The Amazing Haircut

Ok, SO SORRY that I neglected to post this on Tuesday. I'll give you my glorious list of excuses in a few inches. But for now, HERE YOU GO!!!

Here's us at the salon. Yes, the whole family came. And it may be the most thoroughly documented haircut the Stotts will ever see. Ella needs a room full of mirrors. She was making faces at herself THE. WHOLE. TIME. It was awesome.



Look at that long, beautiful hair. So long. Sniff. So beautiful. Sniff. Ella contemplating what's about to happen.





Ella told me later, "When she first cut my hair, I was a little sad inside. I still wanted to cut it though." (So mature, my little princess. Colby says that I'm projecting my feelings onto Ella. Which is probably true. But I can't help it.) Look at the expression on her face!



Thanks for a great first haircut!!!!




So here's what else went on this week, just in case you thought I was slacking off.

-Flew to Las Vegas for my friend's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!) Her husband surprised her by flying me out. She was a little TOO surprised. She thought it was an intervention or something. It wasn't. It was just a birthday. Hilarity ensued.

-Took a 7am flight back to Reno. Got home at 8:30. Spent Quality Time with the girls. Took a nap. Cleaned out the car. Packed. Drove to Girls Camp with Ella. Got lost. Found it.

-Spent the night in the car (I was too tired to deal with a tent. I was also too tired to not sleep well. I woke up in the morning & thought, "Whoa, that went WAY better than I was expecting.)

-Helped clean up the camp, load up the car, and drove home. On the way home, realized we were late to our good friend's birthday party. Quickly we ran home, got the present and showed up in all our non-showered camping glory to the birthday party.

-Came home and slept.

Phew. I'm still tired.

This week, we're starting our Ridiculously Long Trip, which will start out with a visit to see Grandma & Grandpa's new house (YAY!), and end with a trip across the country. Wish us luck. Seriously.

(Ella at Girls Camp. They all thought she was cute. She thought it was awesome.)

Goodbye Goldilocks

The girls found our bandannas from the Trek and thought it'd be super fun to play "Little Peasant Girls". This is how you play: Put bandannas on head. Accessorize bandannas with headband and Mrs. Potato Head feet. Talk with as much of an English Accent as a five and two year old can muster. Talk about tea and cleaning. Loose interest within 5 minutes.

This week's theme: Recovery. It was so nice to sit in one place and not worry about packing or stocking up on snacks. In fact, one day we didn't leave the house once. And boy was it H.O.T. this week. It only added to our lethargy. It didn't, however, lead to Gretchen sleeping in. She's right back on her regular 6:15 a.m. schedule. And yes, it sucks.

We had our first trip of the year to Lake Tahoe yesterday. It was absolutely lovely. More so because it wasn't my idea, I just got to go along for the ride. I loaded up the girls with arm floaties, stuck them on inflatables and swam out to the deep end of the Designated Swimming Area. I don't know if you've heard, but Lake Tahoe is pretty much amazing. We could see the rocks deep down below us. We watched overly confident youth jump off rocks. We did not get our toes pinched by crawdads (Ella was diligent on crawdad watch.) Gretchen laughed and laughed when we got bounced up and down by a boat wake. It was a perfect day. And my legs actually do have some pigment now. Pink. They got sunburned. I got cocky and said, "My legs are so white, they don't even get BURNED anymore." Ha ha. Jokes on me.

Tomorrow is the day I've been dreading. Sometimes I'm so sentimental that it's painful. Ella has never had her hair cut. NEVER. Except for that one time she got gum stuck in it. (The peanut butter mostly worked, but we ended up cutting out a little bit.) But tomorrow we're taking her to the salon and cutting off about 10". TEN INCHES. She wants it cut to just below her shoulders, and we're going to donate it to Locks of Love. We had a little talk about it, how if you get cancer your hair falls out because of the medicine. Uncle Noel's hair fell out, but he didn't wear a wig. Ella wants to know why he didn't. (I'm sure he totally could have pulled that look off, right?) She's so excited about her haircut. SO EXCITED. I'm not. But after brushing tangles out again this evening, I decided I need to let go. And it's for a good cause. Sniff. A good cause. (Cue mocking of overly sentimental mom now....)

So what are you doing this week? Sitting in your PJ's for the whole day? Call us up! We'll join you!

Only Twenty Six Miles Across The Sea

Ella's getting pretty good at taking pictures, huh?

And we got lots of practice in on our sailing trip.

ACTION SHOT!



We had so So SO much fun on our sailing trip. I don't think that Dad did. He was stuck fixing an oil leak and patching a busted hose, buried in the depths of the boat's armed with only duct tape and zip ties to get us back home. BUT HE DID IT. He is amazing. Like MacGuyver, but with better design skills. And Nana Joy kept us fat and happy with delicious dinners and snacks. They were such good hosts. We love and appreciate them so much. And sailing is so much fun, especially when you can turn off the motor and let the wind push you. (And especially when someone else is in charge. I like that.)



Ella's favorite parts were:
-"driving" the dinghy
-using Grandpa's binoculars
-feeding the fish hot dog buns







Gretchen's favorite parts were:
Spending uninterrupted hours charming the snacks off of Grandpa...


....getting him to buy her ice cream...




...and playing at the beach. Oh how they love playing at the beach.




We enjoyed our trip so much. SO MUCH. We can't wait to visit Grandpa & Nana Joy when they're cruising the Azores Islands.

Our trip was mostly spent in Catalina enjoying Grandpa and Nana Joy's company, but we had Tuesday to spend with cousins and Aunties and Grandma. Adrianne painted Gretchen's toenails rainbow. So fancy!



Baby Teagan didn't appreciate her pedicure as much. It's ok, Baby Teagan. Maybe in a few years...


Then we rushed back to Reno for the most exciting wedding of the year. CONGRATULATIONS AMBER AND DAN!!!! Amber did a wonderful and amazing job planning her wedding. She put so much thought into all the little details, but still kept it light and fun and happy. Look at these adorable Flower Girl outfits. I know. Ridiculously cute. The cousins on both sides walked (and pranced and skipped and ran) down the aisle to the tune of "Flight of the Bumblebee". Seriously, ridiculously cute.


Amber killed some time before the ceremony taking a train ride with her nephew and nieces. Angela (2nd from back, in white sweater) made ALL THE SKIRTS and matching flowers for the girls hair. And Krista's adorable bridesmaid dress. And she looks hott in that awesome outfit.



Here's Gretchen letting Uncle Dan know that even though he's technically married, her love runs strong and deep. It's an undying passion that will result in coy looks and giggles for years to come.


Flower Girl Meeting. Look how official Baby Skye is with her hands on her hips. She knows what's going down...


We have more, better, cuter pictures on Colby's camera. Which means I will probably never post them here, since I am lazy and his camera is a REAL camera (which intimidates me). But boy did we love seeing our cousins. Especially Baby Skye and Baby Kait. They're both getting so big. And so cute!

How much laundry do I have now? About 20 loads worth. Don't worry, I have a plan. And I'll even go grocery shopping tomorrow so that we can eat. It's all good.

xo

It Is DONE!!!!

Yes! We did it! Walked 18 miles while pulling a handcart with a bunch of kids dressed as pioneers!!!! Everyone survived. The girls had a great time with their aunties & babysitters. I'll tell you all about it, but first you have to look at these pictures of Ella at her friend's birthday party. (Her friend has now set the bar oh-so-high for all future birthday parties. They went to the salon school and got styled. It was fabulous.)

Here is Ella getting her hair washed in the big sink.



The lineup (they're all so serious! And blond!):



Hmmm, what would you like done today? Oh, princess curls? What a surprise! (PS - it took Ella's poor stylist about 45 extra minutes to blow dry ALL HER HAIR.)



Pretty Pretty nails:



You can't see it, but she's got lavender makeup, nail polish and pretty lip gloss on.



SO PRETTY!


And then, on the completely opposite side of the spectrum, here's us on our pioneer journey. We were at the back of the 2nd company for two of the three days. The first day was exhausting. We had to be up at 4am to get to the church at 5am to leave the church at 6am to get to the trek site by 9am and didn't end up going to bed till 10pm. (Did you follow that? It involved many cranky people and lots of sitting around and waiting.) We finally started pulling our carts at around 11am, then stopped again after about a mile to be "raided". The sheriff took all the contraband (cell phones with no service, unauthorized snacks, makeup, etc.) We pulled 7 miles the first day (I say "we", but really I mostly just walked behind and "supervised". I was really good at it. The kids were supposed to do most the pulling so they could "learn though sacrifice". Ha ha, suckers!)

So pretty!


We had 8 kids in our "family". Four boys and four girls. They were all superior and awesome. I loved all of them.




Our trail boss/former Bishop/Awesome Boot Wearing Cowboy.


On the second day we had some "Alone Time" after lunch. We all spread out over a beautiful meadow and read pioneer stories and wrote in our Trek Journals. One of my favorite fake daughters here:

Pondering under a tree:

Seriously pondering how awesome he is:


I think this is my favorite picture from the whole experience:


They organized lots of stops for everyone to take a break, move their position around the cart and drink water. Some of the kids were getting "Pioneer Road Rage" (in the words of Matt S.) because they thought there were a little too many stops. They wanted to GO GO GO. They also had these little "vignettes" along the side of the trail. The vignettes were there to remind the kids what the pioneers went through on their journey. Most were so sweet they brought tears to my eyes (the trail-side burial of a mother and baby, when the "angels" came and helped us pull the cart up Rocky Ridge). Others were...not as successful. We tried to keep the spirit of the activity, but sometimes.... it just doesn't work. We were asked to bring someone's baby to Zion, since the baby's family was "struck with fever". Our baby started out as a floppy little doll named "Sarah" filled with wheat kernals. The kids were supposed to treat her like a real baby and take turns carrying her the whole way. It didn't quite work out. (How did we know it was filled with wheat kernels? Because it was accidentally sort of tossed around, and then kind of got run over by the cart. Baby did not make it to Zion. Here you can see the attempt at surgery to repair a serious head wound. Wheat-brains were leaking out everywhere...)


Being at the end of the company, we got a lot of dust. It looks pretty here though, right? Not so pretty when you brush your teeth and blow your nose later. (TMI, I know. But IT WAS NASTY.)


Aren't they cute pioneers? I know!


Our pioneer family.


We were supposed to start each day with scripture study and end with a devotional. But there was so much going at the beginning of every day that it was hard to fit in (Ma & Pa meetings, family prayer, breakfast, break camp, get on the road....) We took advantage of some of the longer break-stops to try to fit some spiritual stuff in.


But other times we just goofed off. Here's a rad picture of Stick Ball in action. Who knew sticks and pine cones could be so fun???


We haven't showered for three days and have walked 16 miles so far. Awwwwww, cute!


It was a spectacular and unique experience. I'm very glad to be home, grateful for hot showers and washing machines, and glad to be with my crabby, whining children again (I think Gretchen is punishing us for our absence.) I would totally do it again.

Next week: 10 hour drive to SoCal, sailing trip to Catalina and a family visit. Dude, we are crazy.

xoxo