Pseudo Yellowstone

Since not everyone was going to be able to make it up to Yellowstone at the same time this year, my Grandma organized a Pseudo Yellowstone event yesterday.  Anyone who could come met up at Mueller Park in Bountiful where we had a group site reserved for the morning.

Playing Ring a Round the Rosies around the firepit

Birding

Leila liked "sliding" down the dirt hill

 We announced the gender of our baby to the family by spraying cans of pink silly string into the group.

Anxiously awaiting the reveal

The Reveal

Thankfully all of the little girls loved collecting the silly string and did most of the clean up for me!

 And, of course, we did the traditional Cherry Pit Spit.

The Kids Division

The Youth Division

The Women's Division

The Men's Division

Trophy Handoff

Ashley was the Women's Champion this year

Even though it was sad to come to the realization that a big extended family trip to Yellowstone won't always be possible, I feel like this was a good alternative.  After all, being together is the most important part.  I'm so grateful that my grandmother has always scheduled times for us to be together.  It is truly remarkable how close our family is because of it.

My Pregnancy: Week 17 (Gender Reveal)

Baby's now the size of an onion!

Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it.  The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints.

It was an exciting week for us because we got to do an ultrasound to find out which flavor of baby we're having!  Jason got off work early on Wednesday and my mom came over to babysit Leila while we took off to the doctor.  We got in pretty quick only to find that the baby was curled up tight in a ball and didn't want to move.  So, we got lots of other pictures while we waited for "the one."

Eventually, the technician asked me to turn on my side to see if we could get the baby to shift a bit and we were finally rewarded by finding out that we are having another GIRL!

We raced home knowing that Grandma Larsen was going to be anxiously awaiting our news.  I had made up some playdough earlier and added a couple drops of pink food coloring into the middle of the ball of dough.  Then I had Leila and Mom play with the dough until the color started to come through.  My mom was thrilled as soon as she saw the specks of pink coming through.  Leila just thought it was "yucky" that the color started to change on her.

We're announcing the news to my extended family tomorrow, so we've kept it pretty hushed up since Wednesday.  I did tell my siblings and Jason's family though.  And here's my first belly shot!

An Adventure to Hogle Zoo

Since my cousin Alicia was in town for the wedding this week, we took advantage and decided to get together for a trip to the zoo this morning.  My mom, Annie, Ashley, and her mom and sister also joined us.  It was a gorgeous day, nowhere near as hot as it has been lately.  Perfect zoo weather!

 Trying to get four girls on the elephant trunk and pose for a picture turned out to be trickier than we thought.  Poor Aubrey was hidden, Hailey was squished, and Leila was scared the elephant was going to make a noise so she kept covering her ears.

 Leila didn't want to leave the polar bear exhibit so she would cover her eyes and "hide" so that I wouldn't be able to find her.

All tuckered out after a great zoo outing!  She wouldn't sleep until she had her blanket completely covering her.

Lisa's Wedding

 My cousin Lisa got married yesterday and I was able to go to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple for her sealing.  It was a beautiful day!

Yes, that's my daughter photobombing the happy couple...

The Larsen girls!