubbed off onto Sophie

...although you can't tell by this picture :)

 The best thing about this zoo, unfortunately are the animal statues.

Sad.

We miss the Omaha zoo!

But the girls didn't seem to mind the lack of real animals.

Idaho State Fair

Saturday Family Date Night

 Savannah wore the proper "fair" attire

Owen, the girls and Mater! 

 Enjoying a deliciously greasy corn dog

The Carousel!

 Right before this picture, Savannah said "Mom, don't touch me and don't touch my horse"

So glad we just spent $10 to ride the carousel together :)

Jayson in line for his magic carpet ride.

Notice the median age and height :)  

and the little girl in front checking him out 

Savannah lit up when she saw the horses- and donkey

All in all I think it was a successful family outing.

Aspen Grove Family Camp

Immediately following the Ulcer bike race, we headed up Provo canyon to Aspen Grove Family Camp, where the Clark's were doing their annual reunion this year.

This place was beautiful! I truly loved everything about it (except the baby who slept in our room decided to not sleep most of the nights) There were day camps for all the kiddos- yes, even Sophie, and the parents were free to go to religion classes, water aerobics, archery, rifle shooting, hiking, the ropes course, arts and crafts, pretty much anything you can think of.  

Savannah loved all the animals she got to sit on

Jayson on the ropes course

I also did the ropes course (only because Jayson promised me $100 if I did)

but need to get the pictures from my sil

I think the baby bear was her absolute favorite

tired baby during the family games

Sophie being snuggled by her Taylie

The Clarks competing in "family games"  

more like

"brother games"

It was hilarious to see the big boys push the kids out of the way so they could get the "high score" and hope to be the overall family game champions. Although we had quite a few 1st place times, we were a little slow getting to the games and didn't finish all of them, thus, landing us in 3rd place overall.

Savannah and her cousin crush McKay. These two were quite the bff's during the trip-

holding hands, sharing treats, McKay even gave her his mood ring he had gotten from his day camp.

All the girls shooting guns

Jayson and I snuck away to hike Stewart Falls

It was a great hike- 

and even greater that we didn't have to drag 2 babies up the mountain with us :)

What a great man!

Grammie and her grandkids!

notice who is holding hands

Group Shot

notice I am the one in the black hat- someone-ahem- forgot to let me know the pictures were moved from AFTER dinner, to BEFORE.  When I got the "where are you" call I was just stepping out of the shower.  Thank you Jayson

Poor Savannah was so tired at dinner, that she just laid her head down on Jayson's lap and fell asleep.

Family Frontier night was a huge success, mostly due to the sno cones, train ride, and the toy horse Savannah rode for 30 minutes.

oh yes, and the ax Jayson got to throw

Hike to Timp Falls with Jonny and Cass

again, this is what it felt like to hike w/o babies

Carie met us at the top of the falls

Jayson and I on the rock wall

(this picture was taken by a 12 year old and doesn't do justice to the fact that I am afraid of heights and 

climbed super high. Notice Jayson's relaxed shoulders and mine are all hunched and tight)

On our drive back to ID we had to stop and say hello to Grandpa Cliff, 

who just turned 94 years young!