the cowleys: 2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Just Keep Swimming

Claire looooooves swimming. Since I had a free 3 day pass at the Washington Rec Center I decided to take Claire for a couple days. She was a little scared at first because it was so loud and water was always splashing. She was scared to death of the huge bucket that tips over and splashes everywhere. But once we went down some slides and swam in the whirlpool she had so much fun. She never wanted to leave. She even started going down the slides by herself. I love that pool because the water starts out shallow and then slowly gets a little deeper so in the shallow water she laid on her stomach and walked around everywhere on her hands.

After we swam one day we went and got some food at the concession stand. I got a pizza stick and a pretzel and cheese. Well Claire ate the all the cheese with her pizza stick and still ate the whole pretzel. People probably thought she was a nutcase because she had cheese all over her face and kept going out in the middle of the grass and dancing to the music that was playing. i wish we had a membership there but for now we will have to just go every once in awhile.

Its laketime, that makes me think about fun,

waves are crashin, the sun is shinin above......

Isn't that the best poem ever??? ok anways back to my post :) A few weekends ago we decided to head out to the lake. (and no we don't have a boat, and no we don't have jetskis, and yes we just went to go swimming)....but we had a blast. We went out to Quail to just swim and bask in the sun. We also took a blow up raft that we have so that we could float around. Claire thought it was the best time ever. She sat on the sand and ate a sandwhich and doritos (which I think was her favorite part).

Then last weekend we decided to go out to the lake again. This time we went to Sand Hollow and invited Trevor's parents. We also borrowed a big floaty from his sister. The floaty was a big circle that had 4 chairs and the middle was just a net that you could lay in and it went into the water a little. It was so relaxing to just lay out in the water and get some sun. I think we could make this a new Saturday tradition while its still scorching outside!

Cousin Lovin

This last month we finally got to see Hillary, Colby and Wade! They got to visit for a few weeks and boy did we have fun! Wade and Claire are so funny together and Claire had so much fun playing with him. We also found out that Hillary is prego with another BOY!! I wish they lived here cause Claire loves babies. I am hoping we can go out and visit after he is born!

While they were in town we tried to get out and do as much fun stuff as we could before they left. We had a blast from going to jumping jacks, splash pads, wildlife museum, going on the carousel a few tooooo many times, and just hanging out and watching the kids shake their booties to some music. Get ready for some picture overload cause we documented ALL of it :)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Fiesta Fun?

I have fond memories of going to Fiesta Fun was I was little and playing on the softplay and playing video games and eating pizza and cruising around on the bumper boats. Well memories are a little different then reality.... We were bored one night and so we ended up at Fiesta Fun. We thought Claire would love the softplay but there was really no play involved. The slides were sticky and you had to crawl down them. The big ball pit was empty and the old zip line was gone. So we played some video games and then decided to do the bumper boats. We were the only ones on the out there and they were so expensive, ($6 a person!) that we crammed into one boat because it was only $3 a person. When I say crammed I mean crammed. I guess it was kind of fun because we were laughing at how ridiculous we looked the whole time.

Claire playing on a car that did not work but she loved it anyways

After that we cashed in our tickets and bought some cool prizes. Claire got some candy, a bouncy ball and a slap bracelet.

When we got home the night was still young so we decided to light off some leftover fireworks from the 4th. We still had our sparklers too, which I thought Claire would be scared of but I was wrong. She had a blast and help every single sparkler till it fizzled away.

THEEEEE BEST DADDY!

On July 20th it was Trevor's birthday! I love being able to spoil him and buy him things because he does so much for our family. I could not ask for a better husband or a better father for Claire. He takes such good care of us and I don't know how I got so lucky! He is the best daddy and is ALWAYS playing with Claire and running around with her. He is always trying to think of fun things to do with her. My sister and I took Claire out for a little photoshoot and I bought some wooden letters so she could hold them and spell DAD. Then I framed them to give to Trevor for his office. Unfortunately, it did not go quite as planned! Claire would not hold still or hold up the letters to save her life. I don't know why I imagined a 1 year old being cooperative but we still got a few cute pics thanks to Hillary!

Since Trevor's birthday was on a Wednesday I had to work that night. But before I left we opened presents and ate dinner and some cupcakes.

I don't know if Claire liked the cupcakes or the frosting more?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

4th of July

4th of July weekend was a busy one. On Friday we had our neice Layney's first birthday, which was a super cute monkey theme. Then we woke up on Saturday and headed to my family reunion in Pine Valley. After spending the whole day there we headed back so I could work that night. On Monday morning we went to the Washington Park with Trevor's parents for some 4th of July festivities. The weather was a little overcast which was perfect. We had a yummy breakfast and danced to some music and then played some games. They had a bounce house, which Claire loved. They also had some carnival games that Trevor played and won. He let Claire pick out which stuffed animal she wanted as a prize. They had many to choose from and after about the 4th pick she was happy with her pink CareBear.

She also got her face painted just like she did last year at the same park.

This year she understood how to run in the races. We did a few practice runs and they paid off because she won second place in her age group and got an awesome gold dollar coin. We were so proud of her.

Before we left the park we snagged a quick ride on the little train that was being pulled by a four wheeler. It was so cute and Claire was too young to go by herself so I even got to ride in it :)

Later that night after we all took a nap.....we went over to my parents to eat some pizza and then went up to Liesel and Paul's house to watch the fireworks off of Foremaster.

Claire loved the fireworks and kept saying Look Daddy Look! She had a little glowstick necklace and would not let it go!

We didn't even make it down the street on our way home before Claire passed out.

She was so tuckered out after a long but FUN and EXCITING day. Can't wait till next year!

this picture says it all.

(yes that is pen all over her legs)
(and yes she thinks she is hilarious)

Jumpin Jumpin Jumpin

Claire loves to jump around, soooo we decided to take her to Jumpin Jacks. Although the idea a germfilled warehouse full of sweat makes me a little hesitant, I knew she would have a blast. We had been there once before when she was younger and couldn't really do anything. This time was totally different. This kid was in heaven! She wanted to go down every slide and jump on every toy. She even went down all the slides by herself. She wanted our help to get to the top then she would push us away. Her face was priceless as she would come zooming down the slides but then we she got the bottom she would say AGAIN AGAIN!

now that is a happy child

before she realized she didn't need us to go down the slide

she rode the little carousel

and got to play video games with Trevor

Thursday, May 26, 2011

18 Months and NOT Slowing Down!

I can't believe how big Claire is getting. She is already a 1 1/2! She is getting so smart and is so much fun to play with. Saying she is a busybody is the understatement of the year! She never slows down. She is learning new things everyday. Some of her fun accomplishments....

*trying to repeat everything we say!
*answering when questions are asked on cartoons
*repeating spanish words on Dora the Explorer
*getting new teeth all the time. has a whole mouth full...finally
*loves singing the ABCs
*LOVES purple cabbage...weird I know
*has a "supermodel" smile which is the biggest cheeser ever!
*can say every animal and what sound they make
*goes down the big slides at the park all by herself
*I can finally name things off for meals and she will tell me yes or no
*after getting into a drawer, getting out a headband and breaking it in half she said
"daddy daddy wook (look) broke, sorry" ...almost a full sentence
*tells me when she needs a diaper change
*loves to flush the big potty

NEXT adventure...POTTY TRAINING. I just bought her a potty and some underwear. She thinks they are pretty cool but we will see how long the cool factor lasts. She tells me when she is poopy and the other day she was trying to wipe herself with toilet paper and tried putting a diaper on herself.....soooo I figure she gets it enough that it is time to get rid of those DIAPERS!

making a mess like usual

but at least she can try to clean it up now

she thought she was pretty cool with her
temp. tattoo, sippy and sunglasses