When Grandma Lor Comes To Town

When Grandma Lor comes to town, there is a lot of eating out and presents and love. Jenna has her {and everyone else for that matter} wrapped around her little finger. 

We went shopping and picked out Jenna's halloween costume, she's going to be a snow queen. We tried the dress on so we could see if it fit. It's a tiny bit too long, but otherwise fits well. She would not let me take it off her. She kept twirling and spinning. She finally looks at me and says, "It's just so magical." Happiness abounds! 

Jenna the Snow Queen from Katie Madsen on Vimeo.

Grandma Lor bought Jenna a new Lightning McQueen battery operated four wheeler. Jenna LOVES it. Round and round she goes in our backyard in total heaven. 

Then Grandma Lor and Uncle Matthew to the splash pad. What a good time they had together! 

Swiss Days and Flood Aid

Yesterday was Santa Clara Swiss Days. We didn't make up for the 5k this year, but Casey and Jenna caught up with Matthew for the parade. From what I hear, Jenna was as big of a hit with the parade walkers as they were for her. No opportunity for candy passing out was missed. The lady sitting next to them finally asked to borrow Jenna so that her grandkids could get some candy also. Honestly though, if you were the one passing out the candy, wouldn't you want to give her all of your candy? Love her and her undeniable cuteness. 

 That night we all went to went to a Flood Aid concert to fundraise for the flood victims. It was actually a really fun night and Jenna was completely enthralled with the Disney characters there. It was completely surreal after the shear terror in her reactions at, you know, Disneyland. Maybe she just acclimated or something but she was practically molesting these faux characters. It was almost comical, but after a while we had to pry her hands off of them and distract her with bouncy houses and "trains". 

Our terror inducing moment came when the slide house that Jenna was in collapsed all of a sudden. It was unbelievable how quickly it was almost completely deflated. And the workers were all standing around, unsure of what to do. I started to climb into the castle, but the employee stopped me and climbed in herself. Jenna came out of unscathed, as if nothing had ever happened. So there were Casey and I standing by, attempting to restart our hearts, and to pretend as if nothing had happened either so as not traumatize her. 

Jenna's Dance Break

Jenna's "Dance Break" from Katie Madsen on Vimeo.

Poor Casey has a heck of a time getting the lawn mowed these days. If he is not being interrupted for what Jenna refers to as "dancing breaks", then she wants to be the one to mow the lawn. Of course all of this takes place with her princess dress on. It seems to be the quintessential fathers with daughters stuff. Love it! 

Winnie the Pooh...enjoy...

2012-09-24 - Winnie the Pooh from Katie Madsen on Vimeo.

A Day o' Cuteness

Jenna started her morning out with a yogurt bath. It's very good for your skin, and she really wanted to have that nice glow about her. 

 The after Ms. Independent put her own seatbelt on, we headed out to pick up Uncle Bretty from his job and take him home. However, we had to make a quick stop at Costco since it's right next to Brett's work. The two of them were frozen and equally excited by Toy Story playing in the entrance of Costco. They were so funny. I just adore these two. 

A Day With Uncle Matthew

My brother in law babysat Jenna for us and took her out to Tuacahn where they spent the morning. She was quite enamored with the giant poster for Aladdin. She got the change to play on the large stage and...wait for it...ride a camel! She had a complete blast. They're pretty cute together, Jenna and her Uncle Matthew. 

We're Movin' On U-Up!

Starting this month Bare Foot moved Jenna up to the mini-squirts gymnastics class. So far as I can tell it's very similar to the mom and tot classes we were taking, just minus the mom. {boo who who} She's doing great and is still very much enjoying it! The coach says she's still  little wiggly and distracts easily, but considering she's a minimum of 4 month younger than every one else, that is to be expected. 

The Madsen Family Day O' Fun

When we in Kaysville visiting my mom this weekend, Jenna spotted a couple of buses driving through town and ever since then has been asking to go on a bus ride. Once Casey got home we planned a little outing where we rode the bus downtown, rode the carousel, and then took the bus home. Jenna was in heaven. She had the best time, mostly because she was free as a bird. No seatbelt, no car seat...pure heaven. P.S. Can someone explain to me how this is okay/legal?!

 The carousel doesn't open until 11 so we stopped and got ice cream at Thomas Judd's Store Co. It was our first time going to this little gem and I'm so very glad we did! What a nostalgic, darling, shop full of old school candy and soda I've never even heard of. So fun! 

 Then we headed across the street to the carousel only to find out it was broken, apparently has been for weeks and they can't figure out how to fix it. Nice. Our tax dollars not hard at work...now to explain to our two year old that she doesn't get to ride the horsies like we've been telling her she was going to. We told her they were broken, they were sick. She understood that after having just been sick this week. 

 She asked to take a picture with the sick horses. There were lots of good-byes, waves, kisses, and telling Daddy to fix them, just so sure that he could. I love the faith she has in him. 

After nap time, we went to the Washington County Fair. We had so much fun. I think was my very first fair as well, at least I don't remember ever going to a fair before. I think it was much more fun because Jenna was so fun, then it would have been without her. She loved petting the animals...

...except the baby chicks. I find it so interesting that she is much more scared of the small animals then she is of the big ones. No fear of the cows or horses, but a baby chick?! 

Jenna was convinced that she wanted to go down the giant slide. As she has never been a fan of slides, but I kept flashing to the water slide at Crowton's pool and Skyler Langeveld telling me not to Jenna what she can and can't do, from the mouth of babes. So we let her try it, and as was far too predictable, she froze once at the top and would not come down until I went up to the top and lowered her as far down as I could and then let her go...and not once, but twice. So we quickly moved on from the slide. 

Com'on Mom, hurry up. 

 On to the carnival rides! She loved them all. Every one. For being such a cautious girl, she's got the inner daredevil that I love! It was also good to see, because we have a trip to Disneyland planned for the first part of September and it's good to know she's going to be good on the rides. Her never ending legs don't hurt in these circumstances!

She got to ride the horses after all! 

 

Let me take a moment on this picture, Jenna has this great grin she does when she's feeling shy or like too much attention is being directed towards her. It's this half smile usually from her looking up through her eyelashes. It's a very difficult expression to catch. We've considered hiring a nature photographer from National Geographic to try and capture it. This is as close as we've come to capturing it. It's one of our favorite looks! I was thrilled that we got this: 

We headed over to roller coaster. Jenna was cuddling with Casey in the line and the ride attendant didn't want to let her on because she was a "baby" so he made her make sure she was over the height limit, which she of course cleared by like an inch and a half. He was still a little concerned, so the woman behind us had her little girl ride with her (not sure how thrilled the girl was about that). We were a little worried, but one look at her face during the first alleviated all of our fears. She was loving it! Pure cheesy grins all the way. It was fantastic. Love that kid.  

We hit the ferris wheel last on our way out. Jenna was super excited and had a very hard time sitting still which made for a rocky ride and nausea on Mom's part. But Jenna was having the time of her life. Hard to resist that enthusiasm!  

What a great day! We so rarely do this kind of thing when we are home, and it was a great day just enjoying the things in our own back yard.