Claire's Two!

Our Claire Bear turned two years old. I can't believe how fast this last year flew by. Her birthday didn't start out too busy. We wanted to make a two-shaped cake but wasn't sure how and couldn't find any pans to help so Scott put together his own with cardboard and tin foil. I think it actually turned out really good. We decorated it with yellow frosting and sprinkles because Claire is obsessed with everything yellow these days (she only wants to use the yellow plate, or yellow spoon, etc.).

We had our family in the area come over to celebrate with us that evening. We had pizza and presents and cake and ice cream. :) Claire loved the attention and ripped open her presents with gusto! :)

I guess with two birthday celebrations this summer right before hers, she knew exactly what to do when it came to blowing out her candles. :)

and eating cake...

We also had a photo shoot earlier in the week. I think it turned out pretty well. Here are some of our favorites. :)

Reunion in a Courthouse

July was a busy month for us. The weekend right after Pioneer day we headed to Junction, Utah for a family reunion. It was an extended family reunion for the Asays (my mom's side), but considering it was mostly our immediate family that came, we considered it as our McClellan reunion for the year.

Junction, Utah is a very small town (population: 149). We stayed in an old courthouse that had been remodeled into a reunion type inn or hotel of some sort. Don't believe me? Here's Claire trying to decide if her dad is guilty or not. :)

They had a bunch of toys and things to play with outside and inside, all for our use. It was pretty fun. I think one of Claire's favorite parts was the bike taxicab. She would climb up and sit down and just wait for someone to come along and see her cute smile and ride her around the courthouse.

We had s'mores the first evening we were there.

The next day we got out the croquet set and started playing a couple games. We weren't sure how to actually play the game at first and had to get some directions, and I'm still not sure we played it totally right, but it was fun anyway. :)

As you can see... Claire cheats and I hit the ball a totally different way than everybody else. :)

I'm not sure what we're doing here... some sort of Olympic line up gone weird. April won the first game, I was second, and Heather came in third. It kind of looks like we're about to attack April though...

The rest of Friday it rained off and on. We had some loud thunder and lightning, which was pretty cool. We played lots of games inside though.

And then, Saturday morning we stayed to see the parade go by. Compared to the Spanish Fork parade (that we had just seen earlier that week), the Junction parade was so small it was a little funny to see. They do make up for it though by throwing tons of candy to the kids. It may have lasted 10 or 15 minutes. :)

Some random pictures from the reunion...

We had a blast and it was so fun seeing all the family that came. We wished more family could've made it. :)

pioneer day

growing up in texas, pioneer day was nothing more than a primary activity saturday morning and a couple talks on sunday. in utah, it's quite a different day. parades, fireworks, holiday pay... it's like two independence days in the same month! so much fun. we woke up early tuesday morning and headed down to spanish fork for the parade. claire has never shown any interest in parades before, but this year she got pretty excited for it. she loved seeing the horses and the loud noises and the balloons and the "princesses" and all the candy that they were throwing.

after the parade we ran a few errands, then headed home for naps. after naps we headed back down to spanish fork for some more festivities. my brother barbequed for us, then we hung out while the kids ran around and played. we then took a walk over to the fair and checked out the vendors. we then walked over to the park and got comfortable before the fireworks went off.

the fireworks didn't actually begin until very late, and claire (as did her parents) had a very long day, so we left for home a tiny bit before the fireworks were done. we all were pretty happy to hit the sack that night. it was a wonderful day and i can't wait for many pioneer days to come. :)

Wicked

For Christmas this last year, Scott had bought me tickets to see the musical Wicked which was coming to Salt Lake. I was super excited, but unfortunately the play was a long 7 months away, which seemed like forever at the time. Fortunately the past few months have felt like they have flown by and we finally got to use our tickets a couple weeks ago. :) Our usual babysitters (my parents) were actually going to the play with us, and because the play was going to go so late, it took some effort to find some babysitters. We finally worked it out, dropped off Claire with some of her cousins, and we headed up to Salt Lake. We began the evening with a nice dinner up in Salt Lake, then decided to ride the tram to the theater. That provided us with a little bit of adventure as we weren't totally sure which was the right tram. So we jumped onto one that looked like a good possibility. We lucked out and it was the right one. :)




We made it to the Capitol Theatre right on time. :)

We met up with my parents at the theater. In addition to their own little date, they were also celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Here is the view of the stage from our seats.

We were in the highest section there was, and it was incredibly warm in the theater. My feet were swelling big time, but it was all worth it. The play was wonderful! I've seen it once before, and it was just as good the second time. Scott saw it for the first time and loved it as well. It was a wonderful date. :)

memory made

in the hope that it will help us remember those little moments in parenthood that make us smile, we want to start recording these memories here on our blog. they won't be the grandest of events and the blogs may not have any pictures to go with them, but we hope they will always bring a smile to our face.

claire is taking her bath and playing with her stackable cups. she gets a little frustrated when the green cup doesn't fit in the blue one. her mom tells her "that one goes on the bottom", so claire proceeds to take the green cup and place it on her cute little bare bum. i love her bunches. :)

Balloon Fest

Our 4th of July activities this year were limited because of work and sickness, but we did manage to go to the annual balloon fest in Provo on Tuesday. We woke up early and got there around 6:30am, just in time to see the last of the balloons fill up and take off.

Before getting there we grabbed some donuts for breakfast. Claire was a little tired at first but quickly got into it and watched the balloons in awe.

We had a lot of fun watching the hot air balloons fly above us. I didn't realize until this year that they have no control of what direction they go just how high and how low they go. 

On the 4th, we did visit family for a little bit and went to a barbeque at a neighbors house for a little while, but then Claire got a little sick and we ended up taking care of her that night instead of going out to see or do any fireworks. Since she was still awake late that night we took her outside to the front yard to see if we could see any fireworks. We saw a few far away ones and Claire seemed only mildly interested in them, but then some fireworks were shot pretty much right above us from a house nearby and her face completely changed to a sad, scared, whimper. She obviously did not like them this year. Maybe next year... :)

I had a birthday too

Last week we celebrated my birthday. Being over 30 weeks pregnant has definitely made me feel old this year. I can't quite move around like I used to and my body feels old and tired. I'm definitely excited about getting back in shape after I have this baby and getting some energy back! :)

On my birthday I woke up to these lovely decorations...

You'll have to watch The Office episode about Kelly's birthday party to understand why this was actually pretty funny to wake up to. It made me laugh. :)

Scott took me out to IHOP for breakfast, which was delicious. I had a nice relaxing day with Claire and then that night we went out to Los Hermanos for dinner. I love going out to eat... it's so much easier than cooking ourselves and it's so yummy. :) We had some ice cream cake later that night. Claire blew out all my candles the first time so we had to light them twice. She then helped me the second time too. She must be practicing for her birthday coming up soon. :)

After eating our cake, I got to open my present. This was actually my second present. My first present was made for me the day before. I'm so so excited to use it more! We got some PVC pipes and some wood flooring tiles from Lowe's and Scott put together this backdrop holder and wood floordrop for me so I can take more pictures inside! I just need to pick out some more backdrops for it. :) We saved like $200 making these ourselves. So cool. :)

My second present Claire had fun helping me open. I got a backpack for my camera and lenses. It'll make carrying my camera around a lot nicer. :) So fun. Thank you Scott for such a fun birthday! :)