doll bed makeover.

before:

after:

i've been meaning to post this makeover for a long time, but here it is several months later. serena got this $20 ikea doll bed for her 2nd birthday. as a ploy to get her excited about sleeping in a big girl bed, i thought i would spruce it up a bit. it came with unfinished wood and the most hideous bedding ever {meant to be gender neutral or something}. so i found some fabric and my mom did the sewing. i painted and mod podged the bed, and voila! we bought serena a big girl doll {one with hair} to put in it, but she is napping with her at the moment, thus the baby doll.

if i were to do it over again, i would paint the bed a paler pink or white and skip the mod podging, but overall i like how it turned out.

did the ploy work? not really. but that was weeks ago and she now sleeps in her bed like a champ. for the most part.

roy's pizza & palisade.

on our way home, we stopped in ephraim for some pizza at roy's {formerly fat jack's} at heather's suggestion. it really did not disappoint. loved it! then we had a swim at palisade state park. we tried and failed at catching some fish {like in a plastic bag, not the real fishing pole type fish-catching}. serena had a love/hate relationship with the lake. she wanted in and out and in out. and mostly only had fun when heather and i swung her around in circles with her feet skimming the water. we left when the dark storm clouds started rolling in. both kids fell fast asleep for the rest of the ride home.

traveling with kids is exhausting. we had a wonderful weekend, and we're glad to be home now!

cove fort.

we spent part of friday touring cove fort, which is just a 20 minute drive from barbra & gene's house. i really enjoyed it, even though my kids were trying hard not to let me. it's a beautiful place and i loved learning about its history. i'm glad we made it as long as we did before taking the kids back to the house :)

b&g's house.

the things that are wonderful about barbra & gene's house are as follows:

1. it's in the middle of a beautiful canyon.
2. it's beautiful inside & out, and so comfortable.
4. you can do things like play in the river, build a fire, go for a hike, shoot guns {which we did NOT do!}, see the stars at night, see wildlife and wild flowers, and then go inside and sleep on a warm comfortable bed!
5. and of course, you get to enjoy the company of barbra & gene, and i always enjoy their company.

we had so much fun on our little trip down there this weekend. we ate waaaay too much good food, including an amazing raspberry peach cobbler by heather and russ. we had a devotional each day. we relaxed. we had s'mores and sang a few campfire songs. we played at the river. we took a beautiful morning walk through the canyon. we played card games. we ate more food. we stayed up late. and we ate more food. it was lovely.

petting zoo.

over the weekend we took a trip down to my aunt & uncle's house for a little family "camp out". quotation marks because sean and i stayed in the house with our kids while the others camped in barbra & gene's yard :)

on the way, we stopped at a little petting zoo in scipio to let serena stretch her legs. it was kind of scary. something about a bunch of farm animals crowding up around me feels a little nightmarish. but serena enjoyed it and didn't want to leave :)