Indoor Fun

Since it has turned cold, the girls have struggled with having to stay inside most of the time.  Yes, we did play in the snow after our big storm here, but now it is just wet and chilly outside.  Ellie doesn't understand this and often is seen (and heard) banging on the door, wanting to go out.  Well, here is one of the girls' newest indoor activities.....

A Tangled Halloween

Kylie was counting down to Halloween this year (well starting with "5 more sleeps").  I haven't seen her this excited in a while.  One day we even played "trick-or-treating" because she wanted to go so badly.....the girls would knock on their play room door and I would answer and give them some play food once they said the magic Halloween words.  It was fun (at least for the first half an hour).  Even though Ellie didn't really understand all the fuss about the upcoming holiday, she was excited too.  She loved it when she would spot pumpkins on someone's porches while were out on a walk or would see the Halloween decor in the grocery store.  She would raise one fist up in the air and yell, "Weeeeeeen!"  Grandma Bunker took both the girls to the pumpkin patch earlier in October and they loved that they got to pick out pumpkins.  We haven't had time to carve them (yet....Kylie still wants to do it), but Kylie had fun decorating one of hers with crayon drawings and stickers.

Kylie chose to be Rapunzel this year.  Though her hair wasn't long and magical, it did have flowers in it.  Ellie was Pascal and could do a pretty good chameleon tongue to accompany her costume (which I made!  I was actually quite proud of how decent it turned out.  I just used one of her sweatshirts and pants as a pattern.  It was my first time ever sewing sleeves, which was a little difficult.).  The first time Ellie realized she had a tail, she gave it a big hug.  Chris was Flynn Ryder.  I wanted him to be the King (since I was the Queen), but Kylie insisted that he had to be Flynn, I mean Eugene.  So Chandra was the King and Casey was Mother Gothel (it's the hair!).  

 

 

 

 

Always....two fingers in the mouth and the other hand playing with her bellybutton.  Had to make sure she had a two piece costume!

Trick-or-treating was of course fun, especially since we didn't stay out too long.  The girls were plenty pleased with the candy they got.  We just picked a few houses in our neighborhood, mostly those belonging to our ward friends.  In retrospect, maybe we should have gone to more houses so that I would still have some candy to snitch!  

Cabin Time (August)

We made our annual trip to Grandma Rowe's cabin in Island Park, ID back in August and good times were had by all.  We definitely had a full cabin with all of us Bunkers there and it was fun to be all together.  Kylie and Ellie both loved being outside, taking walks along the river and going on a canoe ride.  Saturday we all went into to West Yellowstone to walk around/shop, eat the best pizza ever and get some yummy ice cream.  Sunday, Chris took our little family on a drive to the headwaters of the buffalo river.  We saw a couple of moose on our drive and quite a few more around the cabin that weekend.  Monday we went into Yellowstone and this year Firehole was open for swimming.  This was my first time sliding down the natural water-slides there, which, even though it was a bit cold, was so fun!  Even Kylie did it.  I wish we had taken some pictures.  We also did the usual jump off the tressel, in which Kylie wanted to do too.....see pictures below!

 

Their canoe sprung a leak!  

Grandma and Kylie were sitting in water at this point and had to join our canoe.

 

Before everyone else was brave enough to get into the chilly water, Kylie had jumped in several times!

  

Cold?  Yes, but she continued to jump.

Ellie wanted to jump too of course!

When we told Kylie we were going to the cabin, she immediately asked if she could jump off the bridge this time.  I was surprised that she remembered that from last summer!  But I wasn't surprised that she wanted to jump.  She was so excited.  I went up on the tressel with her and dropped her to Chris. 

 

Since there are rocks straight down from the tressel, I had to swing Kylie out a bit.  Unfortunately this caused Kylie to twist a little and to land on her thigh (as seen in the above picture).  The slap was painful and produced an immediate welt.  Even though our little girl cried, she was very proud...and still wanted to continue jumping into the water from the dock.  As I wrote this post, I asked Kylie if she will jump again.  She said, "when I am a little older, like this tall, but not as big as you."  I think she will do it again.

 

Kylie really didn't want to leave the river, so Chris filled a tub up for her to take an old-fashioned bath.  And the water was much warmer than the river! 

 

We all enjoyed sitting around the fire pit at night.  We let Kylie stay up late one evening so that she could do sparklers (we never did them on July 4th!) and so she could experience her first s'more!  Mmmmm!

 

As always, we loved being up at the cabin and thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the area.

Summer Revisited

As I was going through some pictures, Ellie got really excited when she spotted these ones.  Both Kylie and Ellie sure love swimming!  It could be a long winter.....

 

I love this picture and that we caught Ellie's face.....pure joy!

 Kylie loved going down the slide all by herself

 Ellie loved the slide too and would lean forward when she was ready to go down

Our Fifth Anniversary

I know that I am very far behind on my posts.  It has been a busy couple of months!  Sorry family!

Back in August Chris and I celebrated our fifth anniversary!  We were able to spend some time together (almost 30 whole hours!) thanks to Casey and then Nicole and Josh for watching our girls.  Over the past year or so, Chris and I have talked about hiking Mt. Timpanogos.  Chris has never done it and both of us wanted to do it before we potentially leave Utah.  Since we didn't have the time or money for an anniversary "get-a-way", I suggested that we go on a hike.  Chris agreed, but 5 hours into our hike, I am not sure he was very happy he did.  J/K.  We had a great time together and both the hike and the views were amazing.
 

It was a beautiful day to hike....not too hot, not too cool. A little hazy though.

There were some pretty cool waterfalls along the hike. 

At the top!

The snowfield we slid down instead of hiking down...faster (and more fun)

 

We of course were quite tired after hiking Timp, but it felt so good as well (and dinner never tasted so delicious).  My legs were sore for a few days, but the memory of our anniversary hike will last forever!  :)

Our Little Fishies

If you ask Kylie and Ellie what they would like to do today, most likely their answer is, "Go SWIMMING!"  We have been blessed with two little girls who have taken to the water like a fish to, well, uh water!  It is fun to see how much they love being in the water (I do too!)  Both of them have become real brave and adventurous as the summer has progressed.

Ellie loves splashing, going down slides and can even go under the water (when she closes her mouth!).  She will walk right into the deep end of the pool without hesitation (yes, we have to watch her closely!).  And at the kiddie pool, she just walks around looking for adventure.  Even in the "deeper" parts, she will sit down in the water so it comes up over her head for a second and get back up by herself......smiling the whole time.  For a while, if made me so nervous!  Now, it is cute and I just stay real close in case she needs some help getting back up.  When we are at Seven Peaks, Ellie gets excited and points to the big water slides, wanting to go down them.  Oh, not for a few more years El Belle!

Kylie would really stay in the pool all day if we let her.  She loves the freedom her floaty gives her (thank you Gma A) and swims everywhere by herself.  We have worked a little on her "scooping" so that she can learn how to swim, but she just likes to do her own thing most of the time.  She has always loved going down the slides at the pool and this year does them by herself.  Because she is so excited though, she sometimes forgets to close her mouth. :)  And most recently, she has learned to jump off the diving board!  After doing so, we were watching some diving on the Olympics and Kylie got real excited and asked, "When will I learn that?"  Though, she did try to jump off backwards already, I think she needs to learn how to swim without her floaty before we teach her about reverses, flips and twisters!

Well, I put together a little video with some of the footage I have taken of the girls swimming this summer.  We haven't taken the video camera to Seven Peaks yet, where they are the most active in the kiddie pools and slides, but this still shows their undying love for the water.  And, I suppose, there will be lots more swimming this summer.....

Olympic Gymnastics

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love gymnastics.  Yes, I did gymnastics when I was younger and competed all through high school....but nothing compared to what you see the elite gymnasts on TV doing.  Ten plus years later, I still miss being up on the balance beam, springing off the vault and doing back-handsprings on just about any flat surface (including church dances to show up the boys).  I sometimes wish I could do it all again.  We had an amazing, fun, and united team, many of whom I am still friends with.  I think if I had a second chance, I could do even better...but maybe not, since I am much too tall for the sport :)  I can still do a pretty good handstand and can flip around on the trampoline, but I must now live vicariously through those gymnasts on TV.

It has been extremely fun to watch the Olympics this year.  That's what we do most every night (and thanks to DVR, we can watch anything we missed during the day as well).  Without say, the USA women's team has been amazing!  I, of course, was super excited when they won gold and when Gabby won gold in the all-around.  I must admit that I even teared up a couple of times.  I also love the reminiscing the nation is doing about the 1996 Olympic champion team....the Magnificent 7.  Those Olympic Games were very memorable to me, especially as I had watched the gymnasts all year prepare and compete.  I especially remember how fun and crowd-pleasing their floor routines were (no offense to the gymnasts now).  And then there was Kerri Strug's final vault....so courageous, so historic, so memorable. After the Olympics, the gymnasts on both the women's and men's teams did a tour, which was super fun to go see.  Anyway, to complement my trip down memory lane, I have been watching a few of the routines from 1996 on YouTube.  Very enjoyable.

After 16 years, this is the routine that has always stuck in my head...

And there was Shannon Miller's flawless beam routine....  No full-twisting flips in this, but look at her handstand skills!  She won an individual gold with this routine.

 

The Big 3-0

Well, I have hit my 30's.  I don't feel old, but 30 definitely sounds old!  I guess I have to start acting more mature.  :)  I had a wonderful birthday with my family.


The day started with blueberry muffins, but as soon as they came out of the oven, we had to get Chris to work.  So, the girls and I ate our muffins outside the library...... (we had to stop there to pick up the girls' prizes for the summer reading program.)

 

The girls and I went swimming at Seven Peaks while Chris was at work.  We had so much fun playing in the kiddie pools and floating the lazy river.  After Ellie's nap, we headed up to Salt Lake.  Since Chris had to photograph a bike race at Snow Bird and I wanted to go on a birthday hike, we decided to drive to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon and hike to Cecret Lake.  It was such a beautiful area.  I really want to camp there someday.  It is known for it's summer wildflowers (though this pic doesn't do it justice...it was my little point and shoot).

 

Kylie was super excited that we got to walk through water.  For some reason, she really loves getting her shoes dirty and wet.  When we started this hike, she kept saying, "This is a hike?  But where are all the puddles and mud?"  She was remembering our last hike to Stewart Falls, which was very muddy.

 

Cecret Lake

While Chris went to take pictures for work, the girls and I found a picnic table to have our dinner.  But there was this amazing park there, so we didn't eat much. :)

 

Later that night, our siblings came over for cheesecake, presents and Just Dance on the Wii.  It was my birthday and I got to choose!  And Chris even played/danced.....(He loves me!)

 

The day after my birthday we headed down to Vegas so that Chris and Josh could help Dad B. move his chiropractic office.  Sunday we got to celebrate my b-day again with BBQ kabobs, chocolate and berry delight desserts, the Olympics and the best card ever.......  (everyone contributed to the list, but Chris and Kylie colored it!)

Thanks everyone for the awesome birthday!  You are the best!

Bunker Reunion

We had the Bunker family reunion July 21-25th in Heber, UT.  It was a beautiful area and it was fun to hang with family we haven't seen since the last reunion three years ago.  The four days were packed with fun, games, swimming and just running around.  Here are a few pictures to capture our reunion...

The whole gang

 

 

Cousins (missing a few though)

  

Cousins and spouses

 

2nd Cousins

We had the first ever Bunker Family Olympics, which included a couple basketball events, a sack race, a three-legged race (which Becky and I dominated!) and a relay race.  The team I was on won!  Go Red Lions!

 

 

 

Ellie's favorite event was trampoline!

 

On Pioneer Day, older generation at the reunion taught us games and activities that they did when they were kids, like making homemade ice cream, shooting BB guns and bow and arrows, and doing the hula hoop.  Later, the youngest generation taught the older ones their kind of games...lightening basketball, texting "shorthand", Angry Birds, and Rock Band on the Wii.  So fun!

 

Homemade ice cream in a mason jar and then put in a paint can to roll around.

 

 

 

 

And the reunion wouldn't be complete without some swimming, where Kylie learned how to jump off the diving board...