when it rains....

......it pours:

i took this picture a couple months ago. this was during tropical storm/hurricane alex. the rain here, even when it's not the result of a hurricane, is unbelievable. it'll be a sunny morning when, without warning, the clouds that suddenly appeared are throwing down buckets of rain. 

anyway, this morning grant and i headed over to the leasing office to sign some paperwork. we put the girls in the stroller just as it started sprinkling. by the time we got to the office (90 seconds later, give or take) it had turned into a utah-ish summer storm. we initialed, signed and made small talk for 5 minutes. as we got up to leave, we saw that the light rain was now a torrental downpour. we made a run for it and this is what we looked like when we got inside:

the girls were in heaven and demanded to go outside to splash in their favorite puddle. so i allowed grant to have the honor of accompanying them. he was pleased:

and they were off:

predictably, they came back soaked, shivering and happy as clams:

beachy keen

another weekend.....another trip to the beach.

my older brother, jared, and his wife, leah, are in town for a couple of weeks and came with us. we didn't get there until mid-afternoon. that combined with it being a non-rainy saturday made for a very crowded beach. that didn't phase the girls:

there was a lot of digging:

and running:

and playing in the larger than normal waves:

jared and leah went first and then they watched the girls while grant and i went out into the waves. hazel practiced her diving pose:

and put on some goggles:

but ran away from the waves, dragging grant along:

lucy, staying true to character, was chomping at the bit to get in deeper:

we met a little, backwards-walking, hermit crab on the sand:

some very enthusiastic girls quizzed us on whether or not it belonged in the water, before they tossed him in:

since it was, as it always is, hot and humid, hazel made sure to rehydrate:

lucy preferred having leah bathe her limbs with the fresh water:

jared dug a hole to bury hazel in. it was pretty close to the water so it was very heavy mud. he piled it up high and gave her a ninja turtle body. then he teased her until she cried, saying we were going to leave her there:

lucky for her, we decided not to.

heeeere fishy fishy fishy!

i have a serious problem. i post too many pictures. i can't help it. really. i try so hard to narrow it down but i can't fight this need to show you, sweet readers, each facial expression i find charming/funny/cute, every mundane/entertaining act, and all things of mischief accomplished on any given outing. to sum up: i'm a mom. a mom that knows thinks her kids are the best at everything. with that out of the way, let us proceed to the subject of this extremely lengthy post.

on saturday we went to the downtown aquarium. we've started a reward system for hazel (and lucy too, though she doesn't really get it yet). she does simple chores, i.e. putting her shoes away, brushing her teeth, picking up her room, etc. and she gets stickers. this week she earned enough stickers to go to the aquarium:

i've been once before and while it was fun, i decided it was overpriced. luckily, i got a buy one ticket get one free coupon at one of my races, making it a lot more reasonable. well, we bought our tickets, went inside (it was blazing hot outside), and saw some huge, somewhat freaky eels:

and just as grant was about to complain that this was the smallest aquarium he'd ever seen, i realized we'd walked into the restaurant. outside, we wandered around trying to find the proper entrance:

back in an air conditioned building, we meandered our way through this mystical place:

spotting rare and beautiful creatures:

and forging bonds with fearsome beasts:

lucy and hazel each became deep sea explorers:

(true story: i nearly had to wrestle a teenage girl away from this thing so i could get a picture of hazel in it. the teenager's grandparents and bff were taking copious pictures with every digital device they owned. when she finally stepped down and hazel made her way up, the pampered princess found someone who hadn't taken a picture yet and stalked off with a scowl when she saw hazel on her self-proclaimed throne.) mr. big spender showed up again to the girls' delight:

our explorer status was not enough to help us bypass the huge line to the shark train. so we were obliged to wait ages before boarding:

the sharks were menacing (and difficult to get clear pictures of). hazel was entranced:

we moved onto the ferris wheel, hoping to feel a breeze that would cool us down:

view to the south (i think):

and to the north:

ahh, houston... the final acts of our valiant explorers were the taming of a tiger shark:

and abnormally large seahorse:

lucy & friends

lucy has some wonderful new friends to play with. i found some stretchy lizards and used them as favors at the party. lucy was playing with a couple last friday when she discovered something astonishing: 

if you throw them hard enough, they stick to the wall! i think you can all guess how grant reacted to this news:

he became quite clever at attatching them to the ceiling:

lucy had some birthday money to spend (thank you, grandma!) so saturday, we took her to the store and let her pick out a toy. and, boy, did she pick a winner:

 she loves them, especially "woo-dee!": 

 can i get an "awwwwwwww"?: