A Weekend With Our Nieces

This weekend was different than we thought it would be - in a good way. We ended up spending a lot of time with our nieces. They were planning to spend the weekend with their dad, but he got sick so instead they got to hang out with us. 

Skylee and Anna came over on Friday afternoon. Anna and I finished building the Lego "Up" house I bought. This year Disney is celebrating 100 years of magic and as part of that they are releasing a bunch of Lego sets. I happened to see the Lego "Up" house and I wanted to buy it. That was easier said than done because I had to wait for the release date. On that day I got online to buy it and it was sold out. I signed up for a waitlist to be notified when it was available and it took me a few tries, but I was finally able to purchase it. Anna is really into building Legos so I thought she might enjoy building it with me. We started in a couple of weeks ago and then finished it today. It was fun, Anna lost interest near the end, but it was a complicated set. 

We took the kids and Tex for a walk around Daybreak Lake. It was a beautiful night for a walk. Anna spent half the walk making up songs and signing them. She was so content to be in her own little world. Skylee had her scooter and would scoot ahead and wait for us. Tex did not like this - every herding instinct inside him was yearning to keep her with the rest of our group. 

We came back home and watched Up. Anna has never seen it before and she loved it. She laughed and giggled throughout. This is one of my very favorite Pixar files. I love what the film says about love, compassion and making sure that every day counts. It drives home the point that many small, and often quiet moments make up this adventure that is life. It is such a good movie. 

On Saturday Skylee was participating in a singing competition at Lagoon. Alison and I tagged along to help out. 

Alison and I spent most of our day at Lagoon with Anna in the kids area. The rides there were the exact right size for her. Adults weren't even allowed on the rides, which was perfect for us. We would wait with her in line, put her on the ride, and then get her off when it was done. We didn't really care at all about riding rides at Lagoon. This allowed Kristin and Skylee to ride some of the bigger roller coasters together. 

In the middle of the day Skylee performed in her signing competition. She sang "The Lonely Goatherd". She did so well. She oozed confidence and sang her heart out. It was an impressive performance. For her efforts she won 1st place high gold. Which is the top award. She was so happy - they loaded her up with hardware - a sash, tiara, trophy, and some pins. 

After the competition we went over to Pioneer Village to get ice cream. It is great ice cream. After we ate ice cream I walked through some of the replica buildings from pioneer times with Skylee and Anna. Then Anna became a tour guide and showed her mom those same buildings. Then she took Alison and showed her the same buildings. Anna was loving Pioneer Village. 

Anna, Skylee, and Kristin rode a few more rides together and then we went to the award ceremony for the competition. It was a strange ceremony. We briefly lost Skylee when she ran ahead to find a bathroom, which was a little scary, but we were able to find her quickly and a nice person saw she was lost and upset and gifted her a stuffed animal and waited with her until we found her. This was about the worst thing they could have done because then Anna lost it because she also wanted a stuffed animal. At that point we knew it was time to head out. We were only in the car for maybe 30 seconds when Anna promptly fell asleep.